6 reasons why your natural African hair is not growing.

African hair is known for its curly kinky nature and its beautiful shine. However, a lot of black women struggle with growing their natural hair. You are probably reading this because you are one of them.

In this post, I will be breaking down to you mistakes you are making in your hair growth regimen and what you should be doing instead. Let's go, shall we?

You don't know your hair type

There are different gradings of hair type but the major black hair types are 4A, 4B, and 4C. These hair types become more curly and thick incrementally. 4A has S-shaped curls, 4b has zig-zagged shaped curls and 4c has thick coils. Typically people have a combination of these hair types, not just one.

It is important to know your hair type to know the appropriate type of hair products and hair care regimen needed specifically for it. This is why someone can recommend a hair product that works perfectly for their hair, then you use it and don't see the changes you want.

That product is simply suitable for their hair type and not yours. Know what your hair type is sis!

Lack of moisture

This is the singular fatal mistake a lot of women make that causes so much hair breakage and shedding.

You see, natural African hair is prone to breakage because of its thick and frizzy nature. You need to moisturize it to protect your strands from unnecessary breakage.

Moisture translates to water. Natural hair does not thrive when dry so you need to get your hair all moisturized, plump, and healthy. I also do not mean dripping wet. Just enough moisture.

Now to moisturize hair you need to know what porosity type your hair is which brings us back to the first point of knowing your hair type. This is extremely important.

Porosity simply means the rate at which water penetrates your hair and scalp and also the rate at which it evaporates from your hair and scalp.

People with low porosity hair typically have tighter pores on their scalps and hair pores which prevents water from easily entering them. The most obvious sign of low porosity hair is water bouncing off the hair at first when you try to wet it. Eventually, the hair strands do get moisturized and it takes a longer time for it to become dry.

On the other hand, people with high porosity hair have wider pores that easily absorb water but just as easily get rid of it causing their hair to dry out faster. Then we have people with normal porosity that is in between the two.

Take this little test now to find out your hair porosity

To moisturize your hair you will need a spray bottle. Mix some water with a leave-in conditioner and spray all through your hair till it becomes wet enough. If you do not have a spray bottle, using your hands to directly wet your hair with water and then using some Leave-in conditioner is also just fine. A spray bottle is just less messy.

How often you moisturize your hair is up to your perception of when your hair is dry. There is no "one size fits all".

Not using oils properly

Do not slather oil on your dry hair. Do not do it. The purpose of oils is to SEAL IN moisture. When you pour oil into water, what happens? It floats and forms a coat on the surface of the water, doesn't it?

The same thing applies to your hair. You moisturize it first, only then do you apply oil to seal in all that moisture and prevent it from evaporating, keeping it all juicy and moisturized for a longer time. Understand?

Now let's get into the type of oils. There are moisturizing/penetrating oils and protecting oils.

The most common penetrating oils are coconut oil, avocado oil, and olive oil. Penetrating oils are not most suitable for use after moisturizing your hair. I'll talk more about them as we proceed.

Protecting oils on the other hand form a film over moisture. They are more suitable for sealing in moisture. There are a lot of protecting oils and I am sure you probably already use one of them. They include; castor oil, shea butter, jojoba oil, sunflower oil, and grape seed oil, essential oils like rosemary and tea tree oil. Make sure to dilute the essential oil with another oil before usage because they are very concentrated.

If you have low-porosity hair, these protective oils are just perfect for sealing in moisture in your hair. If you have high porosity hair, heavy hair creams like hair grease and blue magic will be more suitable. Do you know those hair creams that are thick? Yes, those are the ones I'm talking about. They help tighten those open pores thereby retaining moisture for longer.

Using thick hair creams on low-porosity hair will clog the already tight pores which will retard hair growth. On the flip side, protective oils might not be enough to seal in moisture in high-porosity hair so you need something with a thicker consistency, hence the hair creams.

So you see, it will be counterproductive for these two categories of people to have the same moisturizing routine, won't it?

Now we've established moisturizing and then sealing in the moisture with oils let's move on to the next mistake you might be making which is retarding your hair growth.

Hygral fatigue

As much as your hair loves water and needs it to thrive, too much water can also harm it. As the saying goes, too much of everything is bad.

An overload of water on your hair weakens your hair strands and will eventually cause breakage you see. This is called hygral fatigue.

Hygral fatigue mostly occurs on your wash days which makes sense because it is when your hair gets exposed to the most amount of water right?

Does that mean you shouldn't wash your hair? Of course not. There is just a better way to go about it which brings me back to penetrating oils.

Penetrating oils also lock in moisture in your hair but more importantly, they prevent much water from entering the hair shaft which can damage the hair cuticle.

The technique is as simple as this, you apply some penetrating oil like coconut or olive oil

to your scalp and hair 6hrs or a day before washing and let it settle. This is called pre-pooing short for pre-shampooing.

Then, you wash your hair as usual and see the magic yourself. Your hair strands will be luscious and strong as opposed to that usual shrunken and snappy feel after a hair wash. Coconut oil serves as a check for hygral fatigue but your hair will still come out nice and clean and ready to go.

Leaving your hair out for too long

Now, this is another hair growth no-no and you can probably guess why.

Like I said before natural African hair is tender and fragile and requires to be treated with love, care, and affection, just like you would like to be treated. Of course, you should flaunt your lovely kinky hair and just revel in its beauty from time to time. However, your hair should not be exposed to the environment for too long.

Solution? Simple. Protective hairstyles are the way to go. You want your hair made nicely and tucked away from direct exposure to harsh weather. Whether you use hair extensions or not is up to you. Just make your hair. Nobody likes that shrunken and messy look that comes with natural hair that hasn't been made in a while.

You might be thinking, "but I take care of my hair when it's not made tho". That "taking care", the combing, the laying of edges, all of that is manipulation and constant manipulation is a killer of hair growth.

Lay your edges and rock your natural hair but don't leave it out like that for too long.

Changing hairstyles too often

This also boils down to manipulation. See sis, hair needs to be left alone to grow and thrive. Just leave your hair alone. Stop touching it unnecessarily.

Don't make your hair and loosen it after a week. That is a whole lot of manipulation, first to make it and then to loosen it. The goal is to reduce manipulation to the very minimum so you see why this is counterproductive.

There is no standard time for intervals between making your hair but a month is suitable and 2 weeks at minimum. If you can go more the better and of course, you can wash your hair without loosening it.

The main point here is to LEAVE YOUR HAIR ALONE!

Conclusion

Your hair can and will grow if you give it some tender loving care. There is no such thing as permanent hair length and you can certainly achieve the hair goals you've always wanted if you would only stop making these mistakes.