What do you do when you miss your long hair? Watched hair never grows, they say, much like a watched pot never boils. Instead of constantly measuring each lock of hair, all you have to do is nourish it, protect it, and care for it. The foods you eat and the treatments you use in your hair can make all the difference. Don’t get depressed because your hair is short. Cheer up, because there are several ways you can help your hair grow faster.
What to Do When You Miss Your Long Hair
Whenever I miss my long hair, I start eating healthy foods, drinking nourishing beverages, and taking vitamins designed to stimulate hair growth. Just because you miss your long hair, it doesn’t mean you have to sit around waiting for that half-inch to grow every month. Take control of your hair and trick it into growing a little faster.
#1: Take Your Vitamins
It’s recommended to take daily vitamins to amp up hair health and growth. Biotin is a well-known powerhouse that strengthens and lengthens your locks, although it takes about a month to kick in. Be patient if you don’t see results right away. Other healthy hair-friendly vitamins include other B vitamins, especially B-complex; vitamins A, C, and E; copper; zinc; magnesium; iron; and selenium.
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#2: Eat Hair-Healthy Foods
In addition to taking vitamins, you can eat them, as well. Filling your daily diet with hair-healthy food will strengthen your follicles while nourishing both your hair and your scalp. You want fresh produce, lean meats, and healthy fats. Cheese, milk, yogurt, and eggs are essential, as are chicken, fish, olive oil, and foods that have plenty of Omega-3 fatty acids. Whole grains, spinach, peppers, avocado, beets, walnuts—eat ’em all!
#3: Oil Up
Mix castor oil with equal parts almond oil, coconut oil, or olive oil. Massage the resulting mixture into your scalp. Castor oil is packed full of omega-9 fatty acids and other essential fatty acids, along with vitamin E. Let the oil mixture remain on your hair for half an hour or 45 minutes, then shampoo it. For a sweet smell, include drops of your favorite essential oils, such as lavender, eucalyptus, or peppermint.
#4: Turn It Upside Down
There comes a point where you’re willing to try almost anything because you miss your long hair so much. The trick of flipping your hair upside down sounds ridiculous, but bending your head and letting your locks flow upside down for 2-4 minutes every day can help stimulate circulation to your scalp.
#5: Eggs for One
Egg masks are egg-cellent for hair growth—sorry. Thanks to all the protein, iron, zinc, selenium, and sulfur, an egg mask nourishes your tresses from the outside in. Whisk together a single egg and add drops of lavender oil and grape-seed oil. Apply it to your hair and let it sit for an hour, then rinse and shampoo. You could also mix two yolks with extra virgin olive oil or combine a whisked egg, milk, EVOO, and lemon juice.
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#6: Skip The Hot Hair Tools
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that avoiding hot hair styling tools will make your hair happy. If you’ve ever gone more than a few days without using your hair straightener, you know you can feel the difference. Hair is softer and can also even look brighter in color.
Heat damages your hair – hello, breakage and pesky split-ends – causing it to thin and even fall out. It’s only logical that the way to encourage faster hair growth would be to only use hot tools once or twice a week.
#7: Massage Your Scalp
These days, self care is the thing. Every time you lather up in the shower to wash your hair, massage your scalp while rinsing the shampoo through and out of your hair. You don’t need to rub hard, just firm with your fingertips. Massaging your scalp will stimulate blood flow to the hair follicles, ensuring they get their dose of oxygen and nutrients needed for hair growth.
#8: Be Careful With the Extensions
Oftentimes, women of color opt for protective hairstyles when they’re growing their hair out or trying to get it to grow faster. But you need to be careful when dealing with extensions and braids. Although they look gorgeous, they may hinder your hair’s efforts to lengthen. This is because of their tendency to pull on the hair and scalp if they’re too tight.
Avoid wearing them longer than three months, and always have them professionally removed.
#9: Use the Good Shampoo
We all have our favorite hair products proven to make our mane look gorgeous. But if you aren’t sure whether the ingredients in your shampoo help or harm hair growth, you’ll want to take a peek. Look for shampoos that are natural cleansers void of parabens and silicone. Silicone easily builds up on the hair shaft and may lead to stunted hair growth. Parabens have been proven to damage hair and the scalp.
#10: Embrace Hair Trims
We know it can be tempting to avoid the scissors when you’re wanting your hair to grow, but in order to foster new hair growth, those split ends and breakage need to be gone. If you leave these barriers lingering on your hair, it just means your hair will have to work harder for new growth. When you see your hairstylist, ask for a ‘dusting,’ to get rid of unhealthy ends.
What do you do when you miss your long hair? Do you try to speed up growth or do you find hairstyles that make you feel confident during the transition?