How to Grow Your Hair Out

Start by not cutting it!

You'd guessed that already right? That doesn't take a how to article to figure out. But the real question is whether to have maintenance cuts. These hair cuts will make your style look a little bit better, but it will take much longer to grow your hair to the length that you would like it to be. My advice is to avoid any cuts unless you feel you absolutely must have them. Keep in mind there are social, and workplace reasons that one would do this. Having horrible looking hair may actually make you want to stop growing it, and that would be a shame, when you could get a little maintenance cut and be ok.

2. Better hair through Chemistry!

Many places sell vitamins for hair. These are very effective in making sure that you are getting the optimal levels of different vitamins that promote hair growth and allow you to grow your hair at the fastest speed possible. The average maximum hair growth is about 1/2 inch in a month. People who don't get the proper vitamins will typically achieve 1/4 inch per month. That is a HUGE difference over a year, when you are going through awkward phases!

My Vitamin of choice is a GNC product called Women's Hair, Skin & Nails Formula, With 2500mcg of Biotin. I have had great success with this product. The sales lady told me "You would be surprised how many other men take these vitamins" so don't feel awkward bringing them up to the cash register!

3. Be Gentle!

Most short-haired people have no clue how to take good care of their hair. They are amazingly violent with it when shampooing and combing. You'd think they were trying to damage it. They even force their way through snags.

Stop! Be as gentle as you can with your hair. A great way to think of it is like a fine piece of lace, only wash it and treat it as you would that delicate piece of lace. As your hair gets longer and longer, it is increasingly older, and more delicate. Scrub gently. Loosen snags very gently with your fingers; not with a comb or brush. Start being gentle with your hair now, or you'll wish you had later on.

When you force your way through a snag, you damage the hair. Part or all of it is warped into erratic curls. Do it often enough, and the damage will be obvious.

If you were using heavy gell before, stop as soon as it's long enough to behave well enough with mousse instead. Eventually if you can transition to no products in your hair you will be better off.

4. Use Conditioner.

Conditioner goes a long way toward preventing damage. It also makes it easier to get through snags, as it makes the hair more slippery. It even makes your hair easier to control.

There are various opinions about this; some would have you put oil in your hair, others would have you shampoo only every other day so that the natural scalp oil (called "sebum") has more of a chance to get at your hair. Whatever. I have to wonder if some of those natural-is-always-better types walk around in bearskins, toting spears. ("Hey Og! Those mastodon ribs would taste better if you held them over a fire for a while!" "No way, Grok -- dat not natural!") I figure the idea is to remove the dirty oil and replace it with clean oil -- so I do that every day by shampooing and conditioning.

5. How to keep it in place:

If you don't mind looking fem, use any of the many devices women use to keep their hair in place until it's long enough for a ponytail. Some men actually do that. For the rest of us, the options are:

• Wear a hat. duh
  • Obviously inappropriate in some social situations. Also gives you hat hair.
• Wear a horizontal cloth headband.
  • Obviously inappropriate in many social situations.
• Grease down your hair.
  • Ick. Not my cup of tea. But many guys do it.
• Ignore your hair!
  • This was my choice, until it was long enough to push behind my ears.
• Push it behind your ears.
  • It doesn't stay. Depending on your hair, it may look funny (stick out to the sides) until it's quite long.