Techniques For Hair Growth And Length Retention

[Maracujá]

Thank you so much for tagging me, so flattering and humbling at the same time . @caribeandiva and @Chicoro have shared tremendous tips, pertaining to moisturizing. Which is indeed something I used to do very often, but fell of the bandwagon. Definitely need to get back to that.

@caribeandiva has already pointed out to 'consistency', I would like to remain in that frame of thought and share some internal tips about the attitude one must adopt, that aid in this regard:



IMHO, it's better to be consistent with 1-3 practices, that you are sure to keep up regularly; than a bunch of techniques and products that you use sporadically. That will not yield the best results and will only frustrate you in the end. Also, keep in mind that as life progresses, you will have a limited resource of time, depending on your family situation. So it's really not a good idea to adopt a hair routine that takes aeons.



We all know the saying: "there are no ugly women, only lazy ones". The same applies to hair, it will take effort. But the great thing is, in the end, you actually gain time. Again, as life progresses, your family situation changes. Chances are you have to attend a lot of get togethers, weddings and so forth. Imagine N-E-V-E-R having to stress over what you will do with your hair again? Not having to buy a last minute weave or wig that is overpriced and doesn't really bring out your beauty? Well, with much effort, you can achieve that. At the time I started growing out my hair, I was also attending college and working part time. But we still made time to devour information about our HHJ on LHCF.



As @Chicoro mentioned, it does indeed take an average of 5 years to grow beautiful, long and luscious hair. In your case @ajoke, I believe you will be more patient this time around. At least that's been my case since cutting my hair earlier this year. Because now you have so much knowledge, just like you had that webinar with that lady, there are tons of Black women offering this service now. And it helps, because sometimes you just need to hear that one peace of information, that will click with you and turn your hair around. The key of course is...patience.



Just like in life, there will be setbacks. And just like IRL, there will always be a solution. We are lucky in that we have LHCF, most women don't. There's a wealth of information here, there's truly nothing new under the sun. Whatever you're experiencing with your hair, another woman is going through it or has conquered it. Ask questions about it and get the help you need.

 

[Maracujá]

Now for the fun part

First and foremost, it had ALWAYS been my dream to have long hair:



Had been dreaming about it since I was a little girl, so imagine my joy when I stumbled upon LHCF haha.

1. One thing I am very consistent with, is washing with a moisturizing shampoo + followed by doing with a moisturizing conditioner. Depending on what my hair needs at that particular time, I of course alternate between MOISTURE - STRENGTH - CLARIFYING - CHELATING.



Then I sit under the hair dryer for 45min - 1hour, while I'm doing that, I usually browse LHCF for more tips on haircare. Also, I wash my scalp but I condition my hair. I try to avoid dumping conditioner on my scalp or shampoo on my ends.

2. I remain very curious about learning about natural hair. I still read books / watch videos / surf the net, for more information.



So again, moisturizing is truly key. Because if you look at pic on the far right, when I used to do that, my hair looked almost relaxed even though it was natural.

3. I don't use a regular towel to dry my hair after washing + dcing. I use this cotton fabric instead.

4. Have also installed a shower filter:



5. Instead of using plastic combs, I use wide tooth ghair combs that can be purchased on Honey Fig (#1-3).



6. I keep it simple: most products nowadays, have as a goal, to make your hair curly. So I prefer to stay faithful to products from back in the days. Most of the times, I purchase them on Amazon or Ebay:



7. My hair grows much faster when I adhere to a healthy diet.

8. When my hair was at its longest between 2010 and 2015, it was because I had been protective styling with micro braids (for up to 3 months at a time) and using butters in the winter vs. oils during the warmer months:







9. What I've learned now, is that there are tons of hairstyles one can sport with your own natural hair. I probably damaged my own hair due to using so much heat on it. The Hair Guru on IG, says it's best to only use heat every 6 months.

10. Have ALWAYS slept on a silk pillowcase. I even take it to trips with me.

HTH

Will share more tips later on

 

[caribeandiva]

Now for the fun part

First and foremost, it had ALWAYS been my dream to have long hair:

View attachment 449191

Had been dreaming about it since I was a little girl, so imagine my joy when I stumbled upon LHCF haha.

1. One thing I am very consistent with, is washing with a moisturizing shampoo + followed by doing with a moisturizing conditioner. Depending on what my hair needs at that particular time, I of course alternate between MOISTURE - STRENGTH - CLARIFYING - CHELATING.

View attachment 449193

Then I sit under the hair dryer for 45min - 1hour, while I'm doing that, I usually browse LHCF for more tips on haircare. Also, I wash my scalp but I condition my hair. I try to avoid dumping conditioner on my scalp or shampoo on my ends.

2. I remain very curious about learning about natural hair. I still read books / watch videos / surf the net, for more information.

View attachment 449195

So again, moisturizing is truly key. Because if you look at pic on the far right, when I used to do that, my hair looked almost relaxed even though it was natural.

3. I don't use a regular towel to dry my hair after washing + dcing. I use this cotton fabric instead.

4. Have also installed a shower filter:

View attachment 449197

5. Instead of using plastic combs, I use wide tooth ghair combs that can be purchased on Honey Fig (#1-3).

View attachment 449199

6. I keep it simple: most products nowadays, have as a goal, to make your hair curly. So I prefer to stay faithful to products from back in the days. Most of the times, I purchase them on Amazon or Ebay:

View attachment 449201

7. My hair grows much faster when I adhere to a healthy diet.

8. When my hair was at its longest between 2010 and 2015, it was because I had been protective styling with micro braids (for up to 3 months at a time) and using butters in the winter vs. oils during the warmer months:

View attachment 449209

View attachment 449203

View attachment 449205 View attachment 449207

9. What I've learned now, is that there are tons of hairstyles one can sport with your own natural hair. I probably damaged my own hair due to using so much heat on it. The Hair Guru on IG, says it's best to only use heat every 6 months.

10. Have ALWAYS slept on a silk pillowcase. I even take it to trips with me.

HTH

Will share more tips later on

Excellent posts!! Love the pics!!

 

[blazingbeauty]

That’s exactly the same thing that happens to me. I’ve found that when I moisturize out of the shower, I will inevitably find a few of those very very fine hairs in my hands.

However when I completely drench or hydrate my hair completely in the shower, and then let it air dry to a damp state, I virtually see not a single hair in my hands if I feel like I need a light coat of whatever leave in I choose.

I think with hair, concerning each individual strand, not every bit of moisture coats evenly despite trying to evenly apply it. And not every part of that strand of hair is has the same strength, porosity, or thickness. The middle of a strand of hair can be a lot more resilient, but let’s say just above it, it is a lot more weaker, or even finer, and you go to moisturize and apply just enough force or tension that ends up breaking it.

I think situations like that happen all over my head. And I think there’s a difference between fully hydrating, and moisturizing. I try to mostly get my entire head of hair wet, or completely hydrate it all at one time, and then let my hair air dry, until it’s very feathery and fluffy in its damp state. Since my hair is fine, it’ll compress and get stuck together almost immediately, so I try to keep it separated, and apply leave ins to the best of my ability until wash day as well.

I don’t think it’s completely avoidable, and I don’t think it solely happens to fine haired ladies, but I do think with fine hair it’s a bit more of a recurring issue.

So long as you can manage to mitigate it, or grow hair fast enough to outweigh the small bits of breakage, i think it’s a normal thing.

This right here! I’m glad this is not an abnormal phenomenon. I know when my hair is breaking bc something went wrong, but the discouraging part is when I’m just trying to moisturize or finger detangle wet hair. Some wash days will be perfect other times not so much, even though I change nothing about what I do. I won’t obsess so much about it anymore.

Do you find that your hair stays more or less moisturized when you apply product on damp hair vs soaking wet hair?

 

[VictoriousBrownFlower]

Some techniques I have that I feel like has helped me hair grow.

1. Applying products to the mid point of your hair and ends first and then applying to the roots. The ends and mid point of your hair are older then your roots. I find when I apply products there first it’s gets more product making it stronger and more moisturized. I noticed it effects my entire head, becuase before when I used to moisturize and seal my hair I would put most of the product on the top of my hair putting whatever remaining product in my hands on my ends and my hair wouldn’t get that moisturized now with concentrating it at the mid point and ends my overall hair is super soft and moisturized. I saw this video and it confirmed that I need to concentrate more on my ends.

really smart!!!! I'm trying this out on my next wash day. Great info ladies!!!!!

 

[PlanetCybertron]

This right here! I’m glad this is not an abnormal phenomenon. I know when my hair is breaking bc something went wrong, but the discouraging part is when I’m just trying to moisturize or finger detangle wet hair. Some wash days will be perfect other times not so much, even though I change nothing about what I do. I won’t obsess so much about it anymore.

Do you find that your hair stays more or less moisturized when you apply product on damp hair vs soaking wet hair?

I would say it stays moisturized longer after my hair has been fully drenched, and then allowed to dry in its damp state it is easier to apply product. Fully drenching it lets me know I’m getting every strand wet, and then letting the hair air dry at the same time, gives me even moisture coverage to work with, which I can then apply product. Even if some parts of my hair get more product than others, they’ve still got some moisture from the wash. Only reason I don’t apply product on soaking wet hair is because the product won’t do much since my hair is still filled with water. Hopefully what I said makes sense, don’t wanna confuse you.

 

[Nightingale]

I would say it stays moisturized longer after my hair has been fully drenched, and then allowed to dry in its damp state it is easier to apply product. Fully drenching it lets me know I’m getting every strand wet, and then letting the hair air dry at the same time, gives me even moisture coverage to work with, which I can then apply product. Even if some parts of my hair get more product than others, they’ve still got some moisture from the wash. Only reason I don’t apply product on soaking wet hair is because the product won’t do much since my hair is still filled with water. Hopefully what I said makes sense, don’t wanna confuse you.

My hair behaves like this too. Applying product, including deep conditioners, on damp hair is much more effective than on soaking wet hair.

 

[ajoke]

Let me give a mid week update.
I was traveling on Tuesday so I did not remoisturise. I took down two braids yesterday and noticed they were not dry. I remoisturised with water, scurl and Shea butter.

I decided to leave the rest of the braids and I will remoisturise two today. I’m trying to understand how long I can go without remoisturising, in the spirit of keeping manipulation to the minimum necessary. I will do two more tomorrow to compare how the hair felt after 2 days after 3 and after 4.

It’s amazing how my hair drinks up the Shea butter! I think the Scurl is a game changer for me. Thanks ladies!

 

[yamilee21]

... We nominate Shea Made Hair Unicorns, baby. Not Shea Made Hair Zebras. ...

I don't know why, but this has me cracking up.

 

[Chicoro]

@ajoke
When you have time, can you please watch this video? This lady covers everything that is important for retaining length. We talk about this all the time here on LHCF and have been doing so for about 17 years.

This request is not meant to be a judgment or criticism. We seem to understand the WHAT to do. It's the HOW these things are done or implemented, is where many of us get off track. Your information could possibly help a lot of people.

Can you let me know what is not clear for you? What needs additional or further clarification?

 

[Amerie123]

One “technique,” (if I can even call it that), that I wanted to add is to be very mindful of your nails anytime handling your hair. This may be an obvious one for some, but if you have any split nails, or acrylic nails that are lifting from base of cuticles, or hang nails, or any nails that just aren’t smooth, you risk continuously getting hair stuck and snagged in your nails. This causes damage to hair shaft and eventually mid hair splits and other small damages that eventually lead to breakage. This is something I don’t even play with anymore. I cannot do my hair (wash, style, moisture, etc), unless my nails are smooth and in tact.

 

[periwinklepeach]

Hi all. A few techniques that helped me are below:

1. Keeping my hair covered whenever I'm at home. When I got knots more frequently, I noticed that a piece of lint was often at the center of the knot. Now I try to put something over my hair as soon as I get home (and especially if I'm doing laundry). This has helped keep lint out.

2. Keeping hair consistently moisturized. For me, this means I wash once a week, apply a leave in while still damp, and seal with Shea butter. I spritz it each morning with rosewater which keeps it moisturized. Spritz, smoosh into the hair a little, shake, and go.

3. Maintaining my natural curl pattern. When I do this, and my hair is clumped into its natural coils, it tangles less frequently. I think that's because the strands are generally going in one direction and individual strands aren't going rogue as often. It also makes detangling much easier. I finger detangle almost exclusively, deep condition weekly (usually) and put some bentonite clay in about once per month. These things all help to maintain my curl pattern.

4. I do what works for me. I've tried a bunch of different things with my hair - styles, products, methods, etc - but at this point I just do what fits best with my lifestyle, personality, and patience level.

I also agree with everything everyone else said!

ETA: these are the things that helped me from APL to MBL. Although I have a short torso and I'm short, so the actual number in inches probably isn't that impressive.

 

[blazingbeauty]

Which do you prefer: dry finger detangling or wet finger detangling?

I used to love “dry” finger detangling. Hands down the best method for my hair, but it takes altogether way too long. I’ve been wet finger detangling for the most part this year (sometimes combing). It’s ok but nowhere near as gentle as dry finger detangling. Trying to tweak my current method to include prepooing beforehand.

 

[PlanetCybertron]

Which do you prefer: dry finger detangling or wet finger detangling?

Gotta be damp. Too wet and my hair stretched too much, too dry, and it’s a battle to get any tangles or shed hairs out. So somewhere in the middle.

 

[sunnieb]

This is an excellent thread!

One technique that @PlanetCybertron reminded me of is doing proper moisturizing and sealing.

I should know better since I'm recovering from a huge setback, but even I wasn't doing this. At night, I'd gotten in the habit of lazily rubbing in some moisturizer and going to bed.

Last night, I took the time to comb all my hair down around my head. That way, I can access my crown and then section my hair to apply moisturizer and castor oil to each section.

I then put my hair in a single, loose bun for bed. I still do a light variation of this in the morning, but properly M & S before bed is key for me. I grew my hair to dang near MBL using this technique.

Here's how my little nighttime bun looks for now. Can't wait to see it get bigger!

 

[sunnieb]

Y'all remember Wanakee? Here are her 6 steps to growing long hair that will look very familiar:

DEVELOPING A HEALTHY GROWTH PATTERN

Since the ends are the oldest part of your hair, they suffer the most from this constant exposure to air. You can end the breakage cycle and experience a healthy growth pattern by following these simple rules. They may not seem very significant at a glance, but they are the steps that restored my damaged strands to a full, healthy head of hair. Remember that you want to preserve the ends while the roots grow. Being consistent and patient every day is the key to your success.

1. KEEP YOU HAIR CLEAN AND CONDITION IT, CONDITION IT, CONDITION IT!

Wash you hair once a week with WANAKEE Beneficial Phase Shampoo or WANAKEE Moisture Emphasis Shampoo and make sure you condition it well. WANAKEE Advanced Conditioning Treatment and WANAKEE Moisture Emphasis Conditioners are made to target dry hair with deep conditioning and extraordinary moisture. Each formula is especially designed with more conditioning action than normal, because you absolutely need it (click onto "product information" for more details).

If you wash your hair less frequently than 7 days or so, the scalp may get irritated and begin to itch. And when dirt begins to build up on the strand, it slows down the brush or comb, creating a pulling affect, which can snap hairs. You’ll find that WANAKEE products make the hair easy to comb through when the hair is wet and when it’s dry. Each product in the line is customized to fit every special need you have throughout your hair regime.

2. WEAR YOUR HAIR IN PROTECTIVE HAIR STYLES AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN

This means wearing your hair ‘up’ in a style that tucks the ends safely underneath the hair so the ends are not seen. Remember the ear of corn with the husk again: protective styling is like taking the dry tip of the silk, and tucking it safely underneath the husk, out of the air. But if your ends go up dry, they’ll come down dry. WANAKEE Constant Care for Ends is the perfect treatment to soften and moisten and guard the ends from becoming brittle. WANAKEE Hairline Essential Creme is made to smooth the hairline in place and while it takes away dryness completely, it holds those shorter hairs in place. It gives the hair a look of sophistication.

My favorite protective styles are the French twist and the chignon (or bun). You should not be able to see the ends at all. A ponytail, for example, wouldn't be considered a protective style because the ends are moving and still exposed to the air. You can really have fun creating these styles, using all types of accessories and enhancing your look with simple things like earrings or a newly tweezed set of eyebrows! You can make your look clean or really do yourself up. Have fun with it.

If your hair is short, you’re going to protect your hair from the air and from too much movement while you sleep.

3. SLEEP WITH YOUR HAIR PROTECTED AT NIGHT.

I know, I know! This is where I lose a lot of you ladies who have spouses; but hear me out. It's important at night, again, to take your hair out of the air and especially to eliminate all of the rubbing that takes place while you sleep. This rubbing can be bad news in the morning when your ends are frayed beyond recognition. A good thing about wrapping (or tying up) your hair at night is that it requires less styling the next day (sometimes you’re actually ready to go with just a quick stroke of the brush).

If you’ve read my brochure, you've heard me say that wrapping your head at night need not be grounds for divorce. You can use a fine meshed hair net over your bun or over your hair if it’s short, and then apply a wide cotton spandex headband around the hairline. It looks similar to a regular daytime look. If you’re still not loving the idea, my next best advice is to put it on late and take it off early! By the way, just sleeping on a silk pillowcase won’t help if your hair is still moving around and exposed to the air.

If your wrap comes off, and at some point it probably will (especially if your hair is short), half a night’s protection is better than none. But this simple, traditional routine of tying the hair up at night is still a very helpful method in maintaining your hair.

4. GET YOUR HAIR TRIMMED EVERY 6 TO 8 WEEKS.

If you’re trying to grow your hair out, this is where protective styles really pay off. Your hair grows ¼ to ½ inch per month, so in 8 weeks it could have grown 1 inch. Let’s say you started your routine with a real good trim. And now, 8 weeks later it’s time for another trim. If you’ve been conditioning, using your Constant Care for Ends and wearing your protective styles everyday, your ends shouldn’t even be split. So now you’re going to trim your hair before it splits. You only have to trim ¼ inch or so because it’s not split. That means you have ¾ of an inch of new length. You put those brand-new, freshly trimmed ends right back up into your protective styles and next month you’ll accumulate another ¾ of an inch - that’s 1 and ½ inches of real length in four months!

Now let’s look at what happens if you don’t wear protective styles. You wear your hair down, it rubs all day against your shoulders and the air makes it dry - but it looks good, I understand.

But here’s what happens: you go to get your trim in 8 weeks and you really only want the hairdresser to take ¼ of an inch off. But she sees damage and split ends as far up as an 1 and ½ inches. She cuts the damage off and, even though your hair has grown an inch, you just lost ½ inch in length because the constant damage caused by your ends being exposed DICTATED TO YOU how much hair had to be cut. With protective styling, you trim before your hair splits and you determine how much you trim off. Every little quarter of an inch is a victory.

Some women have asked me, "What is the point of having long hair if you have to wear it up?" The point of wearing it up is to have long hair. Once a young lady asked, "About how long would it take for me to grow my hair really long?" I told her it would take about 4 years with regular trimmings. She said "Four years? I’ll be 34 years old in four years, that’s too much time!" I had to remind her that she was going to be 34 years old in four years anyway; might as well get there having fabulous hair.

If you have short hair, don’t let all this talk of protective styles disturb you. If you keep your hair cut short and trimmed on a regular basis, it’s automatically healthier by being trimmed more often. It's when hair becomes long that the protective styles become necessary. If you’re not growing your hair long, but are keeping it trimmed and styled at a fixed length, then you can get away with wearing it down more often than the person who is on a mission to grow long hair.

5. SLOW DOWN AND TAKE YOUR TIME WITH YOUR HAIR

This is so important. You must train yourself to be as gentle with your hair as you can. And while you’re at it, treat yourself to the luxury of not being in a hurry. Deliberately set aside a block of time for yourself to do your hair. Get yourself some grapes or a plate of orange slices, a fragrant candle or two. Transform this time into something nice for yourself; you know you deserve it! It’s important because you can take much better care of your hair this way. When you have more time to detangle, you’ll pull out less hairs. When you’re not supposed to be somewhere in half an hour, you’ll place the blow dryer on a slightly lower setting, which is healthier for the hair. Everything works to your advantage when you take your sweet time.

6. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE GOOD WORKING TOOLS

Use a brush that feels good going through your hair, without pulling or ripping. There are different strengths of brushes; for instance, some natural bristle brushes can be gentler on wet hair than other brushes. Before washing your hair, you want to give your hair a real good brushing to get all the loose hairs out. For this you’ll want to use a brush that really grips; nicely messaging the scalp as well. Shop around for the brushes best suited for you (there are hundreds of good ones to choose from).

Make sure you always have a good detangling comb available; the longer the teeth, the better it can penetrate through thick hair. Don’t comb or brush your hair to detangle it; but detangle it before you comb or brush it. You’ll find out more about how to detangle in my Styling Guide. It’s free with your purchase of WANAKEE products.

When you have bobby pins with a tip that has lifted or come off, stop right there and throw it away! I call those ‘hair killers’; they go into the hair just fine, but when you pull them out, they always pull out hair. Also, when you buy hairpins, make sure the tip is rounded and not blunt. Rounded tips go in smoothly without getting stuck to the strands.

Check the inside of your curling iron to make sure there is no build-up underneath the top section. If there is burnt residue, clean it off. Hairs can drag against this residue and break.

CONCLUSION

With these six steps, you can get started with a good routine. Don't expect not to ever see any hair in your brush. You will always have breakage and shedding. But you should be able to reduce unnecessary breakage to an all-time low with the WANAKEE formulas. It is normal to shed up to 200 hairs per day. If you wear braids, for example, and you let them down after a month, the daily-accumulated hairs that loosened but never fell out can overwhelm you. They’re long and healthy, which really upsets you. But that’s normal. Remember you and are a mammal and mammals shed. Isn’t it funny how we never panic and feel like our cat is going bald when it’s shedding all over the sofa?

 

[keranikki]

@sunnieb
Great post! Thank you !

 

[ItsMeLilLucky]

I only have one thing to add: Balance being lazy with actively caring for your hair. Too much of one thing doesn’t help at all.

 

[Maracujá]

Tried my hand at flat two strand twists yesterday afternoon:



Here's the result:



This is how I went to church this morning and one of my sisters there, commented on how fast my hair is growing. Some ladies here have stated the same.

I used to consider myself a slow grower, when I first went natural. I even joined a support thread here for slow growers. Now that I think about it, there's another important point that we need to mention: stress management / avoidance.

The first time I went natural, I was juggling two jobs and attending college full time. Was also living with my sisters at the time: we were responsible for taking care of ourselves, as my mom had been diagnosed with a mental illness. Needless to say, I experienced tons of setbacks during that period and was unable to retain length. In fact, my hair only started thriving around 2009 - 2011, when I had finally moved out on my own.

Right now my hair is growing at a very rapid rate. Granted I'm taking brewer's yeast vitamins and taking really good care of it, but I cannot only attribute it to those two things. My stress management / avoidance skills have been upgraded. Back in the days I would worry myself sick about any and everything, to the point of developing a mental illness myself. Now? I lay it at the feet of Jesus and keep it there. Whether it be trifling co-workers, crazy family members or church members who have forgotten that they are Christian. That has made all of the difference in my life. I also eat better, go to bed at a reasonable hour most days, walk a lot, spend plenty of time in nature, drink tons of filtered water and choose to remain calm at all times.

 

[caribeandiva]

Right now my hair is growing at a very rapid rate. Granted I'm taking brewer's yeast vitamins and taking really good care of it, but I cannot only attribute it to those two things. My stress management / avoidance skills have been upgraded. Back in the days I would worry myself sick about any and everything, to the point of developing a mental illness myself. Now? I lay it at the feet of Jesus and keep it there.

Congratulations on all of it!! I know it couldn’t have been easy to do.

 

[ajoke]

Thanks ladies for all the amazing contributions!
We are all going to get to our hair goals being this deliberate!


One thing I would like to add is that stress is a hair killer. Your body will use the nutrients and vitamins you have for essential services before it gets to your hair, especially if you are stressed and not taking too good care of yourself. Stress deplete your nutrient store. One big game changer for me has been the Vitamin B complex stress forte. Chicoro got me on the band wagon 2 years ago and I have not looked back since. It’s one thing that is part of my life. I have a very stressful lifestyle and I always have my stash of vitamin b complex with me anywhere I go. In fact I’ve become sort of a b co ambassador and pusher. I got my dad and siblings on the bandwagon too.

 

[PlanetCybertron]

Whats everyone’s thoughts on deep conditioning? It has been discussed a bit, I think in here too, but I’d like to hear from multiple people.

 

[ItsMeLilLucky]

Whats everyone’s thoughts on deep conditioning? It has been discussed a bit, I think in here too, but I’d like to hear from multiple people.

My hair (relaxed and natural) cannot survive without it.

 

[nyeredzi]

I notice that a lot of YTers with long 4b/c hair, like Efficiently natural, Indigenous strandz, and Naturally high, don't wash their hair that often. Only like once every 3-4 weeks. I can't go that long, I wash weekly. But I think it's no coincidence, because washing for really kinky hair means generally having to detangle, which means breakage.

I can grow my hair to mbl or even waist without too much struggle. But after that it's hard. And I think a lot of it has to do with that I'm always struggling with the balance washing often enough for my scalp and detangling often enough for more hair, given the fact that I have to wash weekly.

 

[PlanetCybertron]

My hair (relaxed and natural) cannot survive without it.

That’s interesting.
Since April I think I’ve deep conditioned maybe 3 times. One of which was a protein treatment.

However I co-wash almost every day. Which I’m certain the main reason for not needing it so much anymore. That and once I get out of the shower, I’m not getting back in lol

 

[blazingbeauty]

Whats everyone’s thoughts on deep conditioning? It has been discussed a bit, I think in here too, but I’d like to hear from multiple people.

I am now a “believer.” I used to think dc-ing was a straight up scam. Now that I’ve started to dc the right way for my hair (good products, heat, adding oil as needed, dc after shampooing not before), my hair’s condition has improved so much. It shrinks and clumps so much more and stays flexible for longer. My hair stays hydrated for 4-5 days (in protective styles) after washing and the styles themselves stay neater for longer.

I notice that a lot of YTers with long 4b/c hair, like Efficiently natural, Indigenous strandz, and Naturally high, don't wash their hair that often. Only like once every 3-4 weeks. I can't go that long, I wash weekly. But I think it's no coincidence, because washing for really kinky hair means generally having to detangle, which means breakage.

I agree. I wash my hair every 2 weeks bc the wear & tear from manipulating my hair would be too much. That’s what has allowed me to retain some length even with all my mistakes. I can’t go for 3-4 weeks bc of my scalp and the fact that nothing can hydrate my hair as well as a good wash day.

 

[PlanetCybertron]

I am now a “believer.” I used to think dc-ing was a straight up scam. Now that I’ve started to dc the right way for my hair (good products, heat, adding oil as needed, dc after shampooing not before), my hair’s condition has improved so much. It shrinks and clumps so much more and stays flexible for longer. My hair stays hydrated for 4-5 days (in protective styles) after washing and the styles themselves stay neater for longer.



I agree. I wash my hair every 2 weeks bc the wear & tear from manipulating my hair would be too much. That’s what has allowed me to retain some length even with all my mistakes. I can’t go for 3-4 weeks bc of my scalp and the fact that nothing can hydrate my hair as well as a good wash day.

I agree with all of that. Granted I don’t have the benefit of my styles ever really staying or looking decent because my fine strands get compressed if you so much as pat them, but for the initial two days or so, my braids and twists hold nicely when they’re hydrated to maximum capacity.

I’d really like to stretch my washes to maybe 2 weeks, but my scalp just won’t allow me to. I’ve been experimenting and wearing my hair completely covered, which has been working so far and I can make it to 5-6 days before the next wash.

The only reason I can get away with daily washing is because I have very fine strands. Essentially I can just let my hair air dry in one general direction (usually completely down), and then flip my head over, shake my hair out, and it just fluffs up and separates.

Which, now that I think about it, individual strand size probably determines, in part, how much ease, or lack thereof, you’re gonna have with wash day.

I realized how much I don’t need a brush or a comb, or even my fingers so long as I keep my hair all going the same direction from the moment I get out of the shower, until it’s completely dry.

 

[nyeredzi]

I agree with all of that. Granted I don’t have the benefit of my styles ever really staying or looking decent because my fine strands get compressed if you so much as pat them, but for the initial two days or so, my braids and twists hold nicely when they’re hydrated to maximum capacity.

I’d really like to stretch my washes to maybe 2 weeks, but my scalp just won’t allow me to. I’ve been experimenting and wearing my hair completely covered, which has been working so far and I can make it to 5-6 days before the next wash.

The only reason I can get away with daily washing is because I have very fine strands. Essentially I can just let my hair air dry in one general direction (usually completely down), and then flip my head over, shake my hair out, and it just fluffs up and separates.

Which, now that I think about it, individual strand size probably determines, in part, how much ease, or lack thereof, you’re gonna have with wash day.

I realized how much I don’t need a brush or a comb, or even my fingers so long as I keep my hair all going the same direction from the moment I get out of the shower, until it’s completely dry.

Is your hair relaxed? Do you have high density?

 

[PlanetCybertron]

Is your hair relaxed? Do you have high density?

Yeah I’m relaxed. Super fine strands, but very high density as well.

 

[water_n_oil]

Whats everyone’s thoughts on deep conditioning? It has been discussed a bit, I think in here too, but I’d like to hear from multiple people.

I just do it when I feel my hair needs it. When I was younger my mom only used Queen Helene or Hollywood Beauty Cholesterol on my hair (vs regular rinse outs) but only left them in for 5min or so instead of 30-60.