Bamboo, an evergreen perennial that holds the world record for the fastest-growing plant, is native to moist tropical and warm temperate climates; however, some species grow in diverse climates, ranging from cool mountainous areas and highland forests to hot tropical regions.
Recently, many women have started using bamboo tea for hair growth. But before we get into how to use bamboo tea for hair growth, let's learn a bit more about bamboo tea.
For centuries, people in the Asian world have considered the bamboo plant to be a sacred plant that serves several purposes and signifies several aspects and beliefs.
For instance, China has over 400 species of bamboo, a plant that symbolizes grace, flexibility, strength, endurance, and longevity. Besides being an essential part of culture and tradition, bamboo is a widely accepted medicinal product in the region.
Nowadays, people worldwide have embraced bamboo tea as a beneficial drink that offers several health benefits. In various parts of the world, bamboo leaves are harvested, dried, and processed to produce bamboo tea leaves, which are then packed and sold as dried/loose bamboo tea leaves or bamboo tea bags.
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These products have gained acceptance in the market thanks to their list of ingredients, including vitamins, micronutrients, minerals, and amino acids.
Bamboo leaves are especially high in silica, a mineral made of silicon and oxygen. Bamboo is one of the plants that store the most silica, along with other grasses and horsetail, and that’s a big part of why bamboo tea is becoming popular.
Key Takeaways
- Bamboo Tea's High Silica Content: Bamboo leaves are rich in silica, a mineral made of silicon and oxygen. But most of it is locked in tiny solid grains that your body absorbs poorly, so a cup of bamboo tea isn’t the same as a silicon supplement.
- Benefits for Hair Strands: In the study behind the silica-for-hair idea, women with fine hair took a silicon supplement every day for nine months, and their hair strands got slightly thicker and lost less strength. That study used a supplement, not bamboo tea, so treat any hair health benefits from the tea as a maybe.
- Overall Health Advantages: Bamboo leaves contain antioxidants called flavonoids, and plain bamboo tea isn’t known to contain caffeine and has almost no calories. It won’t make your hair grow faster, though, and it won’t stop shedding.
- Brewing with Dry Bamboo Leaves: Steep 1 teaspoon of dried bamboo leaves in 8 ounces of just-boiled water for about 3 minutes, then strain. Pure bamboo leaf tea has more silica per cup than a blend.
- Safety and Efficacy: Bamboo leaf hasn’t been safety-tested in people, and bamboo shoots have been linked to goiter, a swollen thyroid gland. Skip bamboo tea if you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, or have a thyroid condition, unless your doctor says it’s fine.
What Does Bamboo Tea Do for Your Hair?
Bamboo tea is an herbal drink made from bamboo leaves, which are rich in silica, a mineral made of silicon and oxygen. It won’t make your hair grow faster or stop it from shedding. The most it might do is make your hair strands a little stronger and thicker, and that idea comes from a study of a silicon supplement, not of bamboo tea. Here’s what the silica in bamboo tea can and can’t do for your hair.
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Will bamboo tea help with what you’re seeing?
Find the row that sounds like your hair or your situation, then start with the last column. Bamboo tea is a fine drink, but most hair problems need something else first.
| What you’re dealing with | What you notice | Can bamboo tea help? | What to do first |
|---|---|---|---|
| You want a caffeine-free tea | You’d like a warm drink in the evening, or a swap for soda, without caffeine. | Yes. Bamboo leaves aren’t known to contain caffeine, and plain bamboo tea has almost no calories. | Steep 1 teaspoon of dried bamboo leaves in 8 ounces of just-boiled water for about 3 minutes. Go easy on the honey. |
| Fine, fragile hair strands | Your hair strands feel thin, and you find short broken pieces in your comb after you detangle. | Maybe, a little. A silicon supplement made fine hair slightly thicker and stronger over nine months. The silica in bamboo tea is the solid kind your body absorbs poorly. | Detangle gently while your hair is full of conditioner. Give any change several months, since only new growth near your scalp can show it. |
| Length that seems stuck | Your hair never seems to get longer, no matter what you do. | No. Bamboo tea doesn’t speed up growth. Your hair grows about a third to half an inch a month, and stuck length usually means your ends are breaking. | Protect your ends and handle your hair gently, so you keep the length you grow. |
| Heavy shedding | Much more hair than usual in your brush or shower drain, a few months after giving birth, a high fever, surgery, or a very stressful stretch. | No. This kind of shedding usually stops on its own, and your hair tends to get back its fullness within six to nine months. | Give it time. See a dermatologist if it lasts more than a few months or keeps coming back. |
| Thinning or bald patches | A wider part, thinning at your crown or edges, or round bald spots. | No. Thinning and bald patches have medical causes a tea can’t treat. | See a board-certified dermatologist soon. Some kinds of hair loss respond best when they’re treated early. |
| Pregnant, breastfeeding, or a thyroid condition | You’re pregnant or breastfeeding, or you have goiter, an underactive thyroid, or another thyroid condition. | Bamboo leaf hasn’t been safety-tested in people, and bamboo shoots have been linked to goiter. | Skip bamboo tea unless your doctor says it’s fine. |
If your hair is coming out in patches, your part keeps getting wider, or heavy shedding hasn’t eased after a few months, that isn’t a tea question. See a board-certified dermatologist to find out why.
Bamboo is one of many raw materials for hair cosmetics, but bamboo tea gets linked to hair because of what’s in its leaves. In a study of 75 kinds of bamboo, tiny grains of silica made up about 4% to 16% of the dried leaves’ weight.
Silicon seems to help your body make collagen, the protein that keeps your skin firm and stretchy. Silicon is also one of the main minerals in your nails. Your hair is made of a different protein, called keratin, but researchers think silicon may bond with it, which could explain why a silicon supplement made hair stronger in one study.
Besides silica, bamboo leaves contain antioxidants called flavonoids, which are plant compounds that help protect your cells from damage. Neither the flavonoids nor the silica will make your hair grow faster than its natural rate.
While bamboo tea isn't as common in Western culture, it has seen a wider adoption over the years. In Japan and China, bamboo leaf has long been used as a traditional medicine.
Silica is the reason bamboo tea gets linked to hair at all. Let's take a look at what silica found inside bamboo tea does to your hair.
What Does Silica Do to Your Hair?
Silica may make your hair strands a little thicker and stronger, but only when it’s in a form your body can absorb. Silica, or silicon dioxide, is a trace mineral naturally found in many plants, such as whole grains and leafy greens. Silica is made from a combination of silicon and oxygen and is also found in many dietary supplements (i.e., silica supplements).
Inside the human body, silicon is found in hair, bones, and skin. Your hair holds only a trace of it, about 1 to 10 micrograms in every gram of hair (a microgram is one millionth of a gram). You already get about 19 to 31 milligrams of silicon a day from the food and drinks in a typical Western diet, mostly from grains and from drinks like water, tea, coffee, and beer.
How much of that silicon your body uses depends on its form. Your body absorbs dissolved silicon well, like the silicon in water and beer. It absorbs solid silica poorly, and solid silica is the kind stored in bamboo leaves. In one study, people absorbed about 64% of the silicon in alcohol-free beer but only about 1% of the silicon from a solid silica supplement.
Now, let’s look at the benefits claimed for bamboo tea, and which ones hold up.
Benefits of Bamboo Tea for Your Hair
Many people want to grow healthier, thicker, beautiful hair, but it's critical to understand the hair growth process. While growth patterns differ from one person to another, many factors impact hair growth.
Ideally, blood vessels found in the scalp feed the hair roots, creating more cells and allowing the hair to grow. It's critical to ensure that the hair roots get enough essential nutrients to grow stronger and healthier hair.
Some of the common nutrients that are essential for healthy hair growth include:
- Vitamins - Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E are essential vitamins that play different roles - from fighting free radicals that could otherwise damage the hair follicles to moisturizing the scalp.
- Proteins - proteins help the body produce keratin, which plays a critical role in developing hair structure.
- Minerals - minerals such as zinc and iron play a crucial role in enhancing the growth of healthier and stronger hair, and silica may play a smaller part.
If you’re low in iron or zinc, a dermatologist can find out with a blood test, and fixing a real shortage does far more for your hair than any tea. Bamboo tea can be part of your routine, but it isn’t an essential one.
Below are the benefits claimed for bamboo tea for hair growth, shedding, and thinning, and what each one can really do for your hair:
1. Promotes the Growth of Stronger and Thicker Healthy Hair
Silica may make fine hair a little stronger and thicker, but the proof comes from a supplement, not from tea. In a 2007 study, 48 women with fine hair took either 10 milligrams of silicon a day or a look-alike pill with nothing active in it for nine months. The silicon came in a form called choline-stabilized orthosilicic acid, which your body absorbs much better than the solid silica in bamboo leaves.
Over those nine months, hair in the placebo group (the look-alike pill) got about 11% weaker, measured by how much force it took to break a strand in the lab. Hair in the silicon group barely changed. The silicon group’s hair strands also got thicker, while the placebo group’s didn’t.
That’s a real result, but a small one, and it came from a supplement made to be absorbed. Bamboo tea carries the solid kind of silica instead, so don’t expect the tea to match what the supplement did.
2. Results in Less Hair Shedding and Thinning
Bamboo tea won’t stop hair shedding or thinning. Excessive hair shedding can be a cause for concern among many people and is often caused by several conditions, from stress and illness to hormonal changes.
Bamboo leaves do contain antioxidants, which help protect your cells from damage. But heavy shedding usually follows a stressful event and stops on its own, with or without tea. It’s normal to shed 50 to 100 hairs a day. Heavier shedding tends to start a few months after something like giving birth, a high fever, surgery, or a very stressful stretch, and your hair usually gets back its normal fullness within six to nine months.
If your hair is thinning, bamboo tea won’t bring it back. The silicon supplement in the 2007 study made each fine hair strand a little thicker, which can make hair look a bit fuller, but it wasn’t tested on hair loss.
Thinning hair gives a distinct appearance of thinner hair spots. Several factors may cause hair thinning, from hormonal changes and medical conditions to hereditary conditions, and solving this issue isn't always a guarantee.
See a board-certified dermatologist if your part is getting wider, you notice bald patches, or you’ve been shedding more than usual for more than a few months. That’s a reason for a doctor’s visit, not a new tea, and some kinds of hair loss respond best when they’re treated early.
3. Boosts Hair Growth
Bamboo tea won’t make your hair grow faster. Silica, the main natural ingredient in bamboo tea, doesn’t directly promote hair growth, and your hair already grows at its own steady pace.
Hair grows about a third to half an inch a month on average, and curlier hair tends to grow at the slower end. Eating well keeps it growing at that pace, but no tea will push it faster. If your hair seems stuck at the same length, it’s usually breaking off about as fast as it grows in, so gentle handling will show you more length than any drink.
Does Bamboo Tea Have Any Side Effects?
Bamboo leaf tea isn’t known to cause common side effects, but it hasn’t been safety-tested in people the way medicines are. So two groups should skip it unless their doctor says it’s fine: anyone who’s pregnant or breastfeeding, and anyone with a thyroid condition.
Bamboo has a long history as an indigenous medicinal plant in different parts of the world. In Southeast Asian countries, bamboo shoot is prepared as a drink or eaten orally to treat various diseases.
If you are thinking of using bamboo tea for hair growth but wondering if it has any side effects, allergic reactions, weight gain, etc., we've covered all you need to know.
Bamboo Tea and Weight Gain
If you are afraid of adding extra weight while using bamboo tea, it's worth noting that plain bamboo tea has almost no calories, so it won’t affect your overall caloric intake. The honey or sugar you stir in does add calories, so go easy on those.
If you’re on a restricted diet, plain bamboo tea fits in easily. Just keep in mind that your hair needs protein, iron, and zinc from your food, and no tea replaces those.
Bamboo Tea and Caffeine
Bamboo leaves aren’t known to contain caffeine, so plain bamboo tea is a good pick when you’re cutting back on caffeine. If you blend it with another tea, such as green tea or black tea, your cup will have the caffeine from those leaves.
Any Allergies?
Bamboo is a plant in the grass family, and like any plant, it can cause an allergic reaction in some people. Stop drinking it if your mouth or throat itches or swells, or you break out in hives, and get emergency help if you have trouble breathing.
That said, two concerns have been widely linked to bamboo tea. One is that pregnant or breastfeeding women should avoid taking bamboo tea not because it's harmful but because there's a lack of research to confirm that it's safe among this group of people.
Similarly, if you have a thyroid condition, such as goiter (a swollen thyroid gland), an underactive thyroid, or thyroid tumors, check with your doctor before drinking bamboo tea. The research linking bamboo to thyroid problems is on bamboo shoots, the young stems people cook and eat, not on the leaves used for tea. Until the leaves are checked, it’s safer to skip the tea if your thyroid is already a concern.
In Manipur, India, where bamboo shoots are a common food, goiter is still common even though people there get enough iodine. In a lab study on thyroid cells, an extract of bamboo shoots slowed down the enzymes the thyroid uses to make its hormones, and adding extra iodine only partly reversed it.
How Regularly Should You Take It?
Drink bamboo tea in moderation. There’s no tested safe or recommended amount.
How to Use Bamboo Tea for Hair Growth
Bamboo tea can be brewed just like any other tea drink, such as green tea, black tea, or lemon tea. Since bamboo tea has a mildly sweet flavor with no fragrance or strong aroma, most people prefer to blend it with other beverages.
However, others prefer to use pure bamboo tea bags or dry, loose-leaf tea from whole bamboo leaves.
Blended bamboo tea has a rich and tasty flavor and probably more antioxidants from various organic teas, but it may have less silica.
Pure bamboo tea from tea bags or dry, loose bamboo leaves has more silica per cup, though most of it is the solid kind your body absorbs poorly, so don’t expect big benefits for your hair.
To make bamboo leaf tea, below are the ingredients and directions:
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon of dried bamboo leaves
- 8 ounces of water
- 1 teaspoon of honey or any other sweetener.
- ½ piece of lemon (optional).
Directions:
- Add 1 teaspoon of dried bamboo leaves to a teapot.
- Bring the 8 ounces of water to a boil.
- Pour the hot water into the teapot.
- Let the leaves steep for about 3 minutes.
- Filter the drink using a sieve or strainer.
- Sweeten the tea by adding honey or any other sweetener.
- Add lemon for flavor as desired.
If using a bamboo tea bag instead, one tea bag is enough for a regular-size cup.
Bamboo Tea Blend Ideas
If you want to blend bamboo tea with your other favorite herbs, you can comfortably do so since bamboo leaves don't have a distinct smell or taste. Based on your taste and preference, below are some of the popular options you can choose:
- Lemon-Ginger Bamboo Tea: Lemon adds a little vitamin C and a bright, sour taste, and ginger adds a warm, spicy kick to your bamboo drink.
- Bamboo-Mint Tea: Mint adds a cool, fresh taste to a plain cup. It won’t change your hair, but it makes bamboo tea easier to drink every day.
- Green-Bamboo Tea: This is a mixture of green tea and bamboo tea. Green tea is rich in polyphenols, a type of antioxidant, and it adds caffeine, so skip this blend late in the day. Like bamboo tea, it won’t speed up your hair; what enhances the growth of healthy hair is mostly gentle care that keeps your ends from breaking.
Bamboo Leaf Extract
Besides bamboo tea, you can buy bamboo extract, often sold as a natural silica supplement. Bamboo extracts come in two forms: capsules and powder.
With the capsule, you just swallow one during or after breakfast, and you are good to go. With the powder, you need to sprinkle it onto your snacks, food, or salads.
However, not all the bamboo extracts on the market sold as organic are actually organic. So you want to do your proper research before buying any product.
Additionally, these extracts are often mixed with some ingredients commonly known as holding agents. You always want to check the content of the holding agents to rule out the chances of allergic reactions.
Some bamboo extracts, unlike plain bamboo tea, also come with added sugars or sweeteners, so check the label if you’d like a healthier alternative.
Keep in mind that in the US, the FDA doesn’t approve supplements for safety or effectiveness before they’re sold, and the one silicon supplement tested on hair wasn’t made from bamboo. If you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, have a thyroid condition, or take any medicine, talk to your doctor before you try one.
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Whether you want a simple herbal tea or you’re curious about silica for your hair, bamboo tea is easy to try. With no complicated recipes, you can brew your bamboo drink in less than five minutes and serve it while hot.
Based on your preference, you can always combine bamboo tea with other herbs and enjoy as many flavors as you wish. If you’re hoping for stronger, thicker hair strands, give it time and keep your expectations modest. Your hair strands are made at the root, so any change would only show in new growth near your scalp, and the supplement study ran for nine months. If you’re shedding heavily or your hair is thinning, see a dermatologist instead of waiting on a tea.
