Sunday, April 13, 2014

How To Get Your Hair To Grow Long



Shortly after starting this blog I did a post on my hair journey.  It has been a while since I did an update on my hair journey but my hair is still doing what I want it to do, and that is growing!  It has been slow, but steady.  The average rate of hair growth is approximately half an inch per month so that means it takes the average person one year to get six inches of new growth.  After you get all of your trims for the year, it is safe to say that you should retain at least four to five of those inches.  Trims are very important because although without them the hair will appear longer, it will look very jagged and unhealthy, and sometimes extremely frizzy.  Also, without trims, the ends will continue to split up the hair shaft so the longer you wait to get one, the more you will have to get cut in the end.  Let's take a look at my hair in July of 2012:


In the picture above I had my hair cut in an inverted bob, being very short in the back and coming longer in the front with lots of layers.  I very much enjoyed that cut but decided to grow it out to show other women how to grow their hair if that is what they want to do.  So, here we are with the journey to longer hair.



This picture was taken a few months after the first one and you can see that my hair had already began to grow.  The layers were starting to grow out a little bit and a little more of my neck was covered.  My hair care routine is as follows:

  1. Shampoo weekly- I use Silk Hydration by L. Jones products starting with the clarifying shampoo.  Sometimes I use the moisturizing shampoo and sometimes I don't.  It depends on if I think my hair is dry or not.  If it seems to be dry I use the moisturizing shampoo, if not, I just stick with the clarifying shampoo.  Then I use the daily conditioner.  However, every six weeks I do a moisturizing treatment.  After rinsing the conditioner I generously apply the leave-in conditioner to detangle.  Next I then apply foam wrap on my edges and roots, comb straight down, allow to dry, then flat iron.  
  2. Use heat sparingly- When I flat iron, I use it only once per week.  I also only flat iron each piece of hair once.  Never flat iron the same piece of hair over and over because this could lead to heat damage.
  3. Wrap every night- This is maybe the most important step.  I wrap my hair every single night, even when I know I will be shampooing it the next day.  Wrapping the hair helps protect the ends of the hair by not causing them to split as fast as they would if you did not wrap.  It also helps you lay your roots down which is amazing when you are relaxer stretching and you want the roots to look.


This next picture was taken around April or May of 2013.  At this point my hair was slightly past my shoulders.  I did make sure I was drinking plenty of water, specifically at least 48-64 ounces per day.  I was not taking any vitamins or anything, but simply doing the three things listed above from week to week.




The last two pics were taken in April of 2014.  My hair is now over seven inches longer than it was two years ago!  I am happy with the progress even though it is slow progress.  My hair is relaxed and I only get my relaxers twice per year, once in July and once in December.  I do this to ensure that my hair does not encounter any overlapping or over-processing of the relaxer.  For more info on how I do this be sure to check out my "how to stretch your relaxer past 6 weeks" series.  Ladies, as long as you are healthy and do not have any medical issues with your hair you can absolutely grow your hair to be long, thick, and healthy whether you have a relaxer or not.  My routine is very simple, shampoo weekly, keep the extra heat out, and wrap every night, period.  I do not do all of the extra-ness of moisturizing and sealing and all of that stuff.  I like things simple and easy and apparently so does my hair because it is definitely growing.  My hair is still not quite as long as it was before I cut it but I plan on continuing to let it grow until it passes the point where it used to be.  My advice to anyone trying to grow their hair is to keep your routine simple and be gentle with your hair.  Be good to it and it will be good to you!
Share:

2 comments

  1. Great tips. And thank you for sharing your hair journey! xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like how simple your regime is. There are so many hair to-dos now that it's hard to keep up with what we are "supposed" to do to our hair:(

    ReplyDelete


Try an online hair tutorial from LaToya!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Is Your Hair Always Dry?

The Healthy Relaxed Hair Journal

© LaToya Jones | All rights reserved.
Blog Design Handcrafted by pipdig