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As I am sure you have heard, if you cut your hair frequently, your hair will grow in faster, longer, and healthier.
Gobbledygook! This myth came from the observation of men's facial hair. As they shaved, the facial hair would indeed grow in thicker. Its called, 'puberty.'
This is because certain male hormones affect facial hair in that manner. They do not affect the hair on your head in the same way.
To the contrary. Male hormonal activity is what leads to hair thinning and loss on certain parts of the head, but not all. Hence the familiar balding pattern known as 'male pattern baldness.'
Cutting your hair only makes it shorter, does not affect the growth rate one iota, and cannot determine the length that your hair will grow to. Maximum hair length is determined by the shape and width of the hair shaft, and that is determined genetically and is not alterable with current technology.
Lastly, hair is neither healthy or unhealthy. It is in fact, dead. Else, it would really hurt to cut it. It is the health of the hair follicle below the outer skin that requires nutrients for good health, and no adverse hormonal activity.
So, unless you have split ends or chemically damaged hair, the only need to cut the hair is for the look that you want.
A few things that you can do to ensure that your hair follicles remain healthy and your hair is undamaged, are:
1. Take an inexpensive daily multi vitamin such as 'One-A-Day.' Your hair likes zinc and biotin and both of the above mentioned vitmins contain ample amounts of these. Don't waste your hard earned money on 'super vitamins.' Your body only requires so many vitamins per day and simply discharges the excess. You can't put twenty gallons in a ten gallon tank. In some instances, over dosing on supplements can actually be fatal.
2. Do not over brush your hair. With every stroke you damage your hair more. Brush only as much as you need to style the hair, then stop.
3. Buy a good quality brush or comb without sharp plastic or metal ridges. This is one of the common factors leading to split ends, as is over brushing.
4. Don't be penny foolish. Buy good quality salon products. The chemicals used in many if not most of the over the counter shampoos and conditioners, contain very harsh ingredients such as 'ammonium laurel sulfate' which can actually dry your hair out and cause breakage and split ends. 'Pantene' is the worst of these in our opinion.
5. Don't constrict your hair with tight bands, hats, braids and the like. These also lead to split ends and hair breakage.
Also, know that hair is dead the instant it leaves your scalp, so there is nothing you can do to it to make it grow any faster. On the contary anything you do to it will damage it like a rope. Your body does not know how much hair you have nor how long it is, the hair follicle simply keeps producing hair at a constant rate.
Well, growth rate is slightly variable even though the hair itself is dead...you can't really make it *faster*, but things like not eating enough protein will slow down production.
Sorry, Luckskind; but I totally disagree here. I've been a life-long advocate and of dry-brushing to stimulate circulation in the scalp, as well as for an alternative to having to shampoo every day in order to have a non-itchy scalp. My grandmother's generation advised "brushing 100 strokes" for healthy-looking, shiny, vibrant hair, --- and, although I don't claim to count literally to 100, I do indeed come close to that #. In fact, I regularly have dry-brushed all of my life, --- including when my hair was much shorter. At age 53, and with the length now touching my belt, the brushing habit must have apparently served me well... either that, or I'm wearing a VERY convincing looking wig on my head!!!
Well, here again I hate to disagree with you; but, I do! In a windy city like San Francisco, and with an outdoor job like gardening/landscaping, --- as well as a part-time cooking job indoors --- there's no way in hell I would have survived without hats, braids, buns, and hair ties. In fact, for me, on one of those rare days when I wear my hair completely loose all day, I without a doubt get WAAAAAAY more tangles, snarls, breakage, and knots to deal with. If anything, my advise would be the opposite from yours: I find that the longer your hair gets, the more you HAVE TO braid, bun, muliple hair-tie, and... [God forbid!]... wear a hat!!
- Ken
Hello ,
I think you are both right ,
- you can brush your hair a lot without breaking your hair but you MUST NOT brush it like hell or you will break a lot of hair.
My sister brush her hair like she is trying pull of her hair , and she has a lot of broken hair...
-i think you can wear tails , hat and braid since you dont constrict it to tight or it will break the hair where the elastic is...
Cya
Braids are one of the best things you can use to protect your hair!
I do think that proper brushing will increase circulation. Allow me to make a suggestion: Make sure that there are no tangles in the hair and then use an "ouchless" brush and brush the hair and scalp using moderate pressure. Run the brush over the scalp very slowly. OMG! That feels soooo good. Well, you probably already knew this, but, there are probably many here that have never known such pleasure. So we will all know what I'm talking about I'll post a picture of an ouchless brush. Keep in mind that if you have tangles, or, get too rough with the brush there will be some ouch involved.
Yeah, I know it's pink.
Jeffrey.