Grow Long Hair Part One: Damage Control

Have you been wanting to grow out your hair, but you don’t know how to start? Let me be your guide to help you grow your hair! These tips I’ve learned over the years are part of how I grew my hair to three feet. We’re going to go over the first part of growing longer hair: learning how to be kinder to it. If you can target where the damage is coming from, you can prevent it. Let’s dive in!

Disclaimer

These tips I’m sharing with you are what helped me, but I’m not a hair or medical professional. If you are struggling with more serious hair/scalp issues like hair loss or an itchy scalp, please talk with a professional.

I can only speak to my personal experience as someone with straight, blonde, average thickness hair. Your hair may have different requirements than mine.

Anatomy of a Hair

The central core of a hair is called the medulla. This is surrounded by the cortex, the main structure of a hair. All of this is encased in the cuticle, thin overlapping scales that protect everything. The cuticle is the part that gets the most damaged because it’s the outside layer of the hair. This causes the overlapping scales lose their protective integrity, meaning one thing: your hair can lose its moisture and break more easily.

Our Friend the Comb

When I had short hair, I don’t think I even owned a comb. Now with long hair I only use a comb. The comb I have has wide teeth on one end and finer on the other. I comb through my hair with the wide side to find any big tangles, then I comb through with the fine side to find any small tangles.

How does combing instead of brushing help you grow long hair? The comb’s teeth are more spread out than a brush’s bristles. In my experience, it’s easier to get a comb out of a tangle than a brush because there’s only one row of teeth. Also, the teeth on a comb are tapered, which slides easily out of the hair; many brushes have their bristles capped to protect the scalp, but that makes it harder to lift out of the hair. I can also take my comb into the shower and use it to help distribute conditioner.

How To Detangle Long Hair

I have this memory from when I was about five years old. My mom was trying to teach me how to brush my own hair, and she kept saying you start from the bottom. This confused me because I thought she was saying to put the brush at the bottom of my hair and move it upwards towards my scalp. I showed her that this wouldn’t work, she chuckled. She showed me what she meant on her own hair; I had an ‘ah ha’ moment. I’ve been sharing this knowledge with my long haired friends ever since.

So friends, here’s how I detangle my long hair:

Begin by pulling your length, if applicable, over one shoulder. Take your wide-toothed comb and start running it through the ends of your hair. Hold the hair to help distribute the strain away from the root. When you encounter a tangle that can’t be gently combed through, remove your comb and place it slightly lower on the tangle to work through it slowly. If a tangle is especially stubborn, I will pick through it with my fingers. We aren’t ripping through the hair, gentleness is the key.

Once no tangles remain, place your comb up another few inches and run it through to the bottom of your hair. Repeat this process until your hair can be combed through from scalp to ends without getting caught on tangles. Feel free to go through this process a second time with a finer comb or brush. If you have especially bad tangles, it’s helpful to detangle your hair with conditioner to make the hair more slippy.

Also, it’s important to note that you should only comb through your hair when needed. By that I mean before styling or after air drying. Combing/brushing the hair too much can lead to breakages. This gentler way to detangle helps limit this, but we can limit breakages even farther if we need to detangle less often. Any little boost to help you grow your hair is what we’re after.

Change Part/Hairstyles Often

This was one of the more surprising things I’ve learned. If you rock the same hairstyle everyday, you might find damage at your hairline or significant breakages along your partline. This is called traction alopecia. Because you’re putting strain on the hair in the same spots on a daily basis, it becomes weakened. This can happen if you put your hair up the same way all the time or if you have the same partline for a long time. If you want to grow your hair evenly, this small change will help.

I used to always part my hair on the right, but over time I noticed an abundance of baby hairs at my partline. Since I was constantly styling with that part, I was getting extra breakages there. Now that I switch my part after every shower, those damaged hairs are growing back out. It’s a little funny, now when I part my hair on the right there’s a small chunk of hairs that blow about in the wind because they’re too short.

Wash Less

There’s this idea in modern society that we need to shower everyday in order to be clean. But I have had great results not washing my hair that often. I wash my hair every four days on average. It took a bit of an adjustment, my hair was a little greasy for a few weeks. Now that it’s is accustomed to this schedule, my hair a lot healthier and less frizzy. It gets nourished by its own natural oils instead of stripped from a shower everyday.

If you wash your hair everyday because your hair gets greasy quickly, you might be thinking there’s no way you could go that long without washing it. But you might be wrong. Your scalp may be over producing oil because you’re washing it so often. The scalp makes oil to condition/moisturize/protect the hair. By stripping away that protection so often it goes into overproduction mode to compensate. If you slowly wean back on the frequency of your hair washing, your hair could regulate its natural oil production to a more manageable amount.

Prevent Breakage to Grow Long Hair

One of the best ways to help you grow long hair is to prevent breakages before they happen. Some preventions are easy: don’t use accessories that can get stuck in your hair. Those ponytails/elastics with metal holding them together come to mind, or that one necklace we all have that grabs onto the hair by your neck. Others require more explanation: how to care for it in the heat and cold, while wet, or while you’re sleeping.

Outside

I’ve found that the best way to keep the hair safe while outside is to shield it. In summer, when the sun is beating down on you, wear a wide brimmed hat. I became known as the sunhat lady in my neighborhood because I didn’t go outside without one while walking everyday. During winter, wear a cozy hat and tuck your lengths into your coat. In Minnesota, we spend four or more months below freezing, so this was an important one for me to learn. The reason these are important is because dry air, wind, and extreme temperatures can sap the hair of moisture and cause breakages.

While Wet

Wet hair is more fragile and prone to breaking. When going swimming, whether in a pool, river, lake, or ocean, it’s a good idea to braid or pull your hair up out of the way. This helps prevent tangles while swimming. It also eliminates the need to style it when you’re done and your hair is sopping wet. Also, try to use a cotton t-shirt or microfiber towel on wet hair instead of a terrycloth towel. Terrycloth is a heavily textured fabric. The loops of the fabric cause friction and can catch the hair. This can raise the cuticle of your hair and cause frizz. Cotton t-shirts and microfiber towels are tightly woven fabrics. They cause a lot less friction with a bonus of absorbing excess water quickly.

While Sleeping

The final place a lot of tangles and breakage can occur is in bed while sleeping. Put your growing locks into a loose bun on top of your head or a loose braid. This will protect it from any tossing and turning you do while sleeping. I can’t tell you how many times Hubby got tangled up in my hair while we slept before I started putting it up regularly. I would also recommend switching to a satin or silk pillowcase. Similarly to using cotton t-shirts or microfiber towels because they cause less friction. These smooth pillowcases allow your head to glide on your pillow as you turn in your sleep.

Less Heat and Chemical Processing

Using hot tools on your hair cooks the moisture out of it. This can lead to porous hair and raised cuticles. The longer your hair the more moisture it needs to stay strong. If you can cut back on the curling iron, flat iron, and high-heat blow drying then your hair will be happier/healthier for it. If you can’t go without heat styling all the time, try switching to a lower temperature and be sure to use a heat protectant. Your hair might hold its style just as well at a lower temperature. I have been air-drying my hair for a few years now. If I use a hot tool, it’s for a special occasion like a wedding or an important meeting.

Chemical processing, like coloring/bleaching and perms, raise the cuticle and make the hair prone to breaking. Not everyone feels comfortable giving up this processing, especially if it’s been a big part of their identity. If that’s your case, I would recommend talking with your stylist. They may be able to come up with a plan to help you go longer between appointments or reduce the time you spend under the dryer with the products on your hair. Any little bit could help. But if you are willing, stopping the chemical processing all together will help get you to your long hair goals faster.

If you’re looking for ways to help fix damaged hair, this article may be able to help you.

Final Thoughts

Growing out your hair can feel like it takes forever. But if you follow these tips to help reduce damage and breakage, you’ll be on your way to longer locks in no time. Stay tuned for part two where we’ll talk about ways to encourage growth. In the meantime, good luck on your longer hair journey!

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