When it comes to our hair, our edges are the crown jewel. Despite how we choose to wear our tresses—natural, relaxed, or protected—we always seem to go to great lengths to keep them flourishing, even if it involves using rather questionable products.
While there’s a whole host of hair products, including shampoos and oils, that promise to help our hair flourish it seems like members of the YouTube natural hair community opt for solutions that make us say, WTH?!?
Recently, we shared how some women are singing the high praises of Vicks Vaporub’s ability to stimulate hair growth. Well, Monistat 7 is another growth stimulator women in our community have been usuing for years. Yes, you read that right! The anti-fungal cream known for relieving burning and itching down there is now being applied directly to the hairline and scalp to help it grow.
Miconazole nitrate, the active ingredient in Monistat, is what many are attributing to their hair growth. A quick search on YouTube for ‘Monistat hair growth’ and thousands of videos populate, with some dating as far back as 2012. So while this is not a new phenomenon, some Black women still can’t get enough of this trick.
Deja Good is one such beauty vlogger. Deja attributes her natural hair growth to coochie cream. In one video, she enthusiastically shares how Monistat 7 mixed with olive oil helped her hair grow from pixie length to her shoulder-length.
“I used Monistat 7 on my hair mixed with olive oil in my scalp every single night,” she shares. “Since it’s a yeast infection product putting it in your hair basically cleans your scalp. It’s an anti-fungal so you take out all dirty parts of your hair.”
While there have yet to be any clinical trials to back up these claims, a study by NCBI did found that ketoconazole, a similar anti-fungal medicine, did help regrow the hair of patients suffering with alopecia. “Hair density and size and proportion of follicles were improved by KCZ,” the study found.
In a 2013 video, vlogger Brittany does warn that directly applying Monistat 7 on the scalp may potentially cause headaches and reccomends diluting it with water so it’s not as concentrated.
Warnings like that always make us a little leary to try a beauty trend, especially on our hair. However, there’s no denying that Monistat 7 as a growth stimulator has stood the test among the YouTube community, no easy feat in a beauty world that’s extremely fickle.
Have you ever tried it?