One of the most important questions for women (and for some men as well) is – How to grow long hair fast? Of course, it isn’t enough just to grow long hair. It should be shiny healthy hair. Growing hair can be a difficult process, but not too difficult. If you follow our ultimate guide step by step, we promise – growing long, beautiful-looking hair will be easy.
After years and years of trying out different methods and techniques, we created this simple but detailed guide to growing long hair, and we promise – growing long, beautiful hair will become a passion of yours. Growing long hair requires perfect hair care, dedication, and patience as well as some changes in your routine. Don’t worry, we got everything covered. Let’s start!
Avoid visiting a hairdresser for a while
How often do you visit a hairdresser? Once a month? Once every two months? If this is the case, you should definitely reconsider the frequency of your visits. Every once in a while, people advise you to cut your hair once every six weeks, so your hair starts to grow faster. People who go around sharing this piece of advice are usually hairdressers themselves. They have direct benefits from this advice. No wonder they are trying to convince clients to take their advice.
However, if you want to grow long hair, you should definitely think twice.
How long does it take for hair to grow
What is the story behind the previously mentioned myth? On average, hair grows 1-2 cm per month. How often you cut it doesn’t affect how often it grows. Therefore, there is no logical connection between these two. Hair grows at its own pace, whether you cut it often or not.
Cutting hair doesn’t accelerate hair growth. If you think about it, follicles don’t have nerve endings or blood vessels. Your hair is dead tissue, so whether or not you cut your ends, doesn’t matter.
Hair growth has its own rhythm regardless of the haircuts. Also, your hair grows at a certain speed, so if you ct around 1 cm every month and a half, you will need an eternity to grow long hair. Cutting your hair every six weeks means taking one step forward, and two steps backward. Haircutting isn’t easy for the hairdresser nor the client, as the less it goes the better.
Another question women ask themselves is why won’t my hair grow past a certain length. Every person has something called terminal hair length – the length to which your hair is capable of growing. This is genetically conditioned, so how long does it take for hair to grow back largely depends on this condition.
How to prevent split-ends
Split ends look bad, and you can’t grow healthy long hair if you have split ends. Fair enough. But, is it really true that split-ends appear every six weeks? Yes and no. If you neglect your hair, split ends definitely appear. Similarly, if you neglect your hair, you certainly can’t grow long, healthy hair.
The vital thing to know is how to prevent split-ends without having to cut your hair too often. To ensure that your hair grows long use leave-in treatments. They protect the hair ends. Silicones as ingredients are the main topic in every haircare discussion. They can be found in a large number of cosmetic products. Some believe silicones create a layer around the hair – a layer that can never be washed away. Hair begins to rotten inside that layer while it remains beautiful from the outside. Luckily, this isn’t true. The fact is silicones can be washed off with your regular shampoo. But that isn’t the end – some of them can even be washed off only by clean water.
The layer around your hair created by silicons has several purposes. Firstly, it protects your hair from all external influences. Secondly, it protects the hair from temperatures as high as 230 degrees Celsius – which means it protects your hair from the sun, and from curling and straightening as well. This layer also retains moisture inside the hair and prevents it from drying out.
It reflects light and gives a shiny and smooth look to your hair. Due to their immense protective benefits, haircare products that help you grow long hair should definitely contain silicones.
Grow long hair with a proper hair care routine
There is also a huge misconception about how using too many products harms your hair. That isn’t true. It is true that if you stop using products, your hair will look slightly worse than when you use them. However, this doesn’t mean the products you’re using are bad for you. Just the opposite, they are actually doing their job. Conditioning, washing, protecting – everything you need to grow long hair.
If you have problems with slow hair growth – you shouldn’t skip any of the hair care products. You should, of course, choose and use them depending on your specific hair type, but using only a shampoo will never be enough for healthy hair.
Washing, shampooing, rinsing, and conditioning, followed by leave-in products is a normal hair care routine for every hair type. If you want to get shiny-looking hair, don’t skip any of these steps. Ever. Haircare is a lifelong process, and it isn’t a good idea to stop applying all these products once you reach your desired length. You will end up with damaged and dull hair.
The first rule, shampooing. Whether you have greasy, normal, dry, or damaged hair, one rule binds us all – mild shampoos are the way to go. No hair type needs harsh surfactants in order for it to be clean. Be sure to avoid using ingredients like SLS, SLES too often. They will dry out your scalp and hair. Also, shampoo your hair once or twice if necessary. Excessive shampooing could strip your hair color and leave your hair feeling dry.
Moisturize your hair for growing long hair
The hair structure prevents the oil transition from scalp to hair ends leading to naturally dry hair. Although curly and wavy hair is prone to natural dryness in most cases, straight hair can sometimes too. In this case, moisturizing plays a crucial role. We strongly recommend leaving moisturizing hair treatment and hydrating conditioners on your hair as long as possible. If you have the time, you should let your moisturizer work its charm for at least 20 minutes.
What you should also remember is that these products are meant to feed your hair, so you shouldn’t apply them to the scalp. Instead, apply them only on your hair ends. This step is extremely important. Often, the hair products aren’t used correctly which can lead to serious scalp problems like dandruff, seborrhea, and excessive greasing.
Additionally, it is crucial to use a treatment or a conditioner with each wash. Don’t let your negligence ruin what you’ve accomplished. Even when you don’t have much time, follow the routine all the way through. You can always find a minute or two during your shower or teeth brushing. There’s no excuse.
Another common misconception is that you should never condition greasy hair. But, the truth is, greasy hair isn’t caused by conditioners and hair treatments. It is caused by natural oil sebum and can be cured by treating your scalp, not by depriving your hair length of proper care. Also, it can also be caused by hormonal fluctuations and shampoo residue.
Conditioners, hair masks, hair treatments, leave-in products are something you should use on your hair length and ends only, avoiding the scalp at all costs.
Deep conditioning treatment
Deep conditioning treatment is the way to get the most out of your hair conditioners and masks. After washing your hair, apply your conditioning product. After that, you should put on a shower cap (or if you don’t have it, a plastic bag will do the trick), and apply heat. Use a hairdryer to heat up the product in your hair. When heated up, wrap a towel around your head. You can repeat the heating steps as many times as you want. Afterward, rinse your hair as always.
Protein hair care for growing long hair
Every hair that has been treated (hair dye, bleach, hairdryer, hair straightener, even brush, and external influences like the cold, wind the sun) is more prone to keratin loss – the major component of the hair. Over time, this leads to damaged hair. Anyone who wants long healthy hair needs to make sure that in addition to moisturizing, they afford good protein reconstruction treatment.
Many treatments on the market promise hair recovery, but you should learn to choose the best one. The best treatments have some kind of protein at the beginning of the ingredients list, in combination with several moisturizing ingredients that are the basis in all hair care products.
In combination with proteins, professional hair reconstruction treatments also include amino acids. Amino acids penetrate the cuticle and fill the cracks in it strengthening the structure of the treated and weakened hair.
You should let the protein treatment sit for at least 5 minutes if your hair isn’t heavily damaged. If it is, 15-30 minutes should do the trick. You shouldn’t leave it on longer because the proteins tend to stiffen your hair and make it difficult to detangle. Protein treatments are more beneficial for people with thin hair. Those of you with thick and coarse hair can use protein treatments less often or, even better, switch to treatments that besides proteins have a significant number of moisturizers and oils in the ingredient list.
My hair doesn’t grow – Stop using heat when styling your hair
For flawless hair, you should avoid all styling tools. This means no blow-drying, curling irons, hot rollers, flat irons, or crimpers. Heat can dry out your hair and increase the risk of serious hair damage. There are other ways to get waves, curls, or straight hair without heat. All you have to do is use smoothing products and heat-free methods.
If you really have to use them, make sure that your hair care is flawless. Without proper care, you won’t be able to grow long hair. Nourished and hydrated hair is more resistant to damage.
However, one of such inevitable styling tools is a blow dryer. The important thing is how you can use it to minimize the damage. The hair should be dried with several inches distance, holding the hairdryer in the direction of the brush pull. It flattens the cuticle, straightens the hair, and makes it shiny.
For the best results, set the temperature to medium or low because high heat setting isn’t meant for amateurs!
Avoid styling tools
You often meet girls who have been straightening their hair for years and their hair is still in perfect condition. That may be true only if they haven’t skipped conditioning and other hair care routines. Although genetics has a great influence on hair resistance, it isn’t the only prerequisite. For many girls, the way they treat their hair is crucial when it comes to keeping it healthy.
Heat protectants do actually work – ingredients that reduce heat damage are PVP/DMAPA acrylates copolymer, quaternion 70, hydrolyzed wheat protein, and silicones. They smooth out the outer layer and the way the hair heats up.
These molecules remain on the surface of the hair forming a highly resistant film that can heat up to 230 degrees. This being said, we still need to emphasize that the best way to keep hair healthy, long, and strong is by avoiding styling tools. You can use them every now and then but not too often.
Use protective hairstyles for growing long hair
If you avoid styling tools for a while, your hair might lose its shape. As alternatives, you can use some of the most popular hairstyles such as sock-buns, braids, fish bones, etc. Not only do they look good, but also protect your hair from external influences. More importantly, they are heat-free which means you don’t have to use a flat iron or hairdryer and ask yourself why won’t my hair grow.
Hair care for different seasons
As much as we like summer and winter, both seasons cause hair damage. Summer because of the sand, sun, chlorine, and saltwater. Winter because of all the moisture, rain, wind, humidity, snow, cold, and low temperatures.
All of these things can cause great damage to your hair. That is why you should adjust your hair care routine. As a result, your hair will look beautiful and nourished, and your scalp healthy. If you follow some simple rules, you can easily avoid dryness, flyaways, dandruff, static, brittle hair, hair fall, or frizzy hair. ž
Summer hair care tips for growing long hair
You should never skip using hydrating conditioners and hydrating treatments as a part of your summer hair care routine. However, the same goes for protein hair treatments. It is recommended to nourish the hair with a moisturizing hair treatment or a conditioner that, in addition to moisturizing ingredients, contains proteins and keratin.
Your hair is prone to loss of moisture and keratin when constantly exposed to the sun, salt, chlorine, etc. That is why you need to pay special attention to your hair care routine. What you can do to make sure your hair remains healthy under such conditions is apply hair treatment or nutrient conditioner several times a day. Preferably every time you get out of the water. Just rinse your hair to wash out all the salt and chlorine, apply the product, wrap it into a bun and enjoy the sun.
In addition to hair nutrition, it is necessary to choose a mild shampoo for your daily wash. Mild sulfate-free shampoos won’t dry out your hair. They are very gentle both to the scalp and the hair. You can freely use them on a daily basis without any fear of drying out the hair and preventing you to grow long hair. Also, these shampoos will also preserve your hair color from excessive color rinsing.
Winter hair care tips for growing long hair
During cold winter months, your scalp and hair get drier because heating causes a lack of moisture. Dry scalp causes itchiness, dandruff, scalp irritation, and eventually – hair loss. All of these problems, of course, can be manageable with the right care. When we say right, we don’t mean aggressive shampoos that destroy dandruff. The best solution for dry scalp is actually a mild sulfate-free shampoo.
In this period of the year, the co-wash method sounds like a good idea as well if you want to grow your hair healthy and keep it moisturized. Co-washing is shortened from conditioner washing, which literally means – washing the hair using only the conditioner. It is also known as a “no-poo” method, meaning – not using any shampoo.
In wintertime, hair tends to be extremely dry and damaged. That is why aggressive shampoos, even slightly aggressive ones should be avoided. For example, sulfates cause hair dryness, damage, and also scalp problems like dandruff, excessive sebum, etc.
It may sound a bit strange, but both your skin and hair are prone to drying under the influence of extreme cold, moisture, wind, indoor heating, etc. Once a week use a rich moisturizing mask combined with a protein treatment. The hydrating treatment will replenish the moisture while the protein will prevent the loss of keratin and cracking of the hair under external influences.
Don’t forget about deep conditioning treatment as well. In the winter it is necessary to perform this ritual two times a month, or even once a week. The deep conditioning treatment will prevent frizz which is one of the main hair problems on colder days.
Also, you should wear hats and scarves to mechanically protect your hair from the cold and wind. Despite the static electricity they cause, they’ll definitely do much less damage than the strong wind or low temperatures. Choosing adequate hair care products will help you with hair static problems.
Growing long hair fast
Having long hair is a privilege. Growing long hair is a process. A long, but beautiful and creative one that leads to satisfying results. There is no magical potion to grow long hair in a short period of time. Products for hair growth are nothing but a scam, and will do nothing or even worse – do harm and slow down your process. Try not to think about every inch, set your hair care routine, set your calendar for visiting your trustworthy hairdresser and you will grow long healthy hair in no time. Patience and persistence are your greatest allies in growing long hair.