Castor oil has been used for hair care for thousands of years. In Ancient Egypt, women combined castor oil with sweet almond, rosemary, and fir oils to promote hair growth [1]. It’s also used as a hair conditioner for babies of African descent [1].
More recently, full, natural brows have made a strong comeback, skyrocketing interest in natural options to boost growth. Viral beauty influencers regularly promote brow treatments featuring castor oil, while interest in natural scalp treatments — like rosemary oil for hair growth — has sparked curiosity about using castor oil for eyebrows.
If you’re experiencing eyebrow hair loss, you might be wondering whether castor oil can really help you get thicker eyebrows. In this article, we will explore:
Castor oil is a natural vegetable oil. It comes from the seeds of the castor plant and is rich in ricinoleic acid, a fatty acid with moisturising and antimicrobial properties.
It’s marketed as a beauty product for your hair and eyebrows. Vendors claim it can nourish your hair follicles, promote growth, and prevent dryness. However, there is a lack of high-quality research on castor oil as a hair growth treatment.
Castor comes in different types: cold-pressed, which is clear and yellow, and Jamaican black castor oil, which is darker. It’s been used for centuries in medicine and beauty routines across many cultures.
There’s minimal research behind castor oil and eyebrow hair growth. Research on castor oil and hair growth is limited in general, but early studies show some promising results.
Castor oil’s fatty acids and vitamin E may help stimulate hair growth when applied to the scalp [1]. It may boost blood circulation and treat scalp infections and dandruff [1]. Researchers believe these benefits extend to the eyebrows [1], although some effects are scalp-specific.
For example, men with androgenetic alopecia (male pattern baldness) often have higher scalp levels of prostaglandin D2, a hormone-like compound that slows hair growth [2]. Ricinoleic acid, the main fatty acid in castor oil, has been shown to inhibit the production of this compound [3], improving hair loss symptoms. However, male pattern baldness does not affect the eyebrows, so castor oil won’t treat your eyebrow hair loss in the same way.
An animal study investigated the use of castor oil for hair growth. Rabbits were used as subjects, and researchers compared two lotion formulas containing different volumes of castor oil: 35% versus 40%. After one month of treatment, the rabbits had softer, longer, thicker hair in the treatment areas [4]. The study found:
Although this initially sounds positive, results from animal studies cannot be generalised to humans. Further research is needed before we can conclusively say castor oil improves hair growth in the human body, including the eyebrows.
Castor oil may theoretically help with eyebrow growth. Research suggests a few indirect reasons for this:
No studies have investigated the potential side effects of castor oil as a treatment for eyebrow hair loss. However, castor oil is very thick, so it may cause skin irritation or lead to clogged pores on your face if you use too much.
If you want to give castor oil a try for your own eyebrows, here’s what to do:
While castor oil may theoretically be effective for eyebrow hair growth, there are plenty of other treatments with better research backing. Here are some of our top picks.
Bimatoprost is an FDA-approved treatment for eyelash growth, which also has good research backing as a treatment for eyebrow hair loss. A 2024 study including 357 participants explored the effects of bimatoprost on eyebrow hypotrichosis (a type of eyebrow hair loss) [5].
By month 7, people using bimatoprost had noticeably better eyebrow growth than the placebo group. Improvements like darker eyebrows appeared as early as month 1, with fuller brows by month 2. Improvements became more visible throughout the study. Another study found that bimatoprost increased eyebrow growth and density in young women [6].
There are other natural oils that may be more effective for eyebrow hair growth. For example, some essential oils for hair growth may increase eyebrow hair growth.
Research shows peppermint oil may stimulate hair growth [7], possibly due to its effects on blood circulation. Black seed oil may also promote hair growth [8] and is a natural antioxidant.
Minoxidil is a hair loss treatment that may help with eyebrow hair loss. A small study including 39 patients investigated topical Minoxidil for eyebrow hypotrichosis (abnormally sparse eyebrows). After 16 weeks, the Minoxidil 2% group had much better results in eyebrow diameter count and satisfaction than the placebo group [9].
Aggressive eyebrow hair plucking can damage your hair follicles and stop your eyebrows from growing back. If you’re experiencing eyebrow hair loss, but continue to pluck your remaining eyebrows, it’s worth taking a break to see if things improve.
Nutrition can affect how well your hair grows, including your eyebrows. Make sure you’re eating a diet rich in nutrients like protein for hair growth, iron, and vitamin C to support hair growth. Experts suggest you’re generally better off getting these nutrients through diet than taking supplements, unless your doctor says otherwise.
If you have other symptoms alongside eyebrow hair loss, it’s worth paying a visit to the doctor. Certain medical conditions, such as thyroid imbalance, can cause eyebrow hair loss. Thyroid-related hair loss follows a specific pattern for the eyebrows, often affecting the outer third of the eyebrows [10].
If other treatments don’t work, hope is not lost. An eyebrow transplant can permanently restore hair to areas of eyebrow hair loss that aren’t responding to other treatments.
An eyebrow transplant involves moving hair follicles from areas of healthy hair growth to patchy regions on your brows. With an eyebrow hair transplant, hair from your scalp is generally used as the donor area.
There are two main types of hair transplant: follicular unit extraction (FUE) and follicular unit transplantation (FUT). FUE is usually used for eyebrow transplantation, as there’s not usually any need to extract a large number of grafts.
With FUE, individual follicular units containing 2-5 hairs are removed from the donor area. This leaves minimal scarring and allows for a faster recovery time.
These are the kind of results you can expect from an eyebrow transplant:
This patient had a 700 graft hair transplant to thicken her eyebrows. 12 months after the procedure, her eyebrows are thicker and growing in her chosen shape.
Struggling with patchy or thinning eyebrows? Our expert trichologists can help.
Our hair doctors ask all the right questions to identify whether any lifestyle factors are causing your eyebrow hair loss. They can even discover whether eyebrow hair loss may be caused by hormone imbalances or other conditions by requesting hair loss blood tests. So if castor oil or other home remedies aren’t working, we can get your brows looking thick and healthy again.
Book a consultation at your nearest clinic location today to find out more.
No studies prove the effectiveness of castor oil for eyebrow growth, so there are no established guidelines. However, animal studies found that hair growth improved within a month of using castor oil [4].
Both clear cold-pressed castor oil and Jamaican black castor oil contain the same active ingredients that may help your eye eyebrow hair grow. Combining castor oil with other hair growth oils may give you the best improvements.
According to Ayurvedic medicine, putting castor oil in your belly button can help to improve hair growth and offer other health benefits. However, there are no studies to support this, and it is unlikely that putting oil in your navel will improve your health in any way.
At 50 years old, thin eyebrows are more common due to overplucking or ageing. If you pluck your eyebrows at 50 or older, they will usually grow back after plucking as long as you haven’t damaged the hair follicles. If your eyebrows aren’t growing back, you may need further treatment to help them regrow.
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