Routine advice/critiques?

[HildeE21]

Hello everyone!

I have been growing my hair for years now, it’s currently MBL-(natural) waist length. It’s a bit uneven at the ends but the longest pieces go to my natural waist. My current goal is classic length. My hair type is 2a/b, M, ii. I have not seen any growth for almost a year and would like some advice! Here is my current routine:

•I wash 2-3x week (CWC with Love Beauty and Planet shampoo and conditioner). I try to keep the water lukewarm but sometimes it’s warm, especially in the winter.

•I sometimes detangle in the shower with WELL conditioned hair and a wide tooth comb. I’m trying to cut back on this, though, so if anyone has advice for detangling in a gentler way please lmk! I’m worried that if I wait until after my hair dries to detangle it will be a knotted mess :( When my hair is dry but tangled I detangle it with a wide tooth comb.

•I have (very recently, like a month or two ago) stopped using any hair gel or spray. Previously I would throughly spray one section of the front of my hair once a week when I styled it for work, now I no longer do that.

•I’m trying to wear my hair in a bun more, but most days I wear it in a ponytail. I’m also a bit confused on whether wearing it up so much will cause breakage - I’ve heard styling your hair the same way every day can cause breakage, but so can wearing it down. If anyone has good advice on styles to wear it up with minimal stress on the hair I’d really appreciate it! I’m not great at styling the back of my own hair and I also worry that by practicing/fiddling with it so much I’ll end up causing breakage lol. Right now when I wear my hair in a bun for work or school I put my hair in a ponytail with a scrunchy, braid it, take out the scrunchy, and use Bobby pins to put it in a bun. Those coily hair ties (the plastic kind that look like spiral notebook rings) get hopelessly tangled in my hair so I can’t use them.

•I sleep with satinesque (I doubt it’s real silk/satin lol) pillowcases

•When I dry my hair I gently squeeze out the excess water with my hands before exiting the shower. I often put my hair up in a towel for the first few minutes after a shower but when I’m back in my room and have a shirt on (I hate wet hair against dry skin 🤢 it feels so weird to me!) I will take it off and either let my hair air dry or put it up in a cotton t shirt. It’s about 50-50 which one I choose, just depends if I have clean t shirts nearby lol.

•I recently started eating wfpb (basically vegan but all whole food, nothing processed - no added sugar or oils either) and I take a multivitamin daily. I also take 10,000mcg biotin daily.

•Side note - I tried curly girl method before but I felt that the gel was probably bad for my hair and stopped doing it. Do any of you wavies/curlies who do CGM feel that it helped your hair growth, or was it just about how it looks? Right now idk if following it will help growth because it’s honoring my hair type or whatever or if it’ll just make it look nicer but not help growth because I’d be putting in a lot of gel regularly.

That’s all I can think of for now, can anyone recommend things I should try to improve retention? If you have any questions about my routine please ask!

[lapushka]

Hello everyone!

I have been growing my hair for years now, it’s currently MBL-(natural) waist length. It’s a bit uneven at the ends but the longest pieces go to my natural waist. My current goal is classic length. My hair type is 2a/b, M, ii. I have not seen any growth for almost a year and would like some advice! Here is my current routine:

•I wash 2-3x week (CWC with Love Beauty and Planet shampoo and conditioner). I try to keep the water lukewarm but sometimes it’s warm, especially in the winter.

•I sometimes detangle in the shower with WELL conditioned hair and a wide tooth comb. I’m trying to cut back on this, though, so if anyone has advice for detangling in a gentler way please lmk! I’m worried that if I wait until after my hair dries to detangle it will be a knotted mess :( When my hair is dry but tangled I detangle it with a wide tooth comb.

•I have (very recently, like a month or two ago) stopped using any hair gel or spray. Previously I would throughly spray one section of the front of my hair once a week when I styled it for work, now I no longer do that.

•I’m trying to wear my hair in a bun more, but most days I wear it in a ponytail. I’m also a bit confused on whether wearing it up so much will cause breakage - I’ve heard styling your hair the same way every day can cause breakage, but so can wearing it down. If anyone has good advice on styles to wear it up with minimal stress on the hair I’d really appreciate it! I’m not great at styling the back of my own hair and I also worry that by practicing/fiddling with it so much I’ll end up causing breakage lol. Right now when I wear my hair in a bun for work or school I put my hair in a ponytail with a scrunchy, braid it, take out the scrunchy, and use Bobby pins to put it in a bun. Those coily hair ties (the plastic kind that look like spiral notebook rings) get hopelessly tangled in my hair so I can’t use them.

•I sleep with satinesque (I doubt it’s real silk/satin lol) pillowcases

•When I dry my hair I gently squeeze out the excess water with my hands before exiting the shower. I often put my hair up in a towel for the first few minutes after a shower but when I’m back in my room and have a shirt on (I hate wet hair against dry skin 🤢 it feels so weird to me!) I will take it off and either let my hair air dry or put it up in a cotton t shirt. It’s about 50-50 which one I choose, just depends if I have clean t shirts nearby lol.

•I recently started eating wfpb (basically vegan but all whole food, nothing processed - no added sugar or oils either) and I take a multivitamin daily. I also take 10,000mcg biotin daily.

•Side note - I tried curly girl method before but I felt that the gel was probably bad for my hair and stopped doing it. Do any of you wavies/curlies who do CGM feel that it helped your hair growth, or was it just about how it looks? Right now idk if following it will help growth because it’s honoring my hair type or whatever or if it’ll just make it look nicer but not help growth because I’d be putting in a lot of gel regularly.

That’s all I can think of for now, can anyone recommend things I should try to improve retention? If you have any questions about my routine please ask!

Welcome to the forum. Quite the introductory post. :D

For me, personally, a wet brush (the one for wet hair, not for dry!) is the best detangling tool and I put away my wide tooth comb indefinitely for it. It is much much gentler!

My million dollar question. Do you use a straightener or curling iron on your hair. If not, beats me why it isn't growing. Are you trimming a lot? You're not going to a hairdresser often, right?

Just the most obvious (obviously) I can think of.

Again... welcome!

[Freyariane]

Hello everyone!

I have been growing my hair for years now, it’s currently MBL-(natural) waist length. It’s a bit uneven at the ends but the longest pieces go to my natural waist. My current goal is classic length. My hair type is 2a/b, M, ii. I have not seen any growth for almost a year and would like some advice! Here is my current routine:

•I wash 2-3x week (CWC with Love Beauty and Planet shampoo and conditioner). I try to keep the water lukewarm but sometimes it’s warm, especially in the winter.

•I sometimes detangle in the shower with WELL conditioned hair and a wide tooth comb. I’m trying to cut back on this, though, so if anyone has advice for detangling in a gentler way please lmk! I’m worried that if I wait until after my hair dries to detangle it will be a knotted mess :( When my hair is dry but tangled I detangle it with a wide tooth comb.

•I have (very recently, like a month or two ago) stopped using any hair gel or spray. Previously I would throughly spray one section of the front of my hair once a week when I styled it for work, now I no longer do that.

•I’m trying to wear my hair in a bun more, but most days I wear it in a ponytail. I’m also a bit confused on whether wearing it up so much will cause breakage - I’ve heard styling your hair the same way every day can cause breakage, but so can wearing it down. If anyone has good advice on styles to wear it up with minimal stress on the hair I’d really appreciate it! I’m not great at styling the back of my own hair and I also worry that by practicing/fiddling with it so much I’ll end up causing breakage lol. Right now when I wear my hair in a bun for work or school I put my hair in a ponytail with a scrunchy, braid it, take out the scrunchy, and use Bobby pins to put it in a bun. Those coily hair ties (the plastic kind that look like spiral notebook rings) get hopelessly tangled in my hair so I can’t use them.

•I sleep with satinesque (I doubt it’s real silk/satin lol) pillowcases

•When I dry my hair I gently squeeze out the excess water with my hands before exiting the shower. I often put my hair up in a towel for the first few minutes after a shower but when I’m back in my room and have a shirt on (I hate wet hair against dry skin �� it feels so weird to me!) I will take it off and either let my hair air dry or put it up in a cotton t shirt. It’s about 50-50 which one I choose, just depends if I have clean t shirts nearby lol.

•I recently started eating wfpb (basically vegan but all whole food, nothing processed - no added sugar or oils either) and I take a multivitamin daily. I also take 10,000mcg biotin daily.

•Side note - I tried curly girl method before but I felt that the gel was probably bad for my hair and stopped doing it. Do any of you wavies/curlies who do CGM feel that it helped your hair growth, or was it just about how it looks? Right now idk if following it will help growth because it’s honoring my hair type or whatever or if it’ll just make it look nicer but not help growth because I’d be putting in a lot of gel regularly.

That’s all I can think of for now, can anyone recommend things I should try to improve retention? If you have any questions about my routine please ask!

Just like what lapushka suggest, do you use flat iron/curling iron ? Even used rarely, it can break you hair and gives you the impression it doesn't grow.
Some chemical dyes can also do this to you hair...

I have a friend who has a waist terminal length (she is 28), you could also, but I really doubt it, it's quite rare. ^^

Also welcome here :)

[Ylva]

I am most worried about the ponytail. They tend to act as a steady source of breakage, which would contribute to your possible false terminal length. Most people find buns the most protective, so I would recommend taking your time trying to learn some. Many of them are really quite simple and easy to learn. Braids can be a bit more damaging because the top hairs still rub against things, but it's still likely better than wearing your hair loose or in a ponytail.

[MusicalSpoons]

Hi, and welcome. Your routine sounds fairly good, except maybe the bobby pins could be causing mechanical damage. I would suggest trying small (smooth!) claw clips or spin pins for your buns - although rereading your post, I suspect the same as Ylva, that the ponytail is the main culprit causing most of the mechanical damage and wearing away your ends.

[Pouncequick]

Your routine sounds mostly fine. I don't see much to critique beyond wearing ponytails daily.

For variation on daily ponytails (or always doing the same bun), the disc bun, modified nautilus, peacock twist, and french twists might be doable at your length with ii thickness. At your length I mostly braided my hair. Hair bands can cause a fair amount of damage, especially if they're always placed in the same spot. Also, depending on how cautious you are with your hair in a ponytail, letting your ends rub up against everything (getting caught behind you in seats, caught in bags, etc.) could be causing damage to the ends and wearing away your growth over time. This is a concern with braids as well. I enjoyed a lot of braided styles around waist length, but the braid does have to be moved around to keep it from getting caught in things.

Also do you trim? If so, how much and how often? It's fairly easy to accidentally trim away all of your growth.

[FaeBroom]

Are you using a good comb? I used one years ago with plastic seams, and was wondering why I had these little frizzy, broken hairs. Turns out the comb was having a sort of scissor-on-ribbon effect (how you curl a ribbon for a gift wrap or something), and when I stopped using that they went away.

Also, if you have any previously damaged hair on the ends, it could be breaking off more. Even if you've been growing your hair out for years, any old, bad habits still show themselves if you still have weakened hair towards the ends. I find that coconut oil gives my hair a lot of protein and curbs breakage.

If you want to move more towards dryer detangling, I would start off with damp hair and use a brush, with some sort of serum or oil in the hair to encourage slip. I absolutely cannot detangle wet or my hair rips. The detangling method would be the only thing I could critique per se, I'm no expert. I think maybe it might be too heavy for your hair type.

[foreveryours]

How's your water? :D

Even if not "hard", "soft" water contains salts which become concentrated as hair dries. At dryness, those salts precipitate on the strand's surface tending to dry it out making hair brittle and easily broken. I think the ends would be most affected if you drip dry. After rinsing with your tap's water you might find a final rinse with distilled water helpful.

You might also try a little oil to enhance suppleness of your hair's strands.

[knobbly]

How's your water? :D

Even if not "hard", "soft" water contains salts which become concentrated as hair dries. At dryness, those salts precipitate on the strand's surface tending to dry it out making hair brittle and easily broken. I think the ends would be most affected if you drip dry. After rinsing with your tap's water you might find a final rinse with distilled water helpful.


Mind if I jump in and ask how you do this foreveryours? How much you use/how to conserve it when using/etc.?

[foreveryours]

Mind if I jump in and ask how you do this foreveryours? How much you use/how to conserve it when using/etc.?

After rinsing as much product as I can out of my hair with tap water under the shower so my hair no longer has any slippery feel from CWC, I pour a pint of dH2O (distilled water) slowly over my head and allow it to flow down my length. After allowing the water to drain, I do this again (so twice) and then severall times I dunk my ends up to my ears into a quart of fresh dH2O contained in a coffee can. The water ends up slightly turbid :p

So I use a half gallon of dH2O each wash. So twice each week, that's a gallon. I've been doing this since May and I think it really helps. Costs me $0.80 every week.

[knobbly]

Thank you foreveryours!! Helpful. :thumbsup:

[foreveryours]

Thank you foreveryours!! Helpful. :thumbsup:

Thank you, I've found it works for me.

I'd like to do an actual EDTA rinse but the chemistry of EDTA is a bit complicated with both acid/base and complexation reactions taking place simultaneously with metals, magnesium and calcium in particular, of significantly differing affinities. So without diving in really deep, I have absolutely no idea what pH would be most effective when dealing with "hair" rather than buildup around the kitchen faucet. I'm sure that will be a future project one of these days.

Good luck!