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onsdag 6 februari 2013

How to grow long and healthy hair


I have tried to grow my hair as long as possible. I started 3 years ago with the normal long hair, down to the shoulder blades. It's reaching to my waist now. I'll try to see how long it can grow. I'm sure you younger readers have a more fast growing hair than mine so you won't have to wait that long time for it to grow. During this time I have come to some conclusions I will share with you.
 1. Don’t cut it! Yes you heard it right. There is a big myth circling around that you have to go to the hairdresser every sixth week to cut of the frayed ends to get a long and healthy hair. Every time I go to a hairdresser and beg them to cut off as little as possible they cut of at least 1½ inch of it (if you are lucky and they are listening to you), that is 4 months of growing hair. Growing long hair takes time. I read a post at a hairdresser’s site that she told her customers that a split straw can’t grow any longer. She is right in one point, it can split further up if it’s not cut off but the growth is not in the end, we know that by now, don’t we? I don't want the hairdresser to loose their jobs this tip is only for those who want their hair to grow.
 2.So how do you do when you have frayed ends? Well you cut the straws with frayed ends not the other. A perfect thing to do when you sit in your sofa watching a boring movie or are bored in any other way. Take a strand of your hair and look at it closely. Frayed ends tend to curl in the end and peak out. Cut just under the frayed end. 
If you bend the hair over your finger you see the shorter straws cut of the ones with split ends.

Your hair can look horrible if you just have  a tenth of frayed ends in your hair , but if you cut off the frayed ends you get a little thinner hair but not shorter. If it looks too thin then cut off the length AFTER you have cut the frayed ends. In that way you’ll probably cut less than you should have otherwise.
 A picture of one of my straws with a split 60mm from the end, not all looked bad like this.
3. Instead of putting money on visits to the hairdresser, buy good products for your hair. Or follow the No Poo movement (haven't come so far yet). 
4. Don’t spray and tease it. For a lift, use dusting powder instead. Dust and rub and there you get the volume needed, simple as that.
This is what I use to get a little volume in my hair. A tiny dust over you hair makes wonder, just rub a little and the hair lifts. It wont get greasy but a little difficult to comb. 
Well I use hairspray but not every day.

 5. Comb your hair carefully. Throw the hairbrush away. If you have tangled hair, use a baby hairbrush and your fingers to ease it out. My son tends to get dreads in his hair while sleeping; the baby hairbrush is the only working tool and my fingers to detangle his hair. Don’t ever pull the comb/brush violently to detangle! Prefer natural material in combs and brushes. Don’t comb or brush wet hair. And keep your tools clean for god sake. There is nothing more disgusting than a brush filled with old hair, dust and remnants of products; it’s literally a bacterial bomb.
6. Avoid stress as long as you can. Learn to say NO to things you can’t join fully. I started to loose lots of hair, even got bald spots because of stress. That is one of the reasons I shaved half my head. Take care of yourself, stay happy. Things/people you can’t change, accept them and avoid them. It is more important than you could guess.
 7. Eat healthy (B and E vitamins)and do your regular exercise. If you lacking nutrients, it's easier to get sick and a high fever can also cause a hair loss. 
8. Avoid washing your hair too often. Use conditioner or oil treatments. I saw a very good tip. Rub in coconut oils in your hair tips in the evening before bedtime, that's better than any other leave in treatment.
 9. Never use elastics with metal connections on or hairclips of metal.
 10. Braid your long hair for the night or put it up in a sock bun. Here's an excellent tutorial. If you lie on your hair you wear it out. 
This is how my bun looks after a good nights sleep and only one hairpin used.
The sock bun gives you lovely Hollywood curls without uncomfortable rolls or heat.
Ha ha, please excuse my tired and unmaked face, it's the curls that are important here. I just rolled the sock out of my hair and pulled my fingers through it, if you roll with a little moist hair the curls will stay bouncy the whole day.

Tired saturday morning right after a quiet breakfast,  yaawn. The other side of the head is shaved. 
11.  Instead of dreads you can buy or make loose dreads to braid in your hair.
I made these of sheep wool, very easy to do and dyed with hair dye. Look more real than syntetic ones. Sigh, I need to make more of these (and more time to do them).
Extra tip: If you have used these for a couple of days the hair can be a mess to sort out. Here comes the little baby brush at help :)

You have probably heard most of them, but I hope I can be a little helpful though. There are lots of more tips to take care of your hair but those are so common that everyone already know them...not rubbing towels, combing wet hair, blow dryers etc etc....

Right now I'm very on and off if I should grow out my side shave or not. I'm not sure I will have the lenght back at that side anymore. It was like it couldn't grow longer than an inch and it was just soft and thin, that spot growed bigger and bigger and every hairwash there was a small wig in the drain. That mass amount of hairloss has stopped thank god and my nails doesn't flake anymore so I think I'm healthier than a few months ago. :)

Please send me a comment if you have any other tips to share for me and other readers!

21 kommentarer:

  1. Suck, jag gör allt detta, men fan om mitt hår växer... Mitt hår når till mitt på ryggen ungefär, och så långt har det varit i ungefär 10 år nu. Men, mitt hår är annars friskt, jag tappar inte så mycket hår och har nästan inga kluvna hårtoppar så jag får väl vara nöjd ändå. Skulle vilja ha 20 cm till dock, det vore fantastiskt!!

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Men det tycker jag är långt. :) Jag trodde inte heller att jag kunde få längre än så innan jag helt enkelt gav sjutton i att klippa det.

      Radera
  2. There used to be a procedure called singeing where the hairdresser would take a strand of hair and twist it tightly so all the split ends stood out, then would take a lit candle and run it along the edges so the splits would melt. It got rid of the splits without losing any of the length, but you always had to make sure you were going to a hairdresser who knew what she was doing! :O

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Interesting trick! One of the hairdressers I visited did almoste exactly this but used her scissors.

      Radera
    2. I think that's much safer! And I forgot to say how beautiful you look! :D

      Radera
  3. Wow Therese, your hair is GORGEOUS!

    I've *never* had long hair ... the longest it has ever been was when I was about 15 - it was shoulder length - I was trying to grow it longer, but it just stopped!

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. I guess everyone has their maximum length. I saw a guy at a music festival, he had hair all the way down below hes knees. I think your hair is wonderful as it is now. You have made something extraordinary with your hair. I love your sparkly colours and dreads.

      Radera
  4. I am growing my hair long, too. I will try to plait it more at night, it's not really long enough to put at the top of my head. Also my bird loves playing in it, but he doesn't seem to have done any damage. I never trim the ends either, but I am thinking of doing that coconut oil thing. My hair has been a bit dry since I last did a big updo for my Bride of Frankenstein costume, so I have to avoid hairspray for a while. I shampoo it every 2-3 days, that seems to work okay. It takes that long to get dirty. I have very fine hair, so I have to be careful with it. Brushing while wet is my greatest sin, I try not to brush it at all these days, it seems to go better, it seems to get all tangled and and dry feeling if I brush it while it is dry, and seems better to brush while wet, but I guess I shouldn't.

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. I have the same feeling as you when it comes to wet hair. It feels easier but everyone says that you should not brush it wet, maybe it ws the wrong advice. Hm I need to investigate this further.

      Radera
  5. Your hair looks beautiful with the curls!

    I have grown my hair very long, and I agree your tips are spot-on... though I do have my hair trimmed every 4-6 months. But that's because I found a hairdresser who cuts 1/2" when I ask for 1/2". You are right that hairdressers usually want to cut off too much. It's infuriating.

    One tip I'll share is that tea tree oil conditioner is awesome for dry scalp. My skin and hair are naturally dry, and when winter arrived with its super dry air, my hair began to fall out. :( I started using a conditioner with tea tree oil, and within about a month the excess shedding stopped. Amazing stuff. :)

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Thanks! I think your hair is lovely!
      Tea tree oil is a great tip! Thanks again. Lots of us that lives in a cold climate have problems with dry scalps right now

      Radera
  6. Min mamma har lurat i mig hela livet att man måste klippa håret varannan månad :P hon är utbildad frisör. Men nu har jag inte klippt det på ungefär 3 månader i alla fall så snart kommer hon börja tjata över mina slitna toppar, haha!
    Jag har hört att den där Dust it är No poo så jag ska nog köpa en sån, hårspray är ju redan uteslutet för mig nu ändå så.

    Jag köpte en svinborst hårborste för 2 månader sen också, och jag märker verkligen skillnad i att håret mår bättre av en sån än en plastborste :D


    Jättebra inlägg! , du har verkligen fint hår, jag ska försöka göra en såndär sockbun för jag tycker det är så obekvämt att sova med flätor, haha!

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Åh den där svinborst-borsten låter intressant, sån ska jag kika efter.
      Åh vad snällt. Mitt hår är tunt men långt.

      Radera
  7. Oh, hairdressers that cut off too much hair! They are one of my phobias. I was growing my hair to donate but had to get it cut for my graduation (looking back I'm not sure why I bothered, my hair was a mess anyway!) I told the hair-dresser I was growing it to donate for making wigs for children with cancer so could she cut off as little as possible. She cut off 4 inches! She got the comb all tangled up in my hair because she didn't know how to comb out long hair properly (removing each tangle seperately) she just tried to comb straight down from the root on my hair, when it was wet! To hide what she'd done she cut the tangled part off! I saw the tangles in the parts on the floor afterwards.

    That set me back a year on my hair donation =[

    These are all good tips. I do use a real hair brush - one of the paddle brush types, but I only brush my hair once a day (or not at all on days I wash it, because then I let it dry naturally and it goes wavy and can't be brushed without fizzing)

    I wish I could sleep with my hair up, I find it so uncomfortable that I'll have to carry on wearing it out by lying on it.

    SvaraRadera
  8. Så vackert hår du har! Jag önskar att jag hade tjockt och långt hår, men mitt är tunnt och känsligt, och slutar växa innan axlarna. Jag gör allting rätt men kommer alltid ha kort tunnt hår, medan min sambo som behandlar sitt hår som skit har underbart tjockt hår som växer som ogräs. Han klippte precis av 10 cm och ändå är hans hår längre än mitt. Orättvist! :)

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Ja fy sjutton vad orättvist :(. Tack för din snälla kommentar. Det är de där lockarna som gör att det ser tjockt ut. Mitt är också väldigt tunt men långt. Som jag berättade så har jag tappat jättemycket hår och på större delen av halva huvudet så blir det inte längre än några cm. Tur att man kan göra något av det man har. Fördelen med tunnt o kort hår är att det är lättare att göra kortare frisyrer av, åtminstone inbillar jag mig det.

      Radera
  9. Många bra tips, och så roligt att du har testat att locka håret med en sock bun, ser verkligen vackert ut!

    :)

    KRAM & trevlig helg!

    /Jenny

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Åh tack. Ja det var ju så enkelt och lockarna höll sig verkligen :)
      Tack det samma :)

      Radera
  10. Intressant...nu funderar jag ju inte på att spara ut håret, inte just nu i alla fall. Vårat vatten förstör mitt hår :( Jag kan inte bleka det eller färga det i någon rolig färg, tex rött. Det blir missfärgat och "kletigt". Tycket håret är mycket sprödare än annars. Och allt började när dom avverkade skogen ovanför våran källa...:(

    SvaraRadera
  11. These are excellent tips! I've long adhered to #1, despite the look of shock I always get from mainstream people whenever they ask me how often I go for a trim and I reply, "Never!" :-D It takes time to trim just the split ends but it is SO worth it.

    I'm glad you mentioned eating healthy, exercising, and avoiding stress. We often forget how crucial those things are to outward appearance as well as inner peace and physical well-being.

    And O.M.G. you are gorgeous with those curls and a natural face!!

    SvaraRadera
  12. This is a very useful piece of information right here. Even if I can only apply it to my bangs only (which I need to trim).
    I often wonder if the advice my mother taught me about cutting my hair in moon's crescent really works.

    SvaraRadera