How to help your locks look beautiful, long, and healthy ♥
Hi loves! I'm sure all of you Beautylisher's have seen my piccies of my hair going from medium/short to pretty long.
I'm constantly asked about it, and I do have a post on what treatment I use most but here I'm going to go into more detail about making your hair strong, beautiful and healthy.
First off, understand you cannot change the speed of your hair growth. Obviously, by using heat styling all the time and chemicals won't make it grow at all, but let's put it this way. ( Hypothetically to give an example ) You can run maximum 40 mph, but if you don't take care of your body, run every so often, you will obviously not be able to run as fast. The maximum speed that you run is 40 mph, so obviously you can't go any faster but - you can go slower by not maintaining your health.
This is how your hair works. You can't make it grow any faster than what your body can make it grow, but by mistreating it - it will fall off, get dry, brittle, and not grow as well.
Secondly, stronger hair means less breakage, which means you can see that your hair is growing. That is not the same thing as 'omg my hair is growing faster'. I'm pretty sure if you mistreated it and it fell off and you kept mistreating it - that it won't grow 'omg so fast'.
Thirdly, your hair length is determined by genetics. Have you seen how some ladies have longer lashes? Same rule applies to your hair. So don't get stressed out if it doesn't grow to the floor.
And may I also add that short, beautiful, healthy hair is way more appealing than long, damaged hair.
Since you can't make your hair grow faster, don't fall into any bogus special pills that may sicken you that promise to make your hair grow faster.
To begin with, you want to do is stimulate hair growth and encourage the strength and health of your hair.
To help you out, here are some bogus answers that many fall victim to and why they should be avoided.
Mane n' tail shampoo/conditioner is not PH balanced for human hair or scalp, over time it begins to dry out your hair and make it brittle (scientifically, and speaking from personal experience with this one.)
The reason people claim Mane n' tail makes your hair grow is because of the heavy amount of wax in it. The wax present in Mane N' tail simply weighs down your hair and this wax can actually cause flakes. The wax in Mane n' tail is the reason for dullness, and dryness that it can cause. The wax builds up on your hair and overtime causes that side effect. In other words, Mane n Tail is as effective as lard.
Do NOT Take Biotin WITHOUT CONSULTING A DOCTOR!!!! I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!
Biotin is initially meant for those who have a biotin deficiency or a related illness. Taking biotin is not needed as you get enough from your own intake of food.
Biotin can also yield nasty side effects. There are too many horror stories of those who failed to yield the warning. Some symptoms include high fever, vomiting throughout the day, mild to severe acne.. some as odd as getting acne on your legs.
Biotin is also NOT approved by the FDA. There are foods that contain Biotin already (Peanut butter is a good example.) It is better to look up foods rich in Biotin. And believe it or not, you can make your own Biotin rich smoothie. (A yummy smoothie just for hair growth and no side effects vs a pill not approved by our own sketchy government is enough say for me at least.)
A recipe for a Biotin rich smoothie - courtesy of Luxy Hair
The 'inversion' method.
Aka weighing down your hair with oils, and then putting yourself in harms way by hanging upside down.
No, your hair will not grow that fast in 5 days. If it sounds too good it probably is. The reason that it looks like it has grown is because oils are basically weighing down your hair. The whole idea of hanging upside down isn't a good idea either. And what happens by hanging upside down is just blood flow & circulation to the head - which you can achieve by massaging your scalp and exercising. A girl argued with me that ' It's good do bend over for 5 minutes upside because doctors do it for back pain'.
Let me clarify this; my dad has about 6-7 herniated disks. What a doctor makes you do is stand up completely straight on some kind of a thick mat. You are strapped down accordingly, and he slowly turns you upside down for a period of time. You are up straight the entire time, not bent over or in some awkward position. I'm pretty sure if you could just bend over to relieve the back pain, a doctor wouldn't put my dad on a $350.00 machine to turn him straight upside down.
Following a healthy diet is essential for hair growth. Take proteins into consideration. Your hair is made up of Keratin which is a protein.
Your body needs to produce more amino acids to increase hair growth. Proteins can come from eggs, nuts, beans, fish, etc.
Check with your doctor to make sure you don't have any deficiencies. Iron and zinc play a big component in hair growth as well as nail growth. Cereal, breads, pastas, have a healthy level of iron and zinc.
Make sure you take enough vitamin C as well ( Lack of such vitamin can cause dry, dull, and weakened hair... Citrus fruits, strawberries, guava, broccoli, kale, peppers, etc.have a good amount of Vitamin C. )
Consume healthy fats such as unsaturated fats and fatty acids such as omega-3's. Fats are indispensable to hair growth.
Exercising, scalp massages, and avoiding stress. Exercising and massaging your scalp allows blood to flow to your head, and massaging your hair stimulates new hair growth (for at least 5 minutes when you wash your hair or apply a product, massage your scalp.)
Stress causes hair to fall out so avoid stress if you can.
Hair masks and treatments are a must. Stick to treatments involving Coconut oil. Coconut Oil stimulates hair growth because it penetrates deep into your hair follicles ( and is considered protein. )
Oils work great for hair, for maximum benefits heat them up indirectly. ( Heat up a cup of water in your microwave for two minutes, and in a separate enclosed container with your hair masks, place it in the cup of water to heat it indirectly. )
Avoid heat if you can.
You don't need to get a haircut every x number of months, that just causes it to stay at the same length.
I once had a hair stylist tell me 'You need to have it cut every 3 weeks'. That's not even a full cycle, and just sounds like a scheme to get me to spend money. ( A simple hair cut because my hair is 'curly and very long' is about $60.00 )
Get a cut if you really need to ( dead ends, split ends, etc ), cutting hair won't just randomly make it grow twice as fast.
You can wash your hair everyday, it's shampooing you want to stray from because it's very stripping. Shampoo your scalp ONLY.
Don't rinse out all of your conditioner. This helps immensely and when you wash your hair again it will be de-tangled. Stick to moisturizing your hair 100%.
Try to brush your hair outside of the shower with a wide tooth comb. There's also a wet brush meant for wet hair. I find my regular brush to work just as well, but my hair does not get knotted at all so it won't make a difference if I were to use one. Your best bet are your fingers and some conditioner.
And remember... overall health does contribute to your hair!
Extras: My hair care rountine
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