Tips for Growing Long Hair

If you are what tips for growing long hair then this article is meant for you. No special products are required to grow hair. Vitamins help in some instances and overall diet is a consideration. There are a number of steps that can be taken to avoid damage.

In general, however, there are more things not to do to grow hair, make quicker progress with the growth, and keep your hair healthy than there are things to do.

Anyone interested in growing long hair, especially at extreme lengths, should be aware that hair has a genetic terminal length. This realization comes with a simple answer to the question, How does hair grow? Hair is a shaft of protein, essentially keratin that pushes outward from follicles in the skin. Only the follicle itself is alive. The hair shaft is dead protein.

The normal rate to grow hair in humans is half an inch a month and the average human has approximately 100,000 hairs on their head. A single hair, in the absence of damage, can live four to five years before falling out and being replaced by a new hair.

Given those growth figures, a single hair would be anywhere from two feet to two and a half feet long by the end of its life. Many people, however, are able to grow their hair to lengths that hang below their knees. It's all a matter of genetics. Your hair cannot grow longer than your genetic make-up and the resulting programming of the follicles will allow. There's nothing you can do about that.

Long Hair Growing Tips: Do's and Don'ts

So, what are the things you can do to grow longer hair faster? The basic tips involve diet and nutrition, life habits, methods of hair care, and product selection. Above all, steps should be taken to prevent damage, extreme dryness, and breaking of the hair. Your hair must be healthy when you begin to grow it out and you must maintain that health at all times.

Nutrition and Supplements

Avoid crash diets. They stress the body and the effects appear in all the body's systems. Remember that hair is nothing more than a-keratin protein (90% with the remaining 10% being water.) A low protein diet can cause the hair to thin and will certainly slow its growth.

If you are in a phase of actively trying to grow out your hair, you may want to supplement your protein intake with liver. Some nutritional experts also recommend brewer's yeast, wheat germ, and granulated lecithin to help your body process the protein. Visit your local health food store and ask to speak to a counselor who will help you make good choices about diet and the use of supplements. When you are trying to grow hair, vitamins help.

In fact, thanks to the poor quality of the modern diet, everyone can benefit from a daily multi-vitamin, mineral supplement. The B and E vitamins are good for your hair as are zinc, sulfur, and magnesium. Also make sure your multi-vitamin includes biotin. To get more B vitamins from your diet, eat beans, peas, carrots, cauliflower, soybeans, bran, nuts, and eggs. Avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil contain the E vitamins.

Avoid foods that are greasy and fatty. They will disrupt your digestive system and potentially make your scalp and hair more oily. Minimize your intake of salt as it will raise your blood pressure and affect blood circulation in your scalp. (Male pattern baldness has been linked to high blood pressure.) Avoid pre-processed foods that are full of chemical additives and fast foods. A well-balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables that is also high in protein is your best ally in your quest to grow long, beautiful hair.

Brushing

The physical stresses on your hair are also an important consideration. Only use brushes with natural boar bristles and choose wide-toothed combs. Both are good at distributing the natural oils in your skin from the scalp down to the ends of your hair.

Throughout the day use your comb to prevent tangles in your hair. If tangles do occur, work at them in small sections starting at the end of the hair and working your way up. Never back comb or tease your hair. Always work in downward, even strokes. If a tiny knot simply will not work out, it is best to cut it out.

Before you shampoo, comb or brush your hair to remove loose hairs and to straighten out tangles. If your hair has a tendency to be dry, the old tried and true daily brushing with one hundred strokes will help as it is a technique to distribute oils from your scalp down the length of your hair.

Split Ends

With long hair, damage travels up from the ends. Trim your hair often. If you have reached the desired length and are in a maintenance stage, take off half an inch a month. If you are still growing your hair out, remove half an inch every three or four months.

In between those major trims, sit in a bright light and examine your hair for split ends. (When a split end develops, the hair literally unravels and will look frizzy.) Use just the tips of sharp scissors to remove the damaged end of the individual hair. Hair with this kind of damage breaks easily and much more length will be lost in that fashion than in simply monitoring and snipping your split ends.

Stresses to the Hair

The natural tossing and turning of sleep will create damaging friction against your hair if you sleep with it down. Use a satin pillow case and put your hair in a loose braid or in a soft sleep cap.

Heated appliances like blow dryers, hot rollers, curling irons, flat irons, and crimpers are strictly forbidden. No steaming hot showers and no vigorous rubbing of your hair with a towel. All of these things place major stress and friction on your hair. The heated items will dry out your hair and make it more brittle and in some instance place physical stress on the hair shafts by altering their shape. The same is true of overly hot water while shampooing and of the friction caused by vigorous rubbing with a towel.

Consideration should also be given as to the wisdom of using hair fasteners. Never use rubber bands because they tear at the hair when removed and damage the outer cuticle layer which makes the hair more susceptible to tangling. Anything with rough or sharp edges and hinges in which the hair can become caught is a bad idea as are items with Velcro and springs. Soft scrunchies and chopstick-like "hair sticks" are much better choices.

Avoid tight braids and pony tails. When you pull your hair to achieve these styles you are placing stress at the roots that are already bearing the weight of your long hair. Anything you do that causes hair to fall out or to be pulled out should be stopped immediately and not repeated. Check out more expert tips to grow long hair in the next part of this article.

Vitamins Boost Hair Growth

Research has shown that black hair needs special care. The way that this type of hair is treated and needs to be cut is different from other types of hair and there is a growing market of special hair care products developed specifically for those with so-called black hair. An experienced international developer of hair care products called SalonWeb has now developed a range of non-damaging professional specialist hair care products called Fast Grow. The company has developed food supplements that can help to fortify black hair from inside the body. This type of product is seen as revolutionary on the market.

We all know that we can get strong and shiny hair by using the right shampoos and conditioners. Vitamins and minerals in hair care products are supposed to help repair and build healthy hair. According to Salonweb the way we eat and the products that we eat affect the condition and health of our hair greatly. The company has released a hair growth supplement onto the market. This dietary supplement has been formulated especially to provide the hair and body with body with all the necessary vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that we need to grow healthy looking hair.

This new product is usually referred to by the company as the fast growth hair vitamin. One customer has claimed that taking the supplement has made her hair grow 3 inches in two months and the condition of the hair has improved greatly. The product is said to make hair smooth and manageable.

Natural Hair Growth Rate

Since birth, or actually even after conception in the womb, every part of the human body grows. But while the body stops growing at a certain age – specifically when a person reaches his 21st year of life — there are certain parts of the body that continue to grow such as the nails and hair.

Hair grows differently in every person. Hair also varies in texture and color. Some are straight, some are wavy and some are curly. Some are black, brown, brunette and blonde. Some people are lucky to have thick hair while others suffer from hair loss problems even at an early age. Many of us even associate hair loss and baldness with men but in reality, this condition can affect both men and women regardless of age.

Hair does not grow fast as we expect it should. Normally, hair grows at about half a millimeter each day, about one-half inch every month or approximately six inches (15 cm) in one year. It may be a slow process but when well taken care of, the rate hair grows can be hastened.

Hair growth goes through several phases. The growth cycle or phase refers to the production of new cells inside the hair follicle for a specific period of time. What follows is the rest stage during which the hair stops growing. After that, the hair starts growing again.
 
You may have observed some hair strands fall from your head when you shampoo or brush your hair every day. This is a natural process of shedding and takes place during the hair’s rest phase. During this phase, the hair shaft breaks resulting in the falling out of the existing hair and the growth of a new hair.

Depending on where they’re located in the body, hair growth rate is not the same. The hair follicles on the head are meant to allow hair to grow for many years the reason why the hair can grow very long. On the other hand, the hair on the arms and legs stops growing every two months which is why they remain short.

The rate hair grows is dependent on various factors such as age, genetics, condition of the hormones, stress, nutrition, climate and lifestyle. If you wish to have longer hair, then you better be aware of these factors.

Nutrition plays a crucial role in hair growth as it is in the growth and development of the entire human body. You have learned since you started school that eating the right foods help boost human growth. This is what people should keep in mind even until reaching their adulthood because a balanced diet indeed provides a lot of benefits.

Proper nutrition means eating the right amount of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals. Eating fruits and green leafy vegetables as well as fish, meat, oats, wheat, milk and eggs among many others on a daily basis can make a person live longer, not to mention healthier.

Other than nutrition, proper hygiene assures healthy hair growth. In other words, just like how we take care of our body, we should also keep our hair clean every day.