Hair Growth and Length Retention!

My hair would not grow. My hair doesn’t grow. My hair has stayed at the same length forever. It’s not uncommon to hear people make these complaints over and over. The problem is not with growth but with length retention. The fact that you are relaxed and you have to go for a relaxer touch up or the fact that you can see undergrowth in your braids or weaves or the fact that you have no disease or illness that has stunted your growth means, YOUR HAIR IS GROWING. The problem is with retaining the old length. That is holding on to or keeping your length and adding to it the “new growth”.

There are many reasons why we don’t retain length but the main cause is man handling the ends of your hair. The ends of your hair are the oldest and the most fragile. They require some TLC (Tender Loving Care). I’ll direct you on how you can retain your old length and gain new lengths. Just keep reading.

• ·         Keep Your Hair Moisturized- Hair lacking in moisture tends to be very brittle and brittle equals BREAKAGE. By keeping the hair moisturized the strands become more elastic and less prone to breakage. Less breakage means you get to hold on to your old lengths and that is a great thing if you ask me. :)

• ·         Avoid Over Manipulation- Over manipulation of the hair by combing too often; getting extensions constantly without giving your hair a break; getting braids too tight you name it, weakens hair strands and eventually causes the ends to break off. The ends are fragile and get stressed easily by these practices. Avoid over handling the hair if you want to hold on to your ends. Go for low manipulation styles like braids, buns, weaves, cornrows, curly styles.

Curly style that doesn't require combing. Good way to avoid manipulating too often. Flexi-rod set. (left)

Curly style converted to a curly pony tail a week after. Still low manipulation. (right)

• ·         Protect your ends by keeping it tucked in most of the time. The environment can be an enemy to your ends and so by tucking it in or hiding it, you protect it from external factors like wind, and other unfriendly textures that might come in contact with the hair. Even the fabric of your shirt could be an unfriendly external factor to your ends. Use buns, fold ups, wraps, braids and weaves to hide your ends.
   
  Protecting my ends with a teenie weenie bun. :)
  
  

• ·         Trim off splits and damaged ends. Holding on to damaged ends do no good for anyone. If split ends are not trimmed or gotten rid of. The split travels up the strands and it ends up in more damage. Keep your ends healthy and retain the healthy ends.

• ·         Finally, do not trim too often. Let me explain why. If your ends are not damaged do not trim. On average hair grows ½ - 1 inch per month. By trimming monthly or too often, you do not gain any length because the new growth replaces the trimmed ends and then you are stuck at the same length forever. If you feel the need to trim every time you relax, you should consider stretching relaxer often.  And if your stylist or hairdresser is scissor happy you should start rehearsing how to tell her NO when she pulls out the scissors J

Happy hair retention! Stay AWESOME!