Want to grow out a haircut you hate or try to achieve an ass-grazing length? Read on.
1. Don't Shampoo Every Time You Shower
Here's why, the purpose of shampoo is to wash away dirt and product buildup, but it can also take essential natural oils that keep strands soft and healthy along with it. When you really do need shampoo, be gentler on your hair by only lathering up at your scalp and then simply letting the suds slide down strands, hitting the rest of the hair as the water rinses it away.
2. Use Conditioner
If your hair is wet, that means you have to condition it. Over time, from coloring and heat styling, strands start to get thinner at the bottom. Conditioner helps replace the lipids and proteins inside the hair shaft, as well as seal the cuticle to help prevent more damage from happening so that you can get your hair to grow longer and look healthier.
3. Apply an Oil or Mask Treatment Weekly
Hair that touches your shoulders or beyond can be several years old and most likely needs more TLC than normal conditioner. Townsend suggests using moisture-based masks and oils weekly. Because oils can leave a residue on hair, to apply it to damp hair, leave it on for 10 minutes, then shampoo and condition like normal. These oils are able to fill strands up with fatty acids and then, when rinsed out, using regular shampoo helps seal them inside hair.
4. Don't Constant Brushing Your Hair
Constant brushing can cause physical harm to your hair. When you detangle wet hair, be sure to start from the bottom and work your way up — we often instinctually go from the scalp down, but that just brings small tangles into one large knot and can cause you to lose a lot of hair.
5. Ditch Your Cotton Pillowcase
Switching your pillowcase to a silk or satin fabric, because it has a softer surface that would not cause friction the way that regularly woven cotton does with your hair. That way, you will wake up with fewer tangles.
6. Never Wrap Your Hair in a Massive Towel
What could be so bad about putting hair in your super-soft bath towel? A lot. It causes so much breakage. Your hair gets caught in all the woven fibers and since most women almost always wrap it too tight around their face, all those tiny, fragile strands around your face are more prone to break.
7. Skip Putting It Up with a Hair Tie At All
This is where your hair literally breaks off at the point of tension where the elastic ends up being wrapped around your hair to hold it into place.
8. Do a Cold-water Rinse at the End of Each Shower
Cold water lays down the outer layer of hair more smoothly, which helps prevent moisture loss, snags and heat damage.
The healthier your hair is, the longer it will grow.