Last fall I went through a serious hair dye-psycho phase – I basically dyed it pretty much every two weeks for several months: bleached twice to get light enough to add pink streaks, re-added pink streaks when they faded, added fuschia tips, dyed over the whole thing light brown, dyed over whole thing dark blue, tried to dye dark brown over that, ended up with this bizarre green-black with brown roots. So waited about a month til I got back to school and decided to dye it black and let it grow out.
So… my hair is now black. It’s been a little over two months now, and I’m really sick of it being black, so I really want it to grow out faster. So far it’s grown maybe 3/4 of an inch, give or take, judging from the visible blonde-brown roots (I’m bad at measuring distances and can’t measure it right now). At this rate, it’s going to take for-freaking-ever to get to any decent length of non-black. So what can I do to make it grow faster?
Various friends have suggested Vitamin E, and pulling it back in a ponytail a lot to keep tension on the roots. Unfortunately, these things were already a part of my hair routine. I use a leave-in Vitamin E serum on it after every shampoo to keep it from frizzing, and I always sleep with it in a bun after shampooing to keep it from curling up. But it ain’t workin’!
So tell me, what might make my hair grow out faster? I’m willing to try just about anything unless it’s expensive or involves animal sacrifice or something. Help me out here, guys, fire away.
I think that hair just grows at the speed it grows at, and you can’t do anything about it except keep the ends trimmed. However, if you do find something that works, lemme know so I can use it, too!
lovelyluka - nope, for several reasons. One: The last time I got professional hair color (after a rampage of various reds and purple streaks left it looking like… well, a rampage of various reds and purple streaks) it cost me almost $100, and that was at the no-appointment, walk-in and we’ll do ya over cheap hair place. My non-existent college-student budget simply cannot handle that. Two: I’m scared for the health of my hair. It’s naturally very thick, but I’ve been shedding like a dog lately and it’s noticeably thinner. I’ve been dying it like crazy for approx. five years, every 4-6 weeks and sometimes less, and I’m terrified that someday it’s just going to give up, say “Screw this, I’m outta here!” and just fall out. And I can’t risk that, I need my hair. It’s damaged enough already, I don’t know how it would handle a professional stripping and redying.
So getting rid of the black through chemical means is not an option. Part of the reason I went with black is that it’s pretty much impossible to dye over without bleaching, and I needed to force myself to let it grow out, as I haven’t seen more than an inch or so of my natural color in five years, and I want it to be healthy. again.
And since teleute12 said to keep the ends trimmed… anyone know why this helps? I could use it anyways, since they’re a little shaggy, but I’m wondering if it’s true that it helps, or if it just looks like it’s growing more 'cause it’s shorter…
I have no idea if this actually works, but on a hair BB I’m on, pre-natal vitamins are highly recommended.
Keeping tension on the roots is a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad idea. It won’t help your hair grow faster, it will slowly weaken the follicles and eventually, the hair never grows back again.
All that dying is so bad for your hair too… you are going to destroy its condition and it will get weak and snap … meaning growing it will become even more of a problem.
Take the vitamins as was suggested… get a balanced diet… exercise… treat your hair as if you would a babies hair… never use a brush on wet hair, only comb it… use a serum to protect it if you blowdry.
One thing I found very useful is to lean over when washing your hair… your blood flows to the scalp and feeds the hair follicles… my hair was shaved off for an operation and now is about the middle of my back…
PS always use the best products you can afford… and DON’T use hair straightners… am now weaning myself off them because they have definitely caused damage to my hair.
massage your scalp with your fingertips at night. I don’t know if this really works, but my hair past my waist now. Plus, it feels good.
Skinning your hair back tightly is a big no-no, as amarinth stated, especially in a bun, especially if your hair happens to be wet when you put it in said bun. (on a regular basis that is. I am sure once in a while it’s okay.)
I used to wear mine in a bun when I was at home, especially if I was working on something and needed to keep my hair out of it, like cooking or cross stitching. When I went into my hair dresser after not having been for nearly a year (oops), she said to me, “you wear your hair in a bun a lot, don’t you?” She could tell by where the breakage was in my hair that I pulled it back too tightly. Since then, I have switched to wearing it in a very loose braid, and this seems to have helped.
Treat yourself, and buy a really good, salon quality shampoo and conditioner, but use it alternately with a good store brand.
Also, I highly recommend using a very gentle towel to dry your hair. It’s gonna sound goofy, but those funny turban ones aren’t all that bad. Microfiber ones are good to. I feel like they drag less and certainly weigh less than good old cotton towels, plus they really do soak up a lot more water from my hair.
A question I actually know the answer to! Keeping your ends trimmed reduces split ends…and a split end, left unchecked, will travel up the length of the hair shaft to the root. Regular trimming keeps the split ends to a minumum, allowing your full hair strand to grow without damage (less breakage.)
As for growing it faster, I’m pretty sure it grows only as fast as it grows. Sorry - if I knew how to grow hair faster, believe me, I’d be doing it too.
No advice, but I do have sympathy. About 2 years ago, I dyed my hair black and it’s taken this long for the “dye-line” to reach my shoulders. Fortunately, my hair is pretty dark anyway. I’ve heard that salons can give “washes” which will darken your roots temporarily so that your blonde hair isn’t so noticeable against the black. Anyone else heard of this?
