When your long natural hair stops growing

It is very common for us to slip into our comfort zone in the journery of hair growth, especially if you have successfully grown our hair long.

We become guru in our own eyes, and stop putting effort into our hair care routines. The same lady who would carefull detangle her hair and spend 7 hours every week pampering her hair would now hardly find 1 hour in 3 weeks to do anything. We get away with this habit for sometime, and then it hits you. Your hair is no more growing… in fact, it might be a little bit shorter than it was last year.

This is the bane of hair care for many long time naturalistas, and I have experienced this myself.

So what do you do when your long hair refuse to grow longer.

1. Know that things have changed.
The things you used to do when you just started your natural hair journey might not work for you anymore. This is because your hair is longer, and its needs have differed. This should not be surprising, seeing that the only constant thing in life is change. That leads me to my second point.

2. Try switching up your regimen.
Since we are not statues, we have the power to move away from things that are no more working. If your regimen is no more effective, change it. You can change from LOC to LCO, change from oil prepoo to deep conditioning before wash, change, change, change. Just listen to your hair’s needs, and respond to it.

3. Incorporate a protein treatment.
Your hair is longer now, so your hair is weaker, and more prone to breakage that when your hair was shorter. It is at this point that you need to do a protein treatment once to make your weak ends stronger, making sure you are not overloading your hair with protein, which might cause them to be very hard.

4. Don’t manipulate
Avoid styles that require you touching and retouching your hair every day. You can also start taking advantages of props like hats, turbans, etc. Not every bad hair day have to end up in bad consequences for your hair.

5. Hide those ends
The ends of your hair are older, and not as strong, so incorporate a lot of protective styles in your practices. Styles such as bantu knots, twists, braids, updos, etc will do you well. Just make sure you keep those ends from being exposed too much. They reduce the risk of wearing out, and them snagging on other things

Other things you can do include: avoid playing with your hair, eat a healthy diet (or incorporate supplements in case of illness), reduce heat drastically or completely eliminate it, avoid harsh hair tools, simplify your hair regimen.

If you are having this issue, try these tips above, and see how it turns out for you. Let us also hear other suggestions from you or the description of your issue in the comment section