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How to grow long beautiful hair
Long beautiful hair is an undisputed sign of health and beauty. Having long hair feels great and looks great on almost every man and woman. But getting the hair to grow long and healthy is quite a challenge. I will be honest with you from the start: Not everyone can grow their hair as long as they want. However there are also many people who think they can't grow long hair but actually could if they put enough effort into it and kept to a couple of basic tips and tricks.
Basic facts about hair and hair growth
This section is just to set the ground for the rest so you can skip it if you know this already:
We have averagely 100 000 hairs on our heads. This can vary considerably
Each hair grows about half an inch per month.
The hair itself is made of dead protein cells.
Everybody's hair has a so called terminal length - which is the longest it can possibly grow no matter how well you care for it. This varies greatly from person to person and is typically much longer for women than it is for men.
Hair growth is influenced by genes, diet, illnesses, toxins, hormones and indirectly also haircare.
More detail about hair growth
Each hair grows for a few years, then it stops for another period after which it falls out. Then, after a pause, the follicle starts producing a new hair. This is called the growth cycle and the reason why some people have a much greater terminal length is that their growing phase is longer. Typically it is around 2 years but some people have a growing phase of more than six years and people with hair loss may have a much shorter growth phase resulting in them having only very short, fine hairs.
This growth phase will be what ultimately determines your terminal length and therefore how long you can grow your hair. However, other things also influence your hair growth.
Because hair is not living tissue, it cannot heal and therefore any damage done to it is permanent. If you want your hair to grow 20 inches, then you must understand that each hair at the tip will be exposed for years and that, unless it's treated very delicately, it will wear down and break.
Treating your hair roughly such as rubbing it with a towel or blow drying may not seem to do any harm from one day to the next and it doesn't. But over a period of years, the hair will be worn down and the damage becomes very noticeable.
If you want to grow your hair long, don't cut it
There is a huge myth going around the hair care fanatics and experts all seem to agree that you need to trim your hair regularly if you want it to grow long. NOT TRUE
This rule of trimming comes from the facts I mentioned above. They assume that damaged ends are best cut off because the damage has a tendency to spread down the hair which is particularly true with split ends. Then the trimmed hair will grow healthily as long as you care for it properly. However there is a major flaw in this reasoning that stems from a misunderstanding of the situation:
You're not caring for one individual hair, but for many thousands that are all at different stages in their growth cycle. When you trim the ends, that only affects the oldest hairs that are soon to fall out anyway while the younger hairs that really matter aren't trimmed at all. When they say that the trimming is done to prevent the split ends (or other damage) from spreading, it only prevents the damage from spreading across one single hair down towards the root. But it does not spread from one hair to another anyway - trim or not. So saving your longest hairs from damage does nothing for the other hairs which are the majority and the more important ones as they are the hairs that you need to care for most.
Trimming is of course necessary for your hair to look cared for and groomed but it does not help you grow it longer.
So it's up to how well you treat your hair over the years. No brushing or any kind of physical rough handling like back combing or blow drying and avoid aggressive styling products and shampoos.
Long beautiful hair is most people's dream and some people just cannot fulfill that dream no matter how hard they try. Here is more detail on how to grow long hair.