Often, when trying to achieve long natural hair, we focus on growth but I would argue that the key is to prevent breakage.
Unless there is a medical issue, most people grow between half an inch to one inch of hair each month.
If your hair is breaking at the same rate as growth, you will never see that increase. Thus, the best plan for achieving long hair is to focus on preventing breakage to retain your length.
How to Prevent Breakage & Retain Length
Gentle Detangling
The tighter your curl or coil pattern, the more fragile the strands.
It may seem like kinky, coarse hair is very strong, but it is actually the most fragile of the spectrum.
Regardless of your curl type, improper detangling is a major cause of breakage for most. Which is why it is very important to not only practice care when detangling, but also important to determine how best to soften the hair prior to detangling.
In the natural hair world, we often reference “slip,” and “slip refers to how lubricated the product makes your hair feel after applying.” Thus, slip is essential to making the hair pliable enough for detangling.
Hair that is not softened before detangling will break, especially when using detangling tools.
Always detangle after softening the hair, and begin by focusing on the ends first. The ends are where much of the shed hair and knots will appear, so attending to those first will ensure you do not cause unnecessary breakage further up the hair shaft.
Lastly, ALWAYS begin detangling with your fingers. Feeling your hair first will ensure you know that the hair is pliable enough for detangling and will allow you to address any knots before the use of any detangling tools.
Condition, condition, condition
Water alone will not provide the hair with the necessary nutrients to remain healthy and strong.
The scalp naturally produces all the nutrients the hair needs through sebum. However, that sebum is not able to travel all the way down the hair shaft of curly hair due to the natural twists and turns of each strand.
Thus, conditioners are used to provide the length of the hair the nutrients necessary to remain healthy.
I find it easiest to use conditioners that have a focus on moisture but include strengthening ingredients to ensure my hair remains strong.
The kinkier the texture, the more frequently conditioning is needed, so be sure to condition the hair AT LEAST once a week. Dry hair breaks much faster than moisturized strands, so stay vigilant and condition regularly.
Don’t be afraid to trim
It seems counter-intuitive to cut hair if you are trying to retain length, but it is true that trimming regularly is essential to preventing breakage.
Why? Split ends.
Split ends are completely unavoidable, and they will only get worse if not removed. Split ends also make detangling harder because shed hairs mix in with the split strands to cause knots.
Mid-shaft splits in the hair strand are usually the result of a split traveling up the hair shaft over time. The only way to get rid of mid-shaft splits is to cut the hair above the split. That means getting rid of mid-shaft split results in losing half of your hair growth.
Prevent breakage and a 5-inch trim by regularly trimming ¼ inch of split ends at least once a quarter.
Low Manipulation
Any time you handle the hair, it has the potential to break. However, healthy hair can withstand a certain amount of manipulation.
Thus, a happy medium between constant handling and no manipulation is low manipulation styling.
This means not restyling the hair (washing, detangling, etc.) more than a few times per week. You have to strike a balance between retaining moisture and over manipulation.
The kinkier the hair, the faster it will dry out, so washing at least every 5-7 days is a must for retaining healthy hair. However, daily manipulation can become too much for courser textures.
Every person’s hair is different, so just how much manipulation is too much will vary from person to person.
Regardless of whether or not you want long hair, these tips are essential to maintaining healthy hair at any length.
Retaining healthy hair requires maintenance, but the result is flexibility with styling and easier wash days. If you care to share, what are your best tips for preventing breakage?
