The Truth About Hair Growth

While many people wish that it were as easy and quick to go from short hair to long hair as it is to go from long to short, it’s unfortunately not possible. While the root of your hair follicle is alive, the shaft itself is long dead— and while that’s unfortunate when it comes to growth, at least your hair doesn’t bleed or hurt when you go to the salon for a trim! The fact of the matter is that the average hair growth rate is half an inch per month, and it may take the hair at the top of your head up to two years to even reach your shoulders.

As a result, you may think that there’s absolutely no hope in getting your hair to grow faster or stronger. Don’t worry; there actually are life style choices you can make in order to get your follicles to become more productive, and to grow healthier hair. And “growing longer hair” and “growing healthier hair” are actually the same thing!

Watch Your Protein Intake

Your hair is made out of protein, so if your protein intake isn’t high enough, your body is going to use what little protein it has in order to give you energy and build muscle— not to just output the protein again by growing longer hair. If your diet is low in protein, your hair will grow more slowly and be thinner and more brittle than someone with a high protein diet. Any type of protein will help your hair grow its healthiest and strongest, but soy protein has been shown to be particularly helpful for both strength and length.

Why Strength Is Important

If your hair doesn’t have the strength to withstand the daily rigors of washing, hair products, blow drying, dyeing, wind, sun, combing and brushing, then you will end up with a bad case of split ends. Split ends happen when a hair shaft weakens and splits at the very tip, causing frizzies, flyaways, and other hair issues. If your ends split, then your hair won’t get longer; the split will get longer instead. The best way to ensure that your hair will grow is to trim it regularly, in order to get rid of split ends. As long as your trims even out to less than a half inch a month, your hair will still be growing— and perhaps even faster than it was before.

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