Growing Natural Hair Long: 5 Excuses to Drop in 2014

It's 2014: the year where you and your hair both flourish.

But long, healthy hair can only happen if you find a way to push past the excuses that kept it short in years past.

DHA's DIY  helps you launch your new hair for the New Year.

Growing Natural Hair: The Long and Short of It

Often, the biggest obstacle to success, in haircare and the wider world, is an overindulgence in pessimism, with an unhealthy side of negative self talk.  

Most of the time, all these doubts are not even accurate;  you've just heard it said – or said it yourself – too many times! As luck might have it, the length and strength of your hair depends on you cutting loose of these myths. Here are a few facts to set the record straight and get you and your hair off to the best start for the New Year.

Myth: My Type of Hair Can't Grow Long

Yes it can. Despite this being the biggest and strongest myths about tightly-curled hair, there are many natural  hair devotees who continually prove that wrong by growing their hair to  ever-increasing lengths. However, that isn't enough for some people. So here's a quick word about some paradigm-shifting research, carried out by Dr. Khumalo, a South African scientist.  

In a study looking at subjects whose hair was extremely short – barely a few centi-metres long – despite not having been cut for years, Dr. Khumalo and her team hit upon some surprising data.

Rather than not growing at all, the hair was breaking. A lot. On supercurly hair, the complex, winding structure is more vulnerable to breakage as every bend is a weak point. The curlier the hair, the more of these points at which your hair is vulnerable to snap that exist. 

For the subjects in the study, it didn't take much more than a comb to pass through their hair for it to break off. When one study participant was able to curb breakage by giving up the comb, she managed to grow her hair – that previously couldn't make it past a couple inches – down her back.

So it's not a case of some types of hair being able to grow and others not. Instead, growing natural hair long is more a matter of the extra care some hair types
need to prevent breakage and make it to longer lengths.

Myth: My Hair's Too Rough To Be Gentle With It

One of the biggest mistakes made in handing textured hair is being too rough. Just because it has a little texture to it does not mean it's the equiva-lent of burlap and can handle  the same amount of abuse. Hair doesn't have to feel like silk to be treated like it. 

In fact, the less it feels like silk, the more it needs that gentleness and extra care to nurture it to longer lengths.  

If you tend to style your hair by  pulling on it, gripping it tightly and repeatedly scraping through it dry with a comb or brush, then you are being too harsh. In fact, you are making  your hair much more brittle and rough than it naturally is by treating it  this way – and you probably have the persistently short hair to show for
it.  

So for 2014, experiment with using less force in  the way you touch your hair, and take advantage of products that offer smoothness and slip so your tools can be less harsh on your strands,  too.

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Myth: I'm Too Busy To Take Care of My Hair

Just as you make time to shower daily,  you can make time to take care of your hair. And, contrary to popular myth, it  doesn't have to take much time at all.

Establishing a simple, consistent routine will bring the time spent doing your hair down to the bare minimum. And, since hair thrives on minimal manipulation, your hair will love you for leaving it (a little bit) alone, as long as you keep it well-protected.

To do this, try time-saving routines like overnight pretreatments and pragmatic protective styling to keep up with the clock, but never neglect your hair. In the long run, it costs a lot more time, not to mention money and energy, to sort things out if you leave your hair unattended for too long.

Myth: I Don't Need To Do My Hair - I Wear Weaves

It doesn't matter what state my hair is  in. I can always hide it with weave. . . Or so you may think.

If your hair is in a state, you are never really hiding it by using hair extensions.
 Most methods of extending hair put you at risk of damage if overused, entrenching the cycle of  breakage.

Rather than the "grow long hair fast" scheme they are often touted as, extensions can often become an obstacle to growing natural hair long.

After a while, your  neglected tresses  can become too damaged and weak to even hold the weave up  and you're left with limited styling options – outside of a hat or a wig.  
 
The best option is to learn your natural hair – what it needs, how it responds to different  methods and products.

Then you can use  weaves or braids – in moderation – as  a protective style, or just to give yourself a break from your daily haircare duties.

Myth: Dirty Hair Grows

Hair falls into two categories: hair that grows in spite of having to force its way through a clogged, filthy scalp and  being caked in drying buildup. And hair that stays short because of its owner clinging to this urban myth. If you're on a dirty hair programme and don't have robust, lengthy hair to show for it, you already know what category your hair falls into.  

Since most scalps need to be fresh and  unencumbered to bring forth lustrous, healthy hair, and most hair needs regular hydration and a minimum of buildup to make it to longer lengths, it's amazing  this myth ever took hold. While there is such a thing as overwashing, don't be afraid to give your hair the regular cleansing and moisture it needs to add – and keep – a few extra inches in 2014.

Image credits:

Queen of the Universe| Several Seconds |Anderson's All-Purpose| VE Makeup Artist