Thursday 12 July 2012

7 Reasons Your Hair Won't Grow


By Nia of My Kinks and Curls

For the most part, all hair grows. On average hair grows about a 1/4 to 1/2 an inch a month but sometimes (or should I say a lot of the time) it seems that our hair growth stunts and we can't reach our ideal length goals. The truth is to gain longer hair we have to: retain hair length, avoid doing things that lead to hair breakage and shedding, and stimulate hair growth. In this article, I've listed my top 8 reason why your hair doesn't seem to grow and helpful tips to counteract them. Enjoy!

1. Lack of moisture

Without moisture hair dries up and eventually breaks off. With curly and kinky hair textures it is important to keep the ends of our hair well-moisturised as the scalps natural oil find it harder to reach these parts. Use a water-based moisturiser concentrating on the hair ends followed by a hair oil or butter to seal moisture in the hair longer. I recommend using Olive Oil, Jojoba or Coconut Oil. Check out my article on How to Moisturise Effectively.


2. Constant manipulation

Daily styling, brushing and combing can cause a lot of wear and tear to the hair. Protective styling can reduce the amount of stress you put on you hair in the long term. You can also try style that require less manipulation  and little up keep like buns, puffs and ponytails. Furthermore try to not part in the same places and vary styling options.

3. Product build-up on the scalp & hair

Products can build up on your scalp and clog the pores, pausing hair growth. Heavy products like hair greases, pomades and gels are especially inclined to doing this. Therefore always try to uses light natural products like oils and avoid using hair greases. Make sure you cleanse and clarify your hair and scalp you every 7 to 14 days depending on your hair texture and product usage. Check out my article on How to Shampoo.

4.  Heat damage

If you've followed this blog from the beginning you'll know that I had a lot of heat damage in the beginning of my natural journey from using heat styling tools. Heat damage basically is when your hair is over exposed to heat and the outer layer of the hair (the cuticle) becomes damage, this causes your hair to be dry, frizzy and kills curl definition. To avoid this minimise your usage of heat styling tools, use heat protectant and do not use the hottest setting on heat styling tools. Check out The 411... On Heat Damage for more information

5.  Colouring

I love playing with hair colour but the truth be told colourants are very harsh chemicals. When you dye hair bonds in the hair are broken and this means more care needs to be taken in looking after your hair. Protein treatments can temporarily repair hair bonds stripped by colourants.

6. Pulling hair

Pulling hair to tightly can cause not only hair loss around the hairline but sore and acne on the scalp. Make sure you are gentle with hair in these area as it is quite fragile and negligence can lead to traction alopecia.

7. Diet
A poor diet can lead to a stunt in hair growth or hair loss. Make sure you are eating a balanced diet and are properly hydrated.



4 comments:

  1. Thanks for this info. I recently starting sealing with coconut oil and have noticed an increase of retain moisture in my hair.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is very good info. When I moisturize, I use the LOC system. I always use water as my "L"iquid. I am going to try using a liquid-based moisturizer instead and see how that works. Thanks.

    http://discoveringnatural.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. THIS IS VERY USEFUL FOR MOST WOMEN. I hope you can check out my site: http://theproverbs.net and FOLLOW. Thanks for your time. Hope to hear from you soon.

    best wishes,
    steven

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very good article as usual ladies!!! Thanx for the information and reminders!!!¡¡¡

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for supporting and subscribing to Curls of Joy. We genuinely thank you and appreciate your comments.