Three changes you need to make for longer hair

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair", said the prince to Rapunzel. I’m pretty sure most women wish for hair that stretches down the length of a tall tower, for a handsome prince to climb up on.

The tips below may not result in hair that is as long as Rapunzel’s locks, but they will help you get hair long enough for a handsome price to spot you from a mile away.

Hair will always grow out of your scalp regardless of who you are, unless you have a medical condition that affects your hair growth. Therefore, the main thing you need to do is to avoid hair breakage. You want to preserve the hair that has organically grown from your scalp for it to last longer on your head, and get longer over time.

Avoid overly manipulating your hair in terms of combing it roughly, over styling it and using too much heat. When you let your hair be, unnecessary breakage will be avoided. Stick to protective hair styles that will prevent you from having to constantly have your hands in your hair.

A few examples of protective hair styles are box braids, cornrows, wigs, buns and twist outs. Such hair styles are low maintenance, meaning that they keep your hands out of your hair. You should also avoid over processing your hair with chemical products such as hair dye and hair relaxers. Stretch the time period between the times that you do either of the two. You should, ideally, relax your hair every 12 weeks.  

You shouldn’t wait until your next salon visit for your hair to be quenched again. Ensure that you’re keeping your locks moisturised at home in between salon visits. Dry hair snaps easily, so be sure to keep it hydrated for your strands to be more flexible.

Moisturisers have ‘water’ as the first ingredient on the ingredient list. Some products that you can invest in are a hair lotion, a leave-in spray or just a few spritzes of plain water sealed with an oil.

Sometimes, the best thing for your hair is probably your very own hands. When you take care of your own hair, you are in control of the amount of pulling, combing and heat being used. Another person will not always know when to reduce the amount of the issues mentioned above.

Therefore, try to wash your own hair, blow-dry it, straighten it and even braid it yourself whenever you can. Doing this will not only reduce the amount of damage your hair could go through at a salon, it will also save you plenty of money over time since you’re not paying a service charge.