Getting older is an inevitable part of life. However, it doesn't have to be a debilitating one. There are various techniques, foods, and products that you can use to combat the aging process and look and feel younger. Amla oil is one of many anti-aging tools, and it is widely growing in popularity for its potential impact on aging, alongside a variety of other health benefits it offers. In this article, we'll give you a full-scale breakdown of amla oil and aging! Let's get started.
What Is Amla Oil?
Amla oil is a natural remedy prepared from the fruit of the Indian gooseberry tree, Phyllanthus Emblica. It is made by drying the Indian gooseberry fruit then soaking it in a base oil, says Very Well Health. Commonly, amla is found in the form of amla hair oil, often the main ingredient in a variety of hair products. However, amla can also be found and consumed in its natural state: the amla fruit.
While all parts of the amla tree are believed to hold medicinal benefits, the amla fruit is very high in Vitamin C and several other antioxidants and nutrients, according to Medical News Today.
How Is It Made?
Let's take a moment to understand better the process of making amla hair oil. As we mentioned earlier, amla oil is made by taking a dried amla fruit and soaking it in a type of oil for several days. These potential base oils include coconut, sesame, or mineral oil. This process works because it encourages the fruit's oils — rich with the amla nutrients — to release themselves into the mixture. Before use, the final mixture is filtered and purified to remove the fruits.
You can find many variations of the amla fruit — such as dried, fresh, or frozen — at health stores, natural pharmacies, and Indian grocery stores across the country; these locations also offer amla powder and juices.
It is also possible to make amla oil at home on your own! This would allow you to choose the potency and oil base, individualize the dose, nutrients, and ultimately the health benefits of the mixture.
Here's how to make your amla oil at home using amla fruit.
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Grate or blend 1 cup of dried, fresh, or frozen amla fruit.
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Extract the juice of the amla fruits by squeezing and straining them through a sieve over a cup or bowl.
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Then, measure 1 tablespoon of oil; some people like to use extra virgin oils, such as coconut, olive, or sesame oil to provide a pure and potent base.
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Now, mix the amla fruit and oil for several minutes, or until the mixture looks uniform. Alternatively, you can use a blender or whip the mixture.
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If you're using solid oils, heat the mixture on low heat until the oil has fully melted and mixed well.
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Once the mixture is warm, apply the oil to the scalp for a few hours, then rinse off. This concoction can be left on overnight until your next shower or bath; you can even apply it your skin.
Amla Fruit: Nutrition
Let's explore the nutritional profile of the amla fruit. Amla berries offer huge nutritional benefits such as vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals. The primary benefit comes through a large amount of Vitamin C in the amla fruit. In just 100g of amla berries, you receive between 440mg and 800mg of Vitamin C! That's approximately 800% of your recommended dietary allowance (RDA).
Moreover, these berries are also championed for their exceptional fiber content. In the same 100g serving of the amla fruit, you receive 5g of dietary fiber — 18% of your RDA!
It also extends that nutritious value to other vitamins and minerals. One cup of Indian gooseberry has 9% of your Vitamin B5 daily value (DV), 7% of your Vitamin B6 DV, 12% of your copper DV, 9% of your manganese DV, and 6% of your potassium DV.
Let's examine why these particular vitamins and nutrients are beneficial to your health. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant critical to your nervous system, immune system, and skin. Vitamin B5 is central in creating fatty acids, while Vitamin B6 helps convert food into energy that all your cells and enzymes need.
Copper is important for your heart, blood vessels, immune system, and brain. Similarly, manganese promotes metabolism, bone formation, reproduction, and immune response, while potassium is key to maintaining normal cell function.
Amla Oils We Love
- Amla Hair Oil 300ml
- Amla Oil - Brahmi Oil
- Amla Brahmi Hair Oil for Hair Growth
by Dabur
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
by Vaadi Herbals
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
by Life & Pursuits
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Amla Oil and Hair
Amla oil has often been a staple treatment in Ayurvedic medicine — an ancient form of medicine practiced in India and other Eastern parts of the world. It relies on balance and nature to restore health to our bodies. For amla oil, its main application in Ayurveda is to battle the symptoms of hair loss often associated with aging, stimulate hair growth, and promote healthy hair.
But how effective is it? And why? Let's get into all that now.
Cultivating Hair Health
As Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi told Vogue, amla derivatives contain "lots of fatty acids that strengthen the hair follicle, giving the hair strength and luster." The tannin and calcium present in amla also protect your hair from photo damage, heat damage, etc. Tannins are phenolic compounds that can easily bind to your hair's keratin proteins, preventing them from breaking down.
Another interesting amla-related discovery came from a research study by a few Indian scientists. They tested four different hair oils for their ability to battle hair parasites. Their study concluded that amla oil was the most toxic to hair parasites – making it the most effective at keeping your hair parasite-free.
Furthermore, NDTV Food asserts that amla oil offers effective treatment against dry, oily, and dandruff-infested scalps. This is due to the immense moisture content within the fruit that serves to condition and moisturize your hair. Furthermore, according to Kama Ayurveda, this fruit's anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties serve to clear up the impurities in your scalp and restore it to its optimal pH levels. Applying this oil to your hair can even eliminate the itchy scalp you experience due to dandruff!
Finally, amla oil offers protection for your hair against premature graying. Due to constantly being in environments with various external chemicals and pollutants, our hair follicles are often exposed to free radicals that end up disrupting the production of melanin in the scalp — leading to gray hair. Since amla oil is a potent antioxidant (due to its high vitamin C content), it helps prevent a decrease in hair pigmentation by protecting your follicles. Who knew!
These facts certainly support the notion that amla oil benefits overall scalp and hair health in general, but what about for boosting hair growth? Let's dive into that now.
Promoting Hair Growth
Dr. Chaturvedi continues his conversation with Vogue by adding that the vitamins and minerals alongside the phytonutrients present in amla increase blood circulation in the scalp, stimulating hair growth. Blood circulation ensures that your scalp can get access to all the oxygen and essential nutrients it needs to continue growing. Furthermore, subcutaneous blood flow helps in the anagen phase of the hair cycle, helping your hair grow longer.
These claims are supported further by an older research study that reported an increased rate of hair growth in subjects that topically applied amla oil. The researchers suspect this benefit is derived from amla's high concentration of vitamin E. Just as Dr. Chaturvedi stated, vitamin E promotes healthy circulation, something that can dramatically impact the hair growth cycle by providing the much needed nutrients that are required.
Another study showed that when amla oil was combined with a 2% Rogaine solution (minoxidil), it increased hair growth. Not only that, but the study also noted that higher concentrations of amla oil led to more hair growth, suggesting a positive correlation between these two variables.
These scientific sources and studies strongly support the claim that amla oil can stimulate hair growth. That's all well and good, but what can it do about hair loss?
Curbing Hair Loss
One inescapable aspect of aging for many folks is the process of hair loss — no one likes it! That's why it's good news that amla oil holds the potential to curtail your hair loss. Androgenic alopecia is a condition that is characterized by the gradual loss of hair from the top and front of the scalp. While this condition can affect anyone, it is mistakenly referred to as male pattern hair loss. Let's explore how amla oil can benefit you in minimizing this symptomatic loss of hair due to aging.
Conventional medications used to treat balding, such as finasteride, work by inhibiting 5-alpha reductase, an enzyme responsible for converting testosterone into its much more potent androgen: dihydrotestosterone (DHT). If 5-alpha reductase levels increase, more testosterone will become DHT, resulting in greater hair loss. That's why inhibiting 5-alpha reductase is an effective tactic in limiting hair loss. It turns out that amla oil is a powerful inhibitor of 5-alpha reductase, according to a 2012 study by Dr. Kumar et al.
Another study published in 2020 by Dr. Majeed et al. came to a similar conclusion. They tested an amla oil-based hair serum on 42 participants who complained of hair loss for 90 days, checking in with them 10 times. Their study yielded that the hair serum effectively controlled hair loss in 98% of the study population, also noting a 7.97% increase in follicular hair density. They also found a 57.53% reduction in hair loss with bulb and 81.60% reduction in hair loss without bulb by the end of the study. This reduction in hair breakage strongly supports the conclusion that using an amla oil-based serum on your hair can greatly improve your hair's tensile strength. These numbers highly indicate that amla oil holds powerful properties that can limit hair loss just as, if not more effectively than traditional Western medicine.
How To Use Amla Oil
Once you've decided to start using amla oil, you might be wondering how to go about the whole process. Well, we're about to walk you through it.
The first step is selecting the best amla oil. As we've mentioned before, amla oil, shampoo, or even amla powder can be purchased online or found in stores that specialize in natural foods or Ayurvedic products. Keep in mind that the best amla products will have "Phyllanthus Emblica" printed on the product label, as well as the country of origin. If possible, try to opt for organic, cold-pressed plant oil that does not contain any dyes, fragrances, or preservatives.
Now that you've found your ideal amla oil product, it's time to start applying it. There are many different approaches to amla oil application. You can:
Apply the Oil as a Treatment
Amla oil can be applied directly to the hair and scalp (after spot testing, of course). It can then be left in as a conditioning treatment until your next shower or immediately washed out.
Use It as a Mask
You can use the powdered form of amla and water or oil to make a paste. Then, apply it evenly to the scalp. Massage the substance down into the roots of your hair to make sure that it reaches the skin of your scalp.
Apply as a Pre-Wash Detangler
The last way to use amla oil in your hair is to apply the oil to unwashed hair before shampooing. Try to work the oil throughout the hair and leverage its hydrating nature to assist you in detangling. If you don't have the time to let it sit in your scalp for a while, you can use a blow dryer to heat up the oil and activate its properties more quickly.
Whichever method you go with, try and limit your use to twice a week for the first six weeks. After that, you can reduce it to once a week or less as needed.
Amla Oils We Love
- Amla Hair Oil 300ml
- Amla Oil - Brahmi Oil
- Amla Brahmi Hair Oil for Hair Growth
by Dabur
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
by Vaadi Herbals
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
by Life & Pursuits
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
Amla Oil Side Effects
Now that we've understood all the hair health, hair growth, and hair loss benefits of amla oil, it's time that we move on to another aspect of its use that is just as important: side effects. Even if a product grew all your hair back, you wouldn't want to use it if it meant temporary paralysis or constant constipation, right? Thankfully, amla oil is not commonly associated with any side effects, let alone side effects as serious as paralysis and constipation. However, it is critical to weigh the side effects and risks of anything you choose to put in your body. Let's take a look at those now.
First and foremost, there are some percentage of people in this world who are allergic to Indian gooseberries. When amla oil makes contact with their skin, they experience an itchy rash known as contact dermatitis. Naturally, it's quite impossible to know if you are allergic to something if you've never interacted with it. In order to verify that you are not allergic to amla, spot test the oil on a small patch of skin and wait 24 hours. If you see a rash show up, avoid the oil at all costs!
This allergic logic applies directly to the base oils that the amla is soaked in. Many individuals experience skin reactions to mineral oil, and the same applies to coconut, sesame, or jojoba oil. Use the same spot test outlined in the last paragraph with the base oil separately to identify whether you are allergic.
Furthermore, in some rare cases, amla oil use has been reported to trigger lichen planus pigments (LPP), a rare skin condition that causes flat brown or gray patches on the skin. This is especially true when amla oil use is paired with increased UV exposure and in naturally darker-skinned individuals; regardless, the risk of developing LPP due to amla oil is still negligibly low. Another rare side effect arises when people use low-quality, cheaply manufactured amla oil; this can lead to potential skin inflammation.
Wrapping Up
The only guarantee in life is getting older, and with that comes a variety of bodily changes. Many of those changes have to do with our hair: hair fall or balding, graying hair, and more. That's why we focused acutely on a potential hair treatment in amla oil. As we discussed, not only does amla offer a multitude of health benefits for your hair and scalp, but it directly works to stimulate hair growth as well as curb hair loss. Those conclusions are supported by a variety of clinical studies and scientific evidence. However, only you can find out how effective amla oil is for your hair by using it.
