Many men prefer women with long hair, and it’s not all about the look of it. Even if you’re not trying to attract a man, long hair is beautiful, and you might be trying to figure out how to get yours to cooperate.
Learning how to care for long hair will make sure you don’t get frustrated and cut it off. We’ve either been there or know someone who has cut their beautiful locks from pure anger at the difficulty to grow it out or care for it.
Continue reading this article as we go over growing out and maintaining long hair.
1. Say No to Restrictive Diets
If you’re trying to lose weight using restrictive diets and you notice that your hair doesn’t look as good as it used to—that’s not a coincidence.
When your body isn’t getting enough nutrition, it has to cut off the supply to something. One of the things that is low on the totem pole of importance is your hair. A restrictive diet is almost certain to take your hair’s sheen and ability to grow down a few pegs.
It would be better to increase your exercise to shed pounds than make your body cut off nutrition to your hair, nails, and other “lesser important” body parts.
2. Increase Protein Intake
Since hair follicles are made of mostly protein, it’s important that you eat plenty of protein for healthy hair. If you don’t eat enough protein, you might even lose your hair.
Try eating eggs, berries, spinach, fatty fish, sweet potatoes, avocados, nuts, and other similar food to make sure your protein intake is high enough.
3. Boost Your Nutrition With Supplements
Taking a multivitamin is a good first step to better health. Beyond that, you can also take a hair supplement to help increase the specific nutrients your hair needs to grow.
The easier you make it for your body to get the nutrition it needs, the better it can do its job growing beautiful, long hair.
4. Indulge In Scalp Massages
According to research, scalp massaging helps increase hair thickness because it stretches the hair follicle cells. When this happens, the follicles figure that they are supposed to produce thicker hair.
Another benefit is that scalp massage is that it is thought to help dilate blood vessels beneath the skin, which also helps with hair growth and health.
Besides those benefits, massages can reduce your stress, and the less stress you feel, the easier it is for your body to do what it needs to do—including growing hair.
5. Give Your Hair a Trim
When you’re focusing on long hair style, the last thing you might think about is cutting your hair. Despite what you might think, cutting your hair is actually an important part of keeping your hair healthy and growing.
Trimming your hair regularly helps it grow faster and keep its length because you’re removing the split ends. If your split ends get out of control, they will split even more and make your hair shorter over time.
When you’re growing your hair out, trimming it about every three months will help make sure there aren’t any pesky split ends trying to cramp your style.
6. Drink Water
We all know we should drink more water, but did you know that water plays a major role in your hair growth?
Water supports the vitamins that contribute to hair growth, and not only that, it makes up almost twenty-five percent of the weight of a strand of hair.
Depending on your body weight, you may need to drink more or less water than the average person. If you’re dehydrated, your hair stops growing, and the ends start to split. Some people’s hair stops growing altogether from a lack of water, so make sure you’re getting enough each day.
Drinking plenty of water can even help you with scalp problems like dandruff.
7. Understand Heat Is Not a Friend
It’s true that styling with heat makes life a lot easier, but you have to be careful since heat can be very damaging to your hair.
Keep in mind that your hair is strong and can withstand the heat if you use it properly. On the other hand, you should keep in mind that once your hair is heat damaged, there’s no fixing it. You have to grow it out and cut it off if you want to get rid of the damage.
If you must use heat, make sure you use quality heat appliances. Also, you shouldn’t forget to use a heat protectant when you’re styling your hair. It’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to heat damage and your hair.
8. Make Up Your Mind OnColor
The more you color your hair, the more damage it takes. Coloring your hair might be a lot of fun, and you might change your mind a lot, but that’s not good for your hair.
This is especially bad for your hair if you have to bleach it each time that you color it.
The chemicals that go on your hair when you color it strip away hair’s natural protective lipid layer. When this happens, it’s left exposed and is easier to damage. You’ll also notice that it feels rough when you touch it.
Another problem with coloring your hair is that it can cause problems with your scalp. These chemicals remove the oils from your scalp, which also makes it vulnerable to things like styling products, shampoos, and conditioners.
If you notice stinging, red skin, itching or swollen patches on your scalp after coloring, this is likely due to the chemicals in what they used.
9. Choose the Best Brush
We have to brush our hair every day, so make sure that you use a brush that isn’t damaging your hair. Using the wrong brush can work against your hair care goals.
One of the best hair care tips for long and thick hair is to use a boar bristle brush. These natural bristles are flexible and gentle on hair, which means it isn’t likely it will damage your hair.
If you have a brush that has the little balls on the end of the bristles, this is a recipe for pulling your hair out. Throw it away and get a boar bristle brush as soon as you can.
Another bonus for using the boar bristle brush is that it is good at distributing essential oils down your hair shaft. This keeps your hair moisturized for optimal health.
10. Embrace Deep Hydrating Treatments
If you don’t use deep hydrating treatments, your hair is begging for it. When you use these treatments, your hair gets the moisture it needs.
If you’ve seen someone that has long, soft locks, it is likely they do these types of treatments. They give both your hair and your scalp the moisture they need to fight off flakes and split ends.
They are also really relaxing, so if you’re looking for a way to decompress, this is a good option to relax and get beautiful hair.
11. Say Yes to Scrunchies
When you are tired of having your hair down in your face, try to tie your hair back with a scrunchie. Other types of ties often pull your hair out at the roots or cause it to split.
No one will cite you for putting this 80’s favorite in your hair, and it will keep growing long and beautiful.
12. Be Kind When You Dry
When you dry your hair, don’t use a bath towel. Towels can rough up your hair and cause split ends. Using a hair wrap or a t-shirt will be easier on your hair and can keep it from getting damaged unnecessarily.
There are wraps, especially for drying hair, but a t-shirt really can do the job if you don’t want to put the money out to buy one.
13. Overwashing Is a No-No
Washing your hair every day is not a necessity. Even if you work out and get sweaty—don’t wash your hair daily.
When you wash your hair too much, the chemicals from the shampoo can upset your scalp’s microbiome and lead to problems. If you do too much washing, you might cause inflammation, itching, and dry scalp.
When you do wash your hair, there is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. Most people put the shampoo in their hair, lather it up all over their head, and wash it out.
The best way to wash your hair is by washing only the scalp and rinsing. You then should put conditioner on your hair but only from halfway to the bottom of your hair.
How to Care for Long Hair – Now You Know
Now you have some of the most important tips for how to care for long hair. If your hair still isn’t at the length you want it, the above tips will help as well.
Do you want to learn more about hair care and other beauty topics? Continue through our blog to learn more.
