What can help hair grow faster? A lot of people want to know how they can help maximize their scalp’s hair growth potential. As a result, they end up falling prey to all kinds of lotions, potions, and notions “guaranteed” to grow a thick, luxurious crop of hair… sometimes in a matter of weeks! Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that it really isn’t that simple. Sure, you chaian find a ton of different products offered online by typing “how to grow hair faster” into a search engine, but do they really work? There is everything from shampoos to sprays that people try to encourage their hair to grow. Oftentimes, after spending money on this stuff, people aren’t willing to admit that it was a waste so; instead, they claim to see a difference. It’s almost like a hairy version of the placebo effect.
There are a couple of reasons why a lot of these products don’t work the way they claim. First and foremost, by the time hair grows from your head it is no longer alive. It is made up of protein called keratin, the same stuff that makes up a rhino’s horn and your fingernails. As a result, hair cannot really be healthy in the same way people talk about a person’s body being healthy. Taking care of it can make it stronger, shinier, and improve its appearance, but simply applying hair products to it generally won’t make it grow any faster. In fact, most people’s genes are geared to let their hair grow only about six inches a year. So, when you see claims that a shampoo or conditioner can help you grow inches in a month or two, it’s safe to assume it’s bogus.
What makes hair grow faster, if most people’s genes are programmed to stick to a 6-inches-per-year schedule? Well, the truth is, there’s not a whole lot you can do to force your body to pump out hair faster than it’s supposed to. Unfortunately, the reverse is absolutely not true- there are a ton of things that can slow hair growth, or even stall it completely. If you want faster hair growth, the trick is to maximize the rate at which you are naturally capable of growing hair, and minimize the factors that will cause this process to slow or stop.
So, you want to grow hair faster, but applying things to it won’t work. Don’t worry, all is not lost! All this means is that, instead of putting things on hair and hoping for it to grow, you need to focus on what’s going into your body. Keratin is a protein, but your body also requires some other nutrients to crank new hair out. Failing to provide enough dietary protein, or the right vitamins and minerals, can leave you with dull, listless locks that frizz, break, or even fall out. In short, even if your hair is growing as fast as it can, it can’t reach its full potential without the right ingredients. Part of the reason hair is commonly used for drug testing is because it can portray an accurate picture of what you put into your body, and what kind of health you’re in. If you want to know how to stimulate hair growth, you need to look at your overall health, including diet, stress level, exercise, and bad habits like smoking and drinking.
Growing your hair out is an endurance sport. Not only do you have to take good care of yourself while you do it, to make sure your body is producing the strongest, most resilient hair it can, you have to take care of your hair to keep it detangled, out of pollution, and well-moisturized. To figure out about how long it’s going to take you, measure the distance (in inches) between where your hair is now, and where you’d like it to be. Divide this by six, and that’s approximately how many years it will take for you to get there, if everything goes well. If you want to figure out how to make hair grow faster in a shorter period of time, you’re probably going to have to turn to wigs, hair extensions, or other hair accessories to get the length you want while your natural locks grow.
If you want to know how to grow hair, you have to look at your lifestyle. Hair needs certain things to be the best it can be. This doesn’t mean shampoo, conditioner, or fancy brushes, either though those things are important. This means nutrition, hydration, and rest. Since you can’t really do much to affect the structure of hair that’s already grown, you need to focus on building healthy hair from the inside out.
Make sure your diet includes enough lean protein, since protein is the main building block of hair. Skinless poultry breasts, fatty fish, whole grains, and legumes are all good sources of protein. It’s also important to make sure that you’re getting enough vitamins and minerals, including vitamins B, C, and E, and the minerals sulfur, zinc, magnesium, and silica. You also need to avoid taking in too much fat, and make sure the fat you do eat is the right type. Since hair is naturally moisturized by oil secreted by the scalp, your body needs fats to keep your skin and hair healthy. Nuts, whole grains, fatty fish, and some legumes are good sources of healthy dietary fats and protein. Supplements of fish oil, flaxseed oil, or borage oil can help, too.
Drinking enough water is also crucial. Most people don’t take in enough hydration, and it shows. Your skin and hair can become dry and dull, and your overall health suffers greatly. Since hair is a pretty good indicator of your overall health, this means that your locks are going to be as dry, dull, and lifeless as the rest of you. Remember, though, not all liquids are hydration- coffee, tea, beer, and sodas don’t count towards your recommended daily water intake. In fact, the diuretic effect of caffeine and alcohol can actually end up dehydrating you!
It is also important to get a sufficient amount of exercise. Exercise raises your heart rate and improves your circulation. In addition to making you healthier, this helps hair grow faster by ensuring that the scalp gets the proper blood flow (and therefore all of the nutrients) it needs to give you a shock of healthy, beautiful, long hair. A brisk walk every day or so (most experts recommend 10,000 steps per week) can do wonders for your body, and your hair. Certain yoga poses can help, too. Not only is yoga fun, relaxing, and a nice change of pace from regular exercise routines, inversion poses that encourage blood flow to your scalp are good for your hair.
It’s also important to brush your hair every day, and use the right brush. Natural bristle brushes are better for your hair than plastic or metal. They’re more flexible, so they won’t tear through hair and cause it to break, and the natural bristles (usually made from corn or boar bristles) help distribute the natural oils in your scalp better than a plastic brush does. If you need something to help detangle your hair first, consider picking up a wooden bristled brush or comb. They’re more rigid than corn or boar bristles, but still gentler than metal or plastic.
Believe it or not, aromatherapy has also been linked to improved hair growth. Scented oils might seem a little out of place in a list of hair growth tips, but it’s true. Regular scalp massages with oils like rosemary, which is also purported to help boost circulatory health, can help improve blood flow and thus hair growth. If you have a wooden bristled brush, lucky you! A few drops of oil on your brush can help deliver the oil’s benefits, massage your scalp, and help distribute the scalp’s own beneficial oils along your existing hair stands at the same time. The key here is to find genuine essential oils, or aromatherapy blends. Oils labeled as “fragrance oils” are often synthetic, and aren’t shown to have the same benefit when it comes to what makes your hair grow faster.
Though these are all ways you can help make hair grow faster and maximize your body’s hair growth potential, it’s time to talk about hair killers. For every way there is to help grow healthy new hair, there are even more ways that you can sabotage your efforts.
For one, it’s important to stay away from things like caffeine and nicotine. Both of these things affect blood flow, including that in the scalp, and not in a good way. It also doesn’t help that smoking prematurely ages you, and the air pollution produced by it can get trapped in hair, damaging it. If you want to know how to grow your hair faster, and you smoke and drink coffee, your first answer would be to cut back or quit.
Heat is your hair’s worst enemy. Heat causes proteins to denature, and strips out moisture. Heated styling tools are murder on your hair, and so is hot water. Remember that hair is dead protein- everything you do to it damages it a little more, and since it’s dead, it can’t heal and renew itself like skin does. As you’re learning how to make your hair grow, cut back on your use of things like curling irons, flat irons, blow dryers, and other heated tools. If you absolutely must have a blow dryer, try to keep it on the cool setting. When you wash your hair, use the coolest water you can tolerate.
Avoid late nights. Many people wander through life without getting enough sleep, and don’t even realize it. There’s a reason it’s called “beauty sleep,” and it’s important to make sure you’re getting enough. Your body heals and repairs itself during sleep, and a lack of it can wreak havoc on you. If you wake up in the morning and barely have enough energy to get through your day, how is your body going to muster up the energy to figure out how to grow hair fast?
Avoid starvation diets, crash diets, and other unbalanced ways of eating. Your hair is mostly protein, but it’s really quite complex. As was mentioned before, you need a whole cocktail of different nutrients to produce the shiniest, strongest, most resilient hair you can. When you follow a very restricted diet, you run the risk of not taking in enough of one or more of these ingredients. Balance is the key. If you’re in doubt, talk to your doctor or a nutritionist to get help coming up with a balanced eating plan for you.
Get your thyroid checked. An underactive thyroid can slow hair growth, and even cause hair loss. If you’re experiencing low energy and other thyroid symptoms, get to a doctor! Thyroid tests are quick, easy, and relatively inexpensive. If your thyroid is underactive, it can be remedied with a simple, effective daily dose of synthetic thyroid hormone. If it isn’t, talk to your doctor to make sure you’re getting enough iodine in your diet. You don’t need much, but a deficiency can impact your thyroid’s function.
Try to avoid stress. It’s not easy, but it is important. Stress is not only a mood killer, its highly detrimental to your hair, too. Stress can make your hair fall out, slow growth, and put more stress on your other body systems, like your heart. Try meditation, relaxation, yoga, or even art therapy as ways to reduce your stress level. You’ll be much happier and healthier, and your hair will show it.
Learning how to grow your hair is a long process, but its well worth it in the end. It might not be easy to make a commitment to stay healthy for the sake of maximizing your hair’s growth potential, but it’s definitely easier than fussing with lace fronts, clip in extensions, and wigs! Best of all, the things that will help you grow your hair faster will also help you stay healthier in the long run. You’ll look better, feel better, and have the long, beautiful hair you’ve always wanted.
Factors Related to Hair Growth:
- Genetics
- Nutrition
- Hydration
- Rest
- Exercise
- Hair Care
- Aromatherapy
- Nicotine
- Heat
- Caffeine
- Stress
Additional Resources on fast hair growth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_hair_growth