Hair growth or length retention, which should you choose especially when starting your hair care journey? When it comes to hair care, length retention and hair growth are two things you should know of and pay attention to. I know most of us focus more on hair growth than length retention which shouldn’t be the case because hair growth is a natural process while length retention is all on you.

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One thing about focusing on only hair growth is that it will leave you frustrated especially if your hair’s growth rate is slow. Always focus on retaining your current length and the hair growth. I know there are thousands of products promising overnight growth and inches on inches within days but if they really worked wouldn’t we all have long hair?

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Hair Growth or Length Retention, Which to Choose.

All things hair growth.

Hair growth is a natural process but the thing is we all have different growth rates that’s why you’ll notice some people will have long hair in a shorter period of time while others struggle a little bit. Hair growth is a process, you can read more about it here.

As much as hair growth is a natural process and we all have different growth rates, length retention plays a great role when it comes to having long hair. As you use the growth stimulating oils to massage your scalp, don’t forget to adopt practices to help retain as much length as possible.

Oils promising to stimulate hair growth

• Wild Growth Hair Oil
• African Pride Moisture Miracle 5 Essential Hair Oils
• Carol’s Daughter Goddess Strength 7 Oil Blend Scalp & Hair Treatment to Strengthen Lengthen Curls
• Aunt Jackie’s Natural Growth Oil Blends Repair My Hair

All things Length Retention.

Length retention basically means keeping your current length and hair growth. Sometimes your hair is stuck at a certain length because it’s breaking at the same rate that it’s growing and if your hair is getting shorter, you’re experiencing excessive breakage.

Breakage is the main reason you’re complaining of no growth and stagnated hair. Breakage is caused by a couple of things like hair damage, split ends, dry hair, using too much heat on your hair, excessive manipulation, tight hairstyles, wrong use of products and tools. To retain length, you ought to minimize and stop excessive breakage.

How do you retain length?

The first step to retaining is minimizing and stopping hair breakage. The less the breakage, the more length you get to retain. To retain length, you ought to;

• Moisturize your hair properly and regularly. Moisturized hair is softer, easy to manage, style and less likely to break. Use these hair moisturizing products to keep dry hair a bay.

Hair moisturizing posts you should read;

• Why your hair is always dry and how to fix it.
• Moisturizing routine to achieve moisturized, soft and curly hair
• The best moisturizing products to use on dry hair.
• All things LOC/LCO hair moisturizing methods.
• 4C Natural Hair Moisturizing Mistakes to Avoid.
• Best Tips for Applying Moisturizing Hair Products for Soft Hair.

• Wear protective styles and low manipulation styles to minimize breakage and retain as much as length as possible. Also, care for your styles as you would your natural hair, don’t wear those styles and forget all about it.

Posts on protective styling that you should read today;

• How to care for protective styles for maximum hair growth and length retention.
• Benefits of Protective Styles on 4C Natural Hair.
• Best products to use on protective styles .
• Ways to Make Protective Hairstyles Last Longer.
• Why your favourite protective style is breaking your hair.

• Use hair detanglers with a good slip to detangle with less breakage. Never detangle dry hair if you wanna retain length.
• Have a consistent and healthy hair care routine. For healthy, flourishing hair, you need a hair care routine that’s consistent. Don’t have a hair care routine yet? Here is one that you can adopt and switch up as needed.

Related post; why your hair care routine isn’t working.

• Also, be gentle with your hair when combing, styling and manipulating it. Always moisturize your hair before combing and styling.
• Maintain the Moisture- Protein Balance. Maintaining the moisture – protein is essential for healthy hair. Too much protein (protein overload) or too much moisture (hygral fatigue) causes breakage.

Related post; 6 Moisture- Protein Balanced Deep Conditioners.

• Handle with your ends with care. Your ends are more susceptible to damage and breakage because they are exposed to surfaces like clothes, jewels, chairs and so on. To protect your edges, wear styles that keep them tucked in.
• Protect your hair when sleeping. Always wear a satin bonnet or scarf when sleeping. Cotton tends to absorb  moisture from the hair leaving it dry and the friction between the fabric and your hair weakens it making it susceptible to breakage.

Must have hair care products for healthy hair and length retention;

• Shampoos; these can be either clarifying shampoos or gentle cleansing shampoos that help with breaking down the dirt and product build up.
• Moisturizing deep conditioners– they restore Moisture to the hair after cleansing and soften the hair, defining hair coils or curls too.
• Protein deep conditioner/ Protein Treatments– they strengthen the hair and help repair hair damage which minimizes hair breakage and damage.
• Leave-in Conditioners; help moisturize the hair between wash days. They revive dry hair and curls between wash days. We do have leave-in conditioners with protein too.
• Butters and Oils– mostly used as moisture sealants. Keep the moisture locked in your hair for longer periods. Oils can also be used as pre-poo products, scalp massaging products and for hot oil treatments.
• Other optional products include; curl creams, foam, curl refreshers, detanglers, rinse off conditioners, co-wash products and so on.

Bottomline is to retain as much length as possible, you ought to minimize breakage, give your hair the TLC it deserves, know how to use the essential hair care products and have a consistent hair care routine.

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