Black Hair Growth – Top 12 Tips

1. Drink Plenty of Water

Your body needs to stay hydrated. Water makes the plants & trees grow. When was the last time you actually drank some water? Just go for it. Set yourself a task – 2 litres a day. Within a week or so, you’ll see the difference to your skin. You’ll be helping your system to stay flushed out. Yes, you might have to run to the toilet more often BUT – all ‘systems’ (and note that your body, is a SYSTEM) needs to be maintained and cared for.

2.  Choose Bobbles & Hair Accessories with care

Be careful with what you actually put IN your hair. Avoid elastic rubber bands – they just tear your hair out when you remove them. Bobbles which are silky are best and don’t tie them too hard.

3. Treatment – Deep Conditioning at least once per month

Use a nourishing treatment and give your hair a good deep condition at least once a month. Ideally, you should use a steam cap and give the hair a steam. The next best thing – go to a sauna. Have you noticed that in a suana, your pores open up and peoples skin ‘glows’ after a visit… this helps the hair too.

4. Oil the hair (not the scalp)

You may have the habit of using oil (or ‘grease’) on the scalp… avoid this… use oil on the HAIR – and pay particular attention to the ends, because the end of the hair is the oldest (and driest) part. As black hair is normally very dry, we have the challenge of keeping the hair itself well oiled. And don’t just use the hair oil your mum uses. Experiment. Have you tried Argan oil? Coconut oil? Olive oil?  

5. Tie your hair at night and/or get a better pillow case

Some people are too vain to tie their hair at night, or just too knackered. Trust me – its worth it. If you’re doing the above your hair may be oily and you want to protect your bed linen so do tie your hair to stop it snagging and breaking. Vary where you put the knott – do the side, the back and in front of the head. For those days where you are too tired or too vain to put on your headscarf, you can be saved if you just have a silk/ satin pillow case. 

6. Wide Tooth Comb

Forget these piddly combs that snap or get tangled in your hair. A nice wide toothed comb with help you to comb your hair, and keep more hair on your head. Remember – length is going to come from hair RETENTION – not just growth. We know black hair does grow. What our challenge is, is to KEEP that regrowth! 

7. Supplements (internal)

Your hair is related closely to your skin and nails. What state are they in? Internal supplements helps this process. Although a good diet is even better. Eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg. Clear skin and strong, long nails is a good sign that your hair is probably in the same condition…when I do the washing up, I wear rubber gloves… the water doesn’t weaken my nails, so my nails grow and i’ve never needed nail extentions… this relates to the next idea.

8. Shower Cap

Wear a shower cap in the shower… if you allow your hair to get wet and not treat it immediately, it can dry out and then be very prone to breakage… so we want to keep it moist with oil so that it doesn’t dry out, and not get it wet and then not take the proper actions straight after. Use a shower cap – it will help you.

9. External – avoid stress

If you are stressed out, your skin, immune system and general health can break down. So regular exercise is recommended. Be active. Stress effects people differently – some people – their skin will break out in rashes, some people will suffer from hair loss… so we need to keep ourselves in optimal shape – both outside and in, for the best results. Arguably, less stress may help you to keep the grey hairs away too!

10.  Go easy on the heat / and on the chemicals

Stop going for the 6-8 week relaxer / perm tops ups and allow your relaxers to grow out for a bit… Aim for 4-5 months IF you have to! And even then, only apply the formula to the regrowth, not to what was already there, as this is just further weakening the older hair (the longer bit)… and can be the point at where the hair breaks, and thus the cause of why you don’t see any length. For heat – use a heat protector before you use a hair straightener, and just try not having it so hot that steam is coming from the appliance. Try stretching the length of time between when you use the hair iron. Have you ever walked into a room where someone was straightening their hair and smelled the hair burning? Surely, that can’t be a good sign?

11. Don’t plat your hair so TIGHT! 

Contrary to popular belief it won’t make the hair last longer… but it will possibly give you a headache and stress and maybe break the hair… tying your hair at night with a head scarf will make the hair style last longer. “Prolonged pulling at the hair strands may cause inflammation of the hair follicle, which has been showed to lead to scarring. In principle, this could lead to scarring hair loss or central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia, a type of balding that starts at the top of the scalp and then spreads slowly to the rest.”

12. Vary your styles – try not to keep off your hair

Your hair will probably respond better the less you mess about with it. So develop for yourself some less style-intensive hair styles and ‘give your hair a break’ periodically with just platting and twisting it and leaving it! And even if you have a weave – don’t leave it in for months (this can lead to bacterial scalp infections) – as your hair needs to breath. Just like skin. MAKE SURE that you do take care of your own hair underneath the weave because many women don’t – leading to bald patches, a thinning hair line and then many feel they have ‘no choice’ but to stick to the weave to hide it.

Prime example – Naomi Campbell… 

Remember, if even a £10,000 a day model can suffer like this… any of us can! She’s got a  team of stylists behind her… And this can still happen!