7 Reasons Why Your Natural Hair Isn't Growing

Hello beautiful people, it's another Natural Hair 101 post today and I'm going to be giving you the tea on why your natural hair isn't growing, isn't growing the way you want it to or it feels like you're losing hair.

About a year back I remember my hair looked like it had decided to take a pause and it just wasn't growing or so it seemed. Frankly, I wasn't bothered by this and just learned to maintain the hair the way it was. Fast forward to 2020 and I've started caring more about my hair and started to embrace her amazing curls.

My hair began to shine, have this amazing glow, and then it got me thinking what exactly was I doing wrong? Why couldn't I see any growth before now? What changed exactly? What made me start caring more?

 I had stopped some terrible hair care habits I picked up and she started showing her growth.

Here are seven funny but legitimate reasons your natural hair isn't growing.

1. BAD DIET AND NO EXERCISE

In as much as your body needs a balanced diet and good exercise to be healthy so does your hair. When you're not eating healthy you're also depriving your hair of the much-needed nutrients, vitamins, and minerals it needs to promote its growth and maintain it's overall shine.

Think about how we water plants to grow. It's the same way we drink enough water to help out hair grow. Water is the key ingredient that goes hand in hand with the vitamins you're consuming. So stay hydrated always!!!!

Exercising has many benefits. One of these includes the fact that it boosts your metabolism and promotes a strong hair growth cycle. This leads to increase the flow and circulation of blood to the scalp, resulting in amazing hair growth. So start exercising!!!!

2. WEARING PROTECTIVE STYLES TOO LONG

It's all sunshine and roses when we wear protective styles, especially for a fact that it's known to promote hair growth. Although this is the case, never leave your protective style on for too long.

It might be tempting to just leave in those cornrows or Bantu knots and forget about them but they cause severe breakage, dryness, and tangling. This is the case If we don't switch up the style or let the hair take a break for a while.

This then leads to tension on the scalp and hair follicles which may be a cause of the decline in growth of your hair. I'll advise wearing your protective styles for about two weeks on average but never longer than two months.

3. USING TOO MUCH HEAT ON YOUR HAIR

Hairdryers were my friends. I never fancied letting my hair air dry and I loved the fact that blow drying my hair made it stretch because I have very stubborn hair. It also saves me the stress of having to stretch it with a straightener. 

Little did I know I was damaging my hair cuticle, meaning the hair became unable to retain moisture, making the hair fragile and subject to breakage.

So I eliminated all forms of heat from my hair care regime. Yes! I threw out the hairdryers, the straighteners, and the curling irons. Now I air dry my hair and put it in a protective style after. 

I don't mean you should remove heat from your hair routine but I'm saying you should reduce the amount of heat you allow on your hair. Try to blow dry your hair on a low heat and hold your blow-dryer further away from your strands to avoid any damage to your hair.    

4. APPLYING EXCESS PRODUCT AND CHEMICALS

Too much of everything is not good, it had never been and it won't start now. All in the name of taking care of our hair or trying to make our hair grow we tend to overdo it sometimes. 

Adding too many products, using too many different products all at once and worst of all not looking through the ingredients in these so-called products. There are some certain chemicals that are dangerous for your hair. I'm sure you're wondering if they're dangerous why are they even included in the products.

They might be good for some people and then the opposite for others. So it's your job to do research on what works best for your hair and what your hair reacts to.

The same goes for the hair dyes and all forms of colouring we apply to our hair. It's safer to use hair dye that doesn't contain peroxide or to opt for natural dyes instead. The coloring may lead to breakage and affect your hair growth.

5. FORGETTING TO CARE FOR YOUR SCALP

We're so focused on trying to retain the length of hair we already have or trying to find ways to grow it longer than it already is, that we forget to care for the scalp where the roots begin. It's like a plant when you water only the leaves, yes the water still falls to the roots but the roots aren't getting as much attention and care they need and deserve.

So start paying attention to your scalp the same way you care for your ends. Ensure it's getting enough moisture and essential nutrients it needs. Scalp massages have also been proven to be helpful in promoting hair growth.

Hair oils are effective for hair growth and act as natural conditioners as they are packed with essential vitamins that are necessary for your scalp health. A massage with coconut oil gradually increases the chances of good, long, and strong hair.

6. SPLIT ENDS, BREAKAGE, AND SHEDDING

Experience is truly the best teacher. I've never understood the concept of split ends but with time I've come to realize how it all works out.

Basically, split end is a hair that has divided into several parts at its end. Most times we don't even realize when our ends split. The split may be one or two, sometimes even more especially when we don't trim our ends regularly. 

Causes of split ends vary from heat to manipulation of hair down to even the environment (humidity, wind, cold, sun). 

Once the damage begins the hair continues to split, as it continues this it leads to more split ends that lead to tangles. These tangles then lead to more shedding and breakage. Ultimately this may be the root cause of your hair growth and length retention problems.

Split ends are naturally occurring and are unavoidable but that doesn't mean they can't be reduced.

7. OVER WASHING YOUR HAIR OR NOT WASHING AT ALL

I found this hard to believe but it's so true. Washing your hair with shampoo very often can damage your hair and make the scalp dry as your hair will lose moisture. It will also wash away the essential oils from the scalp that travel from roots through the hair tip. Thus having effects on your hair growth. 

How often you wash your hair depends on so many things like how quickly your hair gets oily, how much oil your scalp is producing, how much water your hair absorbs, and down to the products you use and how much of them you use.

Not washing the hair at all can lead to so many adverse effects like product build-up, which is the gradual accumulation of products on the hair strands. Products that have accumulated on your hair prevent moisture, oils, and other nutrients from penetrating your hair. Hence having effects on your hair growth.

CONCLUSION

All in all, I believe having a proper hair care regime would be the glue that holds all the amazing things you do for your hair together. Start forming good hair habits and begin a good hair care routine that works for your hair.

These days I see people wanting to be venture into the natural gang lifestyle not knowing the work and time they have to put into their hair to make it look like what they truly want. Everyone wants outstanding growth, amazing length retention, and overall healthy hair but sometimes we push the limits too far, this backfires on us and we see the opposite results.

I hope these seven things I STOPPED doing will guide you through the DON'Ts of your natural hair journey. Over time you'll begin to see the amazing results of how your hair will begin to reach its full potential, flourish in growth and finally become like that YouTuber we all know you love watching her tutorials.