Herbal Hair Oil with Bhringraj and Amla

Details

Herbal, ayurvedic and natural are unregulated words in India, and this is the shelf where that costs the most. The standard herbal hair oil is light liquid paraffin, which is mineral oil, coloured green with a synthetic dye, perfumed heavily, and carrying an amla extract at a fraction of a percent so that amla can go on the front in large letters. Nothing about that is illegal. So the only useful answer is arithmetic, and here it is, to the tenth of a percent. Carrier oils 86.0 percent: cold-pressed sesame at 70.0 and cold-pressed coconut at 16.0. Herbs 13.6 percent: bhringraj 4.0, amla 3.5, curry leaf 2.2, hibiscus 1.6, fenugreek 1.3 and neem 1.0, each figure being the dried herb charged into the infusion as a percentage of the finished oil, at a herb-to-oil ratio of 1 to 5, infused over 72 hours at low heat and then filtered. Tocopherol 0.4 percent. That is 100.0 percent and there is nothing else in the bottle. The word extract is doing no hiding here: these are whole dried herbs infused into the oil, not a glycol extract dosed at 0.1 percent so the name can appear. And one thing this oil is not: it is released as a cosmetic hair oil under the Cosmetics Rules 2020, not as an ayurvedic medicine, and it carries no claim to regrow hair or to stop hair falling.

• Base is cold-pressed sesame oil at 70.0 percent and cold-pressed coconut oil at 16.0 percent. No mineral oil, no light liquid paraffin, no refined carrier standing in for a pressed one
• Mineral oil screened out and proved out: MOSH and MOAH below the limit of quantification by LC-GC-FID, per lot. That is the test that catches a paraffin base, and it is the reason to run it rather than to assert it
• Six herbs, each with its own figure: bhringraj Eclipta alba 4.0 percent, amla Emblica officinalis 3.5, curry leaf Murraya koenigii 2.2, hibiscus Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 1.6, fenugreek Trigonella foenum-graecum 1.3, neem Melia azadirachta 1.0. Total herb charge 13.6 percent at a 1 to 5 herb-to-oil ratio
• Full INCI in descending order: Sesamum Indicum Seed Oil, Cocos Nucifera Oil, Eclipta Prostrata Leaf Extract, Emblica Officinalis Fruit Extract, Murraya Koenigii Leaf Extract, Hibiscus Rosa-Sinensis Flower Extract, Trigonella Foenum-Graecum Seed Extract, Melia Azadirachta Leaf Extract, Tocopherol
• Heavy metals by ICP-MS on every lot, because contamination in Indian herbal products is documented and serious: lead below 10 ppm, arsenic below 3 ppm, mercury below 1 ppm, cadmium below 0.3 ppm, all four measured and all four reported
• No added colour. The oil is a dull olive-brown and it shifts between lots, because the colour is whatever the leaves gave it. Screened for synthetic dyes per lot, none present. A uniformly bright green hair oil is a dyed one
• No fragrance, no parfum, no essential oil, no masking agent. It smells strongly of sesame and of the herbs, and that is what an unperfumed herbal oil smells like
• No preservative, and none is needed. There is no water in the bottle, so there is nothing for a microbe to grow in; the tocopherol at 0.4 percent is an antioxidant against rancidity, which is a different job
• Tested fill: 100 ml net, filled by weight to 92 g at a measured density of 0.918 g per ml. The 200 ml is 184 g, checked per lot
• Honest trade-off: the smell is strong and stays in the hair until it is washed. If you cannot wash it out the same evening, this is not the oil for a working week
• Second trade-off: it stains a pillowcase, and sesame will go slightly rancid if the bottle is left open in the heat. Cap it, keep it dark, use it inside 12 months of opening
• Allergen note: sesame is a recognised allergen and this oil is 70 percent sesame. Patch test on the forearm and leave it 24 hours before putting it on your scalp