Hair pulling and increased growth?

[twolunarspring]

A friend of mine was just telling me that in India, women lightly pull on each-other's hair to increase growth... the stress on the roots makes it stronger, I think that's the theory. I have never heard of this - has anyone else?

She was telling me this because she thinks if I wore a bead on my baby dreadlock (I have one, underneath my loose hair) it would make it stronger.

[MonaMayfair]

I've never heard of that! It sounds pretty unlikely to me, but it woud be good if it WERE that simple to make your hair grow faster!

[tofuowl]

I don't have any scientific evidence for this, but anecdotally, this has certainly proven true for me.

Back in middle school, I remember my hair was somehow very slow-growing. It was about waist-length, but no matter how careful I was with it, and how many times I just trimmed the ends up to prevent tangling, I was stuck with "fairytale ends" and it never seemed to gain much length.

We took a family trip down to Key West one summer, and I got my WHOLE head braided. I left the braids in for a week or two before taking them out. Within a few months, my hair was easily down to Iliac Length, and was much fuller.

I guess any number of dietary or other factors could have played into it, but I definitely attribute the kick-start to the tight braids!

[Rapunzal2Be]

Well, in my family we believe in the old wives' tale that you should pull your hair up (wear it in a pony tail or bun, not extremely tight but also not loose) as much as possible to make it grow long.

My Mom put my hair up from the moment it was barely long enough and by the time I was three I had waist length hair. I did the same thing with my daughter, with the same results.

My friends did not believe me, when my daughter was a tiny little one, and I put her hair up into cute ponies and buns and told them my family's belief - but they sure were amazed when my daughter's hair just grew and grew and grew!

So yep, I'm a believer that a good amount of (gentle) pulling helps the hair to grow. I have no idea why and there's not really any logic to it, but I see it work. (In fact, I often wear my own hair in a bun on top of my head now that it is long enough, the same way that I do my daughter's.)

[Loreley]

I heard several times that if you wear it in a tight ponytail it'll grow faster. I don't know...

[spidermom]

Maybe it's true. Who knows? A friend of mine went to Mexico for a couple of months and came back with an amazing amount of growth. She told me that she realized one day while she was sitting in the shade of a tree that if she pulled her hair, she could make it grow longer. I think that mind-altering mushrooms were involved. Anyway, I couldn't believe how much longer her hair was when she got back; it was only 2 months!

[Toadstool]

I read this in a magazine as a teenager and have been pulling at my hair rather desperately since my recent trim!

[dropinthebucket]

i wonder if it has a similar effect to scalp massage, stimulating blood flow/circulation?????

[Aredhel77]

I have heard of a scalp massage technique where you gently grab the hair close to your roots in your clawed fingers, close the fingers (with hair in) and tug on it slightly. You carry on doing this all over the scalp. It feels quite nice if you're not rough! I would guess that it stimulates the follicles?

[Aredhel77]

I have heard of a scalp massage technique where you gently grab the hair close to your roots in your clawed fingers, close the fingers (with hair in) and tug on it slightly. You carry on doing this all over the scalp. It feels quite nice if you're not rough! I would guess that it stimulates the follicles?

Ah yes, my point exactly, dropinthebucket