🌿 Folk Prescriptions

White hair
White hair does not include gray hair caused by natural aging in old age, but refers to premature graying due to genetic factors or certain diseases. Modern medicine holds that premature graying is mainly due to reduced formation of melanin in hair, weakened function of melanocytes in producing melanin, and decreased activity of tyrosinase. Excessive emotional stress, overwork, worry, fright, and nerve trauma may all lead to white hair. Additionally, chronic wasting diseases may also cause white hair.
Traditional Chinese medicine considers the following factors related to white hair:
First, deficiency of essence and blood weakness: insufficient kidney essence fails to generate yin-blood; when yin-blood is deficient, hair loses nourishment and turns gray.
Second, excessive heat in blood: emotional agitation leads to water failing to nourish wood, liver excess and blood dryness, resulting in blood heat predominance, poor nourishment of hair roots, thus causing early graying.
Third, liver qi stagnation with spleen dampness: liver qi stagnation damages heart and spleen; spleen injury impairs transformation and transportation, depriving the body of source for blood and qi production, leading to white hair.
There are many effective traditional remedies and folk treatments for white hair, primarily as follows.
[Formula One]
Sang Bai Pi 30 g, Wu Bei Zi 15 g, Qing Xiang Zi 60 g. Decoct in water, strain, and use externally for washing.
[Formula Two]
Di Gu Pi, Sheng Di Huang, Tu Si Zi, Niu Xi, Yuan Zhi, Shi Chang Pu—appropriate amounts. Make into honey pills or decoct and take orally.
[Formula Three]
Acid pomegranate 100 g, Wu Bei Zi 150 g, Zhi Ma Ye 50 g. Crush coarsely, place in iron vessel with water, extract juice for external application.
[Formula Four]
Nü Zhen Zi 500 g, Ju Sheng Zi 250 g. Decoct in water, take 20 ml each time, twice to three times daily, swallow with warm water.
This formula is an excellent remedy for white hair caused by yin deficiency and blood dryness.
[Formula Five]
Two cloves of garlic, one piece of ginger. Crush into paste, apply to scalp, then rinse with water. Spritz perfume to reduce garlic odor. Apply continuously for 3–4 months to see results.
[Formula Six]
Sang Bai Pi 90 g. Chop finely, boil for 5–6 times, remove residue, frequently apply to temples. Hair will not fall out.
This formula serves as a hair health tonic—easy to obtain and use, suitable for all ages.
[Formula Seven]
Nü Zhen Zi 520 g, Zao Lian Cao, Sang Shen Zi each 300 g. First air-dry Nü Zhen Zi, soak in wine for one day, steam until dry, air-dry Zao Lian Cao and Sang Shen Zi. Grind the three herbs into fine powder, mix with honey to form pills weighing 10 g each. Take one pill morning and evening, wash down with diluted salt water.
[Formula Eight]
Black sesame powder, He Shou Wu powder each 150 g. Add appropriate sugar, cook into porridge-like consistency, drink with hot water every night, one bowl per serving.
After half a year, white hair turns gray, gray hair turns black.
[Formula Nine]
30 g of personal stray hair, 50 grains of pepper. Wash your own stray hair clean, mix 30 g with 50 grains of pepper, seal tightly with clay, burn in furnace until black as lacquer, grind into fine powder, take 3 g with white wine.
[Formula Ten]
Shu Gan Di Huang 2000 g, Xing Ren 500 g (soak in boiling water, remove skin and tips, double kernels, crush into paste), He Li Le Pi 250 g. Crush and grind into powder, mix with Xing Ren evenly, add honey and knead thoroughly, pound with pestle 200–300 times, make into pills the size of tamanu seeds. Take with warm water, start with 10 pills, gradually increase to 40 pills, avoid raw scallions, radishes, garlic.
[Formula Eleven]
Raw Ba Ye (chopped) 1000 g, Zhu Gao 500 g. Crush Ba Ye into powder, mix with Zhu Gao to make 20 pills. Wrap one pill in cloth and soak in rice washing water, dissolve and use for washing hair. Once daily; after one month, hair gradually becomes black and lustrous.
[Formula Twelve]
White wax—appropriate amount. Pull out white hairs, melt white wax and drop into holes, new black hair will grow.
[Formula Thirteen]
Xuan Lian—appropriate grams. Soak in wine overnight, dry and grind into powder, make into pills the size of tamanu seeds with honey. Swallow 20 pills before bedtime with wine.
[Formula Fourteen]
Sheng Di, Zhi Shou Wu each 5 g. Boil with boiling water, drink daily as tea, continue for several months.
[Formula Fifteen]
Three green walnuts (with skin crushed finely). Mix with 3 bowls of milk in silver or stone container, stir well, apply to beard and hair 3–5 times.
[Formula Sixteen]
Green vitriol, mint, Aconite—equal parts. Grind into powder, soak in iron-infused water, apply daily.
[Formula Seventeen]
Frost-covered fir leaves. Collect plenty, crush, steam in steamer, squeeze juice through clean cloth, use for washing hair.
[Formula Eighteen]
Lian Zi Cao 500 g, Xing Ren (soaked in boiling water, remove skin and tips, double kernels, stir-fried until yellow), Shu Gan Di each 1000 g. Mix ingredients, pound together for 10,000 strokes until color resembles lacquer, shape into pills the size of tamanu seeds. Take 30 pills on empty stomach with warm wine in the morning, once more at night.
[Formula Nineteen]
Pomegranate flowers. Dry, grind into powder, mix with a small amount of iron powder, dissolve in rice vinegar broth, take 3 g in the morning and evening.
[Formula Twenty]
He Shou Wu, iron ore each 60 g. Grind into fine powder, take 2–3 g each time, twice daily.
[Formula Twenty-One]
Tian Men Dong, Shu Di each 250 g. Combine, make into honey pills the size of tamanu seeds, take 30 pills before meals with wine daily.
This formula is effective for premature graying of hair when taken regularly, but avoid raw scallions, radishes, garlic.
[Formula Twenty-Two]
Black beans, hawthorn, large green leaf each 30 g. Decoct and drink, twice daily.
[Formula Twenty-Three]
10 pieces of camphor tree fruit husks, Sheng Di 10 g. Decoct together and drink as tea, one dose daily, continue for 1–3 months.
[Formula Twenty-Four]
Black sesame 10 g, He Shou Wu, walnut meat each 3 g. Stir-fry these three ingredients in an iron pan until cooked, then swallow. This quantity constitutes one dose, take one dose daily for three months.
[Formula Twenty-Five]
500 g small black beans, 60 g goji berries, 30 g He Shou Wu, 12 walnuts. First boil goji berries and He Shou Wu, use the decoction to cook black beans and walnuts. Then stir and dry in shade. Take 30 black beans in the morning and evening on an empty stomach.
[Formula Twenty-Six]
200 g castor bean kernels, appropriate amount of fragrant oil. Fry castor bean kernels in fragrant oil until charred, remove residue, let sit for three days, then brush frequently on hair.
This formula especially suits yellowish hair that does not turn black.
[Formula Twenty-Seven]
Each 2500 g of raw and cooked Rehmannia root. Grind both into fine powder, mix with honey to form pills the size of mung beans. Take 10 g each time, three times daily, wash down with white wine.
This formula has strong effects and can be used for people of all ages and genders suffering from white hair.
[Formula Twenty-Eight]
500 g papaya. Soak in hemp oil for one month, extract oil and comb hair with it.
Long-term use can gradually restore dry, dull hair to soft and lustrous black.
[Formula Twenty-Nine]
100 g walnut bark (or green walnut fruits), 100 g tadpoles. Crush into paste, mix with 3 bowls of milk in glass container until uniform. Apply appropriate amount to dye beard and hair, and comb with peach oil.
Long-term use can turn white beard and hair black.
[Formula Thirty]
500 ml rice vinegar, 250 g black soybeans. Cook beans in vinegar, remove beans, then simmer until thick like paste, use for dyeing hair.
This formula works particularly well for female white hair.
[Formula Thirty-One]
Ju Sheng Zi, chrysanthemum, Poria each 1000 g. Grind into powder, make into pills the size of mung beans with honey. Take orally, three times daily, one course lasting three months.
This formula is especially effective for patients with hypertension and white hair.
[Formula Thirty-Two]
Niu Xi 2000 g. Each time decoct 20 g, take twice daily.
This formula is especially suitable for young adults with premature graying.
[Formula Thirty-Three]
Gou Qi Zi 200 g, Mao Xiang 100 g, five dried persimmons. Boil persimmons together with Mao Xiang until cooked, dry gou qi zi, grind all into powder, make into pills using water as binder, the size of tamanu seeds. Take 50 pills each time, three times daily, wash down with Mao Xiang decoction.
Treats premature graying of hair
[2] Remedy for White Hair No. 18