DIY Hair Growth Serum Recipe

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DIY Hair Growth Serum Recipe
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Hormones affect every aspect of health, and lately I’ve seen the affect of hormones on hair and scalp health.

After eight years of pregnancy and nursing, my body was tired and after that many years of my hormones being elevated from pregnancy/nursing, the postpartum hair loss finally occurred… and did it ever.

This happens because most hair follicles grow hair for a few months and then rest for a few months with an average of 10% of the head’s follicles resting at once. This resting period lessens considerably during pregnancy and women typically lose less hair during pregnancy, but the postpartum hormones can cause the body to catch up on the rest period for hair follicles, leading to more than normal hair loss. It is a normal process, but after 5 pregnancies and not experiencing the postpartum hair loss, it finally caught up with me.

On top of that, I had a really stressful few months and stress can make hair loss worse. I addressed the stress and the hormones and it stopped the hair loss, but I wanted to do something to help my new hair grow more quickly and to protect my hair/scalp in the summer months.

This hair growth serum is the result.

Some women go to a dermatologist or a beautician for hair-related problems. I go to my pantry.

As with my homemade hair spray, sea salt spray, and dry shampoo, this homemade hair growth serum is less expensive than commercial options without the harmful chemicals.

Hair Growth Serum Recipe

This serum combines herbs and essential oils that are good for scalp health and hair growth:

  • Nettle– Rich in iron and vitamins A, C, and K plus potassium and magnesium. It is often used in natural hair products and helps stimulate hair growth
  • Horsetail– High in silica and excellent for hair supporting hair growth.
  • Aloe Vera Gel– Naturally thickens and soothes the scalp and serves as a silkening base for this serum.
  • Essential Oils- Essential oils of Clary Sage, Rosemary, and Lavender are great for hair and scalp health.
DIY Hair Growth Serum Recipe
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4.43 from 95 votes

Hair Growth Serum Recipe

Help stimulate hair growth with this aloe very, herb, and essential oil recipe.
Prep Time25 minutes
Author: Katie Wells

Materials

Instructions

  • In a small pan, bring the distilled water to a boil.
  • Remove from the heat and add the dried nettle leaf and horsetail leaf.
  • Let the herbs sit in the water for at least 10 minutes or until the water cools.
  • Strain the herbs out and pour the herb infused liquid in to a spray bottle.
  • Add the aloe vera gel and essential oils and shake well.
  • Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 months and shake well before use.

Notes

Spray liberally on hair roots once or more per day. I found that it was easiest and worked the best to spray on before bed each night.

How to Apply Hair Growth Serum

Spray liberally on hair roots once or more per day. I found that it was easiest and worked the best to spray on before bed each night.

Where I Get Ingredients and Supplies

I got the nettle leaf, and horsetail leaf from Mountain Rose Herbs and the natural aloe vera here.

I re-used an old spray bottle, but it is very similar to this bottle. I also like this stainless steel bottle and this glass option.

For the essential oils, any high quality option will work. I typically order oils from Plant Therapy.

Have you ever had postpartum hair loss? What did you do to help it? Share below!
This natural hair growth serum combines herbs like nettle and horsetail with aloe vera gel and essential oils of lavender, rosemary and clary sage.

Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

361 responses to “DIY Hair Growth Serum Recipe”

  1. Emily Avatar

    Hi, I have been losing hair for the past 10 months and unfortunately cannot blame it on pregnancy as I have no kids! The hair loss started 6 months after i stopped taking the pill and I am also struggling with gut/skin issues (SIBO, rosacea, etc) since taking the pill. I have tried countless things but cant get my hair to stop falling 🙁

    My question for you (or any reader) is about the white bulbs/tips I see at the END of the fallen hairs (not at the root, but at the ends). I know this is weird but I can tell which hairs are loose just by looking at the ends!

    Any insight or suggestions would be appreciated. I am 25 years old.

  2. Kristina Avatar
    Kristina

    Katie.

    You should make this and sell it? Do you? I want some so badly but done have time
    nor patience to make the concoction. Let me know if you would make it and sell it to me?
    thanks

    Kristina (Michigan)

  3. Lisa M Avatar

    Hi, Katie

    Not sure if you got my previous question (last nite). What can you recommend to grow eyebrows? Mine are over plucked since teen age years. Vitamin E oil and vaseline don’t seem to work – except to grow the WHITE eyebrow hairs! Thanks. Lisa PS: love your blog. I’ve started the oil cleansing on my teeth w/o any probs doing for 20 min! Teeth are clean, fresh and w/o plaque!!

  4. Lisa M Avatar

    Hi, Katie

    What can you recommend to grow over plucked eyebrows, please? I read on the Internet to use vaseline and vitamin E oil on brows and lashes. I’ve done it at night on washed face for a couple weeks. The only change I’ve noticed is one WHITE eyebrow hair getting longer. ugh.

    Do you agree with these, or do you have something better?

    I over plucked as a teen-ager. Of course, the hairs that do grow back in are the hairs I don’t want! But the blank spaces are forever barren.

    Thanks.
    Lisa in Indy

    1. Wellness Mama Avatar

      Vitamin e oil, yes. Vaseline, no.I try not to touch anything with the word “petroleum” in its name 😉 You could also try olive oil, although I confess I haven’t researched it much.

      1. Stacy Avatar

        Great recipe for hair regrowth, thank you 🙂

        Regarding the post on overplucked eyebrows & Vitamin E :

        I had that unfortunate experience myself last year – i have very fair fine hair, eyebrows included – and read that vitamin E applied at night works great – and it sure did !! I used it every night for a 6 weeks or so and saw a significantly noticeable difference in eyebrow regrowth than I would normally see without using anything. I just rubbed it onto my eyebrows using my finger tip and by morning it has completely absorbed. Now I use a thoroughly cleaned and dry mascara wand and that works great for adding the Vitamin E to my eyelashes as well. It does work, just make sure the tweezers are completely out of the picture for at least 6 weeks. Resist the urge to do maintanence tweezing. I collected every pair of tweezers in my house and gave them to a friend to hold onto lol. I will say though it did take around 6 months for them to fully grow back and i started using Vitamin E around month 4. I suspect for my case, it would have taken more like 8 months had i not used vitamin e. Its worth trying for sure. There are oils that are high in VItamin E that you can use however I had best results with eyebrow regrowth using straight vitamin E. Hope this helps 🙂

        1. lettie Avatar

          Hi Stacy,
          Have you tried Jamaican Black Castor Oil? It help the hair grow in thicker and faster as well.
          It also comes with Lavender oil if the castor oil smell seem a bit overwhelming. A little goes a very long way.

  5. Madison Avatar

    is there a benefit to using a stainless steal bottle to just a plastic one? also does it matter where you get their oils? I have a little local store in town but I am new to all of this so did not know if there was a difference?

  6. Maki Avatar

    I have a doubt about the “store in fridge up to 3 months”. That’s 3 months before you can start using it? or is it the expiration span?

    Thanks!

  7. Nikki Avatar

    can you use a plastic spray bottle or does it need to be in glass or metal?

      1. Maryjo Avatar

        What about the plastic tube IN the spay bottle? Where do you find a glass spray bottle WITH a glass tube inside?

  8. Belinda Avatar
    Belinda

    How often and for how long do you recommend doing this treatment?

  9. Laura Avatar

    Dear Katie,

    Thank you so much for your awesome blog! I have couple of questions about the hair growth serum: First, have you experienced alopecia–bald spots or visible scalp–or did you just have less hair from thinning? Also, how long did you use the serum before you saw growth? I’ve been struggling with thinning and now what my dermatologist calls androgenetic alopecia for about 4 years. I’ve been working to get to the root of the hormone problem, but in the meantime, my scalp gets more and more apparent. I’m up for trying anything, but having a time frame may help me keep track. Many blessings! ~Laura

  10. Sharan Avatar

    Hi Katie,

    My husband’s hair is thinning and it is turning white. I was wondering if you could combine your 2 serums (1 for hair growth and the other for naturally colouring hair) to solve both problems at the same time? Or would this reduce the effectiveness?

    Thank you
    Sharan

    1. Wellness Mama Avatar

      You could try it together and separately and experiment to see which works better. I don’t think one would cancel the other…

  11. kim Avatar

    hi,
    could you use Horsetail extract instead and what amount?
    Thanks!

  12. Tess Avatar

    Cant find the horsetail herb. Will it still be effective enough?

  13. Telma Avatar

    I have so many aloe plants. Can I use it instead of the aloe gel?

      1. Brooke Avatar

        I used fresh aloe from my aloe plant for this recipe and it worked great EXCEPT I didn’t blend it before I put the aloe in the nettle tea. That sounds like common sense, but I figured if I shook the bottle really hard that I would break up the aloe. That did not work. I did cut it into little pieces, but some of them still got stuck in the sprayer. Next time, I will be blending/pulverizing the aloe before adding it.

        I love this serum! I took it to my friend’s house last night and sprayed it on both her sons’ hair (they are both under 5 and love all the EOs and smelly stuff I always bring over). They loved the smell and it seemed to calm them down for bed 🙂

    1. Goldie Avatar

      after i read the other reply recommending jamaican black castor oil, i started experimenting with regular castor oil. Today is second day; and so far, i notice less hair falling out. don’t knkow if that’s a coincidence. i’ll keep trying and maybe remember to post about it later.

  14. Brandi Avatar

    Hi,
    Love your website! Just wondering if this is safe for highlighted hair? Also, will this leave your hair oily? I have thin, oily hair and would love to regrow new hair and hopefully make my hair feel thicker in the process but I don’t want to have to shampoo every morning. What are your thoughts on this? Thank you do much in advance!

  15. Chad Avatar

    Wellness mama is correct with these ingredients. There are several reasons whys this formula attacks hairloss at almost all angles. Aloe Vera is a natural salicylic acid which cleanse pores so follicles do not get clogged and die. As well as keeping the scalp clean from bacteria and fungus.
    Horsetail is known to jump start dormant follicles so for androgenic alopecia this will help tremendously.
    Lavender is anti fungal so if a fungal infection is present this will help kill that. Rosemary helps for stronger hair and regrowth of new hair.

    Side note I used nioxin shampoo since 2000 recently stopped since they sold out to proctor and gamble and now make a toxic shampoo. When I stopped using my scalp got irritated inflamed itchy and pachy hairloss. Nioxin or the old nioxin contained all the ingredients in this formula wellness mama gives.

    Other things to consider are using an organic safe shampoo like organic excellence, installing a chlorine filter on your shower head and using brags apple cider vinegar as a pre treatment before you get in the shower by spraying on and leaving for 15 min. This will kill fungus if a niche is present. If not he cleansing astringent properties will open up follicles well for your shampoo to cleanse well.

  16. Erica Avatar

    Thank you for sharing! I am a year post op weight loss surgery and have been steadily losing hair for the past 8 months. I’m hoping this will help with that.

    My question: do you use this like leave-in conditioner or like a hair mask at night that you shampoo off in the morning?

    Thank you!!

      1. Pam Whitington Avatar
        Pam Whitington

        do you wash your hair every day? love your web page

        Thank you so much,

  17. Beth Avatar

    Does this need to be refrigerated or was that a suggestion to keep it for up to 3 months. If refrigeration is not necessary how long can it be used before you need to make a new batch?

    1. Wellness Mama Avatar

      You should refrigerate because of the aloe. I kept mine in the fridge so I’m not sure how long it would last outside, but maybe a week or two.

  18. Cori Avatar

    How about using this for eyelash growth? I would really love a natural alternative to eyelash serums…my eyelashes could use some lengthening and fullness! Thanks!

  19. lettie Avatar

    Thanks for the info on hair serums, I’m on a “back to natural hair” journey and I see on other natural hair blogs similar if not the exact same recipe.
    For those who inquire whether to use the leaf, root or powder, I suggest to use the leaf form for a hair rinse because it is easier to measure out and more potent when you boil it.
    I use a stainless steel mesh ball and add nettle leaf, horsetail leaf, indian hemp leaves (from my local botanica) about a big pinch each, boil in filtered water about 10 minutes or until dark, let cool, take out mesh ball, place rinse in a spray bottle and add a few drops of jojoba oil or indian hemp oil.
    Spray hair with the mixture either as a rinse or use as an addition for a hair set. It makes my hair strong and helps maintain my natural curl pattern.
    P.S. for anyone who have thinning spots, get some Jamaican Black Castor Oil (it comes with lavender as well, any brand will do) and rub a small drop on problem area and you’ll see that area grow in and grow in thick too. A little goes a very long way since it is very viscous.
    Good Luck.

    1. lettie Avatar

      P.P.S. you can also add some rosewater in your mixture for extra moisture and it leaves a nice fragrance too.
      Thank You Wellness Mama.
      P.P.S.2 : I made your Tangerine gelatin for the skin and I drop a cube or two in my hot green tea and its amazing!!!

    2. Pam G Avatar

      Loving all the info about thinning hair! I am post-menopause at 54 and have been for almost 10 years. In the last 12 – 18 months I have noticed considerable thinning. Thanks for all the info!

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