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Hair mask or hair oil- which is great for hair growth and scalp health.
As hair mask contains many ingredients many kind of oils, butter, wax and some aqueous extract of herbal and some chemicals that maintain integrity of hair and provide other benefits.
Hair oils can be blends of oils and can be infused with some herbs.
Now I want to know which is more beneficial for growth and all other aspects of hair. We know using oils from ancient time proved beneficial to hair but in modern time people using hair mask for many purpose ( if you say people from old time use hair mask too, may be true but it’snot quite common as today it is)
So please elaborate which is superior? Why? If hair mask, then what are the principles of basic formation of this? -
6 Replies
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@drjayseesunish - Hair mask and Hair oil are just marketing terms. They have no scientific definition. In the marketplace, hair oils are generally some liquid product that you put on your hair. This could be hydrocarbon based but you could also thicken up some water and call it a hair oil. Hair masks are generally a cream or lotion that you put in your hair. They are generally emulsions.
In terms of effect on the hair neither would be considered superior. Anything that can be delivered via a “hair oil” can be delivered via a “hair mask”.
Hair masks were introduced just to give consumers an experience to make them feel like they are doing something special to their hair.
The reality is that none of these products do anything other than condition hair. They DON’T make hair grow better. They DON’T do anything for scalp health. Those are all just marketing stories to get people to buy products that they otherwise don’t really need.
Hair care is pretty simple. All you need is shampoo, a conditioner, and maybe a styling product. All other products (except colors, chemical treatments) are marketing stories that provide little to no additional benefit.
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I’ve been losing some hair due to stress and have been trying different things. Oils are indeed useless, burying your scalp with oils, creams etc multiple times a day is only going to clog up the skin and prevent it from naturally shedding, leading to really bad dandruff.
Perrigo’s 5% liquid minoxidil (sold under various brands such as Kirkland, equate, Amazon basic care.. they’re all the exact same product) is the most practical thing I’ve found, however it is 50% propelyne glycol which led to similar dandruff issues, and 5% minoxidil is WAY to strong for me, giving me disturbingly strong heart palpitations. That stuff is really meant to be used on bald spots, rather than as a general hair tonic. So I’ve simply been watering it down, currently via the following formula:
50.25ml total
75% water 37.5ml10% Perrigo 5% minoxidil 5ml- 5% propylene glycol- 3% alcohol- 2% water- 0.5% minoxidil15% 91% iso alch 7.5ml- 13.65% isopropyl alcohol- 1.35% water0.5% 60% lactic acid 0.25ml- 0.3% lactic acid- 0.2% water0.2% menthol 0.1g0.15% salicylic acid0.05% piroctone olamineAdjusted to ph 4.5 with citric acid(Salicylic acid and piroctone olamine %’s are estimated due to difficulty in measuring the weight of powders, apologies)I simply dissolve the salicylic acid, lactic acid, menthol and piroctone olamine in the Perrigo minoxidil solution (which conveniently contains propelyne glycol and alcohol) in a hot water bath, wait for it to cool down, then add water and isopropyl alcohol. I’m pretty happy with it. The salicylic acid made the most notable difference in keeping my scalp dry and clean. I’m still working on it and might make a thread later, but for a hair tonic I think a water-based toner makes the most sense. The less residue the better.I should mention I’m a total novice at this and do not guarantee this formula is safe, dunno if 16% alcohol is sufficient as a preservative.
Also just for reference, these are the most practical products I’ve found re scalp/hair growth:
https://www.philipkingsley.com/philip-kingsley-scalp-toner.html
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Perry said:@drjayseesunish - Hair mask and Hair oil are just marketing terms. They have no scientific definition. In the marketplace, hair oils are generally some liquid product that you put on your hair. This could be hydrocarbon based but you could also thicken up some water and call it a hair oil. Hair masks are generally a cream or lotion that you put in your hair. They are generally emulsions.
In terms of effect on the hair neither would be considered superior. Anything that can be delivered via a “hair oil” can be delivered via a “hair mask”.
Hair masks were introduced just to give consumers an experience to make them feel like they are doing something special to their hair.
The reality is that none of these products do anything other than condition hair. They DON’T make hair grow better. They DON’T do anything for scalp health. Those are all just marketing stories to get people to buy products that they otherwise don’t really need.
Hair care is pretty simple. All you need is shampoo, a conditioner, and maybe a styling product. All other products (except colors, chemical treatments) are marketing stories that provide little to no additional benefit.
@Perry I am from land of Ayurveda where the every ailments of our body treated by plant based medicine, oil and many more thing. So it seems to difficult to accept, as oils don’t do anything for hair.
Perry, please forgive me if it’s odd to your comments. I know, we learn a lot from knowledge and experiences of others too.
I tell you my case. I used to wash my hairs with soap, a common soap and oiling my hairs with coconut oil for so many years and my hair was black, thick, voluminous and long enough to touch my thigh. For further study I had to moved other city where I had to use shampoo( Pantene), I didn’t use oil. What I got a year after, I lost my volume of my hairs and got all other hair related problems. So here I can compare pre and post oil and shampoo treated phase.
There are so many researches where proved the efficacy of oils on hairs.You know today 3/4 of populations suffering from hairs problems , despite of so many commercial hair products where they blame of treating any problems of hairs and what they get , an another problem and they get trapped in vicious cycle of using another hair products.
Today we are so advanced, using so many synthetic products, all superior na, and our ages old generation were only facilitated by these oils and water only to clean hairs , still they were blessed with good, long, voluminous hairs which we see today very rarely despite of so many advanced products and treatment.
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Pb610 said:I’ve been losing some hair due to stress and have been trying different things. Oils are indeed useless, burying your scalp with oils, creams etc multiple times a day is only going to clog up the skin and prevent it from naturally shedding, leading to really bad dandruff.
Perrigo’s 5% liquid minoxidil (sold under various brands such as Kirkland, equate, Amazon basic care..
@ thanks a lot
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@drjayseesunish - I’m not sure that we share a philosophical outlook on the world so my advice should be taken with that in mind. I ascribe to a scientific outlook on questions of fact. Historical use of something for thousands of years does not make it true that the particular treatment is effective. Now, it does suggest that it might be effective and would be worth studying under controlled conditions. But if this testing is done and no results are found, then we can only conclude that the historical use was wrong.
As far as I know, there is not good scientific evidence to prove oils in hair will help hair growth. But I’m open to being wrong. What is the best evidence you have found?
Hair length and whether it falls out has little to do with the treatments that are put on it. It is much more related to the specific genetics of an individual. The more likely explanation for your observation that your old generations have long, voluminous hair is that they were blessed with good genetics. No matter what treatment they put on their hair they were going to have good hair.
If you want to create something that really works, if you want to find out what is really true, you need to heed the words of the great Physicist Richard Feynman.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”
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Thanks so much Perry for your very much for sharing all you do about hair, hair products etc. I wish I had known all this before I wasted money over the years trying to make my hair thicker - ha
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