GETTING flowing, luscious locks can seem like an impossible task.
If your pursuit of long hair has ever made you want to just pull it all out in dismay, a pro hairdresser has come to the rescue.
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Chris Wenzel – also known as the Blowout Professor – shared tips on how to get your hair to grow to ‘ridiculous’ lengths, having helped clients to do so.
He gave the example of Leslie, the co-founder of his salon.
“Before I opened my salon, my co-founder Leslie had really short hair,” Chris said in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel.
She had been trying to grow it out for years without much luck
“Today I’m happy to share that her hair is ridiculously long,” Chris went on.
According to the hairdresser, growing your hair out can be really easy. All you need to do is follow the steps he asked Leslie to stick to.
1. Get less frequent trims
If you’re trying to grow your hair, many hairdressers might tell you to trim your locks frequently to keep it in good shape.
But according to Chris, “trimming your hair does not make your hair healthy”.
“All it does is hide the evidence that your hair is not healthy,” he claimed.
When you get a fresh cut it might seem like you’ve fixed things up, just because you’ve trimmed away the dead ends.
But unless you tend to the actual problem, your ends are going to continue splitting as they grow out.
With Leslie, Chris said he adjusted her trim schedule and had her wait six months between each one, instead of six weeks as she had previously.
“Six months sounds like a really long time, but in hair years it’s not that long at all,” Chris said.
He also said you don’t need to get your hair cut every time you see your stylist – you can simply tell them you’re trying to grow your hair out and ask them to just do your colour, for example.
Set boundaries even if they try to convince you to go for the chop, Chris advised.
2. Protect your hair when you style it
The reason unhealthy hair doesn’t get longer – even if you can see growth in the roots – is because the ends of it split off and basically turn to dust, according to Chris.
If the ends of your strands and healthy and strong, you won’t loose and length as your hair grows.
To stop Leslie’s ends from breaking off Chris said they sought to address what was damaging them in the first place, which was heat styling.
But Chris said you can still have healthy heat-styled hair, as long as you do it correctly by use heat protection sprays.
“You must give your hair at least three days rest before using heat on it again,” he added.
3. Wash your locks less
The hair dresser said using heat on your locks can often allow you to wash them less – another thing that can improve the health of your hair.
“Washing your hair really frequently is one the most traumatising things you can possibly do to your hair,” Chris stated.
4. Use the ‘trinity’ routine
There are three parts to your hair – the roots, mids and ends.
Christ said tending to all three will keep your hair healthy and boost its growth – your roots eventually become your ends after all, so it’s important to nourish them so they don’t eventually break off.
Your roots are easy to take care of because they’re new hair, according to the hairdresser. All you need is a good shampoo and conditioner.
But Chris said ‘your hair is really leaky’, which is why it doesn’t hold the moisture from your conditioner for more than a day or two.
So the very first thing you need to do after you’ve washed and towel-dried it is brush leave-in conditioner through it while your strands are still damp.
To tend to your ends, take a tiny amount of hair oil on the palm of your hair after you’ve styled or air dried your locks, rub it between your hands and apply to your hair for a bit of polish.
Once that’s rubbed in, you have a hint of residue on your hands – only then should you rub it into the mid section of your hair, the hairstylist said.
If your ends look dry over the next few days, don’t be afraid to apply a tiny bit more oil, he added.
Speaking to Central Recorder, Jack Merrick-Thirlway a creative director atNeville Hair & Beauty, said: “I’d advise looking out for ingredients such as collagen, amino acids and products containing vitamin B3″, as these ingredients all help strengthen the hair follicles and promote growth.
According to Fabian Martinez, trichologist at The London Hair Clinic, these three common styles are capable of causing serious damage to your locks.