If you want to grow your natural hair faster, you’ll need to work on preventing these five common hair losses that often stands in the way of long hair.
There are lots of fast hair growth tips out there, but the best way to increase hair growth is to work on length retention.
Without this, you will continue to lose length, which might make your length plateau. So even though your hair is constantly growing, daily hair losses will make it seem lie its growing slowly or not growing at all.
#1: Breakage
Breakage is listed first on here because it’s the number one reason many Black women can’t get their hair to grow longer than the length it’s been stuck at for several years. Breakage is also another reason many women have been led to believe that their hair grows slowly or it can only grow to a certain length.
Solution: To tackle breakage, the main thing that you must do is to ensure that your hair stays moisturized for as long as possible. Dry hair will break off, even if it’s in a protective style. However, when it’s soft, bouncy and healthy, it’s more resilient to breakage.
To moisturize your hair, ensure that you use a good leave-in conditioner and remember to seal the product in with a good sealant. Keeping your hair moisturized for a longer period of time actually requires a plan that you must factor into your regimen.
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#2: Shed Hair
This isn’t really a problem as it’s a natural process that happens during the 4 stages of hair growth. The only time when this would be a problem is when it’s excessive. For instance, if you notice that chunks of your hair is falling off than normal, then you should talk to a doctor.
Excessive shedding could be a sign of a medical symptom that might need immediate attention.
Solution: If it’s excessive, you should go see your doctor. You can also do a green tea rinse to reduce shedding.
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#3: Tangles
Do you know what happens when you put more than one spring coil in a box without putting anything in-between them to keep them apart? They get jumbled together!
See, that’s exactly what happens when natural hair is left loose for long periods of time. When your hair is loose, it will intertwine with each other to form tangles, which can lead to knots and eventually breakage.
Solution: Put your hair in a “restrictive” hairstyle, otherwise known as protective style. Protective styling keeps your hair in place to reduce breakage and keep your hair growing.
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#4: Single-Stranded Knots (SSKs)
Single-stranded knots are formed when a single strand of hair somehow manages to coil around itself towards the end of the hair to form knots.
These knots are then more likely to form knots with neighboring hair, leading to tangles and breakage. SSKs are often a result of split ends and unhealthy dry ends, which is why it’s crucial to keep the ends of your hair healthy and moisturized.
Solution: The main solution here is to trim those annoying ends off. Since SSKs mostly form at the ends of the hair, the best way to prevent them is to make sure that the ends of your hair are healthy.
Another solution is to keep your hair in a protective style as often as possible so that the ends of your hair won’t have the freedom to do whatever it wants.
To prevent knots, you should also was your hair in twists or sections, so that you can reduce knots. You should also apply leave-in conditioner and oil on the ends of your hair so it’s lubricated against knots.
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Problem #5: Split Ends
If you think that breakage is an enemy of progress when it comes to hair growth, split ends must be their king! The reason for this is that when a piece of hair breaks off, the remaining piece of hair that’s left will continue to grow long.
However, when a strand of hair splits into thinner strands, this split end will progress into splitting ends whereby the hair will continue splitting all the way towards the root. The relentless efforts of split ends to bring everyone down is the main reason it’s recommended that you get rid of them before they affect the rest of the healthy portion of your hair.
Solution: Cut them off! The same way that you can’t fix a “bad apple”, you also can’t fix split ends. While split ends can’t be avoided, you can, however, minimize them by ensuring that your ends are moisturized, seal and protected.
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