Why your Hair isn’t Growing
Hey there beautiful🤗
Today I’ll be sharing some hot tips to let you understand why your hair ‘isn’t growing.’
Please endeavour to read till the end and yeah try to learn a thing or two. Or everything!
First things first, your hair is ALWAYS growing except you have a pre-existing medical condition in which case, I’ll advise you to save your money and see a trichologist but, you most likely don’t so Yes! Your hair is always growing.
Now, I’m sure you’re probably thinking, ‘What is this bold faced lie? If my hair is always growing then why am I stuck at the same hair length? Why does someone who started growing her hair after me have longer hair?’ to this, I’ll say what I said in my previous article, ‘Calm down’
Yes! Your hair is Always growing.
She grows in a continuous cycle of phases from Anagen to Catagen to Telogen then Anagen again. See the diagram below.
I won’t bore you with the science today so don’t think too much on it instead, let’s focus on the crux of today’s conversation.
If your hair is always growing, then why can’t you see the effect of this continuous growth in terms of longer hair? It’s simply because you’re not retaining this length as Longer hair is achieved as a result of stimulated scalp growth and retained length.
What this means in simplified terms is your priority should be figuring out how to prevent your hair from excessive shedding and breakage so the previous growth you got a month before won’t have disappeared before the growth of this month is added to it. Make sense? I hope!
Now that we’ve established the fact that contrary to what you’ve assumed and concluded about your hair, She is always growing, it’s time to figure out how to retain her length so you can visibly see longer hair!
TIPS TO AID AND IMPROVE LENGTH RETENTION.
Effective Moisture.
This is extra important. Moisture prevents frizz, breakage and basically helps your hair thrive. Plus combing your hair dry is recipe for breakage. Same as combing it wet which is why the term ‘Effective Moisture’ comes to play.
See the diagram below to see the difference between dry and moisturised natural hair.
Now depending on your hairs ‘porosity’ it’s important to consistently moisturize your hair using either LOC or LCO where L stands for Liquid and/or Leave-in Conditioner, O stands for Oil and C stands for Cream.
Limited or No Exposure to Direct Heat.
Exposing your hair to direct heat like hair straighteners, curling combs, hot irons or tongs will most definitely reduce your chances of retaining length to less than zero because direct heat can permanently break the disulfide bonds within hair strands so please endeavor to use a good heat protectant if you must straighten or curl your hair with heat.
Not Undergoing Chemical Treatments
Treatments such as permanently dying your natural hair and/or bleaching your natural hair are extremely detrimental to your hairs health and will most definitely be a catalyst for the hair problem called stagnant, stunted or redundant hair growth because it lifts your hair cuticle causing permanent damage.
So please, be warned.
Regularly Trimming Your ends.
This is actually really important seeing as the ends of your hair are the weakest and oldest part of your hair and are the part most prone to breakage so it is important to trim your ends regularly at least twice a year to prevent them splitting and or breaking.
Washday Consistency
This is golden rule. Thou shall not skip Washday except extremely necessary.
This is the opportunity to replenish your hair with lost nutrients inclusive of intensive moisture and protein as well as other micro and macro nutrients.
Washdays should be done weekly or bi-weekly depending on the amount of manipulation your hair can handle (tensile strength and strand diameter) as well as your schedule (this is why you need to consult a professional).
Protective Styling
A protective style is any hairstyle that relieves pressure from your roots and ensures that your ends are tucked it. They are usually low manipulation hairstyles that do not require regular touch ups. Any other style is destructive and should not be done on your hair.
Examples of these protective styles are;
Gentle Detangling.
I understand that most of you can’t relate to this because detangling is almost always a war between you and your hair which results in a ton of broken hair strands on the floor, on your shirt, in your combs (etc). So I’ll say this, the key to gentle detangling is getting a detangling product with great slip(mucillage) and also using the right detangling tool which can either be your fingers, a wide toothed comb, a denman brush or any tool recommended by your in-house Naturalista.
Proper detangling with the right tools and products can help save a lot of hair from breakage and help in retaining length.
Caring for your Ends/Tips
Looking at the hair shaft the pointed part is referred to as your ends/tips and they’re the weakest and frailest part of your hair cause they’re the oldest so it’s very important to show them extra care and love.
When unraveling you’re twists, be careful loosening your ends, when combing them, be extra gentle. When Moisturising, double seal your ends.
Incorporate protein into your hairs diet!
This is really important because hair is a waste product made from Keratin. And so Protein is really important in maintaining your hairs structure as well as strengthening your hair strands.
Healthy hair is characterized by elasticity which is simply the ability of your hair strand to stretch out and shrink back and basically have a healthy bounce which only be achieved with a healthy combination of moisture and protein.
Sleeping in a Silk bonnet.
This helps to prevent split ends and breakage because placing your moisturized hair on cotton or polyester sheets will result in the transfer of all the sealed moisture on your hair onto your sheets and as a result, your hair will end up dry and frizzy.
And you’ll have wasted your time and product and money. So please endeavor to get a Satin/Silk bonnet or durag or pillowcase and sheets because they’re super important and helpful to your growth journey.
So there you have it Queens! Ten sure fire ways to retain your hairs length to enable you visibly see the growth you worked so hard to attain.
I hope you enjoyed reading this. Till next time. xoxo, The Naturalista.
