1. Eat more protein!
Your hair is made of protein and so when you don't get enough of it your body stops giving your hair any, therefore slowing down growth. Protein is found in eggs, chicken, red meat, beans and a lot of other foods.
2. Drink lots of water!
This helps keep your hair healthy. If your hair is not healthy and hydrated then it gets dry causing split ends and breaking off of the ends of your hair. When the ends of your hair constantly break off it can't grow at it's full speed.
3. Get hair trimmed every 6-8 weeks.
Although you might feel like this slows the growth it doesn't! It is better to cut off all the dead ends sooner than later. Because eventually the split ends travel up your hair and the higher up they go the shorter you'll have to cut it. And again you don't want split ends because they break off and cause hair to grow slower.
4. Protect hair from heat.
This can be done various ways. For one eliminating all heat tools on your hair is probably the best, but if you must use a heat tool use heat protectant and LET IT DRY before applying heat to your hair. You can find all sorts of hair tutorials not involving heat on youtube or on my blog (see other posts). Also using protectant spray before going out into the hot sun is useful. It's also good to not have your shower too hot (difficult I know). The purpose for this again is to reduce split ends.
5. Keep your hair moisturized!
Again this can be done different ways, like using a deep conditioner about once a week. Using a hair mask once a month (approximately depending on amount of damage). Also being sure to always use normal conditioner is helpful. Moisture in hair is healthy hair, and healthy hair is faster growing hair.
6. Protect from chlorine!
Okay, okay, wearing a swim cap IS dorky. But there are ways you can reduce chlorine damage without the swim cap. Try rinsing out your hair with fresh water before entering a pool, and applying spray-in conditioner to help your hair not to absorb so much chlorine. Chlorine can be very damaging for hair!
7. Get more natural products!
The more natural the better. All these chemicals in the hair products we use can be very handy for our hair but also very harmful. If you can get natural shampoos and conditioners, oils are very good for this. I used Moroccan hair oil shampoo and conditioner for a long time, my hair was so much healthier!
8. Don't stress it!
Reducing stress and increasing sleep can help with hair growth. A lot of times if you are not sleeping well or are very stressed or not eating right, hair can start to fall out and break. So keep your entire body physically and mentally happy to increase the time in which your hair grows. If you struggle with stress/depression/eating disorders see if you can do something about it. Anything from listening to music on your bed, seeing a counselor or doing yoga can help your stress level decrease. Whatever works for you!
9. Do not wash your hair daily!
This will end up drying your hair out. As you have read in former tips, this is not good for your hair. So to keep your hair moist and healthy try avoiding washing hair daily. Dry shampoo or baby powder can really help with being able to go 2 days without washing your hair.
10. Avoid dying and bleaching your hair.
This involves a lot of chemicals and is not natural at all and can fry your hair completely if involving bleach. So do your best not to dye or bleach your hair. Because as I have mentioned lots, dry hair is unhealthy and will decrease the speed in which your hair grows.
Hope you found this helpful! Good luck with growing your long hair!
Feel free to e-mail me with questions or suggestions for future posts:
damagebegone@hotmail.com
-Ashley
