Originally Posted by
nekosan
Well, this is starting from childhood, and is mostly simple, but:
* Don't get bubble gum caught in your hair. (~4 years old)
* Try not to get tree sap in hair, either. (~4-8 years old)
* Brushing my own hair instead of having my mom brush it hurts a lot less. (~6-8 years old)
* Crap, there are lots of evil hair-eating chairs at school. Watch out for them!
* Using conditioner. (~10-12 years old)
* Combing conditioner through my hair with a wide-toothed comb in the shower. (~12-14 years old, idea probably from a magazine)
* Don't pile all your hair on top of your head when shampooing (like shampoo commercials show)! Let it hang down and loose. (~12-14 years old, idea probably from a magazine)
* Don't go to bed with loose, wet hair. (It dried tangled. The individual hairs dried bent instead of straight, so my hair was quite prone to tangling. College is when i figured this out, actually. Ouch.)
* Braiding my hair every night before going to bed. (Two braids works best for me. With one braid, the scalp hair is too loose and gets tangled. Three braids takes longer to do but has no more benefit than two braids. College, again.)
* Shampoo only on the scalp, conditioner only on the ends (elbows down). The shampoo does drip down the ends a bit, and the conditioner does get combed up to about shoulder level, so it all works out well. (Wow, i learned so much in college!)
* Don't make those night-time braids too tight! (Yup, college.)
* Wear hair up or braided instead of completely loose. (I do let it drip-dry loose, but start bunning/braiding it when it's no longer damp and wet, just cool. I have lived in dry, desert climates, so drip-dry only takes a few hours. I used to only put my hair up when doing activities, traveling, or encountering wind, but i keep it up a lot more nowadays.)
* Condition-wash-condition. (When showering, get hair damp, put conditioner in ends, pin hair up with claw clip. After doing the rest of my ablutions, let down hair, shampoo scalp, condition ends as normal.)
* A satin-weave silk sleep bonnet really does help cut down on nighttime friction. (Um, just within the past year. *blush*)
Most of these changes are minor - it took maybe 5-6 years to see a inch or so of gain from each.
My routine is fairly simple - i just use fairly standard shampoo and conditioner, and wash every other day. My hair tends to be greasy, so i don't like stretching more than that.
I'm hoping that henna will maybe give me another inch or two, but only time will tell.
When i was putting together my "hair history" album, i did determine that medication that i started taking around 2005 (lithium) did seem to shorten my terminal length by a few inches. Apparently it can make hair more brittle. I have gotten just amazingly positive psychiatric effects, however, and this completely outweighs the tiny sadness of ever-so-slightly less hair.
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