Hair growing very slowly?

[Glass Spires]

The title sums it up... my hair, I've noticed, is growing slowly. I've been growing it for four years now, and although I don't straighten, curl, blow-dry, color, or regularly trim it, it's only gotten to waist (from SL) in that time. My routine is pretty minimal-- I shampoo and condition it as infrequently as I can get away with, which is about every other day since I have dark blonde hair, air-dry and ponytail it. I had a trim recently, the first in the four years, but it was only 2", meaning that in my hair's grown about fifteen inches total. I've read in several places, including the LHC, that most hair grows about six inches a year, so I was hoping it would be a bit longer by now. Any ideas as to why it's so short, or suggestions to help it grow faster?
Thank you for reading, and sorry if it's a stupid question! I'm pretty new to all this...:D

[Leeloo]

I'm trying using amla powder, castor oil with avocado oil as scalp treatments. I haven't been doing it for long yet, so not sure how well that will work. But those seem to be quite popular here on lhc. Hope that helps.

[Firefox7275]

The title sums it up... my hair, I've noticed, is growing slowly. I've been growing it for four years now, and although I don't straighten, curl, blow-dry, color, or regularly trim it, it's only gotten to waist (from SL) in that time. My routine is pretty minimal-- I shampoo and condition it as infrequently as I can get away with, which is about every other day since I have dark blonde hair, air-dry and ponytail it. I had a trim recently, the first in the four years, but it was only 2", meaning that in my hair's grown about fifteen inches total. I've read in several places, including the LHC, that most hair grows about six inches a year, so I was hoping it would be a bit longer by now. Any ideas as to why it's so short, or suggestions to help it grow faster?
Thank you for reading, and sorry if it's a stupid question! I'm pretty new to all this...:D

Regular ponytailing causes mechanical damage, even with no snag elastics, and you are leaving ends vulnerable to friction damage from clothing, car seat/ headrest, pillow, purse strap. Try rotating your styles including up dos and putting the stress on different parts of the hair not the same section over and over.

You really should be trimming your hair regularly even if only every six months and only a small amount, few if any people won't have splits and breaks towards the end well within four years. Older hair is always damaged due to 'weathering' and mechanical damage, it can have lost it's entire protective cuticle. I do wonder if your hair is growing normally but breaking off again.

Long hair tends to benefit from deep treating to help replenish the fats and proteins that are lost in washing, brushing/ combing, styling and weather exposure - hydrolysed protein and/ or coconut oil depending on your hair properties.

[MejraThea]

I can say whether or not it works, but in a month or so I'm going to buy and try out a product called Viviscal (http://www.viviscal.com/hair-care-products/hair-growth/for-women/v-max-v2-32-us-768), to make mine grow faster ^.^

[spidermom]

I agree with Firefox.

[Ravenwind]

Have you tried taking biotin? It's probably different for everyone but that stuff makes my hair grow like a weed. Once in a while I also oil my roots and hair with a mixture of peppermint oil and apricot oil. It tingles your scalp and is supposedly good for promoting blood flow, which is good for hair growth. With both I've seen great progress on myself.

[furnival]

I thought my hair grew slowly until I started wearing it up in protective styles every day. A ponytail isn't a protective style. If I were you I'd give it a trim, stop using elastics and learn some buns. :)

[Sharysa]

Shoulder-length to waist in four years is only a little bit slower than average--most people need three years to reach waist from shoulder.

And seconding the fact that ponytails aren't protective styles--outside of your scalp hair, it's not contained at all, and for fine hair it might lead to more breakage if you keep tying it off at the same place. It's going to be moving around, tangling up, and breaking off from all your individual hairs rubbing against themselves. Updos and braids are a lot better at protecting your length. Split-end trimming is also a really good way to retain length, since too many split ends lead to more tangles and breakage.

Also, most people's split ends aren't actually at the ends of their hair; mine range around the last half to the last third of my hair, so I trim them myself using the twist-and-cut method.

If you're a tea person and want more growth, you can try stinging nettle tea. Historically, it's been recommended for anything hair-related, because of all the vitamins it has. I've been drinking it at least a couple times a week, and during the winter when most people's hair stopped growing completely, my hair growth was only cut in half.

I'd take two inches in four months over no inches in four months. :P

[meteor]

1) To avoid breakage: At waist-length, you should benefit from bunning and/or braiding. But even ponytails with soft elastics should be OK - lots of people have extra-long hair despite ponytails.

I think the fact that you trim extremely rarely could account for some of the damage (split ends tend to travel up and result in breakage). Since you've just had a trim you might be able to see major difference.

2) To stimulate growth: There are some things that you can do to stimulate your scalp and help with hair growth: massaging scalp with castor oil, oils with sulfur (garlic, onion, mustard), MSM, essential oils of thyme, rosemary, bay, basil, lavender, clary sage, and many others.
I think if your growth is normal, these methods are very time-consuming and will not give a dramatic effect. But if your hair really needs a boost and you have a "lazy" scalp, these things can make a major difference.

Also, check out your diet: if it's already balanced and based on whole foods with enough fatty acids, proteins, vitamins, then you don't need to worry. But if you are on a low-calorie diet or not consuming enough healthy fats, eating more fish, nuts, veggies can help with hair growth (among other things).

[jacqueline101]

Pony tails can cause damage. In fact any repeated hair style will cause damage. It causes tension on the roots.

[Beborani]

Instead of cutting off two inches at one time, it maybe better if you cut half an inch every 6 months--you still wont have cut off much hair and would be taking care of those ends.

[majesticmoon]

Sounds like you have pretty good growth to me. Mine has been growing out for about 4 years (though it was in really bad shape) and has only gone from sl to almost bsl.

[Anje]

Mostly just seconding what's already been said: Ponytails aren't terribly protective. It could be that you're getting damage to your ends which is slowing your apparent growth. Try wearing updos that tuck your ends in at least 6 days a week (yeah, I'm making that number up -- my point is to do it the vast majority of the time), only letting your hair down to dry and at bedtime. Updos that secure with clips, pins, sticks, or forks is usually better than anything using a ponytail holder, as those can cause absurd amounts of tension and breakage on specific parts of the hair.

Make sure your health is in good shape. Anemia, thyroid problems, nutrient deficiencies, and just about everything else hit the hair before they even start to make you feel bad. If you're having problems, your hair will likely reflect it. Make sure your diet is good and check out any issues (weakness, always feeling cold, unexplained weight gain, whatever) that you've been putting off. Don't neglect your mental health either -- the brain can exert surprising amounts of control over the body. Adequate hydration and anything to get blood flowing to your scalp (exercise, scalp massage, etc) are also helpful.

Unfortunately, it could be that your hair just grows slowly. That 6 inches figure that you hear is very much an average. I know people who can get 2-3x that much in a year, and if they're skewing the scale up, there are probably plenty of slow-growers who tip it the other way to balance things out. But make sure you try out the other suggestions first before resigning yourself to this.

[chen bao jun]

Waist length is actually pretty long by all standards (except those of LHC). Possibly you only grow 3 3/4 inches a year (for 15 inches in four years) but so long as you are not at terminal, you will still get to your goal. Some with faster growth who don't take as good care of their hair will not get there. But if I were you I would try bunning and updos for a while and see if your hair gets longer faster. It really is possible that you're growing faster than you think but that you are having breakage because your ends are not protected in a ponytail. Though some can grow to extreme lengths with their ends unprotected, many of us just can't do that. And by waist length, your ends are very old and are more fragile.
There is an updo challenge somewhere on here "wear your hair up for a month' or something like that, I'd try it if I were you.

[Pigfarts]

Add biotin to your diet!! It helps your hair and skin growth :)

You can get biotin supplement pills or just get them naturally through food like nuts. Walnuts and sunflower seeds have a lot of biotin