How To Grow Long And Healthy Hair
Do you want long and healthy hair? Does it feel like no matter what you do, your hair doesn’t seem to get any longer?
One of the most frequent statements I hear from new clients is “My hair has stopped growing!” Well I’m sorry but that’s just not true. If it is then tell me your secret so I don’t have to touch up my re-growth every month!
Trust me, your hair most definitely is still growing. More than likely the problem is that it is simultaneously breaking off at the ends. Keep reading for tips to grow long and healthy hair.
The 3 main tips to grow long and healthy hair
- Regular haircuts and trims
- Taking exceptional care of your hair at home
- Use quality products on a daily basis
1. Get regular haircuts and trims
I know it may be hard to understand that if you want your hair to grow you need to cut it. But whether you’re trying to grow length or just get healthy hair in general, one of the most important tips to maintaining healthy hair is getting regular haircuts and trims.
Cutting off the split ends or damaged pieces will stop the breakage from traveling up the hair strand.
It’s very important to cut off EVERYTHING that is broken so that it will grow evenly and not continue to split. If you don’t take enough off, then it’s still going to keep breaking off at the bottom and you will continue to lose length as your hair grows.
I recommend beginning with a good healthy haircut where your stylist will take off whatever is needed/damaged. It is probably much more than you want to take off, but trust me it is NECESSARY.
After this initial cut, you can then come in every 4-8 weeks for what I like to call a “pretend” haircut to maintain healthy hair and avoid having to do a hefty haircut again!
A “pretend haircut” is when you come in with CLEAN and STRAIGHT hair so that your stylist can cut your hair dry and take off a very minimal amount. You cannot get a “pretend” haircut if you have damaged hair and lots of breakage on your ends.
You’ll need to start with a good hefty cut, and then the “pretend” cut is for maintenance only. I go more in depth on haircuts and how often to get them in this post.
2. Take exceptional care of your hair
Now for how YOU take care of your hair. This is the most important aspect of attaining healthy hair. Especially when growing out your hair, you need to be sure you are doing everything in your power to keep it in the best condition possible!
***Since I’m sharing the hair products that I love to use with you guys, my posts may include affiliate links to these products. If you take action and purchase a product through clicking one of my links, I’ll make some commission money from it at no extra cost to you. This enables me to be able to continue giving you awesome hair tips, so thanks! ***
How often should I wash my hair to make it grow faster?
As I mention in another post, you should try to avoid washing it everyday to maintain healthy hair. I typically go 7-10 days without washing or even getting my hair wet. The most I’ve ever gone was 15 days and I’m incredibly proud of that.
If you haven’t already, I recommend picking up some dry shampoo. It is seriously life changing! You can read more here about the benefits of dry shampoo if you aren’t sure if it’s for you or not.
Keep in mind that avoiding washing your hair everyday does not actually make it grow any faster. Shampooing your hair and the actual rate of hair growth does not make a difference.
Skipping shampoos simply avoids drying your hair out, which will keep your hair healthier and not breaking off at the ends.
Avoid using heat tools to keep your hair healthy
When you are growing out your hair, you should do your best to avoid using heat on it. If you blow-dry and iron every single day, I can guarantee that you have breakage. To maintain long and healthy hair, it is best to avoid using heat on it as much as possible.
When you plan on curling it, I recommend letting it air dry and using a good thermal protectant. There’s no reason to blow-dry it smooth if you are just going to curl it anyways.
Another tip to point out, TURN THE TEMP DOWN. This is so important! I see so much breakage on my clients mainly due to the temp on your irons being too high. Stop frying your hair!
I get further into irons and what temperatures to use for certain hair types in this post. Using a high temp on your iron will 100% cause breakage and it will also fade your hair color immediately.
My final tip to avoid heat is to get creative with a cute braid. Braids can leave you with waves when done on damp or even dry hair before bed; I like to call these “heatless waves”.
Let your hair dry 90-100% of the way, put it into 2 french braids, and finish with a texture spray when you take the braids out hours later or the next day.
I wear braids for an entire day, and then the next several days I wear it waved from the braids until I shampoo again. I just braid it again each night before bed. Just make sure you brush your hair out BEFORE you put the braids in, and not after. Otherwise you’ll look like you stuck your finger in an electrical outlet!
Proper brushing for healthy hair
When brushing your hair, start at the bottom and begin to detangle slowwllyy. I go over how to brush your hair the RIGHT way and list my favorite brushes here. And yes there are definitely very wrong ways to brush your hair.
Use a good quality brush and be very gentle. Remember that your hair is much more fragile when it’s wet, so never rip or aggressively brush it. Those rip sounds that it makes is your hair breaking!
To see my demonstration of the proper way to brush your hair, see my YouTube Short here.
Be careful with towels to avoid breakage
A tip that isn’t as well known is to not aggressively rub your hair with a towel. Blot the hair dry, and if you want to tie it into a turban use a small hair towel, NOT a big bath towel.
The bigger the towel the heavier it is, which is putting more pressure on your hair especially at your hairline where the hair is already more fragile.
Microfiber towels are best; just make sure that you don’t feel any tension anywhere that the towel could be tugging at the hair.
Protect your hair during summer
The summer months can be damaging to our hair. I have made an entire blog post on this topic, and you can find that here.
The sun, tanning beds, pools, and the ocean are all damaging to our hair. And wet hair in general is much more fragile than dry hair. Make sure that you are very gentle with your hair when it’s wet, keep it covered from the sun, and avoid getting it wet in the pool and ocean as much as possible.
If you do plan on getting it wet in the pool or ocean, wet your hair and soak it with conditioner beforehand. Do not rinse the conditioner out. Since your hair will have absorbed the conditioner, it won’t absorb as much chlorine or salt water.
Read the next section for the best hair products to use to maintain healthy hair.
3. Use quality products to keep your hair healthy
Now I want to share with you some types of products that you should be using to have healthy hair, this is important. Here is an entire list of my favorite brands and certain recommendations.
There are many great brands out there to choose from, and I’m not saying just because I haven’t listed a brand here doesn’t mean it’s not good. My concern is whatever you do, DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT use cheap drug-store brand products.
Some of these products can do more damage than good by coating the hair with plastics and waxes that give you the illusion of shiny healthy hair. They’re also diluted so you need to use more of them than the professional brands. Always use professional grade products (Sally’s is NOT professional).
I recommend using a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner. You can find my favorite hydrating shampoo and conditioner here, but I’ll settle for anything as long as it is professional.
Following the shampoo and conditioner, you should be doing conditioning treatments or masks at least once a week (not with mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, or coconut oil either). Olaplex no. 3 is my favorite once a week treatment for strengthening and maintaining healthy hair.
After the shower use a leave-in conditioner, and if you must blow dry, use a serum for heat protection. Before you iron, use a second thermal heat protector specifically for use before ironing (yes not one, but TWO heat protectors).
Home remedies for healthy hair, or not?
I am typically always against home remedies for hair care because they just don’t have the chemical properties to restore the health of your hair. They can help to smooth down the cuticle (outer layer of the hair strand) but they do not chemically repair broken bonds.
Although, there is one home remedy that I will stand behind. Hair is made up of a protein called keratin. When your hair is damaged or depleted, it needs protein to regenerate the broken bonds.
You can use a whipped egg white as a protein treatment, as the protein helps repair the broken bonds. I do not recommend doing this if your hair is already healthy. This is good for damaged or over-processed and bleached hair.
I also don’t recommend doing this any more frequently than once a month because it is possible to over-keratinize your hair, which can make it feel very stiff and straw-like, or even break off.
Whip a few egg whites up until they turn to foam, apply to your hair, and let sit for 10 minutes before shampooing and conditioning out. Check out my how-to video for an egg conditioning treatment!
I have healthy hair, and it still won’t grow!
It is actually possible that your hair has reached its maximum length and won’t get any longer.
The average person looses 80 to 100 hairs a day, and each strand of hair is on a timeline of when and how it grows. When it reaches the end of its cycle, the hair falls out and is replaced with another.
Some people are able to grow hair to their knees, while others don’t have the lifespan to pass bra strap or even shoulder length.
You can try some of the vitamins I mention in my post about thinning hair here to increase the length of time in the hair growth cycles.
But before you start assuming that your hair is at its longest length possible, try all of the above tips before giving up. They should be part of your everyday hair routine either way!
Healthy Hair Conclusion
More often than not, your hair isn’t growing any longer because it’s damaged and breaking off at the ends. In order for our hair to get longer, we need to make sure it’s healthy.
There are 3 main factors to consider when your goal is to grow long and healthy hair.
The first is to regularly trim your split ends. If the ends are damaged, you need to get all of the split pieces off to avoid breakage traveling up your hair strand.
The second factor is to take exceptional care of your hair at home. Five at-home tips are:
- Wash your hair less frequently
- Avoid using heat tools
- Practice gentle brushing techniques
- Be extra careful with wet hair and towel drying
- Protect your hair during summer
And the third factor is to use quality hair products. Cheap products contain cheap additives that dry out our hair and can cause damage and build-up. They don’t have the necessary ingredients to properly repair and moisturize your hair like higher quality lines do.
Remember that it takes time to heal your hair in order to grow it long and healthy. But if you’re doing all of the above and it still won’t grow, try taking biotin to increase your hair growth cycles. Not everyone has genes to grow extremely long hair. But if you follow all of the tips above you should be well on your way.
If you have any further questions for me on this topic, leave them for me in the comments. And as always, Have A Good Hair Day!
Last updated 10/23/2023
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