Does Conditioner Really Help Promote Hair Growth?

On average, hair naturally grows at a rate of about half an inch per month, meaning that you gain around six inches of length each year. If you’ve been looking into ways to speed this up, some of the advice out there talks about how using a conditioner can help to promote hair growth. 

Does this really work? Join Nubi as we explore the truth behind this claim…

How Does a Conditioner Affect Hair Growth?

A conditioner is designed to add moisture, fat, and protein back into the hair after it has been shampooed. By doing so, it leaves the hair feeling smoother, more lubricated, and better protected against environmental damage.

So, where does hair growth come into this?

Well, if you don’t condition your hair after shampooing it, this means that your strands will be lacking in moisture, fat, and protein. Sure, your scalp will produce more sebum soon enough, which will help to replenish the sections of hair that lie close to your scalp. However, it takes a while for this to travel down to the ends of the hair, which leaves the ends susceptible to damage and breakages. This will lead to the ends of your hair splitting and snapping more easily, detracting from your length and making it seem as though your hair isn’t growing.

With a good conditioner, you’ll be able to keep your strands feeling strong, intact, and healthy. While this won’t speed up your regular hair growth cycle, it will stop it from slowing down. Instead, your hair follicles will feel capable of functioning to their full potential, meaning producing growth as normal.

Making the Most of Your Conditioner

If you want to make the most of the benefits above and maintain an optimum hair growth rate, it can be helpful to understand how to get the most out of your conditioner. Here are a few tips:

Avoid Applying Conditioner Near Your Scalp

As we mentioned above, your scalp will soon produce more sebum after it has been shampooed, meaning that the ends of your hair are where you should be applying a conditioner. This is the part of your hair that needs it the most since sebum takes a while to travel down your lengths.

Is it really so bad to apply a conditioner near your scalp too? In some cases, yes. This can lead to congestion of the hair follicles, preventing them from functioning properly. Not only could you experience other issues with your locks from doing so, but you may also even slow hair growth right down.

Distribute Your Conditioner Evenly Through Your Strands

If you want your conditioner to be as effective as possible, then this means that each strand of your hair needs to be properly coated with the product. Using your hands to quickly swipe your conditioner through your locks isn’t going to do this.

Instead, use a comb to evenly distribute your conditioner through your hair. A wide-toothed comb is best to prevent snagging your wet locks, which is when they’re most fragile. The added advantage of combing your conditioner through is that you’ll also be detangling your hair at the same time!

Give Your Conditioner Some Time to Saturate Your Hair

While a shampoo is usually rinsed off soon after it has been applied, a conditioner needs to sit on your strands for longer. Even if you’re in a hurry, you should ideally give your conditioner a few minutes to saturate your strands before rinsing it off.

Consider Co-Washing Every Once in a While

While you should never skip the conditioner after shampooing your hair, did you know that you can skip the shampoo and wash your hair with just a conditioner?

Although a conditioner doesn’t contain the same surfactants that a shampoo does, meaning that it won’t provide such a thorough clean, this can actually be beneficial for those with dry or damaged hair. A conditioner will clear away dirt without stripping your strands of their protective layer. In the long run, this can leave your hair feeling much healthier.

Other Ways to Encourage Hair Growth

Your hair growth cycle is determined by genetics, hormones, age, and overall health. This means that it’s partly out of your control. With that said, in addition to regularly using a conditioner, there are a few other steps that you can take to keep your hair growing at a steady rate:

Regularly Trim Your Hair

Even if you use a conditioner each time you wash your hair, this likely won’t be enough to keep the ends of your hair completely healthy. Split ends will still occur, which will leave your hair looking lackluster and frizzy.

Although this isn’t going to have a huge effect on hair growth, which occurs at your roots, split ends can make it seem as though your hair isn’t growing. Sure, you may be gaining length at your roots but you’ll also be losing length at the ends at the same time since your hairs will be fraying and breaking.

This is why regular trims are so important. Snip away those split and damaged ends and your hair will be able to thrive. Your lengths will take on a fuller and thicker finish.

Keep Heat Damage to a Minimum

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Any form of damage spells bad news for hair growth. Sadly, there’s so much out there that can damage the hair, with heat being one of the biggest culprits. If you regularly heat style your hair, you’ll need to keep the appearance of heat damage to a minimum if you want to maintain normal hair growth rates.

How can you do this? Start by making sure that you always apply a heat protectant before heat styling your locks. Heat protectants are best applied to damp hair since this is when your hair will be most permeable. Then, wait for your strands to fully dry before attempting to heat style them.

Your choice of heated styling tools will also influence how much damage your hair experiences. Go with tools that focus on gently styling the hair, such as the Nubi Soft N’ Straight 1.25” Ceramic Purple Styler. Ceramic plates are known for causing minimal damage. Plus, the fact that this hair straightener allows you to adjust the temperature means that you can limit how much heat your hair is exposed to. With negative ion technology added into the mix, your hair will also feel much smoother, softer, and less frizzy once you’re done straightening it! 

The Nubi Simply Sleek Brush is similar. With its ceramic surface, adjustable temperature, and negative ion technology, you’ll be able to heat style your hair without having to worry about damaging your locks or inhibiting your hair growth cycle.

Protect Your Hair From Environmental Damage

Even if you don’t heat style your hair, your strands are still vulnerable to environmental damage. This is something that’s pretty much impossible to avoid. As a result, you need to take protective measures to prevent the environment from harming your hair.

This mainly involves ensuring that you have a physical barrier between your hair and the environment around you. A hat or a scarf wrapped around your hair will do a great job of shielding your strands from the summer sun while also guarding your mane against the cold and the wind in the winter.

Protective hairstyles, such as braids or buns, can be useful too. These reduce the surface area of hair that’s exposed to the environment. So, while damage will still occur to some of your strands, it won’t affect every hair on your head in quite the same way!

Pay Attention to Scalp Care

Hair grows from the scalp, meaning that the health of your scalp will have a big impact on hair growth. 

How can you keep your scalp feeling healthy?

It starts with your shampoo. Find a formula that doesn’t contain any sulfates, as these will only interfere with how the skin on your scalp functions. Keeping your conditioner away from your scalp will help too.

Scalp exfoliation and massage can be game-changers as well. Both help to boost circulation, enabling your hair follicles to function to their full potential.

Give Your Body the Nutrition it Needs for Healthy Hair Growth

As we mentioned earlier, the overall health of your body will affect your hair growth cycle. The healthier you are, the faster your hair will grow.

It goes without saying that a fresh, varied, and balanced diet is key to keeping your body healthy. However, there are certain foods that are particularly beneficial for encouraging hair growth…

Protein is one of the main ones. Your hair follicles are made up of protein and a lack of this in your diet can lead to hair loss and thinning. This is the opposite of what you want! Vitamins and antioxidants are key too. If you have any nutrient deficiencies, this will affect how quickly your hair grows. To prevent this, make sure that you’re eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables too!

Try a Professional Treatment

If you’ve already tried all of the advice featured above and are still not happy with your hair growth rate, it may be time to speak to a professional. There are certain treatments available that are reputed to help with hair growth, just like microneedling. 

This involves having your scalp punctured by lots of tiny needles. It may sound painful, but it’s not! Instead, microneedling has been proven to help reduce hair loss and encourage a healthier scalp. 

Conclusion

When it comes down to it, using a conditioner isn’t going to encourage your hair to grow faster than normal. However, it will help to maintain a steady hair growth cycle and will counter the appearance of hair thinning and loss. In the long run, this will give you hair that looks longer and thicker. Combine this with the other tips that we’ve shared above and your hair will soon start to look better than ever!

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