When it comes to hair, we all have different goals. Some want to grow it as long as possible, others want to maintain length, and some just want to maximize its health. No matter what your hair goal is, we rounded up the best tips for growing out your hair. The key is keeping your tresses healthy during each stage of the hair growth process.
So, you’ve decided to grow out your hair. Maybe you’re in a style rut and need a change or maybe you just can’t get your dream haircut with your current length. Whatever the reason, growing out your hair can seem like a daunting task — especially if you’re starting with a shorter cut or a lot of layers. To help you along throughout this process, here are four simple steps to help you grow out your hair successfully:
1. Trim it regularly
The "hack" to grow out your hair faster is to trim it regularly.
You may not like the sound of this, but it's the only way to get rid of split ends that cause your hair to break off.
Trimming your hair doesn't make it grow any faster, but it does get rid of split ends that break your hair.
Trimming your hair is the best way to keep split ends at bay and prevent them from traveling up your hair shaft — which they will do, eventually resulting in breakage that can shorten your strands and inhibit growth.
If you do need some convincing before you head to the salon, however, here's some science: When you have a split end that isn't trimmed, it will continue to split up the hair shaft until the damage reaches new growth and breaks off entirely. But by trimming those hairs every six to eight weeks (or every 10 to 12 if your ends are healthy), you're able to remove damaged hairs before they break or split further up the shaft, leaving you with hair that's stronger and healthier."
2. Protect Your Hair From Heat Damage
It's a common complaint about curly hair: "I want to grow out my hair, but I can't because it breaks off so quickly." A major part of this problem is heat damage.
When we use heat on our hair, whether from the sun or from styling tools such as flat irons, we are causing irreparable damage to our strands.
This is why it's so important to protect your hair from heat damage if you are trying to grow your mane long and strong.
A lot of people shy away from protective styles (styles that protect your ends by tucking them away), because they feel like their hair isn't growing. But there are many ways to protect your hair without protective styles. Use a hat or scarf to shield your hair from the sun and always use thermal protectant before flat ironing or curling. Don't apply heat directly to the ends of your hair, where it's most fragile. Instead, apply heat higher up on the shaft so you don't have dry, damaged ends.
Heat damage is not reversible — once it happens, there's nothing you can do to repair it. Your only option is to cut it off completely and be more conscientious in protecting your hair in the future.
3. Don’t Dye Your Hair
There are numerous reasons why you may want to dye your hair.
Maybe you’re trying to cover up gray hair, or maybe you’re just looking for a change.
You might be in the midst of growing out your hair, and the awkward stage has finally reached its peak, so you want to dye it until it’s long enough to do something with.
The latter is a common reason why people dye their hair while they grow it out. While coloring your hair during this time can be tempting, there are more reasons than not to avoid doing so. Don’t dye your hair to grow out your hair because:
You won’t have to cut as much off at the end. Think about it: If you don’t dye your hair, you may have to cut six months off at the end of growing it out. But if you do dye your hair, you may have to cut up to an additional year off! So even though it seems like a good idea now, think about what will happen after all that time and money is spent on coloring it every few weeks.
4. Eat Healthy
To grow your hair out long you need plenty of vitamins -- especially biotin and vitamin A.
Biotin is a water-soluble B vitamin that helps break down food into glucose and helps the body make healthy fats and amino acids.
You can find biotin in egg yolks, nuts, avocados and salmon.
Vitamin A helps produce sebum in the scalp which keeps hair moisturized. You can get vitamin A from leafy greens like spinach or kale as well as carrots, sweet potatoes and red bell peppers.
You also need omega-3 fatty acids for healthy hair growth. Omega-3s are anti-inflammatory which means they reduce inflammation on the scalp that can cause irritation or dandruff. You can get omega-3s from salmon as well as flaxseeds or chia seeds which you can throw on salads or smoothies for an extra boost.
All you need is a little patience and the right techniques to help your hair along.
It's all about a healthy lifestyle and a healthy regimen. Try these four steps for yourself, and you'll see how easily you can grow out your hair.