1. Protect Your Ends
Never blow dry or use hot tools on your hair without applying a heat protecting serum first. Heat first sucks out moisture, then can burn the hair, causing it to break off. If you apply a serum, your natural moisture stays locked in and only excess serum will burn off. Also use low heat settings on your dryer. It’s better to take an extra ten minutes drying your hair then it take an extra 10 months to achieve your desired length.
2. Cut Down on Shampooing
I would recommend that no one should wash their hair more than 3 times a week. I know this gets tricky for super active girls. This doesn’t mean don’t get it wet; go ahead and rinse well and then condition the ends. The point of not shampooing everyday is so you don’t strip out the natural oils that keep your hair from getting dry and breaking.
3. Brush Your Hair Every Night
Remember Marcia Brady? “100 brushes every night!” This practice goes hand and hand with not washing. Natural oils accumulate at the root of your hair and make you feel the need to shampoo. Using a natural bristle brush, (I suggest a Mason Pierson; spendy, but worth it in the long run) brush from the scalp to the ends, distributing all the oils at the scalp down to your dry ends. This helps make your roots less oily, your ends less dry and less likely to break or split. An added bonus is that this is a very relaxing ritual before bed, especially if you’re lucky enough to have someone do it for you!
4. Treat Your Hair
Once a week give your hair a deep treatment. There are so many different types of hair and hair treatments, but if your goal is to grow, the biggest thing to remember is moisture at the ends! If the ends don’t break, the hair gets longer. Notice that even if your hair is fried, you still need to get your roots touched up? Your hair never stops growing, but if the ends are breaking it will stop getting longer. I like to use a nice oil, such as jojoba, almond, or coconut oil. After shampooing, towel try and apply oil, mid shaft to ends. Twist hair up in a sleek bun or braid if you’re headed to work, or do the treatment before bed and rinse out in the morning. Even left in for just an hour makes a huge difference to your ends.
5. Put Away the Scissors
The number one way to help your hair grow fast is, DON'T CUT IT! So many people think they need to get regular 4-6 week trims even when they are trying to grow their hair long. Trimming is only needed if you have extremely split ends that keep breaking further and further up the hair shaft. My advice is, get a good initial shaping so that the hair falls nicely as it grows. After that, only trim when you see several split ends. Practice the other four tips and you won’t even need to trim because there won’t be any splits!
