April Porter is my long hair Sensei. She taught me everything I needed to know about how to take care of my hair. If you've ever wondered why my hair looks so great, I give most of the credit to April. She has very, very long and beautiful hair that looks amazing! Yesterday, she posted some suggestions in her Livejournal on how to take care of long hair. Here's what she wrote:
Long Hair Advice
by April Porter
If you want your hair to grow long, my first suggestion is don't cut it. *grin* O.K., that's a bit obvious. Actually, if you want it to be all one length, try this – if parts of it are a length you like and parts of it are shorter, then leave the short bits alone and trim just a little off the long bits. If you do this once a month or so, eventually your hair will be all one length. If you cut it all off to match the shortest bits, it'll start off all one length (good), but you'll feel like you have so much further to go (bad).
As for growth, one of the most important things you can do is protect the ends. This means sleeping on a pillowcase and sheets which aren't rough (some people swear by satin) at night and being mindful of what's going on with the ends during the day. If you have a backpack or other over-the-shoulder bag, make sure your hair is out of the way before you put the bag on your shoulder(s). Also, try pulling the hair to the front of your body (over a shoulder) when you sit so that the hair isn't between your back and the chair.
As for products, you're going to want to avoid products with Sodium Laurel Sulfates and Sodium Laureth Sulfates – they are very harsh cleansers used in most commercial shampoos. A lot of conditioners will contain -cones of one sort or another, like Silicone, Dimethicone or Amodimethicone. These are exactly the same thing that plastic surgeons used to shoot into fake boobs; the stuff will essentially make a plastic coating over your hair strand, which will make it look outwardly shiny but is actually cutting off all moisture from the strand itself and making it more prone to breakage. Good products can be found at health stores like Whole Foods and possibly also at regular stores with a “health foods” isle. If you'd like suggestions for specific products, feel free to ask. *smile*
After you've washed your hair, comb (never brush wet hair) it out with a wide-toothed comb, starting from the bottom and working your way up. (Not combing up, of course, but getting the lowest tangles out first.) If you encounter a tangle, work it out very gently. Wood is a good choice for combs as long as it is very smooth – plastic combs can produce a lot of static which is bad for hair.
Lastly, if you happen to look at the ends of your hair and see a split end (or 2 or 3 or 20), cut directly above the split, perpendicular to the hair shaft, with the tips of some very sharp scissors. I have a couple of hair cutting shears that are reserved for that purpose alone. I call cutting the split ends like this a “Search and Destroy” mission *laugh*, and it's a great thing to do during the commercials or while riding as a passenger in a car (natural sunlight shows the splits really well).
I hope that helps! If anyone wants ideas for hair styles that protect the ends, I've got those, too. Generally, I just wear my hair up with hairsticks all of the time, so the ends are tucked under the rest of the hair. There are many different ways to wear hairsticks, though. I might go into that in another post, if there's any interest.
Side note: I LOVE hairsticks. I wear them all the time. April also makes custom jewelry. I posted about her LOTR Wedding Headdresses in a previous post.
Originally published at Marc Gunn .com. Read. Interact. Breathe. It's easy; it's free.
