By Jc of The Natural Haven Bloom

On the surface of it, it is a very simple formula – the less your hair breaks the more length it will retain. However, this formula is deceptively simple because many times breakage goes completely unnoticed. There are things that we regard as normal for natural hair and to some extent they are default properties of hair.  For example, the curlier and the kinkier the hair, the more difficult it is to run a comb through it. However in order to keep gaining length, the breakage associated with grooming natural hair needs to be tackled and minimised. This is the story of hidden breakage, how to recognize it and how to fix it.

1. Comb persistently stopping or getting stuck in hair

Short Term Damage: Breakage usually long strands (i.e more than half of total length)
Long Term Damage: Creation of mid shaft splits which eventually break
Why is it ignored: The long strands that break can easily be mistaken for shed hair
Most at risk hair:  All curly hair regardless of width of curl, hair with kinks, naturals with thick  individual strands(often because  it is assumed that the hair is strong and can take vigorous combing)

Every single time you run a comb through your hair and it stops, you need to also stop. The comb stops because it is at a tangle.  Pressing down on the comb is not the solution and in fact can be a reason for your hair to start breaking. The physical force could easily snap hair. Continually rubbing hair at the same spot can cause mid shaft splits in kinky hair.

Possible resolutions to combat this problem rely on you experimenting with your hair and finding what method of combing suits your hair. The method you choose should ideally allow you to detect tangles very early on. This could be conditioner combing, finger detangling or switching from wet detangling to dry detangling or vice versa. Hair brushes often aggravate mid shaft splits so avoid them ideally or minimise how often you use them.

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By Jc of The Natural Haven Bloom

The scientific answer – or is it?

Many women will by now know that hair will on average grow for between 2 to 6 years. This figure is widely quoted as the average length of the anagen phase (when hair is actively growing during its growth cycle). This would therefore translate to a maximum hair length from anywhere between 8-12 inches (shoulder to armpit length) at the low end to 24 to 36 inches (waist length to tailbone length) at the higher end  This all assuming a yearly average growth rate of between 4 and 6 inches.

However what many people do not know is that the widely quoted scientific figure is in fact based on 2-3 small scale studies which account for as few as 2 individuals. There are in fact no studies which actually track a reasonable group of individuals over a period of years to firmly determine how long the hair growth cycle actually is.

Furthermore there is evidence that this 2-6 year widely accepted length could be considerably wrong. One interesting study which measured hair length of visitors to US theme parks and hair lengths recorded online on long hair sites, came to the conclusion that the average normal length of the anagen phase could be as long as 12 to 14 years. This translates to 48-72 inches at the low end and  56-84 inches at the high end. Both of these figures translate to a maximum hair length of below tailbone to ankle length and beyond. To be clear, this means that the average person can grow hair to well below tailbone even with a 4 inch per year hair growth phase.

The scientific truth is that the maximum hair length that a human being can achieve is not well established and human hair may keep growing for 6 years or longer.

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By Geniece of Beautifully Made

When I made the decision to go natural in 2004 I was under the impression that my hair would grow long and thick with little effort. My relaxed hair grew past shoulder length with relative ease, so I naturally assumed that with the elimination of harsh chemicals my hair would be stronger and longer. Now you think I was naïve but in my defense I didn’t have Youtube videos and natural hair blogs at my disposal. Armed with my non-sulfate shampoo, wide tooth comb and 5lb tub of shea butter I was ready for my hair to grow lusciously long. Well, that isn’t exactly what happened. My twa grew out quickly enough but my hair seemed to reach a plateau once I reached shoulder length. I was stumped but not discouraged. I enjoyed my puffs and mini twists even after 2 ½ years with only about 3-6 inches of retention I wasn’t dismayed. In retrospect there are several mistakes I made over those years to which some of you may be able to relate. In ascending order here are my top four hair mistakes.

4. No regular moisturizing of my hair

The shea butter was fine to use but it didn’t add moisture to my hair. My hair was dry in between washes and remained so until I figured out that my hair needed to be moisturized in between washes and that moisture meant a water based product or just plain old water. Duh!

3. Hair Washing

I washed my hair like I was one of those models on a shampoo commercial. I lathered the shampoo by rubbing it throughout my hair and scalp without sectioning. Can you say tangles? I would then rip through my hair when detangling further ensuring that my hair never passed a certain length.

2. Dry Combing

I would almost daily rake a comb through my hair with no moisturizing product. I think this was one of my most damaging practices. The regular manipulation of my hair ensured that the tangled ends were constantly being ripped out, hence the lack of retention.

And, the top hair mistake of my natural hair journey (drum roll please):

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By Jc of The Natural Haven Bloom

Does your hair appear to be stuck or stagnant at a particular length? Some people with natural hair can continuously gain length but for others it can be tricky. A hair plateau is basically a point where your hair breaks at the same rate as it is growing. The length therefore appears static and this leads some people to incorrectly say ‘my hair is not growing’.

Getting over hair plateaus requires some understanding of your hair. There is no straight forward and simple route for everyone, the real remedy lies in finding out why your hair is breaking. This is my experience and observation:

1. Necklength Plateau (4-6 inches)

It may seem quite odd to some but for hair that has a lot of kinks or hair with small curls, the fact is a necklength plateau is very possible even with the most gentle care. The reason is that the curls are very small and the kinks within the hair add continuous points of stress which break with handling. My observation is that neck length plateaus tend to be related to combing and brushing.
People with thicker hair strands (individual) tend to fair quite well with gentle combing but if a fine tooth comb is used, then breakage can arise. For some, changing from dry combing to conditioner combing is a remedy rather than changing from a fine comb to a wide comb.

However, for fine and kinky hair, combing and brushing is sometimes just not an option. Some naturals can only progress from a necklength plateau by eliminating combing and brushing. The finger detangling method is indeed slow and painstaking for some but is a guaranteed way to ensure that the comb does not rip through the complex tangles in kinky hair. Feeling these tangles out with fingers is usually ideal.

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By Toni Parker of Cush Cosmetics

While perusing  YouTube, I recently discovered many videos featuring women using miconazole nitrate, to grow their hair.  Miconazole nitrate is the active ingredient in the Monistat family of products that are used to treat vaginal yeast infections.

My first thought was hmmm…this must be a joke. However, as I continued to explore Youtube, there were a great number of women, both black and white, making the claim that miconazole nitrate really did grow their hair.  But the most intriguing aspect of the videos was the fact that all of them kept a straight face-smiling only when they referred to their miracle cream as “coochie or cooty cream.”  Yep! They knew it was for that area and they still wanted to put it on their scalp, which really got my attention.

So, in keeping with my curious nature, I decided to ask the chemist (my husband Joe) to write an article explaining how miconazole nitrate can make the hair on your head grow. Unfortunately, he decided to become the consummate gentleman, and blushingly declined the offer. He reasoned that he was not a medical doctor and preferred to let those trained in that area of medicine address that delicate topic.

So I reasoned that since I was a Certified Holistic Health Coach, it was well within my expertise to dig a little deeper on this subject, and here is what I found.

All About Miconazole Nitrate

Miconazole Nitrate is an antifungal agent that is used to treat yeast infections, oral thrush in babies, athlete’s foot, ringworms, jock itch, and angular chelitis-basically it is used topically and orally on any moist area where fungus or yeast tends to grow.  OK, so I get that it treats fungus that grows in moist areas, but how on earth does that transfer over to increased hair growth on your scalp?

The Science of Why it Works

Well, I wasn’t the only one curious about the science behind how an anti-fungal agent could actually make your hair grow.  The idea of using monistat products for hair growth was so popular that it also peaked the interest of Myfox Houston, a local news station for Houston, Texas. In January of this year, they released their own news clip video to explore the topic.

Myfox Houston consulted Dr. Mohsin Mir, a medical dermatologist at Baylor College of Medicine, to weigh in on how miconazole nitrate actually increases hair growth.

Dr. Mir says that hormones in the hair follicles actually bond to receptors that cause hair loss in men and women.  He theorized that miconazole nitrate might actually reduce the number of those “hair loss” receptors, which would consequently, increase hair growth.

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