Hair Hardly Grows

[Ella grace]

Hi. I am a teenage girl. My hair grows roughly 1 inch per year. My hair growth has always been incredibly slow. My hair is also very fine and thin. My hair doesn’t break much, and I lose a normal amount of hair per day. I’ve been to a dermatologist. They couldn’t see anything wrong with my hair or scalp, and I had a blood test and I’m completely healthy. I don’t know what to do, it just doesn’t grow! Anyone have any advice

[Ella grace]

I forgot to mention, my hair is at roughly bsl.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

Do you wear your hair down/loose? BSL is the length where hair can be damaged from rubbing on chair backs, backpack straps, purse straps, general rubbing on clothing, blowing and tangling in the wind, being caught on things, wearing and catching, being weakened and breaking off. So that the ends are fraying and breaking off at the same rate as your hair is growing from the roots.

Do you wear it up in protective styles to prevent this from happening?

Do you use heat tools on your hair? Or bleach it? These also can damage hair and cause it to break off....

[Lanalavallama]

Hi, welcome! I know it can be disheartening if you don't see progress. There is wonderful information on these boards and wonderful people. If you are not at your terminal length, and your health is good, incorporating some of the practices talked of here will give you amazing results. Be patient, and you will see improvement. Look forward to watching your progress.

[lapushka]

How often do you visit a stylist to have it trimmed?

[marvel-lover]

How often do you wash your hair? How's your eating and exercise level? Eating healthy and exercising is very important for hair growth. Whatever the problem is, or if there is no problem, remember to stay patient and learn to love the length that you're at!

[browneyedsusan]

Do you wear your hair down/loose? BSL is the length where hair can be damaged from rubbing on chair backs, backpack straps, purse straps, general rubbing on clothing, blowing and tangling in the wind, being caught on things, wearing and catching, being weakened and breaking off. So that the ends are fraying and breaking off at the same rate as your hair is growing from the roots.

Do you wear it up in protective styles to prevent this from happening?

Do you use heat tools on your hair? Or bleach it? These also can damage hair and cause it to break off....

^this^
A lot of young girls wear their hair loose every day and don't put it up for sleep. (I sleep in a top knot, so I don't lay on it.)

Still, you could have a slow growth rate. Do Mom and Dad have normal growth rates? (Do you know how often they go for haircuts or anything like that?) -- I have a girlfriend with a glacial growth rate, and her DD20 is about the same, so it isn't unheard of. Still, I'd think only 1/2" a year isn't even possible. I suspect it's something else slowing you down. :)

[Arete]

I also suspect mechanical damage here. If you have hair that breaks easily, you may have to baby it some to get appreciable growth. I'd experiment with the following for a year and see if you get more growth.
1)wearing your hair up or braided for the majority of the week.
2) Eliminating use of heat (flat irons, blow dryers on warm/hot, curling wands, etc.)
3) No bleach or chemical dyes
4) Getting a good hair brush (or maybe no hair brush at all depending on your hair type) that doesn't snag or break your hair
5) detangling and brushing gently, not ripping through tangles and working from your ends up.
6) Condition, wash, condition when you wash your hair.
7) Minimize use of hair ties and bobby pins. Hairsticks, spin pins, amish pins, ribbon elastics, scrunchies, are all good alternatives. If you do use hair ties, use the metal free fabric covered ones, and unwrap them when taking them out instead of pulling it out all at once.
8 )Make sure you aren't styling your hair too tightly and losing hair to traction forces
9) Clarify as needed

[Jo Ann]

Ella grace, I'm another one in the camp for mechanical damage. Sarahlabyrinth gave a fantastic list of ways people are unkind to their hair and Arete gave a great list of things to try to help your hair grow; I would make one suggestion, though--if condition wash condition does work for you (we call that CWC here), try wash condition condition (WCC).

If you're in the habit of having your hair trimmed every 4-6 weeks (like your stylist says), try going longer between those trims and see how it goes--many times, when you have your hair trimmed regularly by a stylist, the stylist is maintaining your length. Save some money and try to go longer between trims or try doing the trimming yourself (buy a set of hair shears at the store and use them ONLY for trimming your hair! Very important for keeping the blade sharp!). Many here use Feye's Method (http://feyeselftrim.livejournal.com/) to trim hair. If you notice split ends, you can try S&D (Search and Dust/Destroy) (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=140260) to keep them under control. Best to do this between trims, though :)

Good luck and welcome aboard, Ella!

[Ella grace]

Thank you so much everybody for your replies, I really appreciate it. I have never dyed my hair before and very very rarely style with heat. But I suspect any breakage could be from wearing my hair in a tight bun 4 times a week, using bobby pins, as I do ballet and we are required to wear a bun. I will definitely try sleeping with my hair in a protective style, normally I sleep with it out. My parents have normal hair growth and so does my brother, but my sister has slow growing hair like me.

[Anje]

Do you wear your hair down/loose? BSL is the length where hair can be damaged from rubbing on chair backs, backpack straps, purse straps, general rubbing on clothing, blowing and tangling in the wind, being caught on things, wearing and catching, being weakened and breaking off. So that the ends are fraying and breaking off at the same rate as your hair is growing from the roots..
All this. BSL seems to be the magic length for a lot of people where leaning against hair during the day takes its toll. Often, you'll see broken hairs starting right around the point where your hair meets chair backs, if that's the case.

A tight bun, if it's not pulling on the roots or causing breakage, probably isn't the issue. I wore snug buns that were comfortably secured for years, and my hair only benefitted from it. If it hurts or you're tearing out hair by the roots, that's another story. Also for some people (like me), hair elastics can cause breakage around the point where your hair is ponytailed, giving you extra face wispies and flyaways, but that's unlikely to stop the ends from moving downward.

I'd advise you to find some comfortable ways to wear your hair up. Claw clips, hair forks, hairsticks, and those stiff U-shaped pins (often called Amish hairpins -- use them like hair forks) work well for most folks. Put your hair up in a way that tucks the ends out of harm's way most days, and be conscious of not leaning against your hair when you sit down with it loose. But mostly wear your hair up for a while, on the order of 2-3 months, and see if you don't notice that it's getting longer.

[Arete]

Thank you so much everybody for your replies, I really appreciate it. I have never dyed my hair before and very very rarely style with heat. But I suspect any breakage could be from wearing my hair in a tight bun 4 times a week, using bobby pins, as I do ballet and we are required to wear a bun. I will definitely try sleeping with my hair in a protective style, normally I sleep with it out. My parents have normal hair growth and so does my brother, but my sister has slow growing hair like me.

Knowing how tight some ballerinas do their buns it could be an issue. Are you required to have the super-slicked back "plastic bun" as my sister, a retired dancer, called it, during practice? Or just a standard ballerina bun that doesn't have to be so tight it looks plastered to your skull? Either way, switching to spin pins from standard Bobby pins might help a lot. My one friend who was a ballerina had issues with breakage with regular pins and switched to spin pins and she had a lot less breakage. She also said she experienced headaches less with the spin pins. Might be something worth trying?

[Jo Ann]

One thing I've gotten into the habit of doing when I wear my hair down is tossing it over the back of the chair or couch/sofa. It keeps me from hurting it (cause breakage due to my body rubbing on it when I lean back). If I'm wearing it down while driving/riding in the car, I flip it behind my neck and over the shoulder opposite the seatbelt, so it doesn't get snagged, especially when the retractable seatbelt is released (can you say "Ouchie!"?).

[Dark40]

Maybe you're not getting enough protein and iron in your diet.

[Alysia]

Do you have the same trouble with your nails?

[lapushka]

My hair hardly grew once (for about 6 months) but then I was borderlining on an eating disorder all that time.

I would check your diet, possibly have the doctor run some bloodwork if at all possible (yearly check-up maybe).

[Dark40]

My hair hardly grew once (for about 6 months) but then I was borderlining on an eating disorder all that time.

I would check your diet, possibly have the doctor run some bloodwork if at all possible (yearly check-up maybe).

Hey, mine too was also growing very slow at one point for a year before I joined here at LHC. I think it was because I wasn't getting enough protein in my diet. I've noticed for a many years after starting a high protein diet my hair started growing much faster like weeds!!! Plus, during my protein deficiency I was suffering a lot of breakage and split ends.

[Shibe]

For the longest time I was convinced my hair didnt grow. I did learn that my hair was just breaking off, so all my new growth would end up on the floor. I changed my entire hair routine and am growing nicely now!

[lapushka]

Hey, mine too was also growing very slow at one point for a year before I joined here at LHC. I think it was because I wasn't getting enough protein in my diet. I've noticed for a many years after starting a high protein diet my hair started growing much faster like weeds!!! Plus, during my protein deficiency I was suffering a lot of breakage and split ends.

Yep, I get my protein from meat (big meat eater), but that doesn't mean you can't get it from other sources if you don't eat meat for example, it is just very important to substitute well or you'll get into trouble. :)

[Alex Lou]

Is there pressure in ballet to keep a certain weight or even lose weight? Do you think you're eating enough and well enough?

[lapushka]

Is there pressure in ballet to keep a certain weight or even lose weight? Do you think you're eating enough and well enough?

Back when I did gym, one day we came home (I was about 8 and had been doing it for a few years) with a letter that said all the things we couldn't eat anymore. On it was "potatoes". My mom ripped it into pieces, said what nonsense is this, and never let me go to gym again! And trust me I was a slim (slightly underweight) child already, but I could never sit still for more than a few minutes, so...