How to Grow Longer Hair, Fast
I thought I’d write this guide because I’ve received a lot of emails from people who have visited my blog, saying their hair doesn’t seem to grow past a certain length, no matter what they do. OK there’s a good reason for that and I’m going to tell you how to get past it.
I know from harsh experience why hair doesn’t grow past a certain length and I know how to to get it growing again. When I started badly losing my hair several years back, my hair got thinner but I also noticed the hair at the front of my scalp just stopped growing past a few inches in length.
Now, I know many of the people who have emailed me have much longer hair than that and they are struggling to grow their hair past shoulder length or perhaps even as long as elbow length, but the same thing that has saved my hair can get yours growing longer, faster and healthier.
But before I get into the details of how to force hair growth, we need to go over a few best practices that you need to be following routinely.
The three step approach to growing longer hair
The key ingredients of growing longer hair are as follows:
Protect your hair from split ends
Feed your hair
Keep your stress levels low
OK, let’s get started.
Protect your hair from split ends
First off, hair grows about half an inch per month on average. So if your hair is twenty inches long, it’s over three years old at the ends. In that time you may have brushed those ends two and half thousand times. Every time you’ve used heat on your hair, or been swimming it can cause a little damage to those ends, which is actually protein loss (tiny fragments of hair are broken away and lost). A study conducted in 2003 (Effect of mineral oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil on prevention of hair damage), provides details on protein loss as a result of brushing and combing.
Anyway the crux of it is that hair is susceptible to damage; not just from brushing, but from wind, rain, exercise, sun exposure, even sleeping in the wrong position! All of this protein loss (hair damage), eventually causes split ends. Once your hair has split you’re done for, it won’t grow past that length, without being wispy and frail.
How to protect your hair from damage and split ends
1. Don’t brush your hair when it’s wet
Hair is most susceptible to damage when it’s wet. So brushing when wet will cause more split ends. In fact, brushing your hair when it’s dry will do hardly any damage at all. So making sure your hair is dry is the key factor to brushing.
2. Don’t use heat on your hair
I know straighteners, crimpers and curlers are all the rage, but resist the temptation to use these products every day (or even at all if you can help it). The best way to have beautiful, healthy looking hair, is to have beautiful healthy hair! Not to make it look shiny with heat but to actually make your hair healthy – we’ll get on to how to do that in a minute.
If you really have to use hair dryers and heated metal, make sure you protect your hair first with a quality heat protection product that coats the hair.
3. Protect and feed your hair throughout the day
Use one of these organic hair protection and nutrition products on your hair to protect it from damage through the day and to feed it via the scalp.
4. Tie your hair up loosely at night
If you have long hair, tie it into a very loose pony tail and position it up above your head so it hangs over the top of the pillow. Try not to sleep on your hair.
Once you’ve found a good way of tying your hair up loosely and comfortably, use that method whenever you’re doing sport or your hair is subject to wind and rain (remember, hair is more susceptible to damage when it’s wet). Every time your hair is subjected to harsh conditions it is more likely to lose protein, break and split. Try to protect your hair. Tie it up, wear a scarf and use quality hair protection products.
The Key: Feed your hair from within
Protecting your hair is just the first step, but feeding your hair is actually FAR FAR more important. This is the key bit so keep reading.
You have to protect your hair to prevent split ends, but the reason you’re getting split ends is because your hair is weak, frail and malnourished. What do you do if your hair is malnourished? You feed it. But how do you feed hair? Well it’s not a case of conditioning it or using “deep nourishing leave in conditioners”. No, all of that is a load of rubbish. Conditioners can protect the hair by coating it in chemicals but they do very little to feed the hair.
The very best way BY FAR to feed your hair is to feed it from within – by supplying it with nutrients via the bloodstream. You can use all the hair conditioners, nourishing hair masks and other gimmicks you like. The scientific truth of the matter is, hair receives nutrients via the blood stream, not via hair conditioner!
You need to get your head around this fact: the hair you can see is dead. It cannot be fed. Conditioners can protect the hair but they won’t do much to feed it. You need to concentrate on the hair that is below the scalp – the hair roots, which are connected to tiny blood vessels in the scalp. That is how hair grows and becomes healthy and shiny – by receiving lots of nutrients via those blood vessels.
So if you want truly conditioned, beautiful, shiny hair, you need to feed it via the bloodstream…
Which nutrients does your hair need?
Your hair comprises of over ten different amino acids, which are “keratinized” as hair develops and emerges through your scalp to become hair. There are several key amino acids that you need to consume in abundance in order to feed your hair. The most important ones are L-cysteine and L-lysine. Cysteine is the main component of keratin. By consuming more cysteine your hair literally grows faster, longer and healthier.
However it’s not quite as simple as that. In order to make sure cysteine is sent to the scalp to build hair, you need to increase your intake of taurine. Further to that you need to increase your intake of supporting B vitamins, essential fatty acids and other key nutrients that support hair growth. Not only does this diet support hair growth, it will also improve your skin, your liver health and your overall health in general.
Keep reading though, because the next bit is important.
It’s all well and fine consuming nutrients that promote hair growth but actually the problem for most people is not just the lack of nutrients, but also a weak blood supply to the hair follicles.
Increase supply of nutrients to hair
One of the key reasons for hair loss is weak supply of blood to the follicles. That’s why the world’s number one hair loss treatment, LLLT, is primarily designed to increase blood flow to the scalp. So really, this is as important, if not more important than consuming the right nutrients.
Many hair loss experts believe that one of the main causes of hair loss is lack of blood supply to the hair. The causes of this vary though. For some people it may be caused by stress and tension in the shoulders. A study in 2010 by UCLA-VA researchers found reducing stress levels in mice using a stress blocking drug, increased hair growth in mice that suffered from thinner, less lustrous hair.
For other people, their poor scalp circulation might be down to a “tightening” of the scalp, due to “adult skull expansion” (a hypothesis that was circulating in the hair loss forums throughout 2012). For others, ‘calcification’, caused by high scalp DHT levels might be the cause.
Whatever the cause, if your hair doesn’t grow past a certain length, or if it is frizzy, weak, brittle or thinning, it’s likely that poor blood flow to the follicles is largely to blame.
The problem is we need to find the underlying cause of the weakened circulation and treat it. If it’s DHT, take a look at my information on reducing DHT in the scalp.
Really though, if you want to feed you hair you need a powerful way of increasing blood flow to the follicles.
Quick tips to help you grow longer hair, fast
Reduce your stress levels
You may think that stress is not that important for improving the health of your hair, but guess again, it’s really important. I designed that part of the program because I was suffering very badly from stress. This methodology worked for me and it will almost certainly help you. Here are a few tips for reducing your stress levels:
Read a book before bed (studies show this reduces stress hormones, within just six minutes of reading)
Get at least 7 hours sleep every night
Turn off all the lights – make sure your bedroom is light free at night
Exercise a little every day and intensely 3 times per week
Eat your greens, reds and yellows
Consume the key amino acids that boost hair growth, the length of the growth cycle and hair shaft diameter. However you also need all the supporting good fats, vitamins and minerals. Get off to a good start by making sure you eat deep green vegetables and lots of brightly coloured vegetables every day.
To supplement your diet with vegetables you might eat less often, try drinking a “green drink” every day.
So, what is the best thing to do to increase hair growth?
Whether you use Rogaine, head stands, scalp massages or whatever else, the more blood you can get to your hair follicles, the more they are fed. You’ll also learn about the key amino acids that build strong, thick, shiny hair, how to reduce your stress levels and anxiety, how to improve your liver efficiency and you’ll learn about The Alternation Method, which provokes your body to send nutrients to your hair all day long and all night.
Source: http://www.nicehair.org/how-to-make-your-hair-grow-longer/how-to-grow-longer-hair-fast#sthash.FFiNRjIZ.dpuf