Hair Care
Can Conditioner Actually Boost Hair Growth? Here’s What You Need to Know
Apr
Looking for ways to make your hair grow faster? We’ve all been there, especially when hair gets to that in-between stage when you’re trying to grow out your current cut. It only makes sense to seek out ways to speed this process up, which leads to people wondering whether or not a hair conditioner could help. Is this a product that can boost hair growth to bring you longer locks sooner? Read on as Nubi answers that question while also sharing other pro tips on what you can do if you want to stimulate your hair growth cycle.
What Exactly Does a Hair Conditioner Do?
The main purpose of a hair conditioner is to replenish the moisture that has been lost during the shampooing process. As essential as shampooing your locks may be, there’s no getting away from the fact that the cleansing agents in a shampoo usually leave the hair feeling parched. The natural oils that a shampoo removes also means that the hair is temporarily more brittle and vulnerable to damage – at least, until your scalp is able to produce more sebum and distribute this through your lengths.
Of course, in addition to moisturizing your hair, many conditioners also contain ingredients that perform other roles, hence why many think that a hair conditioner could potentially help with hair growth too. Surely all of those extra antioxidants and other powerful ingredients will help your hair to grow faster?
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. When it comes to boosting hair growth, a conditioner isn’t going to have much of an effect. Sure, it will keep your hair feeling healthy, which will allow your strands to grow as normal. It will also prevent the ends of your hair from splitting and snapping off, which would only make your mane look shorter. However, it’s not going to speed up the hair growth cycle in any way.
A Closer Look at the Hair Growth Cycle
Let’s start by talking about your hair follicles, which are where your hairs grow from. You’re born with around 80,000 to 120,000 of these. The number of hair follicles that you’re born with is what you’ll have for the rest of your life – there’s no way to increase the number of follicles on your head.
When it comes to how quickly your hairs grow from these follicles, your hair growth cycle is the biggest influencing factor. There are four stages to this cycle, with each stage having its own timeline. Your genetics, age, hormones, and general health primarily determine the timescale of each stage. Other than your health, there’s not much that you can control here, which is why it can seem difficult to make your hair grow faster.
What Can You Do to Encourage Hair Growth?
The good news is that even though a hair conditioner may not do much to boost hair growth, there are several other steps that you can take to encourage this process:
Give Your Body the Nutrients It Needs
If you want to optimize your hair growth cycle, you’ll need to make sure that your follicles are receiving all of the nutrients that they need to thrive. Yes, certain hair care products will help to provide this, but internal nutrients are key here. This means ensuring that your diet contains all of the right foods.
Some of the most important foods to be eating for the sake of your hair are:
- Eggs for protein and biotin
- Spinach and other leafy greens for iron, plus vitamins A and C
- Beans for protein, iron, zinc, and biotin
- Fresh fruits and vegetables for vitamins and antioxidants
- Oily fish and lean meats for proteins
Remove Scalp Buildup
In order for your hair follicles to produce healthy hairs, they need to be free of buildup. Unfortunately, between dirt, oils, and hair products, scalp buildup is very common!
The best way to keep your scalp free of these unwanted substances is to exfoliate it regularly. Scalp scrubs work well for this, and the massaging action that’s employed when the scrub is applied also helps to give the hair follicles an additional boost.
Cut Back on Heat Styling and Chemical Treatments
If you want your hair to grow faster, then, in addition to taking steps to encourage this, you’ll also need to make sure that you aren’t doing anything that could hinder hair growth. Heat styling and chemical treatments are two big culprits, so try to cut back on these as much as possible.
Leave a longer gap between chemical treatments so that your hair has some time to recuperate. In terms of heat styling, always use a heat protectant before you get started, and opt for heated styling tools that allow you to use a lower level of heat. The Nubi Soft N’ Straight 1.25” Ceramic Purple Styler, for example, has an adjustable temperature dial. The addition of infrared heat and negative ion technology also helps to prevent the appearance of damage when you heat style.
Learn How to De-Stress
As we mentioned earlier, the hair growth cycle is impacted by hormones. While some of your body’s hormones are out of your control, others, like cortisol, aren’t. Also referred to as the stress hormone, cortisol can severely disrupt the hair growth cycle. It can cause your hairs to leave their growth phase and move on to their resting phase. This means that they won’t be able to grow any longer. It also means that hair shedding becomes more prevalent.
While your lost hairs will grow back once your stress levels normalize, knowing how to de-stress on a regular basis will do your hair growth cycle the world of good. Everyone has their own methods to turn to, so decide what works best for you. Be it going for a jog, walking your dog, or dancing around your house to some uplifting music – make an effort to manage your stress levels when you feel them start to soar. Your hair will thank you!
Go For a Trim
While it may seem counterintuitive to go for a trim if you’re trying to encourage hair growth, this is something worth booking in ASAP if you haven’t had one in the past couple of months. While a trim isn’t going to speed up hair growth directly, it will remove split ends. This saves that damage from traveling up your hair shaft and causing further breakages.
By keeping the ends of your hair healthy, regular trims indirectly support hair growth in a big way. Aim to have your locks trimmed every 6-8 weeks to keep them feeling their best.
Avoid Hard Water
Hard water is water that contains minerals, such as calcium and magnesium. Those minerals are deposited on your hair shaft whenever hard water comes into contact with your locks. Over time, this can build up, which affects the hair growth cycle in a few ways.
Firstly, your scalp will end up irritated, which immediately interferes with hair growth. The buildup of minerals will also prevent the absorption of nutrients while stripping away natural moisture to leave locks dry, frizzy, and susceptible to damage.
If you want to do what’s best for your hair, treat your mane to a shower filter. They’re relatively inexpensive, easy to install, and will filter away those minerals before they’re able to come into contact with your strands.
Be Careful With Sudden Weight Loss
While the thought of rapid weight loss may excite you if you’ve been wanting to lose a few pounds, this isn’t going to do your hair any favors. Instead, it places stress on your body. This, in turn, places stress on your hair follicles. Just like with other forms of stress, this causes your growing hairs to move into their resting phase. This is why many notice that increased hair loss often correlates with sudden weight loss.
Take it slowly when it comes to losing weight, and not only will you be encouraging hair growth, but you’ll also be doing your overall health a favor. Your efforts will be much more sustainable too, making it easier to maintain your ideal weight once you reach it.
Don’t Over-Shampoo Your Hair
While it’s important to keep your hair and scalp clean if you want to boost hair growth, don’t accidentally end up over-washing your hair. Shampooing your hair too often, even if you use a hair conditioner each time, will make it harder for your scalp’s natural oils to provide their important moisturizing effect. Your scalp will then turn dry and dehydrated, which will hinder hair growth in a few different ways.
How often you shampoo your hair should be based on your hair type. The coarser and curlier your hair is, the less you’ll need to shampoo it.
Use a Silk Pillowcase
Do you often have to spend time detangling your hair in the morning? If so, this could be affecting your hair growth cycle. Fortunately, there’s usually an easy fix – swap your cotton or linen pillowcase for a silk or satin version.
Why? It all comes down to how silk and satin both have ultra-smooth surfaces. They’ll prevent your strands from rubbing, catching, and knotting in the way that they do when they’re pressed against fabrics that are more textured. Silk and satin won’t absorb moisture from your hair in the same way as other materials either. This will help to keep your locks and your scalp better hydrated, supporting the hair growth process.
Summary
While you may be disappointed to hear that a hair conditioner won’t do much to help with hair growth, there are, as you can see, plenty of other options. Follow our tips when it comes to caring for your hair, and you’ll be giving your hair follicles all that they need to work as efficiently as possible.
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