A homemade hair growth oil combines a carrier oil (the base) with herbs or essential oils that stimulate your scalp. The process is simple: infuse a light carrier oil with growth-promoting botanicals, store it in a dark bottle, and massage it into your scalp several times a week. The key is choosing ingredients backed by evidence, diluting essential oils safely, and picking a carrier oil that won’t clog your follicles.
Choosing a Carrier Oil
Your carrier oil makes up 95% or more of the final blend, so it matters. The goal is an oil that absorbs well, delivers nutrients to the scalp, and doesn’t block hair follicles. Every oil has a comedogenic rating from 0 (won’t clog pores) to 5 (almost certainly will). For scalp use, you want oils rated 0 to 2.
Sweet almond oil rates a 0, meaning it won’t clog pores at all. It’s lightweight, absorbs easily, and works for every skin type. Jojoba oil rates a 2 and has a unique advantage: its structure closely resembles the oil your scalp naturally produces, so it helps regulate sebum without feeling greasy. Either of these makes an excellent base.
Coconut oil is popular in hair care, but it rates a 4 on the comedogenic scale, making it fairly likely to clog pores and follicles. If you love coconut oil, use it on the lengths and ends of your hair rather than directly on the scalp. For a scalp-focused growth oil, stick with jojoba or sweet almond as your base.
Essential Oils That Support Hair Growth
Two essential oils stand out in the research. Rosemary oil was tested head-to-head against the standard hair loss treatment (2% minoxidil) in a six-month trial. Neither group saw significant improvement at three months, but by six months both the rosemary group and the minoxidil group had significant increases in hair count compared to baseline. That’s a meaningful finding: rosemary oil performed comparably to a pharmaceutical treatment, though it took a full six months to show results.
Peppermint oil also has strong evidence behind it. In a study comparing multiple topical treatments, the peppermint oil group showed the most prominent hair growth effects, including significant increases in the thickness of the skin layer where follicles are rooted, the number of follicles, and how deep those follicles grew. Deeper follicles produce stronger, more anchored hair.
Other essential oils commonly added to hair growth blends include lavender oil (which has shown follicle-stimulating effects in animal studies) and cedarwood oil (traditionally used to support scalp circulation). Rosemary and peppermint have the strongest evidence, so build your blend around those two.
Safe Dilution Ratios
Essential oils are potent and can irritate or sensitize skin if used too concentrated. For scalp application, a 2% dilution is the standard safe range. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Per 1 ounce (30 mL) of carrier oil: add 12 total drops of essential oil
- Per 2 ounces (60 mL): add 24 total drops
You can split those drops between multiple essential oils. For a two-oil blend using rosemary and peppermint, you might do 8 drops of rosemary and 4 drops of peppermint per ounce. Peppermint has a strong cooling sensation, so keeping it at a slightly lower proportion feels more comfortable on the scalp. If you’ve never used essential oils on your skin before, do a patch test on the inside of your wrist: apply one drop mixed into a small amount of carrier oil, wait 24 hours, and check for redness or irritation before putting anything on your scalp.
Two Methods for Making Your Oil
Quick Essential Oil Blend (5 Minutes)
This is the simplest approach. Pour 2 ounces of jojoba or sweet almond oil into a dark glass bottle. Add 16 to 24 drops of essential oil total (staying within the 2% dilution). Cap it, shake gently, and it’s ready to use. This method works well if you’re relying on rosemary and peppermint essential oils as your active ingredients, since those are already concentrated plant extracts.
Herbal-Infused Oil (1 to 6 Weeks)
If you want to infuse whole dried herbs into your carrier oil for a richer blend, you have two options: cold infusion or heat infusion. Cold infusion preserves delicate volatile oils better, which is especially relevant for herbs like peppermint and chamomile that contain compounds damaged by heat. Fill a clean jar one-third full with dried herbs (rosemary, peppermint leaves, or a combination), cover completely with carrier oil, seal, and store in a cool dark place for 4 to 6 weeks, shaking every few days. Strain through cheesecloth when finished.
Heat infusion is faster. Place dried herbs and oil in a double boiler or a glass jar set in a pot of water. Keep the temperature low, around 100 to 120°F, for 2 to 4 hours. The heat speeds up extraction but will slightly alter volatile oils in the herbs. Strain and store. With either method, you can still add essential oil drops to the finished infusion for extra potency, just account for the total dilution ratio.
A Simple Starter Recipe
This blend uses the two best-supported essential oils in a base that won’t clog follicles:
- Base: 2 oz (60 mL) jojoba oil
- Rosemary essential oil: 15 drops
- Peppermint essential oil: 8 drops
Combine in a dark glass dropper bottle or small amber bottle. Store at room temperature away from direct sunlight. This blend will keep for 6 to 12 months, depending on the shelf life of your carrier oil. If it starts to smell off or rancid, discard it and make a fresh batch.
How to Apply It
Part your hair into sections and apply the oil directly to your scalp using a dropper or your fingertips. You don’t need much. A teaspoon to a tablespoon is enough for the whole scalp, depending on your hair density. Then massage it in for about 4 minutes. A clinical study on scalp massage found that daily 4-minute sessions produced measurable increases in hair thickness by stretching the cells at the base of hair follicles, which stimulates growth signals.
You can leave the oil on for 30 minutes to overnight before washing it out. If you leave it overnight, put a towel on your pillow. Wash with a gentle shampoo the next morning. For best results, aim for 3 to 4 applications per week. The rosemary oil study showed results at six months, not six weeks, so consistency over time matters far more than frequency in any single week.
Who Should Be Cautious
If you have dandruff or seborrheic dermatitis (the flaky, itchy, sometimes reddish condition common on the scalp), applying oil directly to your scalp can make things worse. The yeast responsible for seborrheic dermatitis, Malassezia, feeds on lipids. Research has shown that common oils including olive oil, coconut oil, and corn oil all promoted Malassezia growth in lab conditions, with butter and corn oil supporting the most growth. Even castor oil, often considered a hair growth staple, supported yeast growth more than the oil-free control.
If you have seborrheic dermatitis, the recommendation from dermatology research is clear: avoid applying oils to the scalp entirely. You can still use oils on the mid-lengths and ends of your hair, where they help with moisture and breakage. But keep them off the scalp until the condition is managed.
Pregnant or nursing individuals should check with a healthcare provider before using rosemary essential oil, which has traditionally been flagged for caution during pregnancy. Peppermint oil can cause a strong cooling or tingling sensation. If that feeling is uncomfortable or causes burning, reduce the number of peppermint drops in your blend or remove it entirely.
Realistic Expectations
Homemade hair oils can genuinely support hair growth, but they work gradually. The clinical evidence behind rosemary oil showed no measurable change at three months and significant results only at six months. If you start a hair oil routine today, give it at least half a year of consistent use before judging whether it’s working. Taking photos of the same area of your scalp under the same lighting every month is the most reliable way to track progress, since day-to-day changes are too subtle to notice.
Hair oil works best for people experiencing mild thinning or who want to support overall scalp health. It’s not a replacement for medical treatment if you’re experiencing rapid or patchy hair loss, which can signal conditions that need a different approach. For the common, gradual thinning that most people search for solutions to, a well-made rosemary and peppermint oil blend is one of the most accessible and evidence-supported options available.