zionIf you’ve had a bad haircut lately and you’re wondering how you can get your hair to grow out faster or if you want to take your pixie cut to a should length bob as fast as you can because the pixie doesn’t suit you the way you thought it would there are things that you can do to make your hair grow faster. The bad news is that your hair won’t grow back overnight. Especially if it’s been chemically straightened, bleached, colored, or permed. The good news is that healthy hair does grow relatively fast and you can grow out your hair and put that hair mistake behind you forever pretty quickly.
Natural Hair Growth
Your hair is always growing. If your hair is relatively healthy and hasn’t been colored, bleached or chemically treated lately it will probably grow at about a half of an inch a month. That might not sound like a lot, but if you are eating a healthy diet and taking care of your hair you may notice it grow faster. A half inch a month is the baseline rate that most people’s hair grows at. Yours could be faster, especially if you are taking steps to make sure that your hair and scalp are as healthy as possible.
Damaged Hair Growth
If you have had a very short hair cut, or if your hair has been colored, permed, or chemically treated in any way including being straightened or getting a Brazilian blowout, it will grow more slowly than healthy hair that hasn’t been treated. If you want your treated or damaged hair to grow faster you will first have to take care of the damage and then take more steps to encourage healthy hair growth. Here are some ways that you can heal very damaged hair in order to get it growing faster:
Oil Treatments
One of the best ways to revitalize your hair and heal it after a chemical treatment is to use regular oil treatments. Use a pure natural oil like coconut oil or Argan oil. Don’t listen to old wives’ tales and use things like mayonnaise or peanut butter. Stick with pure unprocessed coconut oil or Argan oil. Apply a little bit of the oil to your scalp and massage it down the shafts of your hair to the ends. Leave it in your hair for about ten minutes and then shampoo and condition your hair the way you normally would. You can do this twice a week to help your hair heal.
Don’t Wash It
Another way to help your hair heal from treatments is to stop washing it so often. In general most women wash their hair more often than they should. Washing it strips the natural oils from your hair and makes it more prone to being dry and to breaking. Instead of washing your hair every day or even every other day try washing it just twice a week or even once a week. If your hair gets oily between washings try using a dry shampoo to keep your scalp healthy and deal with the oil without stripping your hair.
Reverse Wash It
When you do wash your hair during the time that it is healing reverse wash it. That means use conditioner on your hair first. Leave the conditioner in for a few minutes and then rinse it out and shampoo your hair. Using the conditioner first will protect your hair from being damaged further when you shampoo it. You can also mix some conditioner into your shampoo and use the mix to shampoo your hair.
Use A Sealer
When you color your hair always use a sealer immediately after you color it. The sealer will close the hair shaft and protect the hair from any further damage. It also will seal the color into your hair so that it lasts longer between colorings. You can also use a dealer after you shampoo your hair to add some protection to the strand if your hair is badly damaged. Sealing it will help prevent split ends and breakage when you are brushing it also.
Deep Conditioning
Deep condition your hair at least once a week with a high quality conditioner made for damaged hair. Deep conditioning masks can be expensive but they are worth it if you really want your hair to grow faster. Look for a deep conditioning masque that has healing natural oils, deep conditioners, and vitamins like vitamin E to help fix your damaged hair and make it lustrous. Once the worst of the damage is healed your hair will start to grow faster.
When Your Hair Is Healed
Once you have your hair back to a healthy state then you need to take more steps in order to get your hair to grow again. These steps should also be taken if you have healthy hair from the start and don’t need to go through the process of healing your hair before trying to get it to grow:
Use A Delicate Brush
One of the most common mistakes people make when trying to get their hair to grow faster is to brush it too much and to use a harsh hairbrush. If your brush is too harsh you will end up damaging your hair instead of encouraging it to grow. Use a natural boar hair brush with soft bristles when you brush your hair. It will distribute the natural oil in your hair evenly throughout the strands and help your hair grow. It’s also a very gentle brush that won’t rip or break your hair.
Don’t Brush When Wet
You should never brush your hair when it’s wet. Brushing or combing your hair when it’s wet makes your hair more likely to break or rip. And when you brush or comb your hair when it’s wet it will snarl more easily and get tangled more easily. Instead of brushing your hair or combing it right after you shower spray it with a detangler and let it dry. Then brush or comb it out.
Ditch The Heavy Towel
When you step out of the shower or go to dry your hair after washing it do you wrap your head and your hair in a big heavy towel? That’s what most people do, and that can seriously damage your hair. When your wet hair gets swept up in that heavy towel the weight of the towel and the friction of the towel can cause your hair to break. Instead of wrapping your hair in a heavy bath towel after you wash it invest in a light microfiber towel or turban designed to be used on freshly washed hair. These light but absorbent towels and turbans will gently wick away the moisture from your hair without pulling on the wet hair strands and causing more damage.
Skip The Ponytail
Ponytailes are easy, convenient, and a great way to get your hair out of the way when you want to workout or are going to play sports. But ponytails can cause your hair to break at the tension point where the ponytail elastic is. If you want your hair to grow faster never put your hair in a ponytail with an elastic. Instead of a ponytail sweep it into a bun and hold it in place with hairpins.
Eat A Healthy Diet
Eating healthy is essential for getting your hair to grow faster and making sure that your hair is healthy. Healthy starts on the inside. In order to get great looking hair and nails you need to be eating plenty of healthy fats and protein and drinking lots of water. Some of the foods that you should add to your diet if you want to encourage your hair to grow faster are:
- Walnuts
- Almonds
- Pecans
- Eggs
- Lean meat
- Fish
- Avocado
- Coconut oil
Take Supplements
Even if you are eating a healthy diet you should take supplements designed to provide your hair with the vitamins and minerals it needs to grow faster and to be healthy. Fish oil supplements, Omega 3 fatty acids, Vitamin E supplements, and iron supplements can all help your hair grow faster by providing the nutrients that healthy hair needs in order to grow fast and be strong. If you are taking supplements and using external treatments together that is the ideal way to get your hair to grow faster because you are providing internal and external help to make sure your hair has everything it needs to grow long and strong.
Get Regular Trims
You should make sure that you get your hair trimmed regularly as it grows. Regular trims will cut off unhealthy ends and split ends before the split ends can travel up the hair shaft and cause serious damage. Depending on how fast your hair is growing you should get about an eighth of inch cut off your hair every ten to twelve weeks. Simple regular trims will ensure that as your hair grows it looks lustrous and healthy. Regular trims also will encourage faster hair growth.
