Top 10 Reasons Why Your Hair Is Not Growing

See why your hair remains the same length month after month in spite of your efforts at hair care 

Has your hair remained the same length regardless of all the techniques, time and products you have showered it with? Are you in that category that says my hair JUST WON’T GROW?

If this is your reality then chances are you have been making some missteps in your hair journey. Something has gone wrong with your regimen. The problem is not so much that it is not growing, but that you have been unable to retain and maintain the inches you’ve grown..

The first thing you will need to do to correct this is find out how to create an excellent regimen that helps to retain your growth so you can see it’s full potential. You can find out more about how to build a hair regimen for length retention in the video linked in the tab above or down in the description.

In the meantime though, these are some things you need to tackle to start to see some immediate results in your length retention:

1.  Irreparable damage

It may be that you have started with extremely damaged hair, that is to say heat or chemical damage. Either of these will affect the resilience of your strands and healthy growth cannot be seen unless you get rid if the damaged ends over time or just do a big chop and start from scratch because hair has to be healthy in order for it to grow long.

Provided that you make the decision to stop mistreating your locks and be more diligent with healthy hair practices the new hair growing right now will remain healthy. You will start to see the health of your hair improve drastically and the length will follow. Just remain consistent and remember it’s a process!

2. Mistreating your ends

This could be another reason that you are not seeing growth and this happens when you are not treating your ends as the most important part of your hair. Remember the flat ironing job you did recently when you went over your ends numerous times because they just never get straight enough? Or the braids you practically hacked through with a comb to take down the style? Well, no more of that!

Look at the ends of your hair today and think about how you treat them. Ask yourself this; “Will these ends still be there in 5 years time?” If you think it’s doubtful then something in your regimen has to change, and fast.

3. Over-processing

This is another culprit that robs you of some hang time. If you are partial to chemically straightened hair or color you could be guilty of this; specifically, you are relaxing your hair ‘bone straight’ or over processing your color. With bone straight hair, sure, it means that your hair will have fewer tangles when you are washing it but the length you think you are saving in avoiding knots will be lost due to weaker, drier hair.

Remember, the longer the chemical is left in your hair, the more bonds are being broken. These bonds are what hold your hair together so by breaking too many of them, you will end up sabotaging your length retention and healthy hair growth.

You may want to consider texlaxing or texturizing your hair instead. In essence, this is the practice of deliberately under-processing your hair so you can retain some of the bonds that will keep your hair strong and thriving.

With color I suggest that you get it professionally done by someone who is knowledgeable in healthy hair maintenance and steer clear of at-home box colors.

4. Dry manipulation

Girl, dry manipulation will do you dirty every time. If you are a natural lady with kinky* hair who is trying to detangle or style your hair when it is dry, that is like an invitation for breakage. No matter how you slice it, it’s better to manipulate natural hair damp or wet.

When you use water or a moisturizing leave-in product you will help increase your hair’s moisture content thus boosting elasticity and leveraging your hair’s tensile strength so it can stand up to manipulation. With the elasticity increased, your hair will stretch further before breaking which essentially means less friction and breakage overall.

5. Heat misuse

This is a cardinal sin in hair care. Regular press n’ curls or blow dry sessions will be aesthetically appealing right now but since heat breaks the bonds in your hair and promotes dryness and friction then it’s safe to say that long hair shall not be in your destiny any time soon if you use heat often. Heated styling tools are ok to use on occasion but always use them on clean hair which has had a heat protectant applied.

If you are natural, overuse of heated tools can lead to heat damage which will be evident when your curls loosen and don’t spring back after a wash. It is even more important for you to avoid direct heat if you have chemically treated or relaxed hair since there are far less bonds present to help you ward off breakage. In chemically treated hair the heat damage will present as hair that starts to get a lot of mid strand breakage due to loss of protein. In either case you may want to avoid heat as much as possible or heat style less.

6. Ingredient ignorance

This can be an important issue to consider, particularly if your hair length is stuck at a plateau. If you are not aware of the ingredients in your hair products such as mineral oil*, silicones and other such ingredients and how they affect hair’s health, it could be damaging to your regimen. With these ingredients you need to take special precautions in order to use them successfully in your hair regimen. Either that or decide whether you need to be using them at all based on how your hair reacts to them.

If you are a newbie then stick with all natural hair care brands that provide great results without any hidden nasties. As time goes on and your knowledge increases, you can opt to be more adventurous with your product choices.

7. Product junkie-ism

This is an often overlooked contributor to length plateaus in hair care. Don’t get caught up with spending way too much time on the hair care forums, buying every product mentioned as this will result in you over manipulating your hair as you try to work your way through the crate loads of products you have already bought.

Your hair needs time to adjust and react to the products you use so using too many all at once will not allow you to make an assessment of what really works for you. Stick to a small group of products that you already know work well with your hair. Once a product is finished then feel free to try something new while always having your staples at hand in case of a disaster.

8. Lack of moisture

Well, this is definitely a major enemy to length retention and hair growth. If you are not moisturizing your hair enough you best believe it will break which keeps you stuck at a particular length month after month. As basic as it might seem, don’t be too lazy to moisturize your ends every day.

9. Not knowing your hair

If you follow hair advice blindly without learning what your hair likes or dislikes then you will never get anywhere with your hair regimen.

You are going to have to get deep down and personal with what’s growing from your scalp until you know it inside out. Who cares that everyone else’s hair gets stronger with protein treatments, if it’s making your hair break then stop using it! Period.

Or maybe you have just realized that the conditioner which worked wonders for your hair has silicones so you move to one that is less effective but (quote unquote)‘healthier’. That’s just silly, stick to what you know works for your own hair.

10. Misuse of styling tools such as combs and brushes

While these tools can be beneficial for spreading natural oils* or hair products along the hair strands or for use during detangling, that benefit dwindles if you use them improperly.

If your hair is of the kinky* curly variety, even if it’s relaxed, then you may be best off using wide tooth combs and brushes that have bristles that are made for detangling your hair type. Never rip through your hair with these tools and do not detangle your hair in a dry state. Remember that naturally curly hair type is susceptible to breakage from manipulation so limit detangling sessions. For extra care, use your fingers to help unravel knots instead of hair tools.

BONUS POINT

11. Watch your protein use

You may need to increase your protein use or lessen it depending on your hair’s needs. Protein is a body building food and the primary component of hair so in that sense you want to make sure your diet has enough to aid new growth, but if you have low porosity hair or are sensitive to protein, you will need to lay off on the hair products that have protein in them.

If you have high porosity strands you will find that you need protein containing products for your hair to flourish. If you don’t know what category your falls into, watch closely to see how your hair responds to products with protein in them and add or remove protein depending on the results. See the video in the tab or link in the description to learn more about the moisture-protein balance.

Bear in mind that your body will prioritize and use it’s protein allowance for more important things like organ repair, healing first before sending any yummy nutrients your hair’s way. If your diet is not ideal, you will notice that your hair and nails will be the first to suffer. Enjoy foods like eggs, lean meat, beans and pulses and other high protein foods while keeping your diet healthy and balanced.

That’s some food for thought. Here’s to applying what you now know. Healthy growing! Find out how to create an excellent regimen to grow your hair to it’s full potential.