Tips for Length Retention & Hair Growth

French Braids

Hellooo! How's it going? Annabelle from  HerBrownie asked me to do a post on tips that have helped me with hair growth and length retention so that's what I'm talking about today :)

When I first went natural I had my hair out a lot. I really loved how I looked with my little Afro and my twist outs so sometimes, I would have my hair out for like 5 or 6 weeks. This wouldn't have been a problem but the fact that I combed my hair almost everyday, and I had have hand-in-hair syndrome didn't help, so my hair was breaking a lot. 

Last year, I thought I was taking care of my hair but there were some things that I wasn't doing so I didn't retain as much length as I would have liked to. I made a few changes, and I started noticing an improvement even though my hair is definitely not where I want it to be yet. 

These are some of the tips for hair growth and length retention that have worked for me: 


REDUCE MANIPULATION WHEN YOUR HAIR IS OUT

I like having my hair out and trying out new styles. The problem starts when I style my hair every single day. Doing this will eventually cause breakage and slow down length retention. The amount of breakage would depend on how long you have your hair out, and the styles you like to do with your hair. If you're twisting your hair everyday for example, this constant manipulation will cause your hair to break a lot. Styles like French braids and mini twists help me reduce breakage on days when I still want my natural hair out but I don't want an 'out' style like a puff. 

DETANGLE

For a really long time I didn't detangle my hair. I wasn't sure exactly how to and I was a bit lazy with my hair. A lot of articles I read that talked about detangling also said it took an hour, sometimes 2 hours so, I was like who is going to sit down and be detangling my hair for 2 hours. My hair was also still really short so I didn't see the point. Sometimes when I washed my hair though, some parts got a bit tangled. Now what I do is, I detangle my hair while I'm taking out my braids. It saves time and my hair doesn't tangle when I wash it.

WASH YOUR HAIR IN SECTIONS

Washing your hair in sections reduces breakage and tangling plus, it makes washing your hair a lot easier. The number of sections would depend on the length and thickness of your hair. I wash my hair in about 6 or 7 braids if I'm shampooing and I don't know how many twists when I'm deep conditioning to be honest. It's probably like 20 but trust me it makes washing your hair easier and it reduces breakage. Also, if your hair isn't too full you can probably wash it in like 10 twists.

GET A SPRAY BOTTLE

A spray bottle is a very essential hair tool. You should however make sure you don't just throw in a lot of things because they're good for your hair. If you're using your spray bottle when you have braids, putting a lot of oils and conditioner will increase product build up and cause your scalp to itch. In my spray bottle, I have water, glycerine and castor oil, and this moisturises my hair much better than when I had water and 4 different oils in my spray bottle. If you have a lot of products in your spray bottle and they moisturise your hair and don't cause a lot of product buildup, that's good but this is what works for me. 

PROTECTIVE STYLE

No surprise there right? My hair is mostly or almost always in braids if it's not out. I noticed that whenever I did weaves my hair would break and I prefer braids anyway. One thing about doing braids as a protective style is that you have to figure out how long your hair can go in braids before it starts getting dry and breaking. For me it's 4-5 weeks. You should also wash your hair while it's in braids. Laziness will not let me deep condition in braids but a number of people do and it's good for length retention. 

TRIM YOUR HAIR AS OFTEN AS NEEDED

Don't bother running away from trimming your hair if you want to retain length. Even if it's twice a year, if you have split ends and a lot of single strand knots trim them please. I learnt this the hard way last year and, after trimming about an inch of my hair I started retaining length as my hair wasn't breaking as much anymore. 
When I trim my hair I usually do braids after and by the time I take out my braids my hair is where it was before I trimmed it. 

EAT RIGHT AND DRINK LOTS OF WATER

Eating the right foods helps with hair growth. Foods such as spinach, salmon, eggs, sweet potatoes, nuts, brown rice are a few foods that have been said to aid hair growth. Drinking a lot of water also helps because, a healthy body = healthy hair.

I hope this helps 

Oyime :)