Accelerate my hair growth?

Royalq

Royalq

Well-Known Member
Hey ladies!
So im coming up to my 2 year natural anniversary (thats two years since my last relaxer) and i only have 7.5 inches of hair:cry2:. Ive calculated that my growth rate is 0.3. 0.3 times 24 is 7.2, pretty much where i am. but ive tried everything to help boost my growth even just that little 0.2 to get half a inch. Ive tried excessive amounts of Biotin ( 15,000 mg for 5 months), Ive tried mega tek for 5 months, ive tried Castor oil for 2 months, MN for 5 months, Ive recently tried MTG and homemade sulfur mixes for 5 months consistently (i do everything consistently to give it a chance).

Ive done daily cowashing, scalp massages, essential oil massages, I tried multivitamins and MSM. My hair isnt dry, I could go 3 days without reapplying moisturizer (with my regi my hair stays super soft), i guard my ends like a pitbull guarding meat, i trim when needed. I exercise and eat well. My moisture protein balance is in check. I tried drinking more water. I also protective style like a beast, my hair hasnt been free since october of last year. It has always been plaited. Since feb ive alternated between box braids and kinky twists in 4 month stretches. My current set is staying in until next feb. And ive already found my staple products and regimen.

It seems no matter how hard i try my hair grows at its usual snail pace. Im not asking for much just a small boost. Any ideas.

If anyone wants to know my regimen
hair type- fine, dense, 4b-4a, medium porosity

regular hair
-pre-poo using chicoro's method
-shampoo 1x weekly with shea moisture shampoos.
- deep condition with nexxus hummectress mixed with castor oil
- Weekly protein with aphogee 2 minute
-Monthly hard protein with aphogee 2 step
-moisturizer- taaliah wajid curly curl cream, seal with olive, castor
-leave in - neutrogena triple silk touch leave in
- clarify when needed with ORS creamy aloe.

Braided hair
-shampoo once a week heavily diluted with ORS creamy aloe shampoo.
-diluted conditioner on length of braids or twists.
-Daily braid spray spritz ( Braid spray contains, african royal braid spray, infusium, megatek- my hair wont accept moisture without protein, triple silk touch leave in, some coconut oil, Giovanni direct leave in that i had laying around).
 
I feel your pain. But from one slow grower to another the best method is just to patiently wait and forget about length.

Easier said than done, of course. But it is the only solution I have found.
 
I am the Queen Snail of hair growth. That's why I threw in the towel earlier this year and gave up being natural. Guess what? I'm back. I did my big chop a few weeks ago. I learned over those few months that you have to be patient. A few things I have done is stop comparing or whooing over natural hair gurus or long legnth gurus and their progress in X amount of months. If I get 6 healthy inches in a year than so be it. I'm basically content, and that has helped me not to see my progress as lacking but rather as normal for me. Now, on to the juicy stuff: I have to give major props to the Greenhouse Effect Method. I saw a amazing growth when I started doing it after I texturized. Now I'm doing it post big chop and look forward to seeing if the progress continues. Also I have been taking Hairfinity for 3 weeks now, too early to tell if there is a difference. Also scalp massages have been working for me. Your hair looks good girl, I would tell you hang in there. We're here to cheer you up and cheer you on. I hope somewhere in my rambling you find something that helps or within a future post. :)
 
It sounds like you have tried all most all of the growth aides. The only thing left is Diatomaceous earth and Ayurveda powders for growth. try the Vatika oil for a while.
 
Smiley79 said:
I am the Queen Snail of hair growth. That's why I threw in the towel earlier this year and gave up being natural. Guess what? I'm back. I did my big chop a few weeks ago. I learned over those few months that you have to be patient. A few things I have done is stop comparing or whooing over natural hair gurus or long legnth gurus and their progress in X amount of months. If I get 6 healthy inches in a year than so be it. I'm basically content, and that has helped me not to see my progress as lacking but rather as normal for me. Now, on to the juicy stuff: I have to give major props to the Greenhouse Effect Method. I saw a amazing growth when I started doing it after I texturized. Now I'm doing it post big chop and look forward to seeing if the progress continues. Also I have been taking Hairfinity for 3 weeks now, too early to tell if there is a difference. Also scalp massages have been working for me. Your hair looks good girl, I would tell you hang in there. We're here to cheer you up and cheer you on. I hope somewhere in my rambling you find something that helps or within a future post. :)
Click to expand...

i remember trying the greenhouse effect for a while too, but i wasnt consistent with it.
 
I feel the same way...i have learned consistancy is key....find you a good multivitamin and a growth aid (biotin or msm), deep condition, dust your ends and protect your hair....even for us slow growers it WILL work...just dont stop to "try" something else, believe me it only makes things take slower
 
I have the solution!!!
Keep doing what you're doing!!
You're doing some amazing things, don't stop! Just keep going!!
 
I know you've tried castor oil, but when I oiled my scalp EVERYDAY I got 0.2 inch more every month. I mixed it with olive oil so isn't so thick. It's a pain to cowash it out every morning but worked for me. Maybe you could revisit that?

At the moment, I'm trying out just few drops of rosemary oil in any carrier oil (olive)...but I'm not that consistent, so I can't vouch for that yet. Good Luck!
 
spin around 6 times
pat your head on the 2nd and 5th spin
pretend to sneeze
sing the chorus to 'spice up your life' by the spice girls
do 27 push ups
put on a green long sleeve shirt
annnnnd OUILA! your hair will be super lonnnnng.


hehehe...just messing around/having fun.
 
youwillrise said:
spin around 6 times
pat your head on the 2nd and 5th spin
pretend to sneeze
sing the chorus to 'spice up your life' by the spice girls
do 27 push ups
put on a green long sleeve shirt
annnnnd OUILA! your hair will be super lonnnnng.


hehehe...just messing around/having fun.
Click to expand...

I said heck no at 27 push ups lol
 
OP I know exactly how you feel. I suggest you keep doing the things you're doing and take pictures of your hair to see your progress.
 
yeah i just put my hair away. its in braids right now. i'm doing a personal challenge. keeping my hair in mini braids. sticking to a regimen. taking my vitamins. eating more healthy and exercising. i had the protective styles and regimen on lock but what was lacking was my health. i was consuming pure junk and definitely wasn't drinking water. so now i'm doing the growth thing all the way around. i'm ending my personal challenge june 2013. if i don't see any significant results, i'm done. i will keep up my health practices for my total body but i'm gonna just really enjoy my hair (wear it out more, get more creative with styles and accessories).
 
I would try perhaps changing your diet and doing more exercise. Also staying well hydrated with plenty of water will help as well.
 
Royalq - I totally get it. For me I'm just now coming to grips that my hair grows slowly. I can't just casually and leisurely BC, shave bald, change styles, bleach, etc because I will be set back years. Its frustrating and the best advice I can give (since you're doing everything anyway) it to just have fund with the length you're now.

What did help me was nutrition. Not just supplements which is important for me (per my doctors suggestions), but super foods, greens smoothies, good quality protein; no junk, sugar, etc. Exercise is helpful as well.

Smiley79 said:
I am the Queen Snail of hair growth. That's why I threw in the towel earlier this year and gave up being natural. Guess what? I'm back. I did my big chop a few weeks ago. I learned over those few months that you have to be patient. A few things I have done is stop comparing or whooing over natural hair gurus or long legnth gurus and their progress in X amount of months. If I get 6 healthy inches in a year than so be it. I'm basically content, and that has helped me not to see my progress as lacking but rather as normal for me. Now, on to the juicy stuff: I have to give major props to the Greenhouse Effect Method. I saw a amazing growth when I started doing it after I texturized. Now I'm doing it post big chop and look forward to seeing if the progress continues. Also I have been taking Hairfinity for 3 weeks now, too early to tell if there is a difference. Also scalp massages have been working for me. Your hair looks good girl, I would tell you hang in there. We're here to cheer you up and cheer you on. I hope somewhere in my rambling you find something that helps or within a future post. :)
Click to expand...

About the GHE, what do you contribute the extra growth to? Is it because you hair can retain length more easily?
 
Thanks for all the encouragement and suggestions ladies, I think i need to quit watching natural hair journey videos on youtube. It thoroughly pisses me off and i feel like im doing something wrong lol. The last step for me i think is to go to the Doc and get checked out to make sure its not an internal issue and everything is where they should be.
 
Royalq said:
[...] i trim when needed.[...]I also protective style like a beast, my hair hasnt been free since october of last year. It has always been plaited. Since feb ive alternated between box braids and kinky twists in 4 month stretches. [...] Any ideas[?]

If anyone wants to know my regimen
hair type- fine, dense, 4b-4a, medium porosity

regular hair
-pre-poo using chicoro's method
-shampoo 1x weekly with shea moisture shampoos.
- deep condition with nexxus hummectress mixed with castor oil
- Weekly protein with aphogee 2 minute
-Monthly hard protein with aphogee 2 step
-moisturizer- taaliah wajid curly curl cream, seal with olive, castor
-leave in - neutrogena triple silk touch leave in
- clarify when needed with ORS creamy aloe.

Braided hair
-shampoo once a week heavily diluted with ORS creamy aloe shampoo.
-diluted conditioner on length of braids or twists.
-Daily braid spray spritz ( Braid spray contains, african royal braid spray, infusium, megatek- my hair wont accept moisture without protein, triple silk touch leave in, some coconut oil, Giovanni direct leave in that i had laying around).
Click to expand...

I can't help you with your regimen coz I got tired just reading all the things you do. I have never had to work so hard for my hair so I cannot relate with doing 189372972987917 things to your hair day in day out.

Now the parts I've made bold above, I can talk about. First of all, trimming when needed is your first big mistake. If you wait to see damage in order to trim, then your retention will suffer. You need to trim before your hair is damaged to prevent damage from costing you retention. For many of us who used to do what you do, when we started to dust regularly before damage was visible ie more as a preventative measure rather than a cure for damaged ends, we saw our hair take off. Just recently dyh080 echoed these sentiments in this thread.

Also when hair is plaited in box braids, it is not protected. Loose braids are not a protective style. They are a low manipulation style. Now if cornrowed, then most of the hair is protected because the ends are tucked away. But as long as ends are hanging and free, then they are exposed to friction with clothes and air and therefore not protected.

When I share the story of how my hair got damaged in just 4 months of not dusting and the ends were so thin I had to cut off 2 inches just to get it back to how it's supposed to be (link to actual post), my hair was in braids. Still that didn't stop the damage from happening.

So my suggestion would be you need to get rid of the damage you currently have (coz if it's been a while since your trim, then chances are you have damaged ends that need to go), and then continue taking good care of your hair and dust before too long so you only take out a bit. Don't waste time doing a S&D. It's futile as I explain in the links in the thread that @dhy080 started. Just dust ALL strands at set times and you should see a difference.

You say you grow 0.3 inch/month. That may not be true. That's what you retain. If you can stop your hair from breaking on its own by getting rid of weak ends before they are so big as to cost you length, you may find that you actually do grow 0.5 inch or more a month.
 
Thanks, Nonie for the dusting lecture (and I mean that!). I forgot to mentioned that to the OP, but that has made a difference in my hair over the past 5 months too.
 
Vitamins make your hair grow to it's maximum potential if you suspect that your hair is growing slower than it's destined. With vitamins though, you should be taking a multi-vitamin and then adding the extras (like more biotin) for optimum absorption. For the full effect, you need to stick with vitamins for at least 3 months but sometimes it takes at least 6 months to see the full effect. I say stick with a multi-vitamin, MSM, biotin and try silica - silica has been raved about all over the site and on Youtube.
 
Nothing you can do to make your hair grow faster but there are things you can and should be doing to retain your growth. Trims, PS, DCing, M&S
 
I believe whole heartedly that what Nonie says is a matter of fact.

My dd is nine years old and I've been getting her hair "professionally" braided every three weeks since she was four years old. After a while I asked the stylist "why isn't her hair growing"? She responded with a typical ignorant response, " some kids hair stops growing for a while but it'll start growing again". I had no clue about hair then, that alone, natural hair. Anyway, fast forward to this year. I stopped taking her to get her hair braided after I started my HHJ and began doing it myself. Well, I would wash, condition, m&s her hair and two strand twist BUT not without losing a ton of hair. I started asking other naturals was this normal and they said no. I then took her to my stylist back in May of this year for a good cut, more than two inches. Would you know her hair grew like never begore, she went from SL to APL , about 4-5 inches in just five months! I dust a little off the ends of her twist every two months or so and it seems her hair gets longer every week when I retwist.

Moral of my story is: get rid of any damaged ends and keep them away with regular dusting.

Also, you said you do Aphogee 2-minute every week and a hard protein treatment once a month. I say get rid of the weekly protein and replace those with moisture, moisture and more moisture. A hard protein every six weeks may be enough for your hair. You also could be over moisturizing if you have fine strands, maybe try the greenhouse effect instead 2-3 days a week.
 
Last edited:
i always try things to accelerate my growth...whether it be concoctions, vitamins, products...and i never see results because i dont have the patience to stick with them. you really have to have discipline with those things for sure! some people are really on it and do those things on schedule, but i get so tired of doing it so fast. i keep my regimen to the basics lol...sometimes i get lazy about doing those things...so i kinda have to force myself to get back into it so i dont fall backwards in my progress. ((smh))

i do believe some "extra" things can be helpful, though!
 
The only things I can suggest are fish oil and/or viviscal. I noticed that things derived from marine life seem to do better for me than expensive things chock full of herbs. The last time I took a hair growth vitamin I broke out in hives. :( Plus, fish oil has very many other benefits, and anything that attributes to overall health will help your hair.

Something as simple as daily exercise and healthy eating (green veggies, eggs, fish) can have the best affect on hair growth. What I've found is my hair is reflected by my overall health.
 
youwillrise said:
spin around 6 times
pat your head on the 2nd and 5th spin
pretend to sneeze
sing the chorus to 'spice up your life' by the spice girls
do 27 push ups
put on a green long sleeve shirt
annnnnd OUILA! your hair will be super lonnnnng.


hehehe...just messing around/having fun.
Click to expand...

:lachen::lachen::lachen: I'd be so screwed. I can't sing or do 27 push ups.:blush::lachen:
 
thanks Nonie , always thought that box braids were protective styling i didnt realize it was actually just low manipulation. I may need to trim more regularly. But i do think im naturally a slow grower, i pamper my hair too much to miss out on retaining a whole 6 inches this year lol.


KiWiStyle , my hair wont except moisture without a little protein. Early in my journey i was moisturizing, baggying, and dc'ing like everyone suggested but my hair was still crunchy. A soon as i began incorporating protein treatment my hair retained moisture like nobody's business lol. Your daughter's story inspires me to try trimming more regularly.
 
@Royalq, so what if you're a slow grower. As long as I've been on the forum, it's slow growers that seem to end up with the longest hair. Those who used to claimed 2 inches of growth a month never made it to butt or waist length. I say slow but sure wins the race. Plus when you do finally get to longer lengths, no one will care how long it took to get there. All they'll care about is that you have long hair. So stop treating this journey as a race. Enjoy your hair a every length and let it get to greater lengths whenever it will. A watched pot never boils.
 
Best advice? Do 1 extra thing, and then leave your hair alone. My routine is simple to the point of boring, and that's how my hair grows best. Doing the Least, actually yields the Best results.

- DC Weekly with MT Mix
- Co-Cleanse 2-3x's a week
- WnG's, and Pinapple w/ Buff at night, M&S every night
- Trim/dust 3-4x's a year.

That's it. I'm not checking my length every day, or even every month. I'm not comparing my growth to others either. I'm just taking care of it, having patience, and ignoring it. I have hairnorexia, so all that would drive me nuts anyway. :lol:
 
Nonie said:
@Royalq, so what if you're a slow grower. As long as I've been on the forum, it's slow growers that seem to end up with the longest hair. Those who used to claimed 2 inches of growth a month never made it to butt or waist length. I say slow but sure wins the race. Plus when you do finally get to longer lengths, no one will care how long it took to get there. All they'll care about is that you have long hair. So stop treating this journey as a race. Enjoy your hair a every length and let it get to greater lengths whenever it will. A watched pot never boils.
Click to expand...

*sniffles* your the best Nonie, we should award medals here. Your definitely right, i keep pushing myself to grow this much in this amount of time. I need to take it easy.
 
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