Since I made the decision to go natural a year ago, I’ve fielded as many questions about growing hair as styling it. While long hair is desired by many women no matter their texture, for naturals, who have big chopped, it’s a bit more complicated. You literally have to grow your hair back from scratch all while getting to know your new texture and learning how to style and manage it. See? No easy feat.
Here are the tips I’ve embraced to grow out my natural hair:
1. Protective Styles
Your hair typically grows a quarter to a half inch per month. The problem? It can break off as much if not more than it grows causing a heap of frustration when you see no progress at all. In addition to practicing good hair habits including wearing a satin bonnet or sleeping on a satin pillow (cotton is not your friend) and staying away from drying ingredients like alcohol, find a style where your ends are covered or “protected.” Protective styles like a bun, two strand twists, braids, weaves and wigs (with proper haircare underneath) are great options that will help increase hair retention.
2. Vitamins
Use caution (aka consult a doctor) but there are several vitamins out there that can help you with your journey to grow out your hair. Omega 3 supplements and Vitamin D are hailed as excellent for growing out your mane.
3. Natural Oils
There are plenty of products on the market that promise to grow your strands but I’ve found natural oils are the very best. Olive oil, carrot oil, Jojoba oil and Jamaican Black Castor oil are exceptional.
4. Get Your Ends Trimmed
For some reason, many women are afraid to trim their ends. Trust me on this: split ends are your worst enemy. They don’t stop hair growth but they increase breakage which obviously prevents hair retention and leads to damage.
5. Diet
What you put into your body shows in your hair! In addition to staying hydrated (cue Sh*t Natural Girls Say), choose a diet rich in iron, protein, vitamin B and omega-3 fatty acids.
What tips do you use to achieve long, healthy hair, Clutchettes?
-Jessica C. Andrews
Personally, medium box braiding does wonders. Naturally a person is supposed to loose 100 hair follicles a day. Combing, drying, too much shampoo (meaning daily- without conditioning) especially for black kinky hair , weaving with glue, corn rows hikes the hair loss. Putting your hair in box braids will lead to a fuller thicker hair especially if you follow direction 2 and 3 weekly and leave the braids in for a minimum of a month. Please go to a license beautician for your hair braiding as not all African hair braiding shops actually have licenses and some will give you what the Cameroonians affectionately call Mbaambah, pull out your sides. I suggest Laura’s hairbraiding on Woodruff in Brooklyn. 125th st is your enemy.
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I had that much hair up until I was 21. But back then the “in”thing was to have bone straight hair. Now I only have half the hair @ half the length. I wish they had photos like this in the 80s. Not 70s but the 80s…totally different thing. I miss my thick nappy down to my back hair. I was embarrassed but looking at this photo. I see that I had something to be envious about: A head full of nappy hair.
I have a tip — Leave your hair alone!!
Ok my hair NEVER grows past my ears and has always been short. Granted, I was getting a relaxer almost once a month.
I had braids forvever— they started pulling my hair out.
I went to a Salon in LA and my new hairdresser told me the reason my hair was falling out is because its under too much stress. I then got a weave done by her (Mind you she use to work for Elgin Charles and opened up her new shop)
She sewed a weave on (best weave I have had EVER she is the only person I go to now) and I was able to keep in on for 3 months (YES 3 MONTHS—ppl would come up to me and say you’re hair is really nice and I would reply “Yea I’ve had this in for 3 months”—I secretly loved it)
Now let me tell you when I took that weave off of my head, my hair had grown so much I could not see the conrows or the parts…YES that has NEVER happened to me before. I kept playing with my hair because I couldnt believe it (it was soo thick and healthy—my hair had always been thin and brittle).
The only difference in what she did—- She took her time (It did not hurt at all) and she sewed a cap onto my conrows, to then sew the tracks onto the cap. So my conrows were protected and my tracks were sewed onto the cap (AND NOT DIRECTLY ON MY HEAD).
You think I’m playing? Try it. I have more hair on my head that I ever had and it hasnt been a full year yet.
(p.s. I am 100% African)
Hello fellow 100% african lady;) thank you for sharing. I’d like to know how you managed to keep your hair+scalp clean and moisturised while you had the weave on so long?
Thank you
I had gone back natural twice. The first time I decided to go back to my roots, I cut off my relaxed hair and I bought kinky extensions and did a two twist strand down my back on and off for about a year. My natural hair was long and thick.. beautiful. However I felt pressured by society to go back straight (dumbest mistake EVER). After wearing my hair relaxed again, it fell out, I got a short hair cut…my hair continued to fall out. I went back to my roots once again in early 2011 using the the long two strand twists and now I have a beautiful fro. And I wear my hear in cute fluffy 80s hair styles I remember my mother wearing. I use Carol’s daughter hair milk and keep my hair moisturized, moisturized and moisturized. I braid it at night in about 14 braids and loose them out in the morning…BANG!!! A sexy up do and good to go!!!
I did get inspiration from my big sister whose natural hair is down her back on the top of her bottom.. Plenty people ask her if its a weave…which annoys her!! The advice she gives me is to leave my hair alone don’t go nuts with too many products. Use a great conditioner, use a great leave in conditioner……moisturize is her motto….No curling irons!!! Try to keep heat to a minimum..she does use a hair dryer from time to time. But mostly she wears a boring pony tail everyday and gets her hair done rarely… She’s a mother of two and a Doctor. I am a little younger, childless and single.. I have to do something with my hair!!! I can’t keep it regular. She laughs when I say that but its true the less you do the more you will have. And her 13 yr old daughter has thick long beautiful natural hair as well. She is definitely doing something right..so I am still following her instructions..so far so good.
Good luck all my natural sisters….
I have a question about getting my ends trimmed, i just got my ends trimmed myself today good news I trimmed out all the bad split ends, bad news my hair is totally uneven lol. Was I suppose to trim it slowly each month instead of just wanting to trim it all at once,how to a grow my hair out even now and still keep it healthy?