How to Grow Edges Back Naturally and Boost A Thinning Hairline

Written by Shehnaz Shirazi

Updated on


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how to grow edges back

This article was contributed by Soumya Tamatam from Vedix.com

The edges of your hair not only symbolize healthy hair growth but also give shape to your face. The soft, baby hairs that grow along your hairline are called edges, and these are the most fragile hair on your head. A slight pull or tension on the scalp can break these hair strands; therefore, they need extra care.

Your hair edges play a significant role in framing your face. The swoops and swirls formed by the baby hairs based on their texture and styling give you a unique look. However, over-styling and over-handling your hairline can put a strain on them, causing breakage and thinning across the hairline.

We often don’t pay much attention to our edges, which is why balding or hairline recession starts from there. Growing back your thinning hair edges has its challenges. For one, they are more fragile than the rest of your hair, which can cause them to break constantly. This means they need extra TLC when you wash, moisturize, deep condition, and style your mane.

According to ancient Ayurveda, every hair type results from a combination of three doshas, namely Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Out of the three, the Pitta dosha is responsible for the metabolic activity in hair, including the production of hair proteins and pigment. Premature hair thinning and greying is caused when Pitta is out of balance.

In this article, along with other natural treatments, I will also cover some lesser-known but highly effective Ayurvedic treatments that can help you regrow your hair and thicken your edges.

But before we get into the treatments, let’s examine why your edges fail to grow back or are too slow to grow.

What Causes Thinning Edges?

edges thinning causes and reasons

There are few reasons why your edges go thin along the hairline.

1. Your Genes

If your hairline starts receding at an early age, your genes could be the reason. Get your hair tested by an expert, and if the DNA is the reason behind your edges breaking off, then there is not much you can do.

However, some treatments like Minoxidil can help reduce the intensity of the thinning.

2. Too Much Tension

Do you often style your hair in a sky-high ponytail, box braids, top bun, or in a protective style?

Although tight protective styles may look stylish, they cause too much tension on the fragile hairs, which can potentially damage your edges. Over time, the thinning can lead to traction alopecia, a type of hair loss caused by over-styling hair. If you think this is receding your hairline or thinning your edges, then contact a Dermatologist to get help.

3. Chemical Treatments

Every time you change your look with new hair color, bleaching, or styling, it impacts your hair health. Harsh chemical treatments like bleaching or relaxing can also contribute to damaged hair and noticeable breakage along the hairline. This happens if you don’t follow up on your treatments with the appropriate aftercare.

4. Medical Conditions Or Hormonal Changes

Hormonal changes, stress, underlying medical conditions, and medications can have a negative impact on your hair, which also reflects along your hairline.

For example, many women experience postpartum hair loss after pregnancy, which directly results from hormonal changes that cause the hair growth cycles to slow down. As a result, your hair may look like it’s shedding, but in actual fact, it’s just growing slower than usual.

Hormonal changes throughout menopause can also affect the hair growth cycle, altering the texture, density, and overall quality of the hair, causing menopausal frizz, another reason why your edges may look unhealthy and less abundant.

According to Medical News Today, medications that alter hormones can potentially cause hair loss, especially if they are taken to induce androgenic activity.

4. Too Much Friction

Friction caused by rough towel drying and excessive heat styling is another apparent cause of thinning edges. This mainly happens if you’re hitting your edges over and over to get them smooth.

Adopting better tools like an ionic hot air dryer brush and a microfiber towel can help you manage your hair better after a shower without any tangles and friction.

How To Grow Edges Back Naturally

how to get new growth on hairline

Once you know the reason behind your thinning edges, it’s easier to find solutions to tackle the problem.

Here are some hair care tips that can help you grow your hair back in the comfort of your home:

Gentle Styling

First and foremost, remember to be gentle with your hair. This is especially important when you’re trying to grow your edges back, as baby hairs need to be handled with care. Additionally, if you have a Vata hair type (your hair is more dry and delicate), it’s best to avoid over brushing or creating a hairstyle that requires you to pull your hair back or tie it tightly.

I recommend using a soft toothbrush to style your baby hairs for perfect edge control. Yep, the mighty toothbrush has been a long-time favorite among black women for slicking their edges down, and it works brilliantly.

Avoid Tight Hairstyles And Mix It Up A Little

We don’t always have time to think about experimenting or changing our hairstyle with our busy lives. We tend to depend on one or two staple hairstyles to get us going. But, if you are facing a thinning problem around your edges, you need to start switching your hairstyles so that one part of the hair doesn’t face the tension every day. Even though a ponytail or a pullback keeps your hair away from your face, these hairstyles can cause a lot of stress and tension.

So avoid hairstyles that are too tight and be more creative.

Moisturize

While oiling our hair, one doesn’t often pay much attention to the edges and mainly focuses on the roots. But hair edges need as much moisture as the rest of the hair on the head. Unless you have very oily skin and putting oil on your edges can lead to breakouts, oil your edges regularly.

Deep Condition Regularly

Deep conditioning is a step further from just applying a conditioner to your hair after washing. It involves applying a conditioning masque infused with steam. This helps the deep conditioner to penetrate the hair shaft and provide thorough hydration from root to tip.

The Shea Moisture range, for example, provides excellent products packed with castor oil and shea butter, which can help moisturize and nourish your edges for maximum growth.

Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Strengthen Grow and Restore Leave-in Conditioner

If you have a dry or Vata hair type, then regular deep conditioning is highly recommended. However, if you have an oily hair type, too much moisture may harm your hair. So, it’s better to know your hair type before following this step.

Avoid Harsh Styling Methods Like Heat

Even though styling your hair with heat can transform your look instantly, overdoing it can harm your hair in the long run. The same goes for coloring your hair with harmful chemicals. No matter how much you try to rejuvenate your hair, if you don’t stop the harsh styling routines, your hair health won’t improve, and you will have thinner edges and dry hair that is always prone to breakage.

Adopt a Healthy Scalp Care Routine

The key to healthy hair is a healthy scalp care routine, and the key to a healthy scalp is an excellent old-fashioned head massage. Regular scalp massages with or without oil have many benefits. Besides increasing blood circulation to the hair follicles, a scalp massage also moves natural oils (sebum) from the scalp into the hair and strengthens the roots to minimize hair loss.

Deep Cleanse and Detox Weekly

Even if washing hair is a nightmare because it leads to hair fall, it cannot be skipped. It is essential to get rid of the dirt from the scalp in time to guarantee that newly applied products can penetrate the hair shaft properly. That’s why most hair care professionals recommend using a clarifying shampoo once a week to detox and purge impurities from the hair and scalp properly.

Cover Your Head

Cover your head with a silk scarf. Many already use silk scarves as protective styles when they sleep at night to prevent breakage. Well, no surprise that it can work on a much smaller scale for your edges as well! Silk scarves, when used properly, will protect your hair and edges from any friction that may thin them out.

Sleep on a Silk Pillowcase

A silk pillowcase helps to keep your hair free from tangles, therefore minimizing breakage along your hairline.

Silk is also super beneficial for the skin and hair as the material doesn’t suck up moisture as cotton fabrics do.

So get yourself a SLIP silk pillowcase if you’re not already using one.

Adopt A Healthy Diet

Food is an essential part of haircare.

A healthy diet will rejuvenate your hair, whereas a lousy diet consisting mainly of processed foods can make your hair look dull and frizzy.

So switch your diet to incorporate whole foods packed with vitamins, minerals, and proteins, all of which are essential nutrients for healthy skin and hair. Here are some of the very best food items that can help boost your hair’s thickness and density:

  • Chicken
  • Oysters
  • Seeds
  • Shrimp
  • Fish
  • Eggs
  • Beans
  • Avocados
  • Soybeans
  • Nuts
  • Sweet peppers
  • Spinach
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Berries

Best Products That Can Help Grow Back Your Edges

1. Jamaican Black Castor Oil for Hair Growth

Castor oil has been used for generations to promote hair growth by stimulating the scalp and follicles.

The Jamaican black castor oil is made from 100% pure natural oil extracted from castor beans, along with vitamin E, and Omega-rich fatty acids, making it the perfect hair edge thickener. It also increases blood flow to the scalp transporting essential nutrients to every single hair follicle.

Applying a few drops to the thinning areas consistently every day will spur new growth in as little as a month!

2. Rosemary Oil

According to a study comparing rosemary oil to Minoxidil for the treatment of androgenic alopecia, rosemary oil showed a significant improvement in hair regrowth after 6 months. It also worked better than Minoxidil for people who had sensitive scalp and dry hair.

Important To Note:

Like any other essential oil, you must dilute rosemary oil with an appropriate carrier oil before application.

Peppermint Oil For Hair Growth

Peppermint oil has a cooling effect that soothes the scalp and relaxes the hair follicles. At the same time, it scavenges and deeply cleanses the scalp, removing nasty buildup and bacteria that may contribute to slow hair growth and bad scalp health.

Ayurvedic Herbs That Can Help Grow Back Your Edges

natural ingredients for growing back your edges

Ayurvedic science provides herbal medicines and various lifestyle regimens that can help you regrow your edges. Ayurvedic concepts such as Dinacharya and Ritucharya can go a long way in ensuring a host of health benefits.

Dinacharya means organizing daily activities around two cycles of change that occur every day. Dinacharya routine includes waking up early, hygiene, exercise, meals, relaxation, sleeping, etc. Ritucharya involves a lifestyle regimen to be followed each season.

Here are some herbs that can naturally boost your hair growth and thicken your edges:

Amla

Amla is a natural immunity booster and an essential ingredient for maintaining hair health. Here is a simple home remedy for hair fall using amla:

  1. Mix lime juice and amla powder to make a paste
  2. Massage it into your scalp and hair
  3. Cover your head so that the paste doesn’t dry out
  4. Rinse it off with normal water

Bhringraj

  1. Take a few dry bhringraj leaves
  2. Put the leaves in a jar of coconut oil
  3. Leave the container out in the sun for two days
  4. Wait for the oil color to change to light green
  5. Massage it on the scalp

Shikakai

Shikakai is rich in antioxidants and vitamins A, C, K, and D, keeping the hair nourished.

  1. Take about 2 tablespoons of shikakai powder and add it to a jar of coconut oil
  2. Store the container in a cool, dark place for about 15 days
  3. Shake before use. Massage your scalp with this at least twice a week

Reetha

You can prepare your own reetha shampoo at home:

  1. Boil reetha in water
  2. Leave the mixture overnight for cooling
  3. Strain the mixture and use it as a shampoo

Coconut

  1. Extract coconut milk, and add one tablespoon each of crushed black pepper and methi to it
  2. Apply to scalp and hair
  3. After 30 minutes, rinse with shampoo

Aloe Vera

  1. Take the stalk of aloe vera and extract the pulp
  2. Apply the pulp to your hair and scalp and leave it for about an hour
  3. Rinse with normal water
  4. Do this 3-4 times a week for better hair growth

Also Check: Aloe vera shampoos with biotin for hair growth.

Yogurt

Yogurt is not only good for your body but also your hair:

  1. Mix 2 tablespoons of yogurt with 1 tablespoon of honey and lemon
  2. With a brush, apply this on the scalp and hair roots
  3. Leave it for 30 minutes
  4. Rinse with normal water
  5. Apply once a week

Neem

Make your own anti-hair fall neem mask:

  1. Grind neem leaves into a coarse paste
  2. Add a little bit of warm water
  3. Apply on hair
  4. Wrap your hair in a towel and wait for an hour or so
  5. Wash it

Be Patient

Regardless of what natural method you use, your edges won’t grow back overnight.

It’s a slow process that requires patience and nurturing before you can see any results.

Hair typically grows 1/2 inch per month and 6 inches per year. So, keep the above aspects in mind and more importantly, be patient and consistent.

About the Author

Shehnaz ShiraziShehnaz Shirazi

Shehnaz Shirazi has been writing in the beauty and cosmetics industry for over 8 years, sharing her expansive hair care and beauty knowledge. Shehnaz researches and tests new hair care trends and publishes her insights here.