Castor Oil For Hair Growth: The Claims

Castor oil can, according to proponents, be used to:

• Regrow waxed, tweezed or shaven eyebrows or make untouched eyebrows thicker.
• Create luscious, thick, and long eyelashes.
• Make the hair on your head shinier, thicker, and healthier. 
• Cure alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease in which patients develop bald patches.
• Prevent, reduce and even cure male pattern baldness. 

How Are You Supposed To Use Castor Oil For Hair Regrowth?

If you'd like to try castor oil for yourself, you'll have to cleanse the area to which you would like to apply it first. If it's thicker and longer eyebrows or eyelashes you are after, you can either apply a drop or two to the tip of your index finger and massage the oil in, or use a Q-tip to apply it. It's important to avoid getting castor oil in the eyes, as you'll be left with pain and irritation. If you're going for the scalp, use copious amounts.

Is There Any Scientific Evidence That Castor Oil Stimulates Hair Growth?

In short, no. 

There isn't any evidence that it doesn't work either, however. This is simply not an area that has been studied. 

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So, Does It Work?

Given the above-mentioned situation with my eyebrows and the fact that castor oil doesn't cost more than a few dollars where I live, I decided to offer my eyebrows up in the name of not-very-sciency amateur science. That is, I've been applying castor oil to my eyebrows every night for the last two weeks. 

The results? The previously-waxed section of my eyebrows were a barren desert where nothing — and I do mean nothing — grew for the last 15 or so years. Since massaging castor oil into my eyebrows every night, the skin under my eyes has turned into more fertile soil. I have between 15 and 20 new hairs on both sides, some of which have already grown to full-length brow hairs. My brows aren't even close to approaching the level of fullness I'd like to see, but something is most certainly happening. I will keep on using castor oil in the hope that I will eventually restore my eyebrows to their original state. 

I very much doubt that the placebo effect is at work here, but if thinking that you'll achieve hair growth makes it happen, that is fine with me too. It isn't expensive or time-intensive, so you don't have much to lose — as long, that is, as you don't get the stuff in your eyes.