Hair: How to Keep What You Have and Grow to New Lengths

A Multi-Tiered Approach

Keeping your hair plentiful and helping it to grow to longer requires a multi-tiered approach. Let's start with what you have the most control over: how you handle your hair.

Have you ever wondered how women with long hair have achieved their lengths? Well, as someone with hair almost to her hipbone, I can attest that careful handling has been my main "tool." I use gentle products, detangle with a seamless wide-tooth comb, limit handling my hair when wet, and wear it up as often as possible. If you want longer hair, these very basic things will help.

You can also try regular scalp massages. Scalp massage increases blood circulation so that your hair follicles receive more of the nutrients they need for optimal growth.

The "Perfect" Treatment?

Hair forums are abuzz with the benefits of coconut oil. I personally use it regularly on my scalp and hair.

Pure virgin coconut oil, readily available in health food stores, has healing properties that help to soothe and repair skin and tissue. And what it can do for skin, it can do for the scalp. Additionally, it can be used applied directly to the strands as a conditioning treatment to reduce breakage. As the oil can weigh your hair down, it is best used as a pre-wash treatment.

A Delicate Balance

Our society is insanely stressed. Can this affect your hair? Absolutely.

Chronic stress, the type of stress linked to depression, anxiety and insomnia, is destructive to our system. Stress causes physiological changes in the body that throw off our equilibrium and affect every system of our body. Hair is especially sensitive to disturbances and its growth cycle is easily disrupted, resulting in excessive hair shedding and slowed or halted growth.

The body responds to stress by producing additional stress hormones. Women are particularly prone to stress-related hair loss because of the hormonal connection. Healthy hair growth depends on an intricately balanced hormonal system, and an over- or under-production of certain hormones is a common cause of hair loss.

The good news is that stress-related hair loss is usually temporary and can be help by natural therapies like acupuncture, aromatherapy and acupuncture.

In addition, make quality sleep a priority. More and more studies are indicating that sleep is even more important than we thought, affecting everything from stress levels to weight loss, and even lifespan. The bottom line is that your body needs down time to repair itself.

The Vitamin Connection

Vitamins, though not a panacea, can help.

Hair is comprised of 80 percent protein, so logically vitamins with a high concentration of B vitamins and protein will help hair grow faster. You don't necessarily need to buy special hair vitamins, but make sure your vitamins include B complex, folic acid and inositol. Folic acid speeds up production of new cells, while inositol strengthens cell membranes to possibly prevent hair from falling out.

Your supplements should also contain vitamins A, C and E, as well as the minerals iodine, iron, potassium and zinc; these are all vital for hair growth.

One Final Thought

Hair consists of 10 to 15 percent water-yet another reason to make sure you drink your eight glasses daily.

For more tips and techniques like the ones this article, visit her website: How to Grow Hair.

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