Does Black Seed Oil Work or Is It a Waste of Time?

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You may have heard of black seed oil and most likely heard of people talking about the benefits or the stuff, I know I have. 

But what exactly is black seed oil, what do people use it for, and is there any truth to it actually working for the things people say it does?

Table of Contents

• Where Does Black Seed Oil Come From?
• What Does it Look and Smell Like?
• Is Black Seed Oil Proven to Work?
  • Psoriasis
  • Hair Health/Hair Loss
  • Weight Loss
• Should You Use Black Seed Oil?

I first heard about black seed oil many months ago from a friend suffering from hair loss, he swore that putting black seed oil on his hair every day after he got out of the shower made a difference to his hair situation.

So,black seed oil. I first heard about this many months ago from a friend suffering from hair loss, he swore that putting black seed oil on his hair every day after he got out of the shower made a difference to his hair situation.

I didn’t really question it, but a few weeks later I heard someone else mention it having benefits for a whole host of other things like lowering cholesterol and blood sugar, asthma, and aiding in weight loss. 

You can buy black seed oil in a whole host of places so it’s pretty easy to find, so I was interested to have a look at this and see if there’s anything to it.

Where Does Black Seed Oil Come From?

Black seed oil comes from a plant called Nigella Sativa, this is a plant native to Western Asia and Eastern Europe.

Nigella being a diminutive of the latin word for black.

The plant itself is slightly poisonous and the seeds are often dry roasted and  used in indian and middle eastern cooking.

But anyway, let’s get into what evidence there is out there of black seed oil working…

What Does it Look and Smell Like?

It’s just a dark oil, but it has a really strong smell to it.

Many times when it’s used in hair care or skin care products they use perfume to mask the smell because the pure stuff is really strong smelling.

Is Black Seed Oil Proven to Work?

What’s the hard evidence, is it scientifically proven to work?

I’m going to look at three of the most common uses I’ve heard black seed oil being used for and look into whether there’s any evidence of it working that would actually make it something to keep a bottle of in your bathroom cabinet.

• Psoriasis

• Hair Loss

• Weight-Loss

Psoriasis

Some studies have found that black seed oil can help with the treatment of psoriasis. The problem is though that the research hasnt been done on humans, only rats. 

However there was a small study done on a small group of 12 people using a cream to treat psoriasis and it was quite successful. Only thing is, this cream contained other ingredients like olive oil, cocoa butter and some vitamins. So it’s hard to pinpoint the benefits directly on black seed oil for this one.

Hair Health/Hair Loss

Hair health would probably be the most common benefit of black seed oil I’ve heard about.

I know people that swear by putting some on your hair, and there are numerous hair care products that contain black seed oil as an ingredient, but are there any benefits to using it on your head?

One small study done in 2014 found that mixing black seed oil with coconut oil actually does have a positive effect, the subjects of the study applied it to their hair three times a day to see the effects.

Another study done on 90 people found that products containing black seed oil reduced hair loss after 90 days, but the thing is the product they used contained other products so the benefits cannot be exclusively attributed to black seed oil alone.

Weight Loss

When it comes to weight loss, what some people do is take 1-2.5 grams of it daily  but not just in the oil form, the powder form of black seed can be taken raw or added to smoothies or tea or however.

One study was done on 84 obese women. The women who consumed 3 grams of black seed oil per day while also following a low calorie diet at the end of the study lost more weight than those who followed a low calorie diet alone.

There was another study involving 45 women who were either overweight or obese, (I have no idea why they only did this study on women), but these women took 2000mg of black seed oil every day for 8 weeks and their appetite decreased, their body mass index decreased and weight and body fat went down too. 

I’ve never used black seed oil myself, but looking at these results it does look interesting but at the same time I do feel that more research needs to be done!

Should You Use Black Seed Oil?

In my opinion, there’s enough there to warrant trying it out at least. I don’t think it will do you any harm at all, and it doesn’t cost much either.

Yes, you could say that not all of the studies are 100% conclusive, but like I said it doesnt do you any harm. 

The only thing that could give you real problems is the smell, especially if you put it on your hair, that stuff will smell!

But it might not smell so bad if its mixed with other ingredients like coconut oil like many hair care products do. 

If it works for you and you’ve seen results from it then keep going!

Do you use black seed oil and does it work for you? And if not, what other things do you use? Sharing your experiences could actually help someone out, so let us know in the comments below.