Who doesn’t love a cup of steamy, hot coffee in the morning? Most of us wake up looking forward to a cup of coffee to jolt us awake and get us started with our day. We always hear about the harms of drinking copious amounts of coffee, but we never hear about the bright side. Did you know that aside from the harms of drinking it in large amounts, coffee can actually benefit your hair in various ways? There are actually many coffee benefits for hair.
We’re here to enlighten you about several coffee benefits for hair and provide you with ways to gain the most out of these benefits to improve your hair health, strength, and looks.
Ways that Coffee Benefits Hair
After thorough research about coffee and what it can do for your hair, we managed to compile an informative list of the various benefits that coffee may have on your hairdo.
Promotes Hair Growth
The caffeine in coffee contains an abundance of antioxidants that help to reduce cell damage and increase the production of healthy cells. Damaged hair cells are a result of something called ‘free radicals,’ that your body produces as a result of oxidative stress because of plenty of reasons.
Eating junk food, especially fried, excessively drinking alcohol, smoking, and air pollutants are among the main sources that induce oxidative stress, to which our body reacts by producing free radicals. Unfortunately, these radicals disrupt your hair growth cycle, affecting hair follicles, and therefore slowing the hair growth process.
Author Note: The damage that the DHT hormone does to your hair follicles does not only affect hair growth but also increases the loss of hair in both males and females.
A common cause of damaged hair follicles is a hormone called “DHT” (Dihydrotestosterone). Caffeine has the ability to reduce the effects of this hormone and hence, reduce the damage, ensuring that your hair follicles are at optimum health that your hair can grow faster and stronger.
Improves Quality of Hair
Coffee makes your hair shaft longer and softer. Caffeine stimulates the roots of your hair, which improves the quality and structure of your hair as it grows.
Applying raw coffee grounds to your hair as a scrub can also add a shiny tint to your hair, making it look as lively as ever.
Additionally, whether you’re drinking your coffee or applying it topically, the caffeine it contains improves your blood circulation, which, in turn, improves the quality and growth of your hair.
Exfoliates your Scalp
Do you notice how your scalp seems to carry a lot of dead skin? Our scalp naturally secretes an oil called Sebum. This natural oil is actually beneficial for hair, but if it gathers in excess, it causes skin cells to die and begin to shed.
Excess sebum that results in flaky dead-skin cells on your hair and, sometimes, your shoulders, too, is dandruff, but dandruff isn’t the only cause for dead skin on your scalp. In other cases, an abundance of skin cells, hair care products, and sweat might lead to a scalp buildup, another condition that clogs your hair follicles.
You don’t want clogged hair follicles as they might lead to infections, inflammations, hair soreness, and, eventually, hair loss.
Applying coffee to your hair as a scrub helps to exfoliate your scalp, therefore getting rid of dead skin, dirt, and dandruff while unclogging the pores on your scalp in the process.
Exfoliating your scalp around once or twice a week helps to unclog your hair follicles and avoid flaky, dead skin. However, exfoliating your scalp more than a couple of times a week may cause your scalp to create extra sebum and cause an opposite effect than what was intended.
Improves the Color of Dark Hair
If you have dark hair, grey hairs, or just want to darken your light-colored hair, coffee is likely to do the trick.
The natural dark brown color of coffee has the ability to make your natural hair color pop, or even make it darker, giving its color a natural shine and leaving your hair to look shiny and lively.
If you have naturally light hair and would like to change up your look temporarily, the dark brown pigment of coffee will effectively darken your natural hair color while still making it look natural.
If you struggle with grey hairs, applying coffee to your hair will make them vanish, serving as a healthier, natural remedy compared to the strong hair dyes sold in stores.
How to Apply Coffee to Your Hair
There are several ways to take advantage of the benefits that coffee has to offer to your hair.
Author Note: Whether you suffer from excess hair loss, regret chopping your hair so short, or even if you just want to darken the tint of your hair, here are a few recipes that we recommend for you to try on your hair that won’t disappoint.
Coffee Exfoliator
This exfoliator works best when it’s used around twice a week. However, avoid using it more than 3 times a week to prevent unwanted effects.
- Mix 3 tablespoons of coffee grounds and 1 tablespoon of natural oil to the mixture (preferably coconut oil, but you can use others such as olive oil or almond oil).
- Stir the mixture until the grains are not too rough for your scalp.
- Apply the mixture to your roots.
- Scrub your scalp in a circular motion for 5-10 minutes.
- Rinse your hair with cold/lukewarm water.
- Finally, softly dab your hair dry.
Coffee Hair Dye
This natural hair dye should darken your hair after just one application, although its effects fade away within a week. To keep the dark coffee tint in your hair, repeat these steps weekly to prevent the color from fading.
- Mix ½ a cup of strong, dark coffee with 2 tablespoons of coffee grounds.
- Add 1 cup of leave-in conditioner to the mixture and stir thoroughly.
- Wash your hair with your regular shampoo and conditioner.
- Apply the mixture to your hair while it’s damp.
- Leave the mixture on your hair for 1-2 hours.
- Rinse the coffee mix out of your hair with cold/lukewarm water.
Coffee Leave-in Conditioner
This coffee conditioner method should be used on your hair approximately once a week to achieve the best possible results.
- Brew some coffee and let it cool down completely.
- Wash your hair with your regular shampoo.
- Wring your washed hair of excess water.
- Place a plastic bowl beneath your head and pour the coffee onto your hair, dripping the excess coffee into the bowl.
- Keep pouring the bowl of excess coffee onto your hair until no dripping coffee remains.
- Leave coffee in your hair for 5-10 minutes.
- Apply your regular leave-in conditioner to your coffee-soaked hair.
- Wrap your hair and leave it for 30 minutes to allow it to absorb the coffee and conditioner.
- Rinse your hair with cold/lukewarm water.
Coffee Rinse
You can repeat this coffee rinse method every time you wash your hair. However, avoid applying coffee to your hair more than three times a week.
- Brew 2-4 cups of coffee, depending on the length and thickness of your hair, and let it cool down completely.
- Add the cold coffee to a spray bottle to easily apply it to your hair.
- Wash your hair with your regular shampoo and conditioner.
- Apply the coffee to your wet hair, making sure it reaches all of your hair from the roots to the ends.
- Cover your hair with a plastic shower cap and keep your coffee-rinsed hair covered for 15-20 minutes.
- When time is up, thoroughly rinse your hair with cold/lukewarm water.
- Finally, softly dab your hair dry.
Things to Consider when Using Coffee on Your Hair
Author Note: While coffee may be beneficial to your hair, you should be cautious when you use it to get the best results and avoid damaging your hair and scalp.
Temperature of Coffee
When topically applying coffee to your hair, always make sure it has completely cooled down to avoid burning your scalp with hot coffee.
Excess Use
While coffee may be beneficial for hair in promoting hair growth, diminishing hair loss, improving your hair’s quality, and scalp exfoliation, excess use of coffee on hair may cause damage.
For optimum results, use coffee on your hair in moderation and limit adding coffee to your hair to a maximum of 2 or 3 times a week.
Hair Color
If you have light hair or you’re satisfied with your current hair color’s shade, avoid using coffee on your hair too much, as coffee may cause your hair color to darken.
Conclusion
Whether you would like to fix your hair loss problem, darken your hair, or just want your hair to grow faster, coffee provides the solution. And did you know coffee grounds can also be used for skin whitening? Check out our article on how to use coffee grounds for skin whitening for more info.
The important part is to remember the precautions and use coffee as a hair remedy but in moderation, in order to avoid unwanted effects.
All in all, we consider coffee to be an excellent remedy to most of your hair-related troubles.
Stay caffeinated friends!
