Some claim aloe vera may help strengthen your hair and make your scalp healthier. While there’s no clinical evidence to support this claim, aloe vera is safe for most people and may be beneficial.

Aloe vera has been used for centuries for its healing properties. It’s a plant that has thick leaves with a gel-like substance inside of them. It’s found all over the world, and many people even grow their own.

Aloe vera gel is cooling and soothing when applied to the skin, which is why it’s sometimes used to treat burns and skin wounds.

The best form of aloe vera to use on your hair is the raw gel of the plant. You can buy this gel in almost any pharmacy or scoop it out of leaves cut fresh from a live plant if you have one. The gel is clear in color and slightly watery.

Rubbing aloe vera into your scalp and hair and letting it penetrate your hair follicles could condition and improve damaged, dry hair. After letting it sit for an hour, rinse the gel off with a mild shampoo.

Calms an itchy scalp

Seborrheic dermatitis is the clinical term for the condition we call dandruff. The symptoms of an itchy scalp and flaking skin under your hair can be treated with aloe vera.

A 1998 study found that aloe vera helped resolve the scalp inflammation that dandruff causes. The fatty acids found in the aloe plant have anti-inflammatory properties.

Deep cleans oily hair

Aloe vera cleanses the hair shaft efficiently, stripping off extra sebum (oil) and residue from other hair products.

But aloe vera doesn’t hurt your hair strands while it cleans. Unlike other chemicals in hair products, aloe vera is gentle and preserves the integrity of your hair.

Using aloe vera is a great way to get hair that looks healthier, shinier, and softer.

Strengthens and repairs hair strands

Aloe vera contains vitamins A, C, and E. All three of these vitamins contribute to cell turnover, promoting healthy cell growth and shiny hair.

Vitamin B12 and folic acid are also contained in aloe vera gel. Both of these components can keep your hair from falling out.

However, there are no studies that confirm conclusively that aloe vera has any benefit in preventing hair loss.

Aloe vera is a popular product that people use on their skin after sun exposure. This is because of its high collagen content and cooling properties. The vitamin content in aloe vera suggests that it might work to repair sun damage to your hair, too.

May promote hair growth

When your scalp has been cleansed and your hair has been conditioned with aloe vera, you might see that hair breakage and loss slows down.

There are plenty of people who claim that aloe vera actually causes hair to grow much faster. But as of now, there’s little clinical evidence to prove or disprove those claims.

There’s usually little cause for concern when using aloe vera gel, but some people are allergic to it.

Before using aloe vera topically, do a patch test. Rub a small bit of aloe vera on the inside of your wrist and wait up to 2 hours to see if your skin reacts poorly. This will let you know if you have an aloe sensitivity.

You should also be careful with topical aloe if you’re using hydrocortisone cream on your skin. Aloe vera can increase the amount of cortisone that’s absorbed by your skin when the two are used together.

More clinical evidence is needed to definitively prove the benefits of aloe vera gel for hair, and studies are ongoing.

But if you want your hair to look its best, you might want to consider trying aloe vera gel as part of your hair care routine. It might not work for everyone, but there’s little to no risk in trying it.