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Well, hello there! Welcome to my TED talk. Today I'll be ranting about a more stressful phase of my life that I think I'm over with (hopefully). P.S. if you don't believe in the Law of Attraction, boy you better start believing.
My Extreme Hair Loss Episode
I'm not trying to flex, but I was totally gifted in the hair volume sector ("was" being the keyword here). Like my mom, I had thick locks of black hair that I thought was just too much. All throughout my childhood I wished my hair would thin out because the strands of my hair were super thick and given that I had a lots of it, it looked more voluminous than it should have and was pretty wild. Back then, I didn't understand why girls wanted more hair. I envied their hair because it seemed so manageable and soft. But now, man how much I regret having wished my hair would fall out. Cuz all that negative energy I had called upon finally manifested when I started university.
I faced a major, freakishly scary hair loss episode a couple of months after entering university. It must have been due to stress since some of my colleagues went through it as well. But heck, that wasn't normal. I thought I was going bald for real; that's how bad it was. I lost half the volume of my hair in less than a week.
I was freaking the hell out thinking I so needed see a doctor cuz I probably had cancer (kudos to Google). My mom was blaming it all on me not eating my greens, and of course the wretched smartphone (it's always the phone, sis, it's always the phone). My friends were freaking out asking what happened to my hair and saying that they loved my hair for the volume it had before. Some of my colleagues tried to avoid commenting on it, while some of them shared their own extreme hair loss stories that we kind of sadly bonded over. Point: everybody was freaking out, okay?
It has been over two years since that happened and my hair doesn't shed as much anymore. However, it hasn't gained the volume it used to have either. Since it looked kind of terrible, in the beginning of 2021, I chopped about 12 inches of it off. That felt SO good! Anyways, I think I've learned a lesson out of it and I try to take more care of my hair now. I've started applying oil on my hair at least once a week and I avoid using harsh fragrant shampoos. I'm not really sure if it has done any good to be honest but it helps keep me a little sane.
Trying Out Castor Oil
I've been stuck at home for almost 1.5 years thanks to the pandemic, with loads of things to do but zero energy (am I depressed? I don't know, man) and my mom brought a bottle castor oil one day. She probably got sucked into a black-hole of castor oil self care videos on YouTube. So I thought of testing out what all those hair care gurus kept going on about. Castor oil on its own is a bit viscous and tough to apply when cold so I suggest mixing it with something like coconut oil and heating it up a little before working it into your hair. I applied the mixture of castor oil and coconut oil on my hair every other day and the great thing is that even if you've applied a fair amount of it, it doesn't really give a greasy wet hair look. It actually looks pretty good, on the contrary.
Results
From my own experience and that of others online, I came to the conclusion that castor oil doesn't really make your hair grow faster or thicker. Obviously my hair did grow, but I'm pretty positive that it was the usual amount of natural hair growth. There was no significant increase that made me go, "OMG, castor oil did it!".
Disappointed? Well, don't be because it does help your hair in other ways! After applying castor oil for a couple of days, I noticed that:
My hair became soft, glossy, and less frizzy
My scalp didn't feel as dry anymore and there were no flakes
So I highly recommend using castor oil on your hair at least once a week!
Other Benefits of Castor Oil
Castor oil isn't just great for hair but also other parts of the body. It:
Is a great natural moisturizer
Promotes wound healing
Is anti-inflammatory
Enhances eyelash growth
If you're planning on applying castor oil (any kind of oil for that matter) on your skin, make sure you do it at night and avoid sunlight since otherwise you'd be literally frying your skin like chicken tenders.
Recommended Products
8 oz.
100% pure
Includes eyelash kit
16 oz.
Pale pressed
All natural
64 oz.
Cold pressed
Hexane free