Hair loss and baldness (alopecia) is a fear in ancient times, if hair is a sign of status, youth or virility. First century AD Greek physician Dioscorides records natural medicines of plants or animal parts. Here are nine of Dioscorides' remedies for bald spots, hair loss and more.
Dioscorides is considered the Father of Pharmacognosy, the study of drugs obtained from medicinal plants, animals, fungi, and other natural sources. These might be in crude form needing refinement or mixed into specific preparation.
1. Pine (Pinus) Pitch
"Picinum is made from the watery matter of pitch which swims on top (like whey on milk that has been separated). This is taken away while boiling the pitch by laying clean wool over it which is made moist by the steam ascending up.
It is squeezed out into a jar and this is done for as long as the pitch is boiling. It is available for the same purposes as liquid pitch. Applied as a poultice with barley meal it restores hair fallen out from baldness. Liquid pitch also cures the same, and rubbed on them it cures boils and scabs on cattle."
Pine pitch is a major ingredient in turpentine production. In Europe, Scots pine is the primary producer. As a natural remedy turpentine is used for centuries. Extracting turpentine from pitch pine involves collecting resin from the tree, which is then distilled to obtain the essential oil.
2. Hedgehog (Erinaceus)
"The burnt skin of the earth hedgehog is good for alopecia (baldness) rubbed on with moist pitch. The dried flesh (taken in a drink with honey or vinegar and honey) helps inflamed kidneys, water under the skin, and those who have convulsions, elephantiasis or malnutrition.
It dries up discharges from the bowels and liver. Dried in a sun-dried clay jar, and stored, then given, it does as much good for the same things."
3. Common Reed (Arundo phragmites)
Thin, inclined to whiteness, known to all ... whose root, bruised, crumbled and applied either by itself or with bulbus, draws out splinters and thorns. It soothes limbs that are out of joint, and pains of the loins with vinegar.
Pounded green leaves can heal erysipela (skin infection) and inflammations. The bark, burned and applied with vinegar cures hair loss & baldness. The flowers of the reeds falling into the ears cause deafness. The harundo reed, called cypria, has similar effectiveness."
The leaves, roots, seeds, and stems of phragmites are edible. Young shoots can be cooked or eaten raw, similar to bamboo shoots. The young stems, when still green and fleshy, can be dried and crushed into a fine powder.
The hydrated powder can be roasted like marshmallows. Livestock graze on phragmites, controlling spread of the plant, thus providing humans with meat, milk, leather or wool. Reed mats and baskets are primary trade materials of Sumerian and other early delta civilizations.
4. Hippokampus - Sea Horse
"Hippocampus is a little living creature of the sea that is burnt and the ashes used either in goose grease, liquid pitch, or ointment amaracinum. Rubbed on it fills up bald spots with hair."
Today, seahorse populations are endangered as a result of overfishing and habitat loss. Consumption of seahorses is widespread in traditional Asian medicine, primarily in connection with impotence, wheezing, nocturnal enuresis, pain and labor induction.
Up to 20 million seahorses may be caught each year to be sold for such uses. A variation on snake wine in traditional medicine, seahorse wine is taken medicinally, originating in Vietnam.
5. Common Walnut, English Walnut (Juglans regia)
"(The nuts) are hard to digest when eaten, hurt the stomach, produce bile, breed headaches and are worthless for those who have a cough, but good to make one vomit if eaten while fasting. They are antidotes against poisons eaten before or after, or with figs and rue.
Eaten in a great quantity they expel broadworms. They are laid on inflamed breasts, suppurations and dislocations with a little honey and rue. With onions, salt and honey they are good for those bitten by dogs or bitten by men.
The putamen [seed vessels] burnt and pounded in oil and wine and rubbed on the heads of children is good to make the hair pleasing and fills up patches of baldness and hair loss. The kernel is burnt, pounded into small pieces, and applied with wine to stop the menstrual flow.
The kernels of old caryae chewed and applied as a poultice cure gangrene, carbuncles and baldness out of hand. Oil is made of them bruised and pressed out.
The green (younger ones) are sweeter and less hurtful to the stomach. As a result they are mixed with garlic to remove the tartness of it. They take away black and blue spots when applied."
In south Italy, Benevento is known for its tradition of stregoneria (the Old Religion). Witches are said to come from throughout Italy to hold sabbats near the revered walnut tree. From 1523 comes documentation of witches who venerate a goddess of an ancient walnut tree.
6. Hare (Lepus timidus or Lepus europaeus)
"The brain of a land hare (eaten roasted) is good for the trembling that comes from fear, as well as rubbed on or eaten for teething in children. The head burnt and rubbed on with bears’ grease or vinegar cures baldness. The curds taken in a drink three days after the menstrual are reported to cause sterility.
Likewise it stops excessive discharges of the womb and bowels. It helps those with falling sickness, and taken as a drink with vinegar it is good against poisons [antidote], especially for curdling of the milk [while breastfeeding], and for the bites of vipers. The blood rubbed on while warm cures sunspots, leprosy and freckles."
7. Karua Pontika (Nux pontica) - Hazelnut
"Also called leptocarya they are worthless for the stomach, yet pounded into small pieces and taken as a drink with honey and water they cure old coughs. Roasted and eaten with a little pepper they digest dripping fluids.
Burnt whole, pounded into small pieces with goose grease or bear grease, and rubbed on they restore hair that has fallen out from balding. Some say that the shells burnt and pounded into small pieces together with oil make the pupils of gray-eyed children black if the forepart of the head is moistened with it."
In Iran, unlike such nuts as pistachios and walnuts, hazelnuts are not usually consumed alone, but rather as one of the main components of ājil (assortment of nuts), whether fresh or roasted. Hazelnut roasting and consumption evidence is found dating to c. 6000 BCE in Scotland.
8. Bear Fat (Bear Grease)
"Bears’ fat is thought to make hair that was destroyed by hair loss grow again." Bear fat (bear grease) combined with skunk oil is also used to early New World traders to ward off the intense assaults of mosquitos and blackflies in Canada.
9. Goat Hooves
"The hooves of goats burnt and rubbed on with vinegar cure baldness." This recipe is also written using goat dung applied with honey and vinegar to the bald spot.
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