Hi lovelies!
My name is Tanya and I am a Youtuber and Blogger, I test out makeup and skincare products, provide TIPS AND TRICKS that make beauty that bit easier! Nothing makes me feel more happy than proving YOU with the best advice and makeup products from drugstore to highend to make YOU feel confident.
Be sure to follow my Social Media Channels to all the BEST tips and looks!
YouTube - Tanya Busby YouTube Channel! <------- CLICK! Please Subscribe If you want the latest looks, trends, advice and tips for all things beauty, skin, makeup!
Instagram - Instagram Account <------ Click!
Let's Tweet! <------ Click!
One of the things I get asked the most is how do you get your hair to grow so long? If I was to tell you that I brought a magic product from Superdrug, tried it once and WALLAH! then I would be lying. From the years of many late nights of Youtube and google searching, testing out all kind of methods ( yes i have been caught many times whipping up a concoction of ingredients in the kitchen at midnight for a magic overnight fix) how easy would that be? I have listed 5 simple tips to follow below!
Disclaimer: I am not a hair expert, these tips have come from trial, error and a lot of night late research!
Tip 1: Porosity
So some of you may be thinking what on earth is this? And after many months of researching trying to find out why my hair was still dry and dehydrated after using the advice on the internet for the magic of 'Coconut Oil', I was left confused when my hair became hard, tangled and much more dry than not using it at all! Why did this happen? Was I always going to suffer with dry hair? Well up until I stumbled across a video on Youtube where porosity was mentioned, I was all out of ideas! So what is porosity? It's basically the hairs ability to retain moisture. Simple right? Well it definitely helped me with my hair growth after knowing what hair type I had and not just wondering why I wasn't seeing the results that people were talking about. To keep it simple, there are three types of hair porosity; high, medium and low. High means that the hair is able to absorb a lot of water which can be as bad as not being able to as well, because the hair can snap, medium which is a balance between having moisture and not loosing it to the environment and lastly low, which means that the hair follicles are tightly packed together which does not allow water in. Oh so this one of the reasons why my hair is constantly dry? YES! Because I have low porosity hair it just meant that my hair needs heat to be able to open up the cuticle up and allow my oil treatment to do it's magic. A simple way of finding out hair porosity is taking a strand of hair and placing it on top of a cup of water; If it sinks, you have high porosity, if it stays afloat then you have low porosity and if it sinks slightly or in the middle then you are one of the lucky ones and have medium porosity. From knowing this, my hair routine has completely changed and now I know how to get the best out of the products I buy instead of having slight soft hair after conditioner but then it becoming dry again throughout the day. Knowing the hair type you have can save you a lot of money on buying products that simply do not work for a type of porosity, so once you have found out you can then start the journey to healthy long hair!
Tip 2: Diet
Are you or someone you know struggling to find the reason why your hair doesn't grow past a certain length? Then these tips might help you! Okay so, without getting too technical, hair is made up on protein called keratin. There are three phases to hair growth; Anagen (growth phase which can actually last for years) the Catagen phase ( hair grows slows down) and then the final stage Telogen phase where the hair folicule is pushed out ready for new hair growth! So now we have the science behind it but why does this happen? Well as hair grows and is continuously exposed to the harsh environment and products, hair fall just means the scalp is making way for healthy follicles to grow. Kind of similar to the skin when we exfoliate to get rid of the dead skin cells as new cells grow. So back to hair. As a rule of thumb, we are what we eat and this is reflected in both our skin and hair. As our hair tends to go through these phases of the growth cycle, it's important to have a well balanced diet which consists of many fruit and vegetables that are basically feeding nutrients to the hair. More nutrients = happy hair.
Have you heard of the hair skin and nails vitamins and wondered what is in this magic pill? They contain B vitamins. B vitamins are brilliant for hair because they contain biotin, a vitamin that has been researched to help with hair growth! So what's the easiest way to have this magic vitamin you say? I take vitamin B complex tables that include other vitamins and also the mighty Biotin we just talked about. Vegetables are also a good source of vitamins and minerals which help when the hair is in the growth stage as it helps grow healthy hair strands in the process. Water is a great way to help these nutrients reach the hair and flushes toxins out too! Bonus!
Tip 3: Increase the blood flow!
Lets keep it simple! Blood carries the nutrients to our organs and cells which include our hair! So along with introducing more fruit and vegetables and drinking lots of water, stimulating the hair follicles will help bring the nutrients to the hair shaft. I found that head massages are a brilliant way to not only help get the blood flowing to the hair, it's quite relaxing too, two in one! If you have ever heard of or seen the inversion method on Youtube, the science behind it is infact a way to stimulate blood flow to the head. How is this done? I normally place myself upside down on my bed, flip my hair over and wait 4 minutes. 4 minutes every day for a week and stop for 3 weeks. You can do this method with hair oil so that when you are stimulating the blood flow, through a head massage when flipped over, it helps the nourishment from the oil sink into the hair ( please speak with your doctor beforehand and stop if you feel dizzy during the process). Some have said this helped their hair to grow an inch in a week, for me personally, I did see small progress of hair growth and I only did this for one week on 3 weeks off because i didn't want my hair to get used to this method and be ineffective after a while. However it is important to consider step 5 with this process so whether it does work or that it's just how our hair grows anyway then that's up for debate but please read on and you'll find out why.
Tip 4: Avoid heat products!
There are products on the market that help with the condition of the hair and protecting it from heat damage in the process of the hair journey. So avoid any straighteners, curlers, blow-driers for healthy hair growth because why would you want to stop all the hard work you have put in by damaging it through heat tools? If you can not completely avoid this step then try to minimise the exposure the hair has. A tip would be to try and find a hairstyle you like that does not involve using heat, this could be a bun or braid! They look cute and will help with healthier hair growth! Also, having the hair in these types of styles helps protect it from the environment such as the sun and wind which can cause damage to the hair.
Tip 5: Patience
I know. Annoying right? However the science behind it is that no matter how many hair products that claim to "grow" the hair, there is no magic product that you can buy from the store. On average, hair grows about one quarter to half an inch each month. No matter what product you have it cannot speed this natural process of the hair cycle. However, there are products that maintain the health of the hair follicle to be able to have healthy hair growth with a good diet. If you don't want to wait then extensions may be a solution for you! I found also found that being busy with too small children made it hard to find the time to do my hair in the mornings anyway so buns became my bestfriend, along with dry shampoo! Washing the hair every day can strip the hairs natural oils so this too became a product that I loved when my hair needed a freshen up on second day hair. Last thing to mention is that genetics play a role in hair growth and can be linked to hair condition too, but this may not always be the case. Much of my hair growth was trial and error and finding out the routine that worked so don't be afraid to venture out and be a expect on your own hair what works for you!
Thank you for reading and please leave a comment below if this helped and some tips and tricks you have?
With love, Tanya x
Photo credit: www.trillefloral.com
