Grow African Hair Long GAHL: different textures

I am sure we have all heard this one, Trimming your hair causes it to grow. But how true is it?

Fact: Trimming does not make hair grow faster but it does play a big role in length retention and in keeping your looking healthier.

The ends of your hair are the oldest part of your hair and with age hair will have gone through so much trauma (heat, combing, touching etc.) at some point the ends start to weather and we see that in form of split ends. There are protein based conditioners that temporarily repair damaged hair but there is only one long term solution and that is cutting off the damaged ends.

Trimmed ends not only make styling easier and gives the hair an overall healthier appearance but it also greatly reduces breakage because of less knots and tangles which usually cause resistance while detangling. Less breakage means the ends won’t be breaking off and as a result you retain length.

Here are a few ways to tell if you need a trim.

No matter how well detangled the hair is, the comb still doesn’t go through with ease.
Visible split ends, knots and tangles
The ends of the hair still look rugged even when heat is applied.
The ends are visibly much thinner than the rest of the hair.

When was your last trim?

How often do you trim your hair?

Most of us think that our hair doesn't grow or it grew and stopped but that is really not the case. Hair grows and for most people(human beings) at an average of 0.5 inches per month.

The reason why we do not see a significant difference in the length of our hair is because of poor hair care practices that make our hair break faster than it grows.

Proof that hair grows(for those who do braids with extensions it's easy to see that the braids get looser at the roots, that's not the braid getting loose it is your hair growing) the same thing applies to colored hair and relaxed hair because you can literally track how fast your hair grows.

Now that we know that hair grows we need to learn how to keep that growth. A good place to start is to understand that the ends of your hair are the oldest, weakest and at the same time what you need to pay most attention to if your aim is to retain length. The ends of your hair are your length, the longer you keep them on your head the longer your hair will grow.

Here is how to keep your ends healthy for length retention.

Trim your ends as needed

If your aim is to retain length you shouldn't over trim your ends but you should make sure that they are always in good shape. Trimming off 1/4 of an inch every 4 months is reasonable. But if you don't need a trim don't trim.

Moisturize your ends!

Do not wait for your ends to dry out in order to moisturize them. Make it a habit to keep them moisturized (at least every two days)

seal in moisture with an oil

After moisturizing please seal in the moisture with an oil or butter.

Keep your hair stretched.

Wearing your hair in a shrunken state causes too much tangling and knotting which eventually leads to breakage.

wear protective hairstyles

Protective hairstyles such as braids, weaves, wigs, buns, plaits, twists etc that keep your ends hidden, tucked in or up will reduce friction with your clothes and therefore encourage length retention.

Finally I am able to write a blog post! The last few weeks have been so busy and just was not able to do any posts. But I do have great news for you. The long term transition is going very well. The back of my hair and the edges are officially 1 year post relaxer. And the crown is now 6 months post relaxer.

washday: different textures!!!

This was one of my goals and I am so happy to have reached it, now I am more sure than ever that I will have a successful long term transition. What is really working for me is keeping my hair moisturised all the time. This keeps my new growth soft and manageable. Not combing on a daily basis has also proven very effective in combating unnecessary breakage.

Many of you have been asking me how I pull that off since I don´t put my hair in protective styles like braids.

texture on wet and air dried hair.

Well it does take a little practice. If you are just beginning try combing every two days, then proceed to three and go on until you are comfortable going for days without using a comb on your hair. It also helps to decide what hairstyle you are going to wear that week. Maintaining one hairstyles is much easier than changing it up everyday. A nice soft bristle brush and some kind of styling cream/ gel will also come in handy in order to keep your edges down all through the week. But remember to only use a Gel that will not leave your hair hard to touch. A good example is aloe Vera gel. In the pictures below I Used a mixture of water and glycerin to moisturise my hair and Aloe vera gel and the soft bristle brush to keep my edges down.

My magic weapons: water and glycerin mixture, brush and aloe vera gel for edges.

Are you on a long term transition journey? what is helping you go through with it? I still need more tips ;)

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