Why Put Yogurt on Hair | And Does It Help?

Yogurt on hair may not make much sense when you’ve always heard, “eat yogurt because it’s healthy.” But the fact is, the same health benefits that work for your gut and body transfer over to your hair.

A common feature among many foods is that topical usage carries at least some of the same benefits as internal benefits from consumption. We’ll show you why it’s great for your hair in our guide below.

What Is Yogurt on Hair?

Many people put yogurt on their hair like a mask to increase the strength of their hair follicles and make them shinier and smoother. The use of yogurt goes back many centuries because people do not have to source an obscure product.

Yogurt helps with damaged hair, dandruff, dry hair, dull hair, and baldness. However, the evidence is anecdotal because of a lack of studies.

Everybody has yogurt or can easily get some. Better yet, you can make yogurt in one night while you’re sleeping. When you wake up, the amazing benefits of yogurt are ready to use. Plain yogurt beats off-the-shelf products.

The market for such care collectively dishes out many millions of dollars annually. Yogurt is easy to buy, and you don’t have to be adventurous to let nature convert milk into a useful product.

Read Next: What Is a Hair Mask? and How Often Should You Do a Hair Mask?

Using a Yogurt Hair Mask

While a lot of studies exist on yogurt as a food source, science has not gotten around to seriously studying yogurt as a topical treatment. The link between yogurt and topical use still exists due to cultural influences.

Essentially, your grandmother knew about yogurt, and you do too. If science links topical yogurt use to a way to make mountains of money, studies will fly out of the mill, and products will line the shelves, wall to wall.

A hair mask works a lot like the conditioner often sold with shampoo. Remember that fresh, non-pasteurized milk turns into yogurt on the counter overnight. So, yogurt contains milk proteins and the lactic acid that helps transform milk into yogurt.

Lactic acid removes dead skin cells in the process of cleaning the scalp. The outer skin gets clean, and yogurt sinks into the pores and boosts hair follicle growth.

What Causes Hair Damage?

Many factors go into damaging hair. Some come from nature, such as too much sun exposure. Culturally, people used to wear a lot more hats. Hats were everywhere. Odds are, the average head of hair was healthier back then.

Seasonal changes are another natural factor. Winter tends to be very dry, for example. A region’s local environment may cause problems on top of sun exposure and weather. Unnatural causes play a large role. Air pollution, blow-dryers, and hair irons do damage.

Hair products that style, straighten, curl, and color do damage. Yogurt offers restorative properties. With so many ways people can damage their hair, a natural product like yogurt that heals hair is an easy win anybody can cheaply use.

Read Next: How to Tell If Your Hair Is Damaged

How to Apply a Yogurt Hair Mask

Before jumping into a scalp full of yogurt, make sure you will not suffer any allergic reaction. Pick any small spot of your skin and rub a little yogurt on it. If you experience no itching or irritation after a half-hour, your scalp should do fine with a yogurt hair mask.

Start with dry hair and gently massage yogurt into the roots of your hair. Use as much yogurt as your hair demands. Gradually move away from the roots and squeeze yogurt out to the tips of your hair.

Leave the yogurt on for about thirty minutes. Some people put on a shower cap and carry on with other tasks. Plastic wrap accomplishes the same thing.

When you have finished, wash the yogurt out with warm water. Depending on your comfort level, you can stop at warm water or use a mild shampoo to wash the yogurt out. If you only use water, you will gain more benefits from any yogurt residue left behind. 

Only use warm water to wash the yogurt out, and put a towel over your pillow for one night. That way, no odor will stick to the pillow. After another shower the following morning, you won’t detect any trace of yogurt by odor or anything else. 

Split Ends: Yogurt & Honey

The combination of yogurt and honey nourishes and moisturizes hair. Your hair will be healthy and smooth enough to stop split ends and other hair damage. Use the ratio of a cup of yogurt to one tablespoon of honey. Mix until smooth.

Follow the same steps as a hair mask with more emphasis on the ends of the hair. Wait 20 to 30 minutes and rinse off with warm water. Repeat weekly until your hair is healthy or as long as you think the treatment helps.

Shiny Hair: Yogurt, Lemon Juice, & Olive Oil

These three ingredients provide triple action benefits. The pH gets balanced during deep conditioning. With the olive oil to balance the lemon juice, hair gets shiny without drying out. Prepare a cup of yogurt, two cups of water, and one tablespoon each of lemon juice and olive oil.

Mix the yogurt and olive oil until smooth and apply like a hair mask. After twenty minutes, rinse with warm water. Then rinse with lemon water made from those two prepared ingredients. 

To maintain shiny hair, work this recipe into a weekly regimen. If your hair has a long way to go to get shiny, you can apply the mask twice a week at first.

Hair Growth: Yogurt & Egg

For hair growth, this recipe blends yogurt nutrients and egg proteins. Eggs are more than protein-rich. They are nature’s multi-vitamins, right down to the calcium in the eggshells. In addition to the hair benefits of yogurt, egg nourishes the scalp inside and out to promote better hair growth.

Whisk an egg and add two tablespoons of yogurt or more until you have a thick consistency. Apply the mixture like a hair mask and rinse after thirty minutes. Use a mild shampoo if the smell is unpleasant. Repeat the procedure once or twice a week.

Read Next: What Are the Best Vitamins for Hair?

Benefits of Yogurt for Hair

Now that we know how to apply a yogurt hair mask, the method is the same whether you apply yogurt alone or with extra ingredients.

There are specific reasons to apply yogurt by itself, and there are further goals you can meet with extra ingredients. Let’s first look at what benefits you receive from yogurt alone.

Prevents Hair Loss

Depending on the nature of your hair loss problem, yogurt can help improve the situation or stop hair from falling out. Some people lose hair because of poor scalp health and clogged pores. Also, some people lose hair for genetic reasons but also have poor scalp health.

During a hair loss treatment, improving scalp health helps regardless. Yogurt unclogs pores and strengthens hair follicles down to the root. More nourishment gets in as a result. Hair becomes noticeably healthier.

Eliminates Dandruff

Yogurt possesses antifungal properties. In the process of giving your scalp a deep clean, the extra protection discourages or eliminates dandruff. The scalp will look and feel healthier as well.

Chemical-Free Natural Conditioner

Nobody understands what the list of chemicals on a conditioner bottle means or what the chemicals do. Yogurt conditions hair better than chemicals from corporations. 

Yogurt is probably a lot cheaper too, and you can eat what you don’t use for better gut health. Skin anywhere else on the body receives the same benefits as the scalp.

Hair Moisturizer

Some people get frizzy, tangled hair and don’t realize that lack of moisture is the culprit. Yogurt goes a long way to fix this problem too. When yogurt adds moisture to each strand of hair, tangles drop away, and hair rests nicely.

PH Balancing

Often when conditions get unhealthy on the scalp, pH problems are nearby. Balanced sebum production means the correct amount of oil is on the skin. This oil protects the skin from bad bacteria and fungal infections.

Unbalanced pH levels on the scalp make sebum production go overboard, so hair looks greasy, flat, and eventually full of dandruff. Yogurt helps achieve the correct scalp pH to stop or prevent the problems.

Hair with a Good Sheen

When you prevent the problems listed above and make your hair healthy with yogurt treatment, hair gains a nice sheen. Yogurt has nutrients that aid in the process.

Like any other part of the body, nutrient deficiency leads to poor health. Nutrient-rich parts of the body have good health. Yogurt makes hair nutrient-rich, healthy, and shiny.

Soothing for the Scalp

The lack of all the benefits stated here can lead to an irritated scalp. Redness, dandruff, dry skin flaking off, and itchiness are the clear signs of a scalp that needs treatment like yogurt to soothe away irritation and discomfort.

Why Don’t Companies Make These Recipes?

Science understands that yogurt improves gut health. Understanding foods that help the inside of the body often help the outside is a concept science comprehends. Therefore, science knows fermented dairy improves skin and hair.

Anyone can get yogurt, so corporations see no profit in funding studies. Studies with promising results lead to new products lining shelves. Yogurt is in some cosmetics like lotions. Most lotions don’t have yogurt, though.

As a result, you can easily make recipes yourself. Better still, these recipes work amazingly well, and you’ll save tons of money compared to filling a basket full of store-bought products.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few more quick answers to your questions on how yogurt affects hair:

So, What Is Yogurt on Hair?

Yogurt on hair is the hair treatment multinational corporations don’t want you to know works. You can easily buy or make yogurt. Thirty minutes later you can have a revitalized scalp and hair. Even if your hair is healthy, yogurt improves protection to ensure long-lasting, well-nourished hair.