Rosemary is a culinary and healing herb. This woody perennial is native to the Mediterranean region, where it’s been used as food and medicine for centuries.
Much like oregano, peppermint, and cinnamon, rosemary is frequently found in essential oil form. Essential oils are highly concentrated and distilled extracts of volatile plant compounds. These are used for cooking, cleaning, beauty, health, and other purposes.
Rosemary essential oil is a common variety you can purchase and use as a home remedy. The oil’s health uses range from antioxidant benefits and anti-inflammation to memory enhancement and more.
In recent years, there have been claims that the oil may be great for hair growth. Some say it could even prevent hair loss, pointing to Mediterranean cultures’ use of rosemary in hair rinses to promote hair growth for hundreds of years as supporting evidence.
Can rosemary oil treat hair loss?
The idea that rosemary oil encourages hair growth may come from the rosemary’s basic health benefits. The plant in essential oil form is said to:
Like peppermint essential oil (also used to promote hair growth), rosemary essential oil strengthens circulation. As a result, it could prevent hair follicles from being starved of blood supply, dying off, and leading to hair loss.
Beyond stimulating hair growth, rosemary essential oil is used to prevent premature graying and dandruff. It may also help dry or itchy scalp.
According to some scientific evidence, rosemary may benefit nerve tissue.
Carnosic acid, an active ingredient in the plant, healed tissue and nerve damage in one study. This ability to heal nerve endings may rejuvenate nerves in the scalp too, in turn possibly restoring hair growth.
More revealing recent studies show that rosemary directly helps protect against hair loss. One 2015 trialTrusted Source pitted the essential oil against minoxidil, commercially known as Rogaine. Both were used on human subjects with androgenetic alopecia (male or female pattern baldness).
Results showed that rosemary essential oil was just as effective a minoxidil. During the process, it helped the side effect of itchy scalp more successfully than minoxidil.
Another studyTrusted Source of rosemary leaf extract (different from the essential oil) showed it stimulated hair growth. This occurred when hair loss was triggered by testosterone (as in pattern baldness). This study was performed on mice, however.
Two separate clinical reviews — one from 2010Trusted Source and one from 2011 — also acknowledge rosemary’s hair growth potential. The former cites a study with successful hair regrowth in people with alopecia who used essential oils. One of these essential oils was rosemary.
In the latter review, rosemary essential oil was described as a hair loss restorative. This was due to its circulation-improving effects.