Hair Growth - Growing Back Edges with Emu oil - Update 3

Hi guys,

As I promised, here is an update of my edges to date:

From top to bottom 12 May 09, 12 June 09, 15 July 09 and 31 October 09

So it's been about 5 months now and I think my edges have done pretty well. They're not only getting longer, but also continue to thicken. I couldn't be happier!

I also wanted to address other factors, besides the Emu oil, that may have contributed to the growth.

• I think, obviously, one of the biggest contributers has been not braiding my edges with extensions. Research tells us that hairstyles, such as braids, allow pulling forces to be exerted, causing mechanical damage on the hair follicles. This damage, if done repeatedly will cause inflammation and eventually lead to reduced hair growth (Khumalo, N.P., Jessop S., Gumedze F., Ehrlich., R. (2008) Determinants of marginal traction alopecia in African girls and women. J Am Acad Dermatol, 59, 432-438). So not braiding my edges would have reduced mechanical stress on my follicles and allowed proper growth. I have however left my hair/ edges unbraided before and my edges didn't grow back, so I assume that although it was a huge contributor, it wasn't the only reason for an improvement.

• Moisturising would also have helped retain the length that I got. If my edges were dry and brittle, they would have broken right off and I wouldn't have seen any improvement.
  

• Hmm... can't think of anything else. Can you? The reason I decided to do this list is that I don't want people to think that they can just slap on Emu oil and they'll go from neck length to waist length in one month. You still need to take care of your scalp and the hair that eventually grows as well. This along with the Emu oil that I believe has alleviated some of the inflammation caused by tight braids and weaves is what I think helped my edges grow back.

They're still not as full as i'd like them to be. But I'm certainly proud of the progress thus far : ) . I will continue to use Emu Oil regularly on my edges, but I'm also going to start incorporating Megatek to see if the results are any different.

Have you tried Megatek? Any Megatek hair growth success or failure stories?

Hair Growth - Growing Back Edges With Emu Oil Update 2

Hi Ladies and Gents,

Apologies to those who've been coming back to check for updates, only to find nothing : ( . I won't beat about the bush, here are my edges after using Emu oil for two months consistently:


I think the dates I put are a bit unclear, so from top to bottom 12 May 09, 12 June 09 and 15 July 09.

I didn't take pics for the third month ... out of pure laziness and being busy with school. I have 'pixie' braids/ plaits in at the moment, so I'll take more pictures when I take out the plaits in the next 2-3 weeks.

I've also had people PM me on BHM and LHCF to ask what brand I use. It's an Australian Brand called Emu Spirit:



I don't know whether this is available in the States. There was also the issue, raised in the literature that I 'reviewed', about the quality of Emu oil varying greatly between brands. So I'd be interested in knowing if others are getting better results with other brands.

Hopefully it won't be as long until my next update!!

Hair Growth - Growing Back Edges with Emu Oil - Update 1

I know, I know, I deserve a good hiding for being slow on the updates! I'm sorry ... Exams have been murder! They went well though, thank you for asking. But I'm definately glad it's all over and I can get back into some serious hair growing.

Ok, back on topic. So I've been applying the emu oil to my edges (and to most of my hair for sealing) every other day ... I'd say on three or four days per week. I'm really pleased with the results so far and will continue to do this for the full three months. So before y'all start wishing you could just post up the "this post is worthless without pics" emoticon, I'll just save you the trouble lol. Here they are:

Right Side Edges:



This side is worse than the left side - I think it's because it's the side I sleep on????


Left Side Edges:



I think both sides are coming along nicely : )

Now, I'll just say this. I'm not saying that everyone should go out and buy Emu Oil, I'm not saying it's a miracle in a bottle and will grow your hair back overnight. I've done a lot of research on Emu Oil and I found that it has properties which would be beneficial to my stressed edges. You can read about those properties in the first Growing Back Edges with Emu Oil post. It seems to be working really well for ME and it might not work for you. I'm just DOCUMENTING and sharing my experiences.

I'm really happy with the progress and hopefully it continues to grow this well over the remaining 2 months.

So.... go on, add your 2 cents! I'd love do hear your thoughts on this.

Hair Growth - Growing Back Edges with Emu Oil

I live downunder, in the land of Emus. Being the hair junkie that I am, was surprised that I'd never tried to use Emu oil! So off I went, scouring hairboards for anectodal evidence that this oil did something for hair. I came across a few posts claiming improvements mainly in hair lines/ edges. Exactly what I needed. I then headed to journal articles to see if there was a scientific basis for this. This was what I found:

• One study found emu oil has the ability to penetrate the skin barrier and largely has an anti-inflamatory effect. It was also found to suppress the inflammatory disease, arthritis. However, the study also found that the quality of emu oil that can be found in the market is greatly variable and is often mixed with other oil such as chicken fat or linseed oil (i.e. it's important to make sure you're getting a pure as possible product). (Whitehouse, M.W., Turner, A.G., Davis, C.K.C., Roberts, M.S. (1998). Emu Oil(s): A source of non-toxic transdermal anti-inflammatory agent in Aboriginal medicine. Inflammopharmacology, 6, 1-8).



• In a pilot double-blind study (i.e. neither the researcher or the participant knows what treatment the particpant is getting, it just eliminates bias) participants were given mineral oil and emu oil, then asked to use and rank each (again without knowing which was which) on permeability and moisturizing properties. Emu oil ranked higher in both properties, on average. (Although, for the more technical readers, the difference for moisturizing properties was not found to be statistically significant, probably due to the small sample size, n= 11). (Zemstov, A., Gaddis, M., Montalvo-Lugo, V.M. (1996) Moisturizing and cosmetic properties of emu oil: a pilot double blind study. Australian Journal of Dermatology, 37, 169-152).



• So what does inflammation have to do with edges, I hear you ask. Well, other studies have found that physical stress, caused by hairstyles such as braids, will result in mechanical damage to hair follicles. This in turn results in inflammation on the affected ares. (Khumalo, N.P., Jessop S., Gumedze F., Ehrlich., R. (2008) Determinants of marginal traction alopecia in African girls and women. J Am Acad Dermatol, 59, 432-438).



• Relaxers in certain circumstances can result in inflammation, resulting in particular forms of alopecia (Khumalo, N.P., Pillay, K., Ngwanya, R.M. (2007)Acute 'relaxer'-associated scarring alopecia: a report of five cases. British Journal of Dermatology, 156, 1395-1396).



• Here's an article by a UK based scientist on Emu oil. It's a great blog too!!

It's all well and good to have the scientific backing on the properties, but does this stuff actually work in the real world. Do the anti-inflammorty properties of emu oil help to alleviate the inflammatory effects of some of our styling practices? Unfortunately there are currently no studies directly linking emu oil and hair growth, so for now us hair junkies will have to rely on correlations with current studies, anectodes from forums, website, blogs and personal experience.

Looking around for any success stories, I found this website that has a page dedicated to growing back edges with Emu oil. At the bottom, she has pictures of her progress over 12 weeks, and there is quite a bit of improvement. She does also go into a bit of detail on factors that may have affected her results, which helps a little.

It does sound promising. We know it's definately not toxic, so I'm open to trying it. Regimen:

• As simple as applying it on my edges every 2-3 nights for the next month. Depending on how my scalp feels, I may and probably will extend this little challenge to 3 months. I'll be taking a photo every week to keep tabs on the progress. I won't be applying anything else to my edges while I do this.

Anyhoo, let me know what you think. Do you have any experience with Emu oil?