What should you do if you want healthy hair?
Healthy hair requires patience and commitment.
A watched pot doesn’t boil. Patience is a virtue when it comes to hair growth. Restoring damaged hair to a healthy state takes time. For some people achieving healthy hair is very simple and for others they have to work much harder to get the hair they want.The average growth rate is ½ an inch per month. That equals 6 inches a year. Some people get less than that and others get more than that. Since most people only get 3 inches in 6 months, you have to be patient if you want to see progress with your hair.
Be consistent. As with any goal in life, you must be consistent if you want to achieve results. The same thing goes with hair care. Once you develop a hair regimen, stay consistent. Try not to slack with your routine. If you deep condition once a week try to stick to it.
Stop comparing yourself to other people. This was hard for me to do. I would see women with beautiful hair and think why not me? Everyone’s hair journey is different. There’s nothing wrong with admiring a healthy head of hair but if you find yourself constantly comparing your hair to someone else’s, you will most likely find yourself discouraged and frustrated and you will want to give up before you even try. Focus on your hair journey.
Be careful who you tell your hair goals with. Have you ever told someone about a goal you were working on and they were negative and said you could never do it? I told other people that I want my hair to grow and be healthy and some people were negative and implied that I could never have the hair I want.
No matter what your goal is in life, you need people who are supportive. If you feel that someone is being negative then its best you keep your hair goals and challenges to yourself. Sometimes their words can only cause you to doubt yourself.
If you want healthy hair start with what you eat. When your body is at its healthiest, it will function at its best. Hair, skin, and nails can be a reflection of our diet. If your body is not getting enough nutrients, neither is your hair. A poor diet can cause hair to look dull, to become dry and brittle, and your growth rate can slow down. A balanced diet with healthy proteins, fruits, and veggies is best for your hair to grow at its optimum rate and be at its healthiest.
Appreciate the small signs of progress. So your hair is not growing as fast as you would like but how does it look and feel? Do you notice less breakage and shedding? Does it look thicker? Does it feel soft? Length isn’t the only sign of progress.
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I hope this won’t be too long, but I can ramble, so I apologize in advance.
Let me start off by saying good luck on your hair journey. Many say that hair is “just hair,” but it’s not. It’s a person’s crown of glory, and when years of abuse and bad education affect it in a damaging way it can really hurt someone.
I’ll start from the beginning: I had thick, healthy hair growing up. Even though my mom remembers it coming down my back, I didn’t notice anything past my neck, and pictures back it up. Relaxers came in around the age of ten and even though I had one every four or five week from root to tip (I was told that since my hair was back to being ‘curly’ it needed the relaxer again), it kept its thickness, though it never grew past my shoulders.
However, when I was fifteen, I started to notice my hair breaking off, especially in the left nape area. Eventually that spot was bald. The relaxers and heat I began using multiple times a week had taken a toll on my hair, and I was determined to do something about it. So to the chagrin of family and “friends,” I shaved my head close to my 16th birthday. My closest friends expressed that out of our group, I had the longest non-weaved hair (keep in mind, it’s shoulder-length) and now the great hair hope was gone. My hair eventually got back to the length it was in a year (I kept it in braids and gave the relaxers a rest until I thought that I could ‘handle them’), my hair fell out in that same spot three more times in eight years and each time I chopped it all off.
In July of ’08, a year and a half after a my spot reappeared I went online, determined to finally get my hair past shoulder length and not have my hair fall out. I just happened upon a youtube that mentioned Mega-Tek and I got curious and Googled it. I then was led to hair boards like LHCF (where I spotted your blog today) and BHM. I read the many pages about it and determined that Mega-Tek would help jumpstart my hair journey. And for me, it worked. I was able to gain length (¾” in the first three weeks) and some strength, but I knew that couldn’t just be it as far as caring for my hair. So I kept researching and picked up things like baggying (which my hair loves), protective styling (which I had done in the past, but never really to the extent I’m doing now), and protein-moisture balance.
I cannot express how much these boards have changed my life. Even though I’m in what I call “cocoon mode,” (protective Bantu knots 24/7 – love them), my hair is the longest and healthiest it’s ever been. EVER BEEN. Here’s what I do:
*Make sure I take or eat my vitamins
*Up protein by eating more chicken and fish
*Exercise six days a week (I just jump on my rebounder for 30, 40 minutes, but it really gets the blood pumping)
*Drink at least 64 ounces of water a day
*Run water on the parts of the scalp exposed by the knots to get the sweat off after workouts
*Redo the knots that come undone in the shower and lightly reapply conditioner to the ends (a tip that I saw on LHCF, “Bunning for a Year” or some thread like that. It cut down on the dry broken-off ends I’d encounter when I unraveled the ends).
*Use Aphogee 2 min Treatment twice a week and cowash it out (I’ve recently discovered that my hair is a protein fiend and this has strengthened and softened my hair so much). Use shampoo once a week.
*Baggy three times a week
I’m so glad I found a regimen that works for me. It took a while but my hair is thanking me. It’s about an inch or so from APL ^.^ and I will wait to have it carefully straightened for the new year to see the progress.
Here’s some background info:
Length – Nearing APL, but I lost hair again at that spot last year I finally realized that the hair was a different texture from the rest of my hair (but elected not to cut it). Thankfully that spot is nearing NL and can be covered up.
Goal – APL (layered – got a roundish face), but I might go for BSL
Hair Type – 4a/b, 3c in back (I think this is why my hair keeps breaking in the exact same spot. I’m thinking alopecia too – My doc couldn’t tell me)
Relaxed or Natural – Natural (Since 3/07)
May all the ladies in search of hair health have a happy journey!
CM