Image source @naturallycurly
I believe natural hair is excellent at any and every length.
That said, I embrace my Texas roots by growing my hair as high and wide as possible. The plan is to be a finely aged auntie with butt-length salt n’ pepper in effect, but that’s a ways off.
Even so, in the years I’ve been growing my hair, I’ve learned valuable lessons that I wish someone, anyone would have been frank with me about beforehand. Like:
There’s a lot of scams out there
It sucks, but not every company has your best interest at heart. Even if selling a good, quality product actually makes more money in the long run, some people are okay with short term gains and cheating/harming their customers. Gross. But it is what it is.
My best advice is this. Always read ingredient lists. Always spot test. And if something sounds too good to be true, it is.
All your hair grows. ALL of it.
Before I started making more lifestyle choices based around promoting hair growth, I trimmed my body hair and tweezed maybe once a month. After the collagen complex and Curls vitamins got hold of me, that changed.
It was like having an old-school genie grant a wish in an unexpected way: “I said your hair would grow…but I didn’t say which hair…muahahahaha” *poof*
My clippers are getting more use than I was used to, and I still say it’s worth it. Just be advised that if you shave, pluck, wax, or trim, your depilatory routine is going to take up more of your time.
You won’t see growth if you’re not focused on retention
This seems like a no-brainer, but it took me a while!
If you’re losing one centimeter every week from your ends breaking, an inch of new growth per month isn’t enough to cover that loss.
Keep your ends moist, sealed, and protected so your curls aren’t playing constant catch-up!
You might get paranoid
It’s true that hair growth is affected by a lot of different things, some of which can be serious.
At the same time, gluing yourself to WebMD for hours isn’t healthy either.
I wasted a lot of time waiting on my hair—checking my length every two seconds, and getting obsessive when things didn’t measure up. The inches came eventually, but you can never get lost moments back.
My solution here? Experiment more.
Once I began trying scarves, hats, different clips, and on the occasions I felt super fancy, new styles, my confidence in end of the awkward length stage soared. Even when I failed, it was still time spent learning and not stressing out!
Do your best to enjoy the journey, and measure your length quarterly at most. You’ll get there.
Did you learn anything on your hair-growth journey? Put on your teacher hat and share in the comments section!