How to grow your curly hair longer this year, from products to top tips

Courtesy of Penny Whittingham

Reach your Rapunzel goals this year

Penny Whittingham

8 January 2023

Whether your curly hair grows down, up, or out, sometimes you just wish it would pick up the pace a little. If this sounds like you and you’re keen to kick off the new year learning how to boost health and length, please enjoy my crash course in promoting hair growth.

Spoiler alert: there is no magical product that will make your hair grow ten inches overnight (sigh). But there are a few practices and products that might help you on the way to your Rapunzel goals. These include:

Scalp Massages

Revolutionary I know, but they really do help!

Scalp massages increase blood flow to the scalp, providing hair follicles with more nutrients to promote hair growth.

If you’re going to do it, you’ll need to know how to do it right, however.

Firstly, stop using your nails; only use the pads of your fingertips or a specially designed scalp brush. Continually using your nails will damage and scratch your scalp, leading to inflammation and scabbing.

Plus, both our nails and scalp are breeding grounds for fungal infections, so avoiding that in any way possible will keep you in good stead for a healthy scalp and healthy hair growth.

You can massage your scalp with or without product; personally, I would recommend using a light oil/serum or water. Your scalp needs to breathe in order for hair to grow, so if you do use an oil or serum, make sure you’re cleansing thoroughly on wash day.

Keep your hair protected and moisturised

This could be through protective styles such as twists and braids to keep your ends concealed, but can also refer to using materials like satin and silk. I talk about this all the time, but using these fabrics causes less friction, breakage and snagging, leading to increased length retention.

Allowing your hair to dry out leads to it being brittle and more prone to breakage, while keeping it moisturised and hydrated has the reverse effect. Protected and moisturised hair becomes the perfect base for growth and retention.

Using hydrating leave-in conditioners and effective sealants are great ways to combat brittle, breaking hair.

Take care of your body

The same way diet can impact skin, it can also change your hair. Making sure you’re drinking plenty of water and eating a balanced diet with sufficient levels of protein, iron and vitamin C is important for healthy hair growth.

Hair is made of protein, so it’s important to boost your body’s naturally occurring levels for hair to grow; iron deficiencies have traditionally been linked to hair loss. Eating a sufficient amount of protein helps red blood cells carry oxygen to the scalp, stimulating hair growth.

Vitamin C has antioxidant properties, which can protect hair follicles from harm as well as helping to produce collagen that strengthens hair and prevents it from getting brittle.

Take supplements

Although I believe indirect methods such as scalp massages, keeping your hair healthy and eating a balanced diet to be effective most of the time, there may still be a need for hair supplements if nothing else seems to be working.

Something to remember before you purchase supplements is that many tend to be for hair, skin and nails, and can sometimes actually increase hair growth in unwanted areas. But at least you would know they’re working, right?!

The results of hair supplements I have used in the past have been related to retention (such as less shedding and thicker hair) rather than actual growth.

With that said, I do believe that if you incorporate all these methods into your routine, you will see a difference in your hair health and length. Good luck!

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