It's everyone's wish to grow beautiful and healthy hair, but the reality is that it takes hard work, discipline, and persistence to achieve your specific hair goals.
Lately, women have been raving about goat milk benefits for hair growth, dead skin cells, dry scalp, damaged hair, and more.
So, what can goat milk really do for your hair? Used as a conditioner, it can leave your hair softer and easier to detangle for a wash or two. It won't make your hair grow faster, and it can't feed your hair from the outside. In this article, we'll show you what's in goat milk, what each part does for your hair, and how to use it safely.
Before we dive into the benefits of goat's milk, it's important to note that eating healthy, regular shampooing, and conditioning are essentials of a good hair care regimen.
As far as hair care products are concerned, many people have been shying away from synthetic shampoos and conditioners made from harsh chemicals.
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Nowadays, everyone wants to be associated with natural products, and there are several reasons why this is the case.
Most hair shampoos and conditioners in the market are advertised as natural and healthy, but the truth is that those 'natural ingredients' have been processed and potentially loaded with preservatives. Preservatives get a bad name, but they're there for a reason. They stop bacteria and mold from growing in anything that contains water, and a homemade goat milk recipe doesn't have any.
Using natural oils, soaps, and products can be good for your hair, but "natural" on its own doesn't tell you much. Some natural ingredients do real work on your hair, some do nothing, and a few can irritate your scalp, so it pays to check what each one actually does.
Goat milk is one of many animal products people use on their hair and scalp for beauty.
Like cow's milk, goat milk contains minerals, protein, fat, and several vitamins. Below, we'll show you how much of each one is in a cup, and what that means for your hair.
If you're in a rush, we recommend using Beekman 1802 goat milk products. For example, Beekman 1802's shampoo contains goat's milk.
They have a complete line of goat milk products that allow you to take advantage of goat milk benefits for hair care, but they also have body creams, bar soap, deodorant, and more.
Goat's milk is also a common ingredient in skin care products; click here to see the full Beekman 1802 product line.
One thing before you buy: if you're allergic to milk, or you have eczema, skip goat milk products. We explain why in the section below on who should skip goat milk.
Key Takeaways
- Goat Milk for Hair Health: Goat milk has protein, fat, calcium, and riboflavin (vitamin B2), plus some vitamin A, but almost no iron, vitamin C, or folate. On your hair, the fat and protein work like a light conditioner and can make dry hair feel softer until your next wash. They can't feed your hair or change how fast it grows.
- Natural Conditioning: Goat's milk acts as a natural conditioner. Its fat and protein coat your hair strands, which can add shine, soften your hair, and make curls easier to detangle. Rinse it out, though, because milk left on your hair turns sour.
- Scalp Nourishment and Health: Goat milk doesn't treat dandruff or an itchy scalp. When flakes are the problem, a dandruff shampoo does more for your scalp health, and a scalp that stays itchy or sore is worth a visit to a board-certified dermatologist. Skip goat milk entirely if you're allergic to milk.
- Alternative to Commercial Shampoos: Goat milk soap and shampoo bars are true soaps, made with lye, so they're alkaline. That can leave curls rough and frizzy, so for most curly hair, a pH-balanced shampoo bar or a mild sulfate-free shampoo is the gentler choice.
- Versatile Use in Hair Products: Goat milk can go into hair masks, rinse-out conditioners, soaps, and body washes. Homemade versions have no preservatives, so mix them fresh, use them once, and throw out what's left.
Does Goat Milk Make Your Hair Grow?
No, goat milk won't make your hair grow faster, whether you put it on your hair or drink it. Your hair is made inside your hair follicles, the tiny pockets in your scalp that hair grows from, and the follicles get what they need from the food you eat. By the time hair comes out of your scalp, it's already made, so nothing you put on it can make it grow faster.
Drinking goat milk only helps your hair if your diet is short on something milk carries, like protein. Sudden weight loss and eating too little protein can both lead to extra shedding a few months later, and fixing your diet lets your hair grow back normally.
Today, people use goat milk with other natural ingredients such as olive oil and honey to further enrich their hair care routine.
What's in Goat Milk, and Does It Help Hair Growth?
Goat milk contains protein, fat, and several vitamins and minerals, but none of them makes your hair grow faster unless your diet was short on it. Here's what's in one cup, based on USDA nutrition data:
- A cup of goat milk has about 9 grams of protein, mostly a protein called casein. Your hair is made of a different protein, keratin, which gets its strength from bonds between sulfur atoms. Eating enough protein matters for hair growth, but protein you put on your hair can't become part of it. On the outside of your hair strands, milk protein works like a light conditioner.
- Vitamin B found in goat milk, mostly riboflavin (vitamin B2), is an essential component needed for healthy hair growth, and one cup has about a quarter of the riboflavin you need in a day. A lack of B vitamins, including riboflavin, biotin, folate, and B12, has been linked to hair loss. But extra B vitamins don't help your hair grow unless you were low to begin with. Goat milk is also low in B12 and folate, so it isn't a good source of those two.
- One cup gives you about 15% of the vitamin A you need in a day. Your body needs vitamin A, but too much of it, usually from supplements, can actually cause hair loss.
- Goat milk has only small amounts of vitamins C and E: a cup gives you about 4% of the vitamin C and 1% of the vitamin E you need in a day. Both are antioxidants, which help protect your cells from oxidative stress, a kind of cell damage that has been linked to hair aging.
- Goat milk has very little iron: a cup gives you less than 1% of what you need in a day. That matters because iron helps your red blood cells carry oxygen, and iron deficiency can cause hair loss, a problem that affects both children and adults of all genders. If you're worried about your iron, eat iron-rich foods like beans, leafy greens, and meat, and ask your doctor about a blood test.
So, goat milk is a good food, but it isn't a hair growth treatment. A balanced diet supports healthy hair growth; milk on your hair doesn't. What it does for your hair happens on the outside of your hair strands, as a conditioner. If your hair is shedding more than usual, or coming out in patches, see a board-certified dermatologist to find out why.
Original Curl Centric chart
What goat milk helps with, and what it doesn’t
Find what you’re hoping goat milk will do for your hair, then read across. The green row is where it helps. The other rows tell you what to do instead.
| What you want | Can goat milk do it? | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Softer hair that’s easier to detangle | Yes, until your next wash. | Milk fat and protein coat the outside of your hair strands, the way a conditioner does. | Use it as a rinse-out conditioner after you shampoo. Mix a fresh batch each time and throw out what’s left. |
| Less breakage | A little, if combing is what’s breaking your hair. | Coated strands rub against each other less, so fewer snap. Milk protein is too big to get inside your hair and rebuild it. | Detangle while your hair is still full of conditioner, with a wide-tooth comb or your fingers. |
| Faster growth or thicker hair | No. | Hair is made inside the hair follicles in your scalp, and they get what they need from the food you eat, not from milk on your hair. | If you’re shedding more than usual or see thin patches, see a board-certified dermatologist to find out why. |
| Fewer flakes or a less itchy scalp | No. | Dandruff needs an ingredient that treats it, and milk doesn’t have one. | Use a dandruff shampoo with zinc pyrithione, salicylic acid, sulfur, selenium sulfide, ketoconazole, or coal tar. See a dermatologist if your flakes don’t clear. |
| A gentler wash with goat milk soap | Not for most curls. | Goat milk soap is a true soap made with lye, so it’s alkaline, and alkaline washes leave curls rougher and frizzier. | Follow it with a rinse-out conditioner every time, or switch to a pH-balanced shampoo bar. |
| Any of these, if you have a milk allergy or eczema | Skip it. | Most people allergic to cow’s milk react to goat milk too, and skin with eczema can become allergic to milk proteins. | Choose hair products without milk, and check the label for goat milk before you buy. |
Trouble breathing or swelling in your lips, tongue, or face after using goat milk is an emergency. Call 911.
Goat Milk Benefits for Hair
Goat milk is rich in calcium, phosphorus, and riboflavin (vitamin B2), and it's a good source of protein, vitamin A, and potassium. Your body needs all of these, but on your hair, the fat and protein in the milk are what your hair notices.
Here's what goat milk can do as a hair care product, and where it stops:
1. It Nourishes the Scalp
Goat milk can make a dry scalp feel softer while it's on, but it can't nourish your scalp from the outside or treat a scalp problem. Scalp problems have many causes, including dandruff, infections, and skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema. The most common signs of scalp issues include rashes, itchiness, scalp tenderness, hair breakage, scalp patches, hair thinning, and hair loss.
Goat milk has vitamins A, B2, and D, but the small amounts in milk you rinse off your scalp won't fix a scalp problem or a vitamin shortage, and they won't change your hair texture.
People also use goat milk for alleviating itchiness and dandruff flakes, but it isn't an anti-dandruff treatment. For flakes, the American Academy of Dermatology recommends a dandruff shampoo with zinc pyrithione, salicylic acid, sulfur, selenium sulfide, ketoconazole, or coal tar. If you have curly or coily hair, use it about once a week and put it on your scalp only, since it can dry out your hair. If your flakes don't clear up, see a board-certified dermatologist.
2. Reduces Hair Breakage and Hair Loss
As a conditioner, goat milk can help with breakage a little, but it doesn't treat hair loss. Hair breakage and hair loss are caused by various factors, including medical conditions, excessive heat styling, and poor diet. Fixing hair breakage requires proper dieting and a good hair care routine.
This includes eating healthy food rich in minerals, vitamins, and proteins and sticking to the right shampoos, conditioners, and moisturizers. Goat milk can be part of a healthy diet, but on your hair, it does the same job as a regular conditioner: it makes your hair easier to comb, and gentler combing means fewer broken strands.
There are different causes of hair loss, and the cause dictates the right treatment. That said, some forms of hair loss are treatable, while others aren't as treatable.
Some hair loss treatments, such as finasteride, work by blocking a hormone linked to hair loss called DHT (dihydrotestosterone).
Stopping these treatments means that hair loss will start to progress again. Goat milk isn't a hair loss treatment. If you're losing more hair than usual, a board-certified dermatologist can find the cause and the right treatment.
3. Boost the Growth of Stronger Hair
There are all sorts of things you can read about making your hair grow thicker and even faster. The reality is that there's no quick fix to hair growth concerns, and a majority of hair growth techniques do not deliver the results they claim.
Most hair growth vitamins only help if you're low in that vitamin to begin with. Biotin is a good example: there's no good evidence it helps hair grow in people who aren't short on it, and extra biotin can throw off some blood test results.
Goat milk won't grow stronger hair, because the hair you can see has already grown. What it can do is protect the hair you have. Its fat and protein coat your hair strands, so they rub against each other less when you comb and style, and less rubbing means less breakage.
4. Help Make the Hair Soft and Easily Manageable
Goat milk contains natural saturated and unsaturated fats, about 10 grams in a cup, which act as natural hair conditioners. Goat milk can also be mixed with other ingredients to make deep conditioners that leave the hair glowing.
This is the benefit you'll actually notice. Expect softer, more manageable hair that's easier to detangle on the day you use it. The effect washes out with your next shampoo, so if you like it, use it again on your next wash day.
Does Goat Milk Penetrate the Hair Shaft?
Not really. Goat milk is mostly water, about 87%, and the water does soak into your hair, the way any water does. That hydration doesn't last, though, because the water dries out of your hair. And the protein and fat in milk mostly stay on the outside of your hair strands, where they work like a conditioner and rinse away with your next wash.
Here's why. Only small molecules can slip inside a hair strand. Coconut oil can, because its main fat is small and straight. In a lab study on very curly hair, small broken-down proteins (the hydrolyzed proteins you see on conditioner labels) got deep inside the strand, but the largest ones stayed on the surface. Milk proteins are whole proteins, many times larger than the pieces that got in, so they stay on the outside too.
The complex answer is that milk contains fat molecules and proteins. Goat milk does have some of the same fatty acids as coconut oil, including lauric acid, but only in small amounts. Most of its fat is made of longer fatty acids, and there are only about 4 grams of fat in every 100 grams of milk, so it doesn't behave like a coconut oil treatment.
Additionally, goat milk contains amino acids and caprylic acid, a type of fat. You may also see goat milk praised for its lactic acid, an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) that's used in skin peels. Fresh milk isn't sour, though, and a rinse-out conditioner isn't a peel, so don't expect it to exfoliate your scalp.
So, think of goat milk as a conditioner, not a treatment that rebuilds your hair from the inside. If your hair feels soft after a goat milk wash day, that's the coating doing its job, and it'll wash out.
How to Use Goat Milk for Hair?
The best way to use goat milk on your hair is as a rinse-out conditioner after you shampoo. You can also mix it with other natural ingredients and essential oils to make a mask, or use it in a homemade soap bar. Drinking goat milk adds protein, calcium, and riboflavin to your diet, but it only helps your hair if your diet was short on those to begin with.
If you'd like softer, easier-to-detangle hair, below are a goat milk conditioner and a goat milk shampoo bar you can try.
Goat's Milk Conditioner Recipe
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup of goat milk
- ½ tablespoon of jojoba oil (organic)
- ½ tablespoon of olive, grapeseed, or avocado oil (feel free to use any of your favorite carrier oils).
- 1 full dropper of rosemary oil. You can also use tea tree oil or eucalyptus oil.
- One-half tablespoon of organic honey
- One-half teaspoon of guar gum
Directions:
- Use pasteurized goat milk, the kind sold in stores, since raw milk can carry harmful bacteria. Warm the goat milk to room temperature, then add all the ingredients (in no particular order).
- Stir the mixture for 15 to 20 minutes until you get a fine consistency.
- Wash your hair and scalp with a mild shampoo and rinse it off.
- Apply the goat's milk conditioner to your hair and spread it evenly.
- Run a wide-tooth comb or your fingers through the ends of your hair.
- Leave it on for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Rinse it out well, then style your hair as usual.
Note: Do not use the conditioner on your scalp, as this will make the hair roots oilier. The work of the conditioner is to hydrate your hair, not the scalp, and it should be applied somewhere from the mid to the end of your strands.
How Long Does Homemade Goat Milk Hair Care Keep?
It doesn't keep. Make only what you'll use that day, and throw out any leftovers. This conditioner has no preservative, and milk is just the kind of food bacteria grow in, so it won't keep, even in the fridge. If it smells sour, don't use it.
Goat Milk Shampoo Bars (or Goat Milk Soap)
If you want to add something new to your usual hair care routine, you can try a goat milk shampoo bar. It's a true soap, made by mixing oils with lye (sodium hydroxide), a strong chemical that turns the oils into soap. Castile soap is made the same way.
How It Works on Curly Hair
Goat milk soap cleans curly hair well, but like all true soaps, it's alkaline, with a pH of about 8.5 to 11. (pH measures how acidic or alkaline something is, and your scalp sits around 5.5.) Alkaline washes leave more static charge on your hair, so your strands rub against each other more. That rubbing is the main cause of frizz, and over time, it can lead to breakage. So, if you have curls, follow this bar with a rinse-out conditioner every time.
Ingredients:
- 8 ounces (227 grams) of frozen goat's milk, approximately 1 cup of milk
- 0.5 ounces (14 grams) of distilled water
- 4 ounces (113 grams) of sodium hydroxide
- 10.5 ounces (298 grams) of coconut oil or olive oil
- 4 ounces (113 grams) of castor oil
- 7.5 ounces (213 grams) of coconut oil
- 3 ounces (85 grams) of sunflower or sweet almond oil
- 3 ounces (85 grams) of mango or shea butter
- 1.2 ounces (35 grams) of lavender oil (You can also substitute lavender with your favorite essential oil.)
Tips: From the ingredients list, you'll first need to freeze the goat's milk and then weigh all the other ingredients. Where you'll need to make substitutions, always do proper research to make sure you are not impacting the quality of the end product.
If you are allergic to any ingredient, don't just swap in the same amount of another oil. Each oil needs a different amount of lye to turn into soap, so a swap can leave extra lye in your bars, and extra lye can burn your skin. Run any change through a lye calculator before you make the batch.
Directions:
- Put the frozen goat's milk and distilled water in a stainless bowl or heavy-duty plastic.
- Sprinkle a small amount of sodium hydroxide over the frozen milk as you stir after each addition.
- Melt shea butter and coconut oil before adding them to the bowl.
- Add the other oils and continue to stir for about 10 minutes.
- Using a stick or immersion blender, mix the soap until you achieve a thick consistency.
- Add essential oils, and then stir for the next 5 minutes.
- Put the soap into a mold and choose to either keep it at room temperature or inside a refrigerator for 24 hours.
Note: If keeping the mold at room temperature, cover it with a towel or wax paper, and keep checking to ensure it doesn't develop any cracks. If it starts to crack, move it to a cooler place.
For the refrigerated mold, move it back to room temperature after 24 hours, and allow it to cool for another 24 to 48 hours before unmolding. You are then ready to slice the soap into bars. Let the bars cure before you use them, and follow the cure time given in a tested soap recipe.
Once you've cut the bar into sizable pieces, you can then use this homemade goat milk shampoo bar instead of commercial shampoo. It'll clean your hair and scalp well, but it won't feed your scalp or make your hair stronger.
If you have curls, look for a pH-balanced shampoo bar if this one leaves your hair rough or tangly after a few washes. And if you have dandruff, a rash, or eczema on your scalp, skip goat milk soap and use a dandruff shampoo or see a dermatologist instead.
Put on your protective eyewear and gloves while preparing this shampoo soap since sodium hydroxide is a potentially dangerous substance. Keep children and pets out of the room while you work.
If you get lye on your skin or in your eyes, flush it with lots of running water for at least 15 minutes, then get medical help right away, since it can cause severe burns. In the U.S., you can call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.
Who Should Skip Goat Milk?
Skip goat milk, in your hair and on your skin, if you're allergic to cow's milk. The proteins in the two milks are so alike that most people who react to one react to the other. In one study of 26 children with a cow's milk allergy, 24 also reacted to goat milk.
Be careful if you have eczema, too. Skin with eczema lets proteins through more easily, and that can teach your body to become allergic to them. In one family, two brothers with eczema started reacting to a goat milk soap the family had used for about a year, and both later had allergic reactions to goat cheese that sent them to the emergency room.
If your scalp itches, turns red, or breaks out in hives after a goat milk treatment, rinse it out and don't use it again. Trouble breathing or swelling of your lips, tongue, or face is an emergency, so call 911.
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Goat milk is a nutritious drink for most people, and it's also an excellent addition to other natural hair care products for DIY recipes.
Used as a rinse-out conditioner, goat milk can leave all hair types, from 2A waves to 4C coils, softer and easier to detangle. Just mix it fresh, rinse it out, and keep your expectations in line with what milk can do: it conditions the hair you have, but it won't make your hair grow.
