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Onion juice. Make no mistake about it—it tastes strange and doesn’t smell all that great. But here’s the thing—taking a chance on it anyway is something that can do wonders for you from the inside out. As far as your health goes, consuming this juice on a regular basis can do everything from lower your cholesterol and regulate your blood sugar to reduce depression-related symptoms and fight a cold.
That’s not it either. What more people are discovering is onion juice is an awesome all-natural beauty concoction as well. As far as your skin goes, the Vitamin C that’s in the juice will help your body to produce collagen which, in turn, helps your skin to be soft, supple and youthful-looking. And your hair? As you’re about to see in just a moment, if you’re looking for something that will feed your hair follicles, trigger hair growth and also help you to maintain length retention, onion juice is able to do all three things—remarkably well.
Why You Should Give Onion Juice a Try
Thanks to all of the vitamins and minerals that are in onions, that’s what makes them so good for our hair as well as our scalp. Some of those nutrients include—Vitamin C, calcium, iron, folic acid, antioxidants and quercetin (which is a flavonoid that contains antioxidants”> as well as anti-inflammatory properties. Another bonus that comes from onions is, since they are anti-fungal food, they are very effective when it comes to keeping dandruff (which comes from a fungus”> at bay.
But perhaps the best ingredient that onions have to boost our hair quality is sulfur. Since our hair is made up mostly of the protein keratin and a lot of what makes up keratin is sulfur, you can see why using onion juice can be a major plus. Although I have personally not tried onion juice on my hair (yet”>, what I have been taking is a sulfur supplement called MSM powder and I can definitely vouch for the fact that it does wonders for hair strength and length retention.
How? Well, basically our hair experiences three different phases. The anagen phase is when our hair actually grows. The catagen phase is when our hair is dormant (it stops growing”>. The telogen phase is when our hair then sheds. Although our bodies naturally produce a certain amount of sulfur, when we take a sulfur supplement or apply onion juice to our hair, that stimulates even more growth and also extends the anagen phase so that we can gain even more hair length (pretty cool, huh?”>.
As I briefly touched on before, another awesome thing about sulfur is its ability to promote the production of collagen in our system. Collagen helps to create healthy skin cells; so, when it comes to our hair, that means healthy hair follicles and even the regrowth of hair in areas where there is thinning and even balding.
How to Apply the Juice
Now that you know why you should give a little bit of onion juice a try, you’re probably wondering how you should apply it. Although different people tend to put their own twist on how to use it (you can check out a couple of videos here and here“>, the gist is this. First, start off with red onion; it contains the most sulfur. Peel it, cut it up and put it into a blender. Then put cheesecloth over a bowl, put the blended onion on top of the cloth and push down on the onion with a spoon so that the juice comes out. You can either apply the juice alone or you can mix it with rice water to get “double the effect” (learn more about that here“>. Either way, most people put the juice into a bottle before applying it. You can go with one that you would color your hair with and run it along your scalp, or apply the juice via a spray bottle.
As far as technique goes, you’ll probably see the most results if you first shampoo your hair and rinse. Then apply the onion juice, put a plastic bag onto your head and let the juice penetrate for 30-60 minutes. Follow that up with shampooing and deep conditioning, as normal, making sure to apply this method every other wash.
So, What About the Smell?
I already know. No matter how intrigued you might be, there is probably a part of you that simply can’t justify dealing with the smell that onions bring. I won’t lie to you—you will have to suck it up and deal with that, but one way to make the stench more tolerable is to apply a few drops of your favorite essential oil (or oils”>. If you’re curious about some that are also really great for the health of your hair, check out “8 Essential Oils That Are Great for Curly Hair”. Either way, don’t worry too much about the smell lingering. Most of the smell goes away after the second round of shampooing and definitely within a couple of hours of applying the juice. Besides, once you see the results after three or so months, something tells me that the few moments of smelling like a raw onion will be well worth it.
