A tree from the north coast of New South Wales
Tea tree oil comes from the leaves of Melaleuca alternifolia, a small tree native to the north coast of New South Wales and south-east Queensland. The Bundjalung people of that country crushed its leaves to treat wounds and breathed in the vapour for coughs and colds. The English name is credited to Captain James Cook, whose crew brewed the leaves in place of tea.
In the 1920s the Australian chemist Arthur Penfold tested the oil and found it to be a powerful antiseptic. An industry grew from that discovery and Australian tea tree oil is now used around the world. One of its best studied uses is for the scalp.
What Dr Abdul Basit writes
Dr Abdul Basit Muhammad El Sayed, the Egyptian biochemist behind The Green Medicine, opens his book with the head and the hair. His first subject is dandruff. He describes it as small whitish flakes of dead scalp skin that bring itching and a burning feeling, most often the result of an oily inflammation of the scalp.
The pharmacy answers it with antifungal washes, cortisone and shampoos made with zinc, sulphur or salicylic acid. Among his green remedies he gives tea tree oil a clear role. The oil contains aromatic compounds called terpenes. He writes that they pass through the upper layers of the scalp and carry their action into the deeper layers, disinfecting the scalp as they go.
His method is simple. A few drops of the oil are mixed into two large spoonfuls of a good shampoo and worked into the head.
He pairs this with a few habits: let the hair see sunlight, wash the head regularly with water and avoid shampoos loaded with chemicals.
What modern research has found
The main trial was carried out in Sydney and published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology in 2002. Researchers gave 126 people with dandruff either a shampoo containing 5 percent tea tree oil or a placebo shampoo to use every day for four weeks. Dandruff severity fell by 41 percent in the tea tree group and by 11 percent in the placebo group. Itchiness and greasiness of the scalp improved as well. No serious side effects were reported.
Tea tree oil has also been tested against head lice, another scalp trouble Dr Abdul Basit covers in the same chapter. In a 2010 Australian trial of 123 children, a treatment of tea tree oil and lavender oil left 97.6 percent of them free of lice. A standard chemical head lice product cleared 25 percent.
How to use it
Dr Abdul Basit's method is close to the one tested in the trial: tea tree oil carried in shampoo. A few drops go into two large spoonfuls of shampoo. The lather is massaged into the scalp, left for a few minutes and rinsed out.
A sidr hair mask. Tea tree oil also pairs beautifully with sidr, the powdered leaf of the lote tree. When Qays ibn Asim embraced Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) told him to wash with water and sidr (Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi). The leaves are rich in natural saponins, gentle cleansers that lift excess oil from the scalp without stripping it. Mix two to three spoonfuls of sidr powder with warm water into a smooth paste, then stir in a few drops of tea tree oil. Spread it over the scalp, leave it for fifteen to twenty minutes and rinse well. The sidr lifts the oil and the tea tree soothes and cleanses the scalp beneath.
Tea tree oil is strong and a few rules keep it safe. It is for the skin only and must never be swallowed. It should always be diluted before it touches the scalp. Anyone using it for the first time should test a little of the diluted oil on the inner arm and wait a day. It should be kept away from the eyes and stored out of reach of children and pets.
From the bush to the bathroom shelf
A remedy that began with the native Bundjalung people of Australia found its way into an Egyptian biochemist's book of green medicine and into clinical trials. For an itchy, flaking scalp it is one of the simplest places to start: a few drops, a good shampoo and a little patience.
You can buy our Pure Australian Tea Tree Oil here.
References
- Dr Abdul Basit Muhammad El Sayed. The Green Medicine (al-Tibb al-Akhdar), Part One: Diseases of the Head, Chapter 1: Hair.
- Satchell AC et al. Treatment of dandruff with 5% tea tree oil shampoo. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 2002.
- Barker SC and Altman PM. A randomised, assessor blind, parallel group comparative efficacy trial of three products for the treatment of head lice in children. BMC Dermatology, 2010.