How fast is my hair growing???

When I first started my hair journey in August  I was watching a lot of YouTube videos. Some of the people seemed to shoot down to WL in a year or two. The starting points were all different, but most were between APL and BSB. My hair was shoulder length so I set my end of the year goal at BSL. After watching these ladies reach their goals so quickly I thought BSL should be a breeze. After doing more research and paying close attention to my hair I realized within a couple months that I needed to rethink my goal of BSL.

I found out that hair grows on average .50 inches a month. I looked at how far I was from BSL and decided that APL was a much more realistic goal. Not every one's hair grows at the same rate. Some people find that their hair grows faster in the summer. Because I have not been on my HJ for a year I can not compare my summer growth with my winter growth yet.

There are some things I have been doing to maximize my growth. I take vitamins (not everyday like I should). I have Futurebiotics Hair, Skin & Nails. I do not recommend these if you can not swallow large pills. I also try to drink at least 8 glasses of water. Drinking water helps with so much in your body besides your hair. Adding Tea tree oil to my conditioner has also helped. It improves the blood flow to your scalp which stimulates hair growth.

Helping your hair grow faster than the .50 inch is pointless if you are not retaining your length. This is common sense, but until I started my hair journey I never thought about it. My hair has always been growing, but it never went past APL. I like many other African American women thought that my hair had a "max length". I know now that my hair was breaking off at about the same rate it was growing and that is why it was always about the same length. So now I protect my ends like crazy. I am a strong believer in protective styles. When I first started my HJ I decided to try to wear my hair in protective styles for two weeks. After the first week I realized this was not as hard as I thought it was going to be, so I just never stopped. I think my hair has been down maybe 10 times since August. 7 out of the 10 times were braid outs. I find cute styles and hair accessories to keep the styles looking interesting. I am always happy when people at work tell me my hair is always in some new style. It is possible to wear protective styles and still look fashionable!

I am going to start posting pictures of my protective styles in the future.