Hair loss is a stress­ful expe­ri­ence, espe­cially when it is the patchy bald­ing found  in suf­fer­ers of trac­tion alope­cia. The scalp is often inflamed and sore, and this leads to increased stress for the suf­ferer. Unfor­tu­nately stress is a con­tribut­ing fac­tor in hair loss, so it can quickly become a vicious spi­ral as more and more hair is lost.

For­tu­nately mod­ern stud­ies have demon­strated that there are ways to halt and even reverse the effects of trac­tion alope­cia. By apply­ing specially-formulated oint­ments to the affected areas, the scalp is encour­aged to heal, and the lost hair to re-grow.  Although there have been many hair loss reme­dies over the years, the most effec­tive treat­ment has been found to come from tra­di­tional Indian Ayurevedic medicine.

What is Eclipta Alba?

Eclipta alba, also known as bhringraj, is a plant that has long been used in Indian med­i­cine to treat hair loss. Its leaf extracts con­tain pow­er­ful chem­i­cals that help to revive hair fol­li­cles that have been ren­dered dor­mant due to the effects of trac­tion alopecia.

Eclipta alba is an impor­tant part of Ayurevedic med­i­cine, the tra­di­tional med­i­cine of India. While the extract can be used in sev­eral ways for dif­fer­ent ail­ments, such as rub­bing into the tem­ples or ingest­ing, the cor­rect method for treat­ing hair loss is to cre­ate an ointment.

The eclipta alba is mixed with an oint­ment base to form a mois­tur­is­ing treat­ment of 2% eclipta. The oint­ment is then rubbed into the area to be treated; allow­ing the chem­i­cals to quickly reach the area they are to treat. Dur­ing the course of the 2009 study by Datta, Singh et al., the data col­lected showed that the eclipta treat­ment was 147% more effec­tive than other hair loss treatments.

The Effects of Eclipta Alba

Stud­ies pub­lished in the Jour­nal of Ethnophar­ma­col­ogy in May 2009 showed that eclipta alba is a far more effec­tive treat­ment for hair loss than a com­pa­ra­ble solu­tion of Minox­i­dil; another pop­u­lar hair loss treat­ment. When applied to the affected area, the pat­tern bald­ness caused by trac­tion alope­cia was sig­nif­i­cantly reduced.

The eclipta chem­i­cals work by encour­ag­ing the dor­mant hair fol­li­cles to move

Bhringaraj (Eclipta alba) hair grown oil

out of the tel­o­gen phase of their growth cycle and into the ana­gen phase; the part of the cycle dur­ing which hair is grown. More new hair growth was detected when sub­jects were treated with eclipta alba than on those sub­jects that were left to heal the dam­age to their hair fol­li­cles naturally.

The result of this research demon­strates that Ayurevedic med­i­cine inco­po­rat­ing eclipta alba mois­tur­ing treat­ment is an effec­tive method of pro­mot­ing hair regrowth. This is not a mir­a­cle cure, of course, so the best results still occur with fre­quent use but as a method of speed­ing up the recov­ery process, it is hard to beat.

Recov­er­ing From Trac­tion Alopecia

Trac­tion alope­cia occurs because the scalp is over stressed and the hair fol­li­cles it con­tains become dam­aged. The dam­aged cells deform and stop pro­duc­ing new hair, becom­ing dor­mant for long peri­ods while the dam­age to the fol­li­cles is repaired. This process can take months or years depend­ing on the extent of the damage.

When hair fol­li­cles stop grow­ing new hair, the hair that has grown already works its way out of the scalp. Three months after the hair fol­li­cle has entered the tel­o­gen phase, dur­ing which no hair is pro­duced, the hair that had already grown will be shed. This is a nat­ural part of the growth cycle and the rea­son we don’t all go bald for part of the time is because each hair fol­li­cle is in a dif­fer­ent point on the growth cycle; so we never notice the lost hairs.

When many hairs enter the tel­o­gen phase and become dor­mant, the effects of hair loss become vis­i­ble very quickly. Hair is shed but no new growth comes through to take its place. The result is patchy bald­ness, par­tic­u­larly on the crown and around the hairline.

Tra­di­tional med­i­cine has been proved to assist in coax­ing hair fol­li­cles out of the tel­o­gen phase and back into the ana­gen (grow­ing) phase. When applied as a mois­tur­is­ing treat­ment on the bald areas of the scalp, the body is able to bet­ter heal itself, so hair re-grows faster. This makes eclipta alba a worth­while treat­ment for hair loss in both men and women.

Feel free to down­load our free ebook for more tips on how to stim­u­late hair growth.