This guide to growing your hair long is primarily for males, but I suppose it would not be very different for females.

Growing long hair is very time consuming, obviously. It is a difficult transition for many people, because the process is a lot like getting braces. You'll look and feel strange for awhile, but suddenly you'll be beautiful. A change in hairstyle can instill a great deal of confidence in a person, and give you a whole new outlook on life.

First, make sure you can do this. It's really not so hard, when you think about it financially. Simply don't get a haircut. Get a friend to cut your split ends every once in awhile, but not too often if you want to grow your hair as quickly as possible.

Live your life, wash your hair every day thoroughly, and comb often; good circulation to your scalp helps a lot. After a few months, your hair will be really annoying. It'll be tickling your ears, jabbing you in the eyes, frustrating you constantly. And there's not a whole lot you can do about it either, since it's still too short to tuck behind your ears. Some suggest wearing a hat, but I myself used gel or mousse to style it so it stayed put.

After styling it for several months, I suddenly realized that my hair was long enough that it went past my ears. I started wearing it without the mousse or gel, and it felt just fine. Once you've reached this phase, you've past the largest obstacle. Now just let it grow, grow, grow.

I started off with very short hair, your basic nondescript hair cut that is reminiscent of Bill Gates. My hair was shoulder length by the 9th or 10th month, and I tend to keep it at that length. From there, you can grow it as long as you want, but if volume and body is what you want, keep it relatively close to the shoulders. Any longer, and your hair gets too heavy, and just becomes straight.

Good luck, and happy hair-raising!

It's not necessarily true that while you grow your hair it has to go through that intermediate annoying stage when it's too long to look tidy and too short to style. There are many hairstyles for shortish hair, even for guys, which can help you not look like a tumbleweed. It will also do the growing hair good to be regularly snipped and styled by a professional.

If you've never had long hair before, it's likely to grow faster. This is why guys often have an amazing spurt of growth in the first year whereas girls have to be more patient. However, everybody's hair has a finite length. If you want tresses you can hide in like Lady Godiva and you hair doesn't want to grow that long, it simply won't, no matter how long you leave it - so don't be tempted to not cut it until it reaches the length you want. Have the ends trimmed and, for guys, your cat hairs (the little ones on the back of your neck) tidied up on a regular basis - about every 8 weeks or so. Otherwise you hair will dry out, the ends will split and the dead parts of every hair will climb up, ruining you hair until most of its length is frizz. This will make it impossible to style and looking always dry and unclean - not the effect anybody is trying for, I should hope.

Keep your hair clean and well conditioned. Dirty, greasy hair looks offputting, but it also grows less quickly. If you eat lots of fruit and veg you will give you hair the vitamins which will help it grow faster, smoother and thicker as well. Guys in particular tend to trade off the health of their hair for the speed of its growth, resulting in that frizzy uneven student ponytail which they think is cool but which is really not so attractive.

It takes a long time to grow your hair from a really short haircut - I'm talking years - but it's worth it for that one morning when you realize you need more shampoo in the shower... Or the first time you have to tie it back in order to tuck into a hamburger without it getting in the way... Or the first time someone runs their hand lightly through it and says "wow, you hair has grown so much!".

As a person of the male persuasion with hair that ends right at the top of my ass I have a few suggestions, especially for men, on how to get and keep a healty set of long hair and not look too stupid in the process.

  1. If you are balding at all do not do this. Nothing looks worse than a long haired guy with thinning stuff on the top.
  2. Get your split ends clipped and your hair evened out about once every 2 months. Only about 1 cm of hair should need to be cut at a time and the spurt of growth afterwards will make your hair longer, faster. Additionally it will make your hair look nice and attractive and less like your a dirty hippie or wannabe hair metal guy.
  3. DO NOT STYLE YOUR HAIR!!!! This is especially about dieing it and blowdrying it. Over time these sorts of things end up damaging your hair. If you want some truely impressive locks this sort of damage is unnaceptable.
  4. Wash AND condition your hair with a decent shampoo and conditioner at least every other day if not every day. This will keep the hair manageable and styleable without having to resort to blowdrying, mousse or the dreaded gel. Do not go cheap. I personally use the "infusium 23" brand of shampoo and conditioner but anything but "suave" helps a lot.
  5. Tie your hair in a pony tail if you will be driveing with the top down or on a motercycle. If you get a bad enough knot you will have to cut it out. Most of the time this will require you to cut all the hair to that length and start over agian.

These are the major points for getting a healthy full set of hair. Personally my hair is thick enough by doing all of this that i can actually be pulled off the ground by it. I have had hair places offer me money on the spot for my hair so I know I am doing something right.

You can have hair down to your buns in no time.

The first step to growing long hair is, believe it or not, to put your hairbrush in a hard to reach location and forget that you own it. Did you notice the mattress that your brush steals every time you brush your hair? Yeah. Isn’t that a little alarming to you? It's ripping your hair out of your head everyday. Keep the brush hidden away for dire emergencies, say, the President of the United States just pulled into the driveway and you look like hell.

Now for supplies. Buy one of those little black plastic combs, shouldn’t run you more than a buck at the wally-mart. While you’re there, get a bottle of high dollar conditioner. I’m not going to advertise for any special company here, but when it comes to conditioner you definitely get what you pay for. So splurge a little, because you’re worth it. On the other hand you can get the cheapest shampoo available. All shampoos perform the same job of rinsing the dirt away, no matter how much they cost.

This is the most important part. Take a shower, wash your mop, then apply a healthy coat of conditioner to all the hair on your head. Take the little black comb in hand and now begin to comb the conditioner through every strand of hair. Start at the bottom tip of your hair and work your way up, through any tangles, to the scalp. This ensures that ALL of your hair is, in fact, conditioned like it should be, and also that it is free of tangles. You’ll lose a few hairs as usual, sure, but not fluffy fur ball you USED to lose with the old brush. When rinsing the conditioner out, try to use the coolest water you can stand so that while the bulk of the conditioner goes down the drain, a fine protecting layer will remain on your precious strands all the day long. If the water is too hot, you will lose this loving sheath of cream rinse. What you do with the rest of your shower is up to you.

In addition to the above daily ritual, you need to quit cutting your hair. If you want something to get longer, quit hacking it off. Ignore the myth that split ends make your hair stop growing, or that each person has a finite length of hair, predestinated at the beginning of time, the length of which your hair will not grow past. That’s just crap.

Once the hair dries, there are one or two fairly boring hairstyles that will maximize growth. Sorry, but you’ll have to keep your hair in a braid for a long time, with the ends tucked under and pinned inside your hair tie so they don’t get thrashed throughout your hectic day. Some days you’ll get bored and try two braids, or some other creative endeavor, but the next day you’ll forget and go back to the same old braid. When it’s time to go somewhere nice, you’ll take the braid down and everyone will coo over the long wavy tresses.

Long hair is pretty easy to take care of, but be aware that it’s not always a tea party. You could sit down on the toilet, only to find you are peeing on your own hair. Shah. And how sexy is a mid-coital cry of “Ow, your pulling my hair!” Don’t be discouraged. And stay away from hairstylists, who were pumped full of lies in beauty college.

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