Onions and garlic are pretty great for kicking up the flavor of any meal, but how useful are they for hair growth? Yes, we mean applying your favorite kebab staple onto your scalp. To help you visualize just how this would work, beauty blogger Amber Janielle recently shared an Instagram video of herself testing out the very unconventional hair mask.
"Be honest," she wrote in the caption. "Would you put onion juice in your hair if it meant longer hair?"
Word got to her that onions and garlic are good for hair growth because they have high concentrations of sulfur, which is needed for hair-growing protein, and also promote circulation.
"When I heard this, I had to test this for myself!" she wrote in the caption.
But don't worry, she's not just rubbing half an onion on her head. She actually tested out a legit recipe.
First, she chopped up an onion and boiled it. Then she strained that and kept the juice. After cooling for 10 minutes, she added cayenne pepper, also thought to help hair grow.
She poured everything into an applicator bottle and massaged it onto her scalp, leaving it on for (a probably poor-smelling) two hours.
Then she shampooed and rinsed it out, and according to Janielle in the comments, there was no stinky smell leftover.
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While she's yet to post a full review of her experience, people went at it in the comments section.
"My mom adds the onion juice to our shampoo," someone commented. "It definitely helps with stimulating hair growth and the smell goes away once you condition your hair."
"If it gets in your eyes you are straight done for," someone else said.
According to experts, onions and garlic could help your hair to an extent, but it's not really recommended.
In a 2002 study, participants who washed their hair with onion juice did have more hair growth than those who just washed with tap water. As interesting as those results are, there still needs to be more research done on the topic.
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Jerome Lordet, a master stylist at Pierre Michel Salon, told Yahoo that any people looking to improve their hair may just want to reserve the onions for dinner and check out proven supplements like biotin.
