GROW YOUR HAIR

Have you tried to grow your Asian hair and run into difficulties?  Perhaps your hair poofed out when you were sweating or undertaking any sort of strenuous activities?  I am adopted and did not have any Asian/Korean influences to guide me in the right direction so I suffered under what I like to call an AZ-FRO straight into my late teens. I have and I’ve experimented with some things to help me control my hair and am a little over half way toward my journey of trying to see what shoulder length hair would look like on me.

I detail what product I use here but I wanted to share some growing tips and some hair maintenance tips mostly aimed at guys who never had long hair so are clueless about how to manage it and take care of it.  I am just starting to find out some valuable lessons myself and would like to share my experience in the hopes that it will help someone out there.

First thing we need to be aware of is that once your hair sprouts out of your head it is for all intents and purposes,…dead.  So however long your hair has been growing and all the different things you may have tried to “control” it has been damaging your hair which has no regenerative properties.  I read a website that compared hair grown for about two years to a piece of fine fabric, what would the fabric look like after 2 years of wear and tear?  Exactly my thoughts when I first read that, it really put into perspective how little care and maintenance I’ve been putting into my hair.  What it really comes down to is that if you want your hair to look good you gotta put a little love into it.

Most people are only able to grow their hair about 6 inches a year so I’d say it’s safe to assume it will take about two years to grow shoulder length hair, maybe a bit longer depending on your individual growth and how many times you go to get your hair trimmed.  Your hair definitely needs to be trimmed once it reaches a certain level because the ends will start to become damaged and look a bit stringy at the ends, not to mention that your hair will split and get little knots in them….again once your hair reaches a certain length.  I am just starting to find myself in this situation and it’s about time for me to go get another trim since it’s been about four weeks since my last one.

For me I had a lot of trouble with finding a good hair stylist to cut my Korean hair since I am adopted and didn’t have any Asian influences.  Once I read online that I needed to go to an Asian stylist who knows the type of hair I tried to do a Google search for “Asian hair stylist” and “Asian hair salon” but I live in a smaller market city so nothing came up!  I finally asked a Korean woman who owned an Asian grocery store if she could refer me to one and lo and behold she pointed me right down the road!  I can’t say enough about how important it is to have someone who knows the hair type working on your hair.  It is more expensive than my normal haircuts but I think it’s worth it since my satisfaction level is waaaay higher! Plus if it’s a female you can flirt a little bit, the one I have now give me free trims every so often.  Definitely let your side bangs grow out, it will help to frame your face way better.  Think of it like having more options in a digital camera to get the results you truly want.

So here is the list of techniques I am and will be using in my attempt to grow my hair faster and a few things to maintain it so it doesn’t look like crap once it is grown out!  There is nothing original in here, just a few things I thought I could implement and use pretty easily.

- Do not use heated appliances! (I don’t do this anyway)

- Be healthy! (Your hair needs nutrients when it sprouts just like your body; so eat well, avoid extreme diets, don’t smoke and make sure you exercise)

- Have regular trims to get rid of damaged and split end hair

- Leave hair unwashed every so often so that your natural oils have a chance to work…naturally!

- Use conditioner! (Increased the control I had over my hair dramatically)

Good luck in your hair growth!