Black Currant Oil for Hair Loss, Correct Dosage and Skin Benefits


Ribes nigrumBlack currant oil is a lesser known nutritional oil with many beneficial properties.

Here’s how the gamma linoleic acid and other nutrients in this oil can help treat thinning hair and encourage new growth.

Also ahead, the best dosage for hair loss, skin improvement and other potential benefits of using black currant oil.

Hair Loss and Fatty Acids

Androgenic alopecia is a form of hair loss that can affect both men and women. In men the condition is also known as male pattern baldness and leads to a receding hairline, thinning on the crown and eventual baldness.

For women, androgenic alopecia is characterized by thinning over the entire scalp, with usually the worst hair loss in the crown region.

There are many factors that can contribute to losing your hair, but a deficiency in important fatty acids is a common one. Here’s where high quality black currant oil capsules can help.

The seeds of black currants are rich in 3 valuable fatty acids for healthier hair. They contain high levels of gamma linoleic acid, alpha linolenic acid and stearidonic acid. Here’s a quick look at each of them.

Gamma Linoleic Acid

Black currant oil is one of the richest known sources of gamma linoleic acid, also called GLA, with up to 20% content. This fatty acid has strong anti-inflammatory properties and is often recommended for inflammatory conditions.

In terms of hair loss, the GLA can inhibit the conversion of testosterone to another compound which attacks follicles. By blocking this conversion the oil may help prevent further thinning due to androgenic alopecia in both men and women.Black currants for hair

Alpha Linolenic Acid

The anti-inflammatory effects of black currant seed oil are also greatly enhanced by its high alpha linolenic acid (ALA) content, usually between 12% and 15%.

ALA is an essential omega-3 fatty acid, yet dietary intake of omega-3s has diminished greatly in recent decades with our increased intake of processed foods, virtually devoid of this vital nutrient.

Omega-3 fatty acids like the alpha linolenic acid are a precursor to anti-inflammatory series 3 prostaglandins. They specifically counteract inflammatory series 2 prostaglandins formed from processed omega 6 fats, like those found in processed vegetable oils and margarine.

This is particularly important for people with thinning hair as prostaglandin D2 (a series 2 prostaglandins) has recently been identified as a contributing factor in accelerated hair loss.

Getting good levels of omega-3 fats into your diet, and importantly lowering your intake of omega-6 fats from processed vegetable oils, helps to get the balance right between pro and anti-inflammatory prostaglandins.

Stearidonic acid

A lesser-known omega-3 fatty acid, stearidonic acid is also involved in mediating your body’s anti-inflammatory responses.

While you can make stearidonic acid inside your body with delta-6-desaturase, levels of this enzyme are often reduced with age and modern processed food diets.

This makes supplementing with a high source of GLA, ALA and stearidonic acid like black currant oil a smart choice, especially if your body is showing signs of deficiency, such as thinning hair and poor skin tone.

Dosage and Timing

The most common recommended dosage for taking black currant oil is two 500 mg capsules twice a day, once with breakfast and once with dinner.

Many report even better and faster results though with three capsules equaling 1500 milligrams in total per day, ideally one with every main meal. Cassis berries

Like all nutritional treatments for hair growth, it can take a while to see full results. This is because hair itself takes so long to grow.

Taking a high GLA black currant oil can help reduce further thinning fairly quickly if fatty acid deficiencies were contributing to the problem.

Even so, it’s likely to be at least a month, more often two or three months, before results can be seen clearly.

An improvement in your skin’s appearance is more likely to be noticeable first, particularly if you are deficient in gamma linoleic acid or omega-3 fats.

More Benefits of Black Currant Oil

The high levels of beneficial fatty acids in black currant seed oil can have many other positive effects for your health and appearance. Here’s 3 of the best:

1. Skin Structure

Your skin is also highly sensitive to a deficiency in important fats, particularly omega-3 fatty acids. Taking black currant oil is often reported to help with inflammatory skin conditions like acne, eczema and even psoriasis.

Gamma linoleic acid is also involved in melanin production and may help normalize pigmentation problems like age spots and uneven skin coloration.

2. Brain Function

Your brain is highly reliant on omega-3 fats and increasing your intake has been shown to have a beneficial effect on a variety of different brain related conditions.

These can be as wide-ranging as improving mood and stress reduction, treating learning disorders in children, reducing migraines and improving the quality of your sleep.Ribes nigrum seed benefits

3. Anti-Inflammatory Effects

As already detailed above, ALA, GLA and stearidonic acid can contribute to reducing excessive inflammation response in your body due to a high intake of unnatural omega-6 fats found in many processed foods.

Unhealthy diets and lifestyles are behind excessive inflammation and no one supplement can prevent all of these problems.

Black currant seed oil is rich in the right kind of fatty acids to help swing the balance back a bit further in the right direction though.

You may also like to try this smoothie recipe for hair growth that combines many different superfoods for hair, including black currant oil, into a delicious drink.

Correcting simple nutritional deficiencies with superfoods like black currant seed oil can often result in significant improvements. Not just in your appearance with better hair and skin, but also in relation to many other underlying conditions.


Best Superfood Blends | Back to the Homepage


Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 15 comments
Michael

Hi Jim,

Great article! This is definitely one of the more comprehensive descriptions on Blackcurrant Seed Oil benefits that I’ve seen.

There has been some additional research on Blackcurrant Seed Oil for hair loss recently that might also interest you (from French and Italian researchers). This placebo-controlled study showed combining Blackcurrant Seed Oil with Omega-3 fish oil (plus some anti-oxidants – mainly vitamins) helped improve hair density, diameter, and reduced hair loss! (assessed both by a professional and subjectively).

The reference for the actual article is: Le Floc’h C, Cheniti A, Connétable S, Piccardi N, Vincenzi C, Tosti A. Effect of a nutritional supplement on hair loss in women. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2015;14(1):76-82.

Hope you find it interesting!
Cheers,
Mike

Reply
Gail

Hi Jim,
I also wanted to ask you about topical application of blackcurrant seed oil alone or
in combination with other oils. How effective do you think it could be?
If effective, what proportions of products would you use and how, how often etc?

Thanks,

Gail

Reply
Jim Dillan

Hi Gail,

I think black currant oil would be more effective as a supplement as the gamma linoleic acid moderates DHT and helps prevent hair loss. I haven’t read anything on this effect from topical application, though it would likely be a good, if a little expensive, hair treatment.

All the best,

Jim

Reply
Brian

The bottle of Black Currant oil states Omega 3-6. Your article stated “Getting good levels of omega-3 fats into your diet, and importantly lowering your intake of omega-6 fats from processed vegetable oils, should help get the balance right between pro-and anti-inflammatory prostaglandins.” Is this Omega 6 different than the one you mention?

Reply
Jim Dillan

Hi Brian,

There is a difference between the gamma linoleic acid in black currant oil and the chemically altered fatty acids in vegetable oil. While both are classed as omega-6 fats, GLA is considered anti-inflammatory unlike the more common linoleic acid which has usually been heavily processed and heated.

All the best,

Jim

Reply
Tammy A Bond

Can I do both, Black Current and Flaxseed oils?

Reply
Jim Dillan

Hi Tammy. Yes I think this would provide many good nutrients for hair growth and general heath.

All the best,

Jim

Reply
Jim Dillan

Thanks for your positive comments Monka. I hope black currant seed oil can help with hair loss for you. More healthy fats like the ones you mentioned and definitely less simple carbs like processed grains and sugar would likely help with all of the issues you mentioned.

All the best,

Jim

Reply
Jeryl

Extremely helpful, should have been taking this along time ago.

Reply
Helen

like to know if black seed oil and black current oil are the same

Reply
Jim Dillan

Hi Helen,

No they are different. Black seed oil usually refers to black cumin seeds.

All the best,

Jim

Reply
Swapna

Hi

I have recently started taking black current oil tablets of now brand before my lunch and dinner along with cold pressed virgin coconut oil.
I have started getting pain in my knees , particularly in the night.

Is there a connection?

Hoping to hear from you

Regards
Swapna

Reply
Jim Dillan

Hi Swapna,

Black currant oil and coconut oil should be beneficial but you can test this by stopping them (and any other recent additions) for a week while keeping your other supplements/diet the same.

After a week introduce just one at a time for a week to see if it causes problems. Even if it is fine you should stop it and start the new one for a test. If both are fine then try them together. This takes a few weeks but when there could be problems it’s best to test supplements individually.

Hope this helps,

Jim

Reply
carey

Can I get the same benefits from drinking 8oz of black currant juice daily as taking the black currant oil?

Thanks!

Reply
Jim Dillan

Hi Carey,

Unfortunately not, the beneficial compounds are in the pressed oil from the seeds. The juice wouldn’t contain them.

All the best,

Jim

Reply

Leave a Reply: