Share your growth tips?

[marymonster]

Could be anything!

Supplements? Scalp massage? Essential oils? Anything else?

I'm currently at shoulder length, and I'm getting really antsy! I know there are no miracle hair growth methods, and patience is what I mainly need to practice, but any tips you have would be awesome! I really want to get to arm pit length as soon as I can!

[Mommyof4]

My hair has fallen in love with white vinegar...

Crazy right?

After using everything from V05 to $40/bottle salon quality organic shampoo/conditioner; CO; SO; WO.

My hair was never "right"... whether it was my ends were too dry, my hair wasn't shiny, my scalp was unhappy while my hair was happy, etc.

I pour 2 cups vinegar mixed with 4 cups water into a pitcher while I'm in the shower, and rinse my hair with 3 pitchers full of warm water, and I don't do anything else. My wurls are curlier every day, and I can go 4 days without needing to wash again. Or, while I'm doing medical clinicals and around nasty germs, I'm showering daily, and my hair looks great and doesn't dry out.

After 2 years of looking for my routine, I've found it :)

Benign neglect, I don't even comb it unless I'm doing a style.

[meteor]

My best tip: patience and benign neglect. Hair grows slowly (even during growth spurts), so watching your hair grow is worse than watching water boil. Putting hair up is the best solution for benign neglect (you forget about length this way, and you help your hair by avoiding any physical damage when it's out of the way).

Of course, things like sulphur (e.g. in garlic, onion juice), peppermint, cayenne pepper and other stimulating concoctions are useful, but in my opinion, too much of a trouble, may be unpleasant and messy to apply... - so I'd only recommend them if your hair truly needs help, rather than when you are feeling impatient.
Castor oil is very helpful, but again - your hair will grow without it, too.

Enjoy the hair growth journey! :)

[dulce]

I found daily scalp massage,daily cardio plus a lean high protein diet[60 grms a day] helps me.

[MaryO]

I have tried everything I could lay my hands on to speed up growth and nothing has helped yet! It seems that ignoring your hair is the only way to go- patience and benign neglect...

[AnnaB]

Here is what has helped me :)

1. Have hair up as much as possible, 99% of the time. even when sleeping
2. stretch washes to once a week
3. invest in tangle teezer and bin all blushes
4. coconut oil and agran oil. Massage it into the hair, leave for couple of hours and then wash off
5. 'hair, skin and nails' suppliments, or just normal multi vits
6. eat as much protein through the day as possible. (eggs, cottage cheese, chicken etc)
7. don't use chemical dyes (use henna+indigo)
8. vinegar rinse after washing
9. drink lots of water
10. abandon heat styling tools
11. DO NOT TRIM OR CHOP
12. come on LHC for inspiration :)

Good Luck

[hyunjee]

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/984292_10201251682635746_1244873609_n.jpg

[hyunjee]

I use whipped coconut oil on my hair several times a week and have been turning to the CO washing method. Seems to be a making a big difference on how my hair looks and feels.

[CurlyCap]

Do what YOUR hair likes, even if it doesn't make sense with the common parlance. That means being willing to try new things, because open minds find new solutions.

I tried for years to do what people said I should with my hair. Now I just do what it likes, what keeps it happy, and it grows like a weed.

You hair, like everything else about you, is unique. Get to know your own hair and you'll figure out a routine quick enough.

[jacqueline101]

Trim when needed
Avoid heat styling tools
Vitamins are your friends
Wear your hair up unless your washing doing treatments
Benign neglect is great
Stretch washes
Oils are good
Monistat
Air or microfiber towel dry
Hair friendly hair toys

[jacqueline101]

Trim when needed
Avoid heat styling tools
Vitamins are your friends
Wear your hair up unless your washing doing treatments
Benign neglect is great
Stretch washes
Oils are good
Monistat
Air or microfiber towel dry
Hair friendly hair toys

[akilina]

It's really a bummer that with all of these ridiculous drugs on the market they couldn't come up with something for true fast growth yet. Not that I would take it..it just seems they should have come up with something.

Nothing has helped faster growth too much but castor + coconut oil mixed gave me crazy insane new growth! I really need to get back into being nice to my hair...this thread is inspiring. I just haven't cared.

Rooibos tea topically sprayed on my scalp made my hair have a huge burst of growth but then it slowed down. By the end of the month I had just a hair more than a half inch.

I'm jealous of those who can use monistat and get ridiculous growth.

Trying to enjoy every length as much as you can helps. I no longer have an expectation for my hair. It's never even gotten to bsl in 4 years of being here...

[McFearless]

Faster growth means nothing if the hair is not of quality so making sure my body is properly nourished is the most important thing for me. I strive to do the following:

- Diet high in protein with lots of vegetables in a wide range + drink lots of water
- Make sure the scalp is clean so as to not clog follicles with dirt and shed skin
- Cardio exercise
- Caring for mental health (stress and anxiety)

In addition to all of those basics, Monistat has given me a faster growth rate. It is expensive if used routinely so I've only used it during awkward stages and to blend layers. There is a coupon in the official website also, if you choose to try it.

[marymonster]

Great tips everyone! :)

[gthlvrmx]

Do what YOUR hair likes, even if it doesn't make sense with the common parlance. That means being willing to try new things, but open minds find new solutions.

I tried for years to do what people said I should with my hair. Now I just do what it likes, what keeps it happy, and it grows like a weed.

You hair, like everything else about you, is unique. Get to know your own hair and you'll figure out a routine quick enough.

^^^this! try that. it may just work ;D
always know your hair and maybe along the road youll find it a breeze to just simply do your hair and not even worry about how fast it grows XD

[arc691]

Wow, great hair-care tips, everybody! My personal favorites~ eat a spoonful of peanut butter every day! And trim regularly (I think that an even hemline makes your hair appear longer).

[Lucky_Lucy]

YEah, I have to agree that benign neglect has helped me too. :) Also, coconut oil & a tangle teezer are must haves, I'm sure you'll like them. And I agree with CurlyCap :) You should also kinda try and experiment with different shampoos/conditioners etc and see what your hair likes most. :) I started at SL as well and I know you can get really impatient and bored and want to do things with your hair that you can't at that length, but don't worry, I'm sure your hair will grow fast, arm yourself with a lot of patience and have fun X

[browneyedsusan]

If your ends are in good shape, I'd avoid trimming. (But, I don't need a "style" to feel good. I didn't trim for 11 months, until the grown-out pixie was driving me berserk, then got the ends evened up a few months ago.)
Wear it up as soon as it's long enough to pin up.
No heat.

Find your happy place, move in there, and pretend your hair is gorgeous! :lala:

[MimiKeki]

The things that have aided me in my hair growth the most are:
benign neglect - Just forget about it, because your hair will grow regardless. One day, you will be getting dressed, or have a quick look in the mirror, and you will wonder where all the new growth has come from!

Hair vitamins - I am amazed at how these can give your hair the extra boost it needs to grow. I use Mega Vitamins for the Hair from Holland & Barrett (UK). After a month of using them, I had new baby hairs sprouting everywhere that were over an inch long.

Limit the amount of heat styling as much as you can. I am guilty of still using my blowdryer, but never use straighteners or other hot tools anymore.

Eat foods to promote hair-nourishment, such as: Nuts, fish, avocados, fresh fruit and vegetables, lentils, pulses & beans, milk.
As well as using olive oil and coconut oil on the head, also add these to your diet to benefit from within.

There are many tips we can all use, but we have no choice but to be patient. :)

[chen bao jun]

Here is what has helped me :)

1. Have hair up as much as possible, 99% of the time. even when sleeping
2. stretch washes to once a week
3. invest in tangle teezer and bin all blushes
4. coconut oil and agran oil. Massage it into the hair, leave for couple of hours and then wash off
5. 'hair, skin and nails' suppliments, or just normal multi vits
6. eat as much protein through the day as possible. (eggs, cottage cheese, chicken etc)
7. don't use chemical dyes (use henna+indigo)
8. vinegar rinse after washing
9. drink lots of water
10. abandon heat styling tools
11. DO NOT TRIM OR CHOP
12. come on LHC for inspiration :)

Good Luck
I'd say this pretty much sums it up. Only I would change #s 3, 4 and 6 slightly to :
3) not everybody can use a tangle teaser but find some method of detangling that doesn't take off hair and use it as little as possible. Low manipulation is best.
4) Find some oil that your hair likes, coconut and argan are good things to try to start, but not for everyone
6) Eat healthy in general, protein is important but dark green veg, for example, are too
and I would add--get aerobic exercise 3-4x a week

[LadyCelestina]

Herbal rinses,seriously-whenever I'm using them regularly,my hair seems to grow quicker.However,I have no evidence,as I measure only by the length of virgin hair and how often I have to trim my bangs,so it could be my imagination.Even if they don't aid in growth,the shine is worth the hassle with picking herbs, brewing and waiting ages for it to cool down.

[chen bao jun]

aq2
...Nothing has helped faster growth too much but castor + coconut oil mixed gave me crazy insane new growth! I really need to get back into being nice to my hair...this thread is inspiring. I just haven't cared. ..Trying to enjoy every length as much as you can helps. I no longer have an expectation for my hair. It's never even gotten to bsl in 4 years of being here...
Akilina, I admire you a lot for sticking with it even though you haven't had the hair growth that you'd like in four years.
Do you know, did you ever think of taking a peek at the many hairsites for black African-American hair such as longhaircommunity.com? I can see that you have an extremely different hairtype, but there are many hints at such places for dealing with fragile hair, that appears not to grow because it is breaking off at the ends, that would be useful for someone who has the same problem, even if their hair is not hyper-curly, or even curly at all. I wonder if you might benefit from such techniques as washing the hair only while braided; using protein on the ends very often and not only wearing hair up, but putting it in some hairstyle that allowed you to leave it up without manipulation for an extended period of times. I know that not everything on these sites would be useful, but there might be some things on there that would give you a jumpstart so that you could get to BSL. Meanwhile, I am glad that you are enjoying your hair; that was wise advice that you gave about that and you are a great example of never giving up.

[chen bao jun]

I would also like to add the single most important advice I got about growing my hair, though it might not apply to all of you. Someone told me to be sure that whatever I was doing to my hair, I was doing to ALL of it. I realized once I heard that that I had always been washing, conditioning, oiling, etc, only the canopy and underneath and not treating the hair in the middle. I do have extremely thick hair and people with thinner hair may not have this problem, but the judicious use of alligator clips has helped a lot! I actually thought I had a different texture of hair in the middle and learned that this was not true, and now my whole head is a lot healthier.

[Eireann]

I quit sulfates and chemical dye. I'm not sure the length is growing any faster, but I'm shedding much less and getting a whole lot of new growth.

[akilina]

aq2
Akilina, I admire you a lot for sticking with it even though you haven't had the hair growth that you'd like in four years.
Do you know, did you ever think of taking a peek at the many hairsites for black African-American hair such as longhaircommunity.com? I can see that you have an extremely different hairtype, but there are many hints at such places for dealing with fragile hair, that appears not to grow because it is breaking off at the ends, that would be useful for someone who has the same problem, even if their hair is not hyper-curly, or even curly at all. I wonder if you might benefit from such techniques as washing the hair only while braided; using protein on the ends very often and not only wearing hair up, but putting it in some hairstyle that allowed you to leave it up without manipulation for an extended period of times. I know that not everything on these sites would be useful, but there might be some things on there that would give you a jumpstart so that you could get to BSL. Meanwhile, I am glad that you are enjoying your hair; that was wise advice that you gave about that and you are a great example of never giving up.
Thanks for your thoughts :) I am 100% to blame for it honestly. I was 2 inches away and chopped off 5 inches last summer. Since then I have had good growth but I decided I was sick of being miserable so 2-3 months ago I went purple on all of the ends of my hair and I absolutely adore it. That has been damaging though. Before my hair was pretty nice...not one split and no breakage. Its just thin in the ends and i hate thin hair. The chop was good because I'm getting rid of layers. I still have 4 or so more inches to go but the way I look at it...I have decided not to worry about what I do until the layers are gone. I'm happier this way and they are definitely getting closer.

With this mindset though I'm actually starting to take my length for what it is and stop judging it so hard. My mom told me that my hair is getting long, and it feels good when I see friends and they comment on it. :)

I haven't been on any ethnic hair forums for many reasons. I've tried.I didn't like how it had a religion board full of crazies...can't stand the attitudes and utter lack of grammar all about the whole forum. I think lhc is the only hair site for me hehe ;)

I should have elaborated that I'm mostly to blame In all cases of my hair not being long enough. Last summer I also realized I needed to stop micro trimming..it adds up really.

[Amorice]

The best two things I did for my hair growth were switching from a brush to a tangle teezer, and using coconut oil on the ends as a shampoo pre-treatment. I doubt those 2 things will work for everyone, but they work for me!

[nobeltonya]

When I was at that length, I'd wear it up in a messy bun all day.. definitely don't rip through knots with those brushes that have balls on the tips [that was my problem at that length :O Before I knew it was bad...]. I regularly apply coconut oil every other night [quite liberal with it.. my hair and scalp soak it up] to scalp and length and massage it in. :disco:

[Mingle]

This has been said already, but I'm saying it again because some people feel like they HAVE to trim. But! You don't! You don't have to trim! If you tend to have split ends, go a head and trim, and after every wash start oiling your ends so that you get less splits and therefore no more trimming.

I felt that I had to stress this, because my friend keeps complaining about her stunted hair growth. When I asked her how often she got it cut she responded with, "every 3 months."

... ಠ_ಠ

So you want to grow out your hair, but you keep cutting it? How does that make sense?

[marymonster]

For the past week and a half I've been massaging my scalp with undiluted lavender EO. It seems like it's working already!!!! I've got about an 1/8 of an inch of roots showing through my henndigo. They're my natural color so I know it's new growth. Normally I wouldn't have any roots showing yet! I've also been oiling my hair every other day with sesame and coconut oil and washing it out with a mix of natural shampoo and Indian herb tea. :)

[McFearless]

Do not apply undiluted essential oils to your skin! They are very potent. 2% in a carrier oil (which can help it penetrate even deeper making it more efficient) is the way to go. Any more is a waste of money.

[lazuliblue]

1) Eat well! This has been the main factor in my hair growth, and my diet is mainly vegan.

2) Don't use heat! I blow dry maybe 3 times a week, but I hold the hair dryer as far away from my head as I can and keep moving it so no spot gets blasted with heat. And straighteners/curling tongs are a no no, unless you're desperate.

3) Don't trim! Unless you have a lot of split ends or need to get rid of a mullet from a pixie grow-out, just S&D (search and destroy) split ends.

I had 2.5 inches of hair growth in 1.5 months at my last check....so I must be doing something right!

[Coolcombination]

What's in peanut butter that would increase hair growth? And I thought vinegar was for increased shine and perhaps to seal the cuticle?

[lazuliblue]

What's in peanut butter that would increase hair growth? And I thought vinegar was for increased shine and perhaps to seal the cuticle?

It has a lot of protein in it, and seeing as hair is made up of protein, peanut butter should help!

[GrowingOut]

It has a lot of protein in it, and seeing as hair is made up of protein, peanut butter should help!

Just ask arc691, she'll tell you all you could need to know of peanut butter and hair growth. ((Seriously, it's like someone poured liquid gold from a scalp!))

[Lunadriael]

Apart from the general advice of no trimming unless it's damaged, no heat, avoiding dye, gentle detangling, good diet, putting it up (crucial if you're going to get it snagged on stuff like your bag) etc. I found that hibiscus powder in my henna made my hair really nice and it's supposed to help hair growth. :) I don't know if it did speed up my growth because I wasn't paying attention to it at the time, but it made everything so wonderfully soft and silky, with fewer detangling problems, and henna on its own doesn't do that for me. I have now ordered some more. ^-^ It can be used on its own as a treatment too (without colouring the hair), so maybe some other people might like to try it.

[alexis917]

Wear your hair up/keep it contained! (Buns, braids, etc)
Always makes me feel like my hair is growing faster, anyway, and protects it better than wearing it down.

[rock007junkie]

-The main thing would be not trimming too much. As an alternative you could do search and destroys to get rid of splits.
-Scalp oiling prior to washing have really helped me.
-Keeping hair moisturized to prevent breakage.
-keeping track of your protein intake. The times I noticed the most growth are those that I'm consuming a lot of protein. If you are like me and don't eat a lot of meat, you can supplement with protein shakes.

[marymonster]

Do not apply undiluted essential oils to your skin! They are very potent. 2% in a carrier oil (which can help it penetrate even deeper making it more efficient) is the way to go. Any more is a waste of money.

I've read several times that lavender oil is safe to use undiluted, and I haven't had any issues with it irritating my skin.

[missmelaniem]

Mine:

Biotin
Oiling ends(coconut, while hair is wet)
Wide tooth comb. I use plastic.... its a plastic Conair comb that I ordered from Drugstore.com. It takes me literally a minute to comb through my hair as opposed to the 15 minutes when I tried to use a wooden comb.
Silicone based serum
Leave in conditioner. I use a dab of my regular conditioner for this.... you dont need anything fancy.
Elastics with no metal.

I still color my hair to cover my gray and will do micro trims using a Creaclip maybe once every 8 weeks.

[Sunny_side_up]

around 6 to 8 portions of fruit or veg daily, protein; (I eat meat) enjoy pulses, I like nuts too, Brazil nuts give noticeable strength to my hair, drink water through the day, moderate exercise. Getting adequate nights sleep is important too! During summer I plan to get out in the sun on my lunch break. Ten mins exposure at least. Last year I had lunches in the basement and the summer wasn't that sunny either. Maybe that was why I didn't have boosted growth like years before when I spent more days being outside. In past got an inch a month during summer. I am getting my hair trimmed every two months to freshen my ends and not planning to get much longer, from my roots of my recently dyed hair I can see growth has been good!

[kmoc123]

Stay away from scissors! Use good conditioners and no flat irons!!