HOW TO GROW CRAZY LONG HAIR

So, before moving to the Netherlands I thought, no better time to try a new hair color than when you’re starting fresh in a new country, right?  And just like that, I went from waist-length black hair to waist-length blonde hair…in 1 day. It was fun and all at the beginning, but the damage from the bleach slowly began to take its toll and I went from waist-length to just below the shoulder within a year. Yikes!

I finally have my waist-length hair back (I’m pretty sure this is actually the longest it has been in my life), completely natural and color-free (for the first time since I was a teenager), and it has honestly never felt healthier. I get a lot of questions and comments about my hair so I thought I’d share what I did to grow crazy long hair.

First, it seems obvious, but if you want your hair to grow…LEAVE IT ALONE. I was breaking this rule on the regular with straightening, curling, blowdrying, not to mention monthly trips to the salon to touch up my color. Dyeing my hair was probably the most damaging thing I was doing to it, even when I was going darker, so I committed to one last color treatment, the exact shade of my natural roots. I honestly didn’t even know what color my real hair was after dyeing it for so many years and always thought it was an ugly ‘mousey’ brown. Well sure, when it grows out at the root in contrast with a lab-made color, it’s going to look a little dull, but it looks completely different when you remove that contrast. After I matched the rest of my hair to my roots, there was no longer a need to dye my hair every month, and inch by inch, my length came back!

Once hair dye was out of the equation, growing my long locks back was quite easy. There’s no life-changing product which I can attribute any growth to, though I will say, having long hair means I go through a LOT of conditioner. For this reason, I no longer blow the bank on expensive conditioners that are just going to wash down the drain after I rinse them out 60 seconds later (save the splurge for leave-in treatments you apply post-shower, more on this in a future post). I’ve been using L’Oreal haircare products for years and it remains my go-to brand. My current fave is the Dream Lengths Rapid Reviver, just reading the name makes my hair feel like it’s growing. Does the placebo effect work for hair growth? Maybe!

Lastly, I swear by the Tangle Teezer for keeping my hair in check. Specifically, the Wet Detangler Tangle Teezer, which is larger and has a handle, unlike the rest of the brushes in their range. It features 325 flexible bristles in different heights which gently untangles even the smallest of knots quite easily. When your hair is wet it’s the most susceptible to breakage, so a good hair brush will play a large role in growing your hair crazy long and KEEPING it that way.

And if you’re really dedicated to getting that growth, try to limit hair washing (every 4-5 days, if you can) and keep the visits to your hairdresser to a minimum (trims twice a year is my max.) and you’ll have long(er) luscious locks in no time!

I’m curious if you guys have any hair growth tips that have worked for you? If so, leave them in the comments!