Tag Archives: Eclipta alba

How to Remedy Traction Alopecia Hair Loss With Eclipta Alba


Posted by Tractionalopeciatreatments

Hair loss is a stress­ful expe­ri­ence, espe­cially when it is the patchy bald­ing found  Flower from Eclipta Alba plantin 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 oil

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.


Natural hair loss treatments for women


Posted by Danielle

Although minox­i­dil is widely avail­able for treat­ment of hair loss in both men and women, many women pre­fer to begin treat­ing their hair loss con­di­tion with nat­ural alter­na­tives. Nat­ural treat­ments are more gen­tle on the hair and scalp and in less severe cases of hair loss can be just as effec­tive. Also, depend­ing on the cause of hair loss, nat­ural alter­na­tives to top­i­cal treat­ments can help treat the source of hair loss, rather than the symp­tom of los­ing hair.

Food sup­ple­ments

Hor­monal fac­tors are known to be the cause of hair loss for many women. It’s widely known that so-called “female pat­tern bald­ness” affects the major­ity of post-menopausal women, but around 13% of pre-menopausal women also suf­fer from it. The female body is prone to many hor­monal changes through­out life, with preg­nancy and child­birth, the monthly cycle and var­i­ous med­ical con­di­tions and stress fac­tors affect­ing hor­mone lev­els result­ing in both grad­ual and sud­den hair loss. Some­times, the best way to treat these hor­monal changes is by find­ing a way to rebal­ance the hor­mones, remov­ing the cause of hair loss at its source.

In some cases, tak­ing sup­ple­ments daily can help slow down and stop hair loss, as some­times a nutri­ent defi­ciency is to blame for the hor­monal imbal­ance. Other times a more spe­cific treat­ment is needed. There are a good num­ber of prod­ucts on the mar­ket said to pro­vide the right com­bi­na­tion of nutri­ents to aid with bal­anc­ing the hor­mones and stim­u­lat­ing new hair growth in women. Biotin is use­ful for pro­long­ing the ana­gen (growth phase) of hair and zinc is nec­es­sary for main­tain­ing a healthy scalp. Other herbal sup­ple­ments for hair loss are saw pal­metto which has been proven to be an effec­tive DHT blocker, as well as herbs tra­di­tion­ally used to treat female hor­monal imbal­ances such as black cohosh, dong quai and chaste berry.


Top­i­cal herbal treat­ments and shampoos

There are many herbal treat­ment options on the mar­ket for var­i­ous types of hair loss includ­ing trac­tion alope­cia. Stim­u­lat­ing and bal­anc­ing essen­tial oils such as rose­mary, laven­der and gera­nium can be used top­i­cally to treat the hair fol­li­cles and pro­tect them from the effect of testos­terone, known to inhibit hair growth. Other scalp stim­u­lants are naturally-derived caf­feine and plant extracts such as white lupine and false daisy (eclipta alba), used in tra­di­tional east­ern med­i­cine as a hair regrowth tonic.

Many of these com­pounds can be used top­i­cally as a home rem­edy or are incor­po­rated into over the counter herbal prod­ucts such as serums, oint­ments and daily use shampoos.

Scalp mas­sage

Used to boost cir­cu­la­tion to the hair fol­li­cles, gen­tle scalp mas­sage is often used as part of the treat­ment regime for hair loss. Daily scalp mas­sage helps stim­u­late the fol­li­cles and is the best way to ensure the nutri­ents and min­er­als in the var­i­ous hair prod­ucts used reach their tar­get – the hair fol­li­cles – in order to pro­duce results. Although not an effec­tive treat­ment method on its own, it’s an inte­gral part of any trac­tion alope­cia, hair thin­ning or hair loss treat­ment strat­egy and should be incor­po­rated into your daily rou­tine. A few min­utes a cou­ple of times a day can make a whole load of difference.


Bhringaraj — a herbal alternative to minoxidil


Posted by Danielle

Bhringaraj, known in the west as Eclipta alba or False daisy, is a trop­i­cal plant heav­ily used in both Indian Ayurvedic med­i­cine and tra­di­tional Chi­nese med­i­cine. Its use in treat­ing hair loss con­di­tions has aroused West­ern inter­est in recent years and some promis­ing clin­i­cal tri­als have revealed it to be a seri­ous option for those look­ing to treat hair loss.

Eclipta alba – what is it?

A small herb endemic to Asia and South­west­ern Amer­ica. It is a trop­i­cal plant that grows in areas of high mois­ture, grows to a height of 3 inches and has lance-shaped leaves.

Tra­di­tional uses

In India Bhringaraj oil (Eclipta alba) has tra­di­tion­ally be used to treat hair loss, but it is also used for its anti-inflammatory, anti-viral and anti-bacterial action, as well as a liver and blood cleanser. It’s attrib­uted many health prop­er­ties, includ­ing the abil­ity to pre­vent cer­tain types of can­cer and cir­rho­sis of the liver.

The oil derived from the plant is said to have var­i­ous anti-aging prop­er­ties inside and out. Apart from treat­ing the vis­i­ble effects of aging, it’s also said to increase energy lev­els and treat fatigure.

Eclipta alba for hair loss

Used top­i­cally, eclipta alba has been shown to increase the rate of hair growth in rodents faster and bet­ter than a 2% con­cen­tra­tion of minox­i­dil. Sig­nif­i­cant

Bhringaraj oil

Bhringaraj (Eclipta alba) hair grown oil

results were mea­sured in two sep­a­rate clin­i­cal tri­als. The best results were achieved using a petro­leum ether extract of the plant but a methanol extrac­tion method was also effec­tive. These tests do seem to sup­port the tra­di­tional use of Eclipta alba / Bhringaraj as a hair loss tonic. The results were impres­sive – the methanol extracted Eclipta alba increased the hair count from 19 to 66, while the minox­i­dil 2% con­cen­tra­tion increased it from 43 to 73. The extract seemed to affect hair fol­li­cles that were in the tel­o­gen (dor­mant) phase and stim­u­late them to reen­ter the ana­gen phase – pro­duc­ing new hairs.

Fur­ther tests need to be con­ducted to deter­mine why some meth­ods of extrac­tions work bet­ter than oth­ers, but for now, Eclipta alba is a per­fectly safe hair loss treat­ment you can use at home.

To use Bhringaraj top­i­cally at home:

Mix Bhringaraj pow­der with oil (coconut or sesame oil are best), gen­tly warm it with­out boil­ing to release the herb’s prop­er­ties into the oil, cool down and bot­tle. Apply top­i­cally to the scalp while gen­tly mas­sag­ing it in.

You can also mix the dried pow­der with some ground up green gram (mung bean), mix with water or milk and apply to the hair. Leave it on for 10 min­utes before wash­ing off. Repeat once every three days.