Hello everybody! So today I am here to talk about HAIR GROWTH! I get so many questions about my hair- what I do with it How did I get it grow, what are my secrets? And I did a video a couple years back, basically detailing the main things I did to grow out my hair. Because for those of you that have not been following me for a long time and don't know where I started from- My hair all throughout childhood, all through early adulthood It was always extremely short. It was never full, it was never long, it never grew past my shoulders. So at a certain point I just thought that's just my hair, it's not capable of growing. It just is out of the cards for me. But many years ago I decided to take my haircare a little more seriously. That was in the very beginning of my haircare journey. That was probably when I started Youtube. But even when I made that decision to TRY to grow out my hair and see if it was possible, it still would not grow! No matter what I did it wouldn't grow. And I realize now looking back on my 1st attempt at growing my hair I was doing so many things wrong. And I also see a lot of people doing those same things. And these are people that are like "why isn't my hair growing?" So I just wanted to come on and share some really common haircare mistakes that may be preventing your hair from growing. And just kind of walk you through how I went from really short, thin, brittle hair that just would not seem to grow, to longer, fuller, healthier hair. My hair now I am super happy with it. I never in a million years thought that I could get a full, gigantic puff like this with just my natural hair. So, onto 10 things that you might be doing right now that is keeping your hair from growing. And by the way, when I say "keep your hair from growing" I don't mean that literally. Because our hair is always growing, it's always in a growth cycle. A lot of people aren't seeing the growth, a lot of people aren't seeing their hair getting any longer Because it's breaking off faster than their growth rate. Just wanted to make that clear before we start! But the first thing is using too much heat! Things like a blow dryer, a flat iron, a curling iron. Anything like that- using them too often can really damage your hair. Heat tools and heat styling- they can make weak points in your hair, thinner points in your hair and those are more prone to breaking and snapping off. It can also also make your hair feel rougher over time. I know a lot of times when you flat iron your hair it feels really smooth at first. But as time goes on it really can damage the cuticle. It makes it frizzy. All that stuff can happen just from heat damage. And before I had my hair routine down, I never knew that I could get my hair into a style without some type of heat styling. When I was relaxed I would flat iron my hair so it would be straight and silky. When I went natural I would blow-dry out my hair because I thought that was the only way to get it to be manageable. But there are so many ways you can style your hair without using heat tools. I'm right now on a No-Heat Challenge for 2020. So I have not used heat on my hair...it's July, this is what, month 7? And you guys can see, just go through my videos , you can see all the different styles I've had this year alone. So it's definitely possible, it's definitely doable, to be nicely coiffed without heat damaging your hair. But if you are one of those people that is using a hot tool I would recommend using heat on your hair no more than once or twice a month. If you can go even longer than that even better! But using heat on your hair once a week, or even several times a week like some people It really is not, in my opinion, good for your hair. You really wanna try to extend the time between heat styling. Or eliminate heat styling altogether. Next reason why your hair might not be growing is NOT deep conditioning regularly. Deep conditioning nourishes your hair, it makes it feel healthier, it makes it stronger. And it really does assist in keeping it in tip-top shape. I would recommend deep conditioning either once a week or once every other week. So at least twice a month give your hair some extra attention, give your hair some extra nourishment and TLC, and your hair will thank you for it. I right now am deep conditioning once a week. I'm actually currently trying something out, and there will be a video on exactly what that is in a little bit. But that's kind of depending on how often I wash my hair too. Sometimes like right now I've been washing my hair every week. But other times I will go 2 weeks between washes, just depending on the style I have in. Deep conditioning has definitely contributed to my hair just overall feeling so much healthier. I've noticed a lot less breakage and less shedding when I'm handling my hair. So that has been wonderful. Next hair mistake you might be making is detangling your hair when it's dry. I always recommend especially for those of us with natural hair- curly, kinky, coarse. Detangle your hair when it's wet and when it's saturated with conditioner. Detangling while your hair is dry is just a lot of friction especially like I said in coarse hair. I have been doing my detangling in the shower when I do my wash days and you guys have seen videos on my wash day, if you haven't I'll link it below. so you can see exactly what I do. But detangling on wet hair with conditioner just makes the process so much easier. It helps whatever detangling tool you're using- your fingers, a brush, a comb to just glide right through. And doing it that way you lose a lot less hair. That water and conditioner combination helps you to keep more of your hair on your head which is what we want! And for this you definitely want to find a conditioner that works for you, and that gives you a lot of slip. I've tried so many conditioners, and there are a lot of bad ones, there are some good ones. My holy grail, the one that I always come back to is Aussie Moist conditioner. I've been using that for a very long time. And it definitely helps to melt my tangles. So if you're looking for a good conditioner and you haven't tried that one give it a try. I'm not saying it's gonna work for everybody but it works for me and I love it. Next hair mistake is styling your hair too often. I admit I like changing up my style. Almost every time you see me my hair is different. But I have really reeled it in, and I now only style my hair once a week. I used to style my hair several times a week, and again I used to put heat on my hair several times a week. And do different things to it. So now on my wash days I know exactly what style I'm gonna wear for the upcoming week. And I will do my hair once, and that's it. The only thing I'll have to do throughout the week is maintain it if it starts to look a little frizzy maybe add a little moisturizer or gel. But for the overall style I'm really not changing it. Pretty much any time you handle your hair, any time you take it down, put it up, do this, do that... you are gonna get some shedding, you are gonna get some breakage. And we want to minimize that as much as possible. So doing a style that you can set it and forget it is gonna be something that can help you to grow out your hair. Protective styles are really really good for this. Especially ones where your hair isn't rubbing directly on your clothes. So styles like buns, puffs, twists, braids, those are so good for your hair because they help you keep your hands out of your hair and keep the manipulation down. So you definitely don't want to style your hair too often. Find a style, stick with it for a week, maybe more and then move on to the next one. But try not to style your hair every single day. Next, wearing styles that cause too much tension. I'm talking about things like super tight ponytails, really tight braids. You know how you see people get braids and then their scalp gets bumps and it gets really red. Stuff like that can rip out your hair at the root. Sometimes that is irreparable. You definitely wanna make sure that any style you get is not too tight and it's not pulling too much to where it's super uncomfortable to wear. If you don't want bald spots, if you don't want bald edges make sure you're not putting too much tension on your hair. Next, poor diet and not getting enough water. This is so cliche, but it's very true you are what you eat. Sometimes your hair growth can be stunted because your body just doesn't have the necessary nutrients it needs for your hair to flourish. So you wanna make sure you're getting in a lot of fruits. You wanna make sure you're getting in a lot of vegetables. You wanna make sure you're getting in some healthy fats. You wanna make sure you are drinking enough water on a daily basis. Water is the key to life. You need water for every type of bodily process. Back in the day my diet was absolutely terrible. I ate a lot of fast food, I didn't eat a lot of vegetables, I hardly drank water. But when I went plant-based and when I started increasing my water intake I definitely saw a significant improvement in my hair, in my rate of growth. And a lot of people asked me if I thought my diet change had any impact on my hair And I really do believe it helped tremendously. How you treat your body on the inside, it really does show up on the outside. Next thing, not moisturizing your hair, and especially the ends of your hair! Sadly, back in the day I never moisturized my hair because I just thought it weighed it down, it wouldn't work. Especially when I was in my flat ironing days. I just couldn't apply moisturizer cuz my hair would revert, it would get fluffy, frizzy. So I really didn't moisturize and my hair paid for it because it never went anywhere. But moisturizing your ends is a must in my opinion. Because the ends of our hair they're the oldest and they're also the driest. Our scalp produces sebum which is a natural oil that can nourish the top parts of your hair the hair at the root. But down towards the bottom it can get super dry and brittle. And that dryness can lead to breakage. So if you want your hair to grow you definitely don't want your hair to be breaking. So in order to avoid that you wanna moisturize your ends. You wanna keep your ends hydrated, you want to keep them soft and pliable. So that way when you are going to style your hair you get a lot less breakage. For me if I have my hair in a protective style like cornrows or twists I will take a cream moisturizer I will just slather it on my ends at night and then by the morning it's already soaked in, it's penetrated my hair. And my hair feels super soft, my ends don't feel rough. For a style like this I will just take a moisturizer in a spray bottle and at night I will spray my puff. Extremely easy. If I'm wearing something like box braids I will still take a spray bottle of moisturizer and oil and spray those braids so that it penetrates down and my real hair underneath is still getting that moisture. The next thing that I notice a lot of people NOT doing is they're not stimulating their scalp. I have previously talked about how I like to massage my head. I do that a couple times a week. I don't use oil usually when I massage my head by the way. Sometimes I will use my fingers other times I will use my little handheld electric massager tool. And either way whatever you wanna do, simply getting the blood flow to your head to better circulate can really help with hair growth. And any problem area you may have like if you have a thinning spot in your hair from tension. If your edges are thinning because of styling or what have you just whenever you apply your moisturizer, massage that in, really get your scalp circulating and it just brings more nutrients, more blood flow to your hair follicles which can help increase your growth and even regrow hair that was lost. So I swear by scalp massages, scalp stimulation. You only have to do it for 5-10 minutes maybe a couple times a week. But if you stick with it along with a healthy hair regimen you should begin to see results. Using the wrong products. This is something that is a bit of trial and error. It took me years to figure out products that really work for my hair. Because I would see people use this and that and I'm like "ooh that made her hair look so bomb, let me use this" and it just ... So this may take you a little time but make sure you use products that actually make your hair feel good, make your hair look good, and just because something worked for the next person it doesn't mean it's gonna work for you. But finding those key items have helped so much in just the overall manageability of my hair which in turn leads to me not losing so much hair when I'm styling and when I'm doing any type of process with my hair. So figure out the key things you want. Try to keep it as simple as possible. You don't wanna over complicate things, you don't wanna have to use a million products. And finally, not protecting your hair while you sleep. We toss, we turn, we move all about. And when we are laying down if our head is on cotton or whatever your bedding is if it's not silk or satin that can just be a lot of friction at night. And that can cause breakage, that can cause dryness. Because it really just sucks the moisture out of your hair. So when you're going to sleep you wanna make sure to protect your hair in some way. You can use a scarf to tie your hair down, you can a sleep cap. You can even use satin or silk pillow cases. That's really good for people that really don't like things on their head. And those things will help reduce the friction between your hair and any other materials that are bad for your hair. So you know, we keep all of our hair in tact especially your edges, around your edges are extremely vulnerable So we wanna protect our precious crowns. And yea guys, that's it! Those were the 10 main things I see a lot of people doing that maybe you shouldn't if you wanna grow out your hair, and you wanna get some length going. If you have any other tips for hair growth, maybe some things you've done that worked for you leave them below. Also, I would love to hear from people that were like me and you had short hair pretty much all your life and you changed up some things and now your hair has really taken off. Let me know what you did. I want to compare and see if we're similar. So leave that all down in the comment section. But umm yea I'm gonna go ahead and get outta here guys. Thanks so much for watching.
