Grow your curly hair faster, quicker and healthier

I always ponder on this question when my curly hair sometimes goes through a period of not seeming to get any longer despite the conditioning, hydration and moisturisation that I regularly introduce in my curly hair care regime.

I have often been asked questions like.. Can my curly hair get longer? what do I do to get long curly tresses? Why is my hair not growing?

Here is my take on the subject.

First the science bit.. Hair is ALWAYS growing, On average it grows just under an inch a month.. the flip side is that you also lose hair. Generally, you lose between 55 to 100 hairs from your head each day. This is NORMAL.

Hair follicles grow independently of each other and go through the growing and shedding stages on their own timetable. 

How long your curly hair grows is typically determined by 3 main factors:

1. Genetics - which you are born with and cannot change or control
2. Lifestyle
3. Environment 

I am sharing my top tips for growing your curly hair:

• Start with a healthy lifestyle; eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and keep processed food to a minimum.
• Exercise and be as active as you can.
• Hygiene is important because a clean scalp is best for growing hairs. Look for sulphate-free, paraben-free hair products. Go natural and organic if possible.
• Wash your hair regularly, especially after swimming of sweating.
• Regular conditioning to protect against environmental elements.
• Trimming your hair regularly is also very important. Trim every 8 - 12 weeks for the best results.
• Massaging your scalp with a really good brush to get the blood rejuvenated, so that they can feed the follicles, allowing them to grow healthier and faster. 
• Reducing stress- stress produces a hormone called cortisol which curbs functions that would be nonessential or detrimental. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes. Sometimes resulting in hair loss

Once you have implemented all the above- test it out. See how well your hair is growing.

An example of how I test my hair growth is below.

1. Dye a thin lock of hair, somewhere hidden so that it does not stand out.
2. Cut this lock visibly shorter than the rest of your hair, measure its length and take note. 
3. If the lock is growing back while the rest of your hair is not growing, it might mean that your terminal length has been reached i.e the short hair is growing but the long hair has reached its terminal length (genetics).