7 Principles to Grow Your Hair

1. Keep your scalp clean

The pores on your scalp need to be unclogged and free from harmful bacteria in order for healthy hair to sprout. Scalp health is the foundation of everything. It's just that simple. 

 

2. Your ends are fragile, baby them

This applies to when you moisturize the ends, when you're detangling (be extra gentle with your ends), and when you're styling your hair (keep your ends tucked away and shielded from  the environment to reduce dryness, tangling, and damage) 

3. Dust, not trim 

For those of us who are natural, texlaxed, relaxed ("permed"), and

who would like to see our hair growth this coming year, I'd suggest just dusting your ends every 3 months. Dusting means you're cutting off just a little bit of the hair tips (a maximum of 0.25 inches).

Transitioners who want to quickly get rid of relaxed ends or who want to big chop (which, by the way, is not a requirement for having having any form of healthy hair), may go ahead and trim, sha. 

Think about it like this: humans' hair (no matter what race nor ethnicity one is) grows about 0.25 inches to 0.50 inches each month. If you're trimming off 0.5 inches to 2 inches every month, abeg, how will d hair grow *in my Igbo voice*?

4. Deep condition your life away

Yes, girl. Deep condition like your hair depends on it, because it does. For real, for real. Didi of Afrocurlitan said it perfectly, that it's the step in your hair routine you simply cannot skip. She even explains how to deep condition in her post "Deep Conditioner 101." 

Source: Naturally Curly

5. Balance moisture with strength

This one can be a bit tricky. We can discuss this later in another post. For now, just remember that your hair needs to be strong enough to not break off yet soft enough to be malleable. Beware that not everything is about moisture, and there is a difference between strong hair and dry hair. 

6. Be consistent and patient  

This applies to when you're combing, learning new hairstyles, and waiting for the hair to grow. Just focus on being more gentle with your hair and building healthy hair habits, and you'll see improvements, I guarantee. For consistency, choose the days of the week/month you're going to have a wash day (the day that you'll wash and deep condition your hair), book them in your schedule, and stick to your routine! Don't

7. Keep it simple

Don't try to do too much, please. Many times, the fewer products you're using, the better (especially for hair growth newbies). The

more simple your hair care routine is, the better for you too. An overly complex routine will leave you tired and frustrated. I find that it's easier for me to tackle one hair problem at a time. For example, when I started my health hair journey in 2009, I focused on making my hair thicker. After about 6 months in, I then focused on making my hair longer. And shortly after that I moved on to focusing on growing my edges back. Focusing on one thing doesn't mean I ignored the others though. 

Source: Kinky Koiffures and Polished Pinkies

                                             
Haha, don't you just love that meme I put up there? I do! 

Ladies, have an amazing, positive, happy hair week. I welcome questions, comments, stories, and tidbits. 

Much love,