How to Grow Hair as a Black Woman

If you are a black woman, you already know it can be extremely difficult to grow your hair. Black women often think they're making progress with hair growth only to have the hairdresser tell them their hair is damaged and needs to be chopped off. To add insult to injury, women of other ethnicities seem to grow their hair effortlessly. Fortunately, it's possible for black women to grow healthy, longer hair if they follow a few important steps. Please keep in mind that these tips are designed for women with chemically relaxed hair.

Things You'll Need

• Shampoo
• Conditioner
• Comb
• Curlers or rollers
• Hair dryer
• Silk scarf or pillowcase
• Daily hair conditioner (oil or cream)

Instructions

Care at Home

1. Use a shampoo designed for dry or chemically treated hair. This is because relaxed hair is always dry and needs extra moisture in order to grow. Make sure you use the pads of your fingers to wash your hair. If you use your nails, you can damage some of your hair in the process.

2. Use a deep conditioner on your hair after you shampoo. Put a plastic cap on your head and sit under the hair dryer for at least 30 minutes so the conditioner can penetrate your hair.

3. Rinse the conditioner from your hair. You might want to consider leaving a bit of conditioner in your hair. Your thirsty hair will love it!

4. Comb your hair using a wide tooth comb from the ends to the scalp. Be gentle with your hair as you comb it. If you reach a snarl, untangle it with your fingers. Don't yank the comb through your hair.

5. Roll your hair on curlers. You can also do a wrap. Do not use a blow dryer. Blow dryers punish the hair with direct heat. Direct heat kills black hair. It's better to let hair air dry. You can even sit under a standard hair dryer. The two ways are less damaging to black hair.

At the Salon

1. Visit a professional hair stylist for any chemical services. Do not allow an unlicensed person to put a relaxer in your hair. Also be wary of someone who has a cosmetology license but still doesn't know how to treat black hair in a way that makes it healthy. Chemical relaxers should not be given every couple of weeks. You should not have a relaxer retouch until at least 6 to 8 weeks have gone by. It's even better if you can go longer between relaxers. You want to be able to let your hair rest.

2. Obtain regular hair trims to keep your ends healthy. Long hair doesn't look good if you've got a bunch of split ends!

3. Put a silk scarf on your hair when you go to bed. You can also use a silk pillowcase. Black hair needs to slide against silk so that it will not break off against cotton fiber pillowcases.

4. Condition your hair daily using oil sheens or creams that do not include petroleum. Massage your scalp on a daily basis by using the pads of your fingers. Do not comb your hair too much throughout the day. Try to finger comb your hair if it needs to be restyled.

Tips & Warnings

• Experiment with hair products to see which ones work best for you.

• Avoid any hair products containing petrolatum or alcohol. They're the kiss of death for black hair.

• Don't allow hair stylists to comb your hair with a fine tooth comb. Bring your own wide tooth comb with you to the hair salon just in case.

• Stay away from daily use of a flat iron. It uses direct heat on your precious hair and can severely damage it if used too often.

• Wash your hair no more than one to three times a week. If black women wash their hair every day, it makes their hair too dry.