new thread
Hey All,
It's been a while since I last posted, got busy with school and all but I'm glad to be back. I hope everyone is doing great. The good news I have is, I talked to my parents about letting my hair grow out and they reluctantly said yes! So March 2018 was my last haircut :) As such I have some questions because I'm not sure how to go about some things. I hope you guys can help.
First of all, I should probably talk about my routines and goals. I'm trying to grow down to my butt, which I know requires a lot of time and effort. I also read that I should minimize damage as much as possible in order to reach that length. How do I know if my hair is getting damaged? I have no idea how to tell, having not paid much attention to my hair for much of my life. I'm scared I'm damaging my hair without knowing it and jeopardizing my goals. Currently my length is just barely shoulder.
My routine: I just wash once a week, with shikakai powder- it's a very gentle cleanser that's made of ground herbs, has zero chemicals at all. I've been using it since I was a baby and it suits my scalp very well. I use a wooden comb and I try to be as gentle as possible, but inevitably there are snags and knots that scare me a lot(what's going on there? yikes). Also obviously there's probably wear and tear just from environment as well as things like when I hit my head or when it brushes up against something. I've been trying to search for split ends but I'm so bad at spotting them, I haven't been able to find one yet. I don't touch dye, curling irons, etc.- I don't do anything to my hair except washing and combing.
Sorry for the long post- TL;DR how do I figure out if my hair is getting damaged? I'm very scared of damaging it and ruining my grow out journey. Thank you all for reading and helping, y'all are the best :))
Sign hair is damaged is when it appears to stop growing or not getting longer. Stay away from curling irons and hairdryers. It sounds like you're doing everything right. Products with alcohol in them like gels and hairsprays can dry your hair out too and make it damaged. A little jojoba oil on ends can help protect them.
Marty
Oh and reason hair doesn't get longer is that it gets so dry and brittle that it breaks and when it happened to me I didn't always see it because my ponytail holder (cloth covered elastic with no metal-usually won't snap your hair) kept doing it. I would see the short cut hair later laying in the carpet.
Marty
I think the most important thing to prevent damage is regular conditioning (leave it in your hair while u do the other regular shower stuff and then rinse with cool water) and then once a week use something like the Aussie 3 minute miracle.
Marty
I've found that little details like "rinsing with COOL water" as you mentioned, really determines the effectiveness of the conditioner. One more nifty trick I've learnt which really makes a big difference is to towel dry the hair before applying the conditioner.
Now when i say "towel dry" i don't mean any rubbing whatsoever. Just dab your hair with the towel or wrap it around your hair and just squash it a little.
This does require you to step out of the shower for a few seconds but it is worth it. :-)
It sounds like you're on the right track for growing great looking extra long hair. I think the most important things are to avoid torturing it with chemicals, overbrushing and so forth. It's a good idea to stay out of harsh environments like extreme heat, cold, wind and so forth or if you must, protect it somehow. Avoiding tight ties, clips and hats is a good idea, too.
And some guys here won't agree with this, but I think it's not a bad idea to cut off a few inches if the bottom starts to look very damaged. What's left will look fantastic. Normally, you won't want to trim more than a tiny bit from the ends every few months, though. Your first priority is to have very healthy hair. Make length the close second.
I recently ran across a YouTube channel mainly about growing long hair, done by a lady with amazingly long thick hair. Take anyone's advice with a grain of salt, but check out the link below.
beautyklove