The growth and maintenance of natural hair are some of the most talked-about subjects in the natural hair community. Having long natural hair is an aspiration that many people have.
Can we really grow long natural hair? For a lot of people, it just doesn’t seem to be happening. Why is that? Why do some people find it much easier to grow long natural hair than others?It’s not that a person cannot grow their hair long, it’s usually the case that some people seem to be unable to maintain their natural hair.
Below are tips for growing and maintaining natural hair:
How to Grow and Maintain Your Natural Hair
1. Keep Your Scalp Clean
Keeping your scalp clean regularly is an excellent way to grow and maintain your natural hair. Your hair may not experience healthy growth through tons of dirt and build-up.
If you are a heavy product user, you may have to shampoo your hair regularly to make sure you are actually keeping your scalp clean. You can switch things up a bit by using a cleansing conditioner like the Edge Naturale Scalp Refreshing Shampoo and Tingling Moisture Conditioner, which is a nice balance between a shampoo and a regular conditioner.
As part of keeping your scalp clean, you can also consider doing head massages. It gets the blood flowing through your scalp and can help to stimulate growth. This can either be done in the shower while washing your hair or just whenever you remember.
2. Learn to Detangle
Detangling your hair is another significant thing to do. This involves separating strands of hair that are intertwined and need to be released. If you don’t detangle, your hair will likely become even more tangled, and you may start seeing lots of breakage from hair pulling apart.
An excellent way to detangle the hair is to use your fingers to finger comb. If finger detangling doesn’t suit you, then you can consider using a wide-tooth comb to detangle from the ends of your hair slowly. It’s advisable to start at the tips a little at a time until you get to the roots. It’s always best to do this on damp hair with conditioner if you can.
3. Keep Your Hair Moisturized
Keeping your hair moisturized is a vital step towards having healthy natural hair. Just as you need to keep your body moisturized and hydrated with water, the same thing is required when it comes to your hair. Ensure you are drinking plenty of water and keep your hair moisturized with a really good hydrating leave-in conditioner.
When choosing a leave-in conditioner, it’s always advisable to go for one where water (aqua) is the first ingredient. Ingredients tend to be listed in order of percentage, so if water is listed first, that is likely to be the product's main ingredient.
4. Trim
Some people don’t like the thought of trimming their hair, when in fact, trimming your hair is one of the best things you can do to help your hair to grow healthy.
Plant lovers understand how important it is to prune the leaves of a plant to help keep it alive. Well, the same is true for human hair. When you trim your hair, you get rid of the split ends, single strand knots, and frayed ends. This process ensures that your hair stays looking and feeling healthy.
5. Keep Your Hair Away From Your Shoulders As Much As Possible
When most people get their hair to shoulder length, it often appears that their hair has stopped growing. What is actually happening is that hair starts to break a lot at this point because of how much rubbing the ends of your hair are doing on your shoulders. This causes a lot of friction.
With friction comes breakage, and knowing that the ends of your hair are the most fragile part of your hair, you need to keep it well protected. You may have to style your natural hair in a way that reduces friction between your hair and the shoulder.
6. Protect Your Hair With Satin
Sleeping on cotton takes moisture out of your hair, and when you have curly hair, you need to do your best to retain all the moisture you can get. Whereas, sleeping on a satin pillowcase or with a satin scarf allows your hair to retain moisture and also reduces the amount of frizzing in your hair as you have much less friction.
7. Opt For Protective Style When Possible
Protective styling is great for growing and maintaining natural hair. However, you don’t have to overly rely on this because it can go wrong too. If you keep protective styles for too long or fail to keep your hair moisturized while protected, it can lead to dry hair, leading to breakage.
It is advisable never to keep braids in for too long without moisturizing them. Braids can help retain hair growth, but only if you treat it right. You will still need that satin scarf!