How to Grow Your Natural Hair Long – Tips

After months of transitioning from relaxed to natural hair, you must be looking forward to seeing exactly how long your hair can get. Those ladies who have done the big chop are even more excited to grow their hair “from scratch” so to speak. While not every woman is crazy about having long hair, the fact is that having long hair is one of the things that most women crave for.

That is one of the reasons why some women install long extensions, weaves and wear wigs to cover up for their hair inadequacies and get that feeling of having long hair. There are a lot of cases of women suffering from traction alopecia because the many years of wearing weaves/sew-ins take a toll on their edges.

You can avoid all these by growing out your natural hair in a healthy way. I feel the need to give a disclaimer here; growing your natural hair long doesn’t happen overnight. It requires some patience.

Steps to Take to Ensure Natural Growth

Below are some steps you can take to make your natural hair grow out naturally.

Eat healthy foods

Eating healthy and nutritious meals is one way of growing your hair long. Some of the nutrients responsible for boosting hair growth include zinc, copper, protein, Omega 3 fatty acids, and vitamins E, B, D, A and C.

You can find these nutrients in some foods such as vegetables, almonds, carrots, chicken, beans, fatty fish, oysters, eggs, whole grains, mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes, and beans.

Also, remember to drink at least eight glasses of water each day.

Use the right hair products

If you want to see any kind of length increase in your hair, you must make sure that your hair is always moisturized. You need to know your hair porosity first so that you can have an idea of what kind of natural hair products to get.

Make sure you familiarize yourself with the LOC and LCO methods of moisturizing natural hair. They guide you on the process of layering hair products for maximum moisture retention.

Some particular hair products are designed specifically to encourage hair growth. Examples of such hair products are those that contained ingredients like protein, biotin, essential oils, oleic acid, folic acid, and vitamins A, D, C, and E.

Get rid of split ends

Split ends can be the reason your hair strands get weak and stop growing as they should.

So, it is essential that you trim off the split ends on your hair regularly. Although the idea of trimming your hair sounds like the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve, it is the best way to prevent hair breakage and encourage hair growth.

Use herbs

Herbs such as chebe, cassia, rosemary, fenugreek, and nettle are known to help in boosting hair growth. Applying any of these plants and herbs will nourish, thicken, strengthen and grow your hair in a matter of time.

Avoid frequent use of heat appliances

Exposing your hair regularly to direct heat in form of blow dryers, flat irons, steam straighteners or curling wands can damage your hair by weakening it or causing breakage. This prevents your natural hair from growing.

When you occasionally decide to use heat styling appliances, you should make sure that you always use a heat protectant to prevent any kind of heat damage from taking place.

Avoid the use of color and bleaching agents

Coloring and bleaching your hair can damage your hair from the roots and prevent it from growing. Both coloring and bleaching lift the hair cuticle, altering the mane in a way that it cannot completely go back to its original state.

According to Naturally Curly, bleaching is an irreversible process causes brittle dry strands and breakage. This is not what you want if you are length chasing.

Conclusion

Growing your hair longer is a gradual process, and it is a process that entails full dedication to the above pointers. If these pointers are adhered to, your hair growth is guaranteed for sure.

Although genetics plays a minor role in helping some people grow their hair longer, it may not always be the case. If for instance, someone who has the genetics advantage doesn’t moisturize their hair the proper way, regularly bleaches or colors their hair and doesn’t eat healthy food, their hair will still end weakening and worse still, break.