When you moisturise your hair do you focus on the new growth or the tips of your hair?
It should be the hair tips. The tips of your hair are the oldest section and therefore the most vulnerable to breakage, split ends and fraying. Some fail to retain hair length because this weakness travels up the strand; the dry, weak ends fall off and expose more hair that wasn't vulnerable before leading to the same vulnerability and more breakage. To stop this from happening give the tips extra moisture. Even when your hair is in braids/twists hydrate the ends at least every other day with a hair cream. New growth is much less vulnerable to dryness because sebum (the oil naturally produced by the scalp) can travel part of the way up the hair shaft. The kinks, curls and coils of natural black hair make it difficult for this oil to travel all the way to the tips.
Although new growth is less vulnerable, I personally encourage my hair to grow by massaging our essential oil infused hair oil, Neno Natural's Hair Growth Stimulator, into the scalp. Even if you have braids with extra hair/mesh attached, treat the plaits as though they were your hair by spritzing daily and applying a leave-in conditioner, oil and cream regularly. Your ends will thank you by not breaking off. 
Think you know everything there is to know about hair care? The truth is that there are some common myths floating around about how to take care of black hair. Learning what is fact and what is fiction will help you take better care of your hair.
Black Hair Care Truth 1: Hair loss does not have to happen when you wear weaves or braids. Problems with hair loss occur when your hair is pulled too tight for long periods of time. Either ask your hair care specialist to go a little looser on the scalp or alternate braids or weaves with a looser style on a regular basis. Black Hair Care Truth 2: Satin or silk does protect your hair. Friction is your hair's biggest enemy. When you sleep on a smooth satin pillow or wrap your hair in a silk scarf before you retire, you are preventing the hair breakage that occurs when friction gets hold of your head. When your hair rubs against a coarse fabric while you sleep, hair breakage accelerates. Black Hair Care Truth 3: Hair growth naturally accelerates during pregnancy. During pregnancy, a woman's body is flooded with estrogen which places hair into a permanent growth phase for the duration. Once the pregnancy ends, hair stops growing and begins to shed in copious amounts. Those prenatal vitamins don't have anything to do with hair growth although they are great for you and the baby's overall health. Black Hair Care Truth 4: Black hair is more subject to breakage. Black hair is curly and because of this, its internal structure is more subject to breakage. The tighter the curl, the drier and weaker the hair will be. That is why good hair care should be on your list of priorities. Black Hair Care Truth 5: Having long black hair is possible. Many people think that black hair simply won't grow long because of the problems with breakage listed in Truth 4. However, with proper care, black hair can grow quite long. Think about how long dreadlocks can grow for starters. Black Hair Care Truth 6: Black hair grows just as rapidly as any other type of hair. It's true. Hair grows at an average of one-half inch each month and black hair is no exception. Because of the curls, it only seems like black hair grows slower than other types of hair. Black Hair Care Truth 7: Natural hair can be easy to manage. Most black women have learned how to take care of their relaxed hair and don't quite know how to take care their natural hair. The good news is that with proper care, you can alternate your styles between relaxed and natural while always looking great. Black Hair Care Truth 8: Black hair won't dry out if it is washed more than once a week. Water is a moisturizer and the number one cause of your hair not growing comes from product build-up so it is important that you wash your hair as needed. Black Hair Care Truth 9: Greasing your scalp will actually dry out your hair. In an attempt to moisturize their hair, many women go overboard with hair care products used to grease and moisturize their scalp. The bad news is that these products can actually lock moisture out of the hair follicles. Using products designed to bring moisture into the hair itself will deliver much better results. Black Hair Care Truth 10: It is not necessary to go to the salon every week to grow your hair long. When you follow these truths, you can have great looking and long hair without the need to go to the salon every week. However, where's the fun in that? Why not take excellent care of your hair at home and let your stylist deliver even more outstanding results? These hair truths might fly in the face of what you have always been told about black hair care, but they work. Regular hair care will help you grow your locks long and lush if you wish or set you up with a perky short look. Let us know which of these truths was most illuminating to you. Charleme Salomon is a successful business owner and fashion enthusiast. She operates the website, AfricanAmericanHairStyleVideos.com, which provides helpful and up-to-date videos straight from black natural hairstyle aficionados. 
​For your body to perform optimally and stay healthy, you need to take in the right nutrients on a daily basis. Just like your body, your hair too needs a daily dose of vital minerals for it to grow properly. Otherwise,your hair will grow dull and, within time, start breaking.
One of the vital, but little talked about, minerals that your hair needs to obtain and remain healthy are magnesium. In this article, we will discuss why magnesium is needed for your hair to grow properly.It also provides tips on how you can incorporate this mineral into your daily life. Lets get started! It Great For Your Body Cells Magnesium comes fourth on the list of most abundant minerals in the body. The mineral is an essential electrolyte responsible for more than 300 biochemical reactions. This naturally occurring substance basically works to help body cells produce and store energy. So, you might be wondering what does that have to do with hair growth. Well, it means that without any magnesium in your body all of your body cells would die. All of the cells in your body including those lining the hair follicles, therefore, need the right supply of magnesium for them to remain healthy. 
It Is Very Nourishing For Your Scalp
Hair loss is a chain reaction that ends with an inflamed scalp. As long as the scalp is healthy then the hair strands attached to it remains healthy. Magnesium is known to detoxify and cleanse the dermis and this also applies to the scalp. It is also very effective in relieving and treating allergic reactions. Keep in mind; some of these reactions have been known to lead to excessive hair loss. By using magnesium oil on your scalp, you are virtually guaranteeing that you are not only nourishing your hair follicles, but also ensuring that your scalp stays healthy. So what can you do to ensure that you get enough magnesium to promote hair growth? Your first course of action should be to incorporate magnesium rich foods in your diet. What type of foods? So, glad you asked.
Eating these foods and other foods rich in magnesium on a daily basis ensures that your body gets a constant supply of this important nutrient. Because cooking and refining lead to magnesium loss, it is always advisable to eat the magnesium rich foods raw whenever possible. 
​Another good option would be to apply magnesium oil to your scalp and hair. If you are particularly concerned about your hair due to hair loss, you might want to not only apply magnesium oil to your hair and scalp. Step it up a notch and be sureto eat a magnesium rich diet because it will work great for your hair.
It is worth noting that because your hair is not served by major blood vessels it is highly likely that your hair is not getting enough magnesium. How do you know for sure? Well, if your hairlooks frail, is growing slowly or even greying faster or prematurely, then you might not be getting enough magnesium. Other Health Benefits of Magnesium
If you have always wondered why magnesium is needed for your hair to grow, now you have your answer. It is up to you now to take the right steps and ensure that your hair and bodyget enough magnesium on a daily basis.If you follow this advice, you will enjoy good health and a long and healthy mane as well.
You've heard it said before, braids are a protective hair style and if you braid your hair it will grow better and faster.
That's true but only to a certain extent - if you don't braid your hair in the right way you will lose hair! When it comes to braids you need to keep the following things in mind: Braiding your hair will lead to breakage if:
To ensure your hair does grow when it is braided do the following:
Eating a healthy balanced diet is one of the biggest factors impacting the health and growth rate of hair.
Hair is mostly composed of protein and also needs vitamins and minerals to grow. These nutrients are taken directly from the food that you eat. If your diet is deficient in any minerals and vitamins it's your hair (and nails) that will suffer. How does that work? Well, your body has to prioritise where its resources go. Hair (and nails) come very low down in your body's list of priorities. Your body will give the nutrients and minerals available to the organs first (liver, kidney etc.) and to vital body functions like maintaining a heart beat, digestion and so on before hair and nails get a look in. I think that makes sense... What should your diet be rich in to encourage healthy hair growth? Proteins plus the vitamins and minerals that go into making protein, this includes:
Can you just take a supplement to make up for a poor diet? Supplements will not make up for an atrocious diet. That said, if you have a healthy diet and decided to take a vitamin supplement to make up for possible deficiencies, e.g. inadequate vitamin D from the sun in winter then a supplement will help. It's very hard to have dietary deficiencies if you live in a developed country but companies that make vitamins will prey on any insecurity you might have and encourage you to buy them. Keep that in mind. Personally, I do take vitamins sometimes but I don't take them religiously because I usually forget to. Any other notes? Yes - if you're on a diet and shed a lot of weight over a short period of time you may incur increased rates of hair loss. When your weight stabilizes this hair should grow back. Keep this in mind next time you want to take drastic measures to lose weight. If you will be dieting it's important to choose the most nutritious foods within your calorie allowance to ensure you're getting the vitamins you need. 100 calories of raw, fresh carrots will do your hair a lot more good than 100 calories of chocolate. 
 The best oil for a scalp massage
Embedded in the scalp are arteries that bring oxygen and nutrients to hair follicles thereby promoting the growth of healthy, long hair.
Because the scalp is so thin massaging it definitely helps to promote blood flow to it. Massaging the scalp is even more effective if you use a good oil to do it. Oils that have essentials oils like Neno Natural's Hair Growth Stimulator are the best because the essential oils that make up the oil actively promote hair growth. How should you massage the scalp and for how long? Rub the scalp using the flats of your fingers (not your fingernails) for 2 to 5 minutes. That's plenty of time. How often should you massage the scalp? Everyday is ideal but that may be impractical for many so every other day should do it. When should you massage your scalp? Massage your scalp at convenient time for you, for instance:
If you transition from relaxed hair to natural hair the temptation is to treat your new hair texture in exactly the same way as the old. However, the two are different and need different products and hair routines. Compared to relaxed hair:
1. Natural hair tends to dry out if not regularly and properly moisturised. This is because sebum has trouble moving up kinks, curls and coils compared to straight hair. You will need to try out several hair moisturising techniques before you discover what works. 2. Wet natural hair takes a lot longer to dry than relaxed hair. This is because it tends to be less porous than relaxed hair, that is, the cuticle is stronger and more compact on natural hair. This may tempt some to blow dry regularly but don't do it! Just let it air dry. Wash your hair during the weekend when you have time to let it air dry. Just to give you an idea, if I complete washing my hair by midday on Sunday, if it's drying in twists or plaits it can still be damp on Monday morning; I kid you not. If it's a sunny day or if the heating in the house is on high it dries faster. 3. Natural hair has a higher protein content than relaxed hair. This is because the process of relaxing strips hair of protein. The result is that many black hair care products on the market contain a very high amount of protein to compensate for this. Some protein is needed to replace that lost during styling but certainly not as much as products for relaxed hair contain. 
As a result, you will probably find that the products that worked when your hair was relaxed don't work well at all on natural hair. If you're looking for products that your hair will love get the natural-ingredients-rich Neno Natural product line.
4. Natural hair hates combs with small teeth and rollers with lots of bristles. Instead, go for wide-tooth combs to detangle hair with minimal breakage and resistance.  Heat stretched hair
5. Natural has better length retention potential
This is an empirical observation on my part. I used to be one of those people that thought black hair does not grow as fast or as long as white hair but that was wrong. What I didn't realise is that relaxed hair needs a lot of care and attention to grow beyond the shoulders and so appears not to grow after a certain point; relaxed hair can tend to grow to shoulder length and then gets "stuck". With many in the natural hair community taking better care of their hair you will see that many YouTubers reveal great length when they stretch their hair. There also many pictures on Facebook to this effect. 
Natural Hair Growth Tip 12 - What is protective styling and why is it important for growth?24/2/2016
Your hair is always growing: fact.
On average, hair grows 1/3 to 1/2 an inch per month so you should get 4 to 6 inches of growth every year. Protective styling involves using styles that protect and hide your ends from damage so that you retain more length. How long can you expect your hair to continue growing for? On average 4 to 7 years. Everyone has a different growth cycle. This means that if your growth cycle is 4 years and your hair grows at 4 inches a year your maximum potential is 16 inches. This means that you cannot aspire to have more than 16 inches of growth ever. With trims this should be about 13 to 14 inches. Now, some people have a really short growth cycle of 1 year, 4 to 7 years is just average and the lucky few have a growth cycle of upto 10 years. Those long-haired people that make it to the Guinness book of world records probably fall into the latter category. Even with 4 inches per year, 10 years of growth is 40 inches of hair - wowza! If you feel like your hair is not growing it simply means your hair is not retaining length, that is, it is breaking off at the ends or you have reached your maximum possible. So if you have a 1 year cycle at 4 inches per annum then 4 inches is your maximum potential growth, genetically. This is very rare, you probably have a longer cycle. Will your hair grow longer if you use protective styling rather than if you don't? Yes and no. If you use protective styles and all your other hair care practices are poor then your hair won't grow to its maximum potential. For instance if you keep braids in for far too long and forget to wash and moisturise them regularly. Or if you use excessive amounts of heat and have an atrocious diet then your hair will suffer. However, if you take care of hair and make smart use of protective styles then you will retain more length 
Heat! This is one of the top contentious issues regarding natural hair, everyone has their own opinion and that is A-okay as long you know what is fact and what is opinion. I'ma lay it to you straight:
FACTS Heat can damage hair in one of two ways:
OPINIONS One or two blow dries per month is enough I think one or two blow dries per month is enough for my type of 4C hair. My hair is quite strong but I think anymore than this would just lead to a dry, brittle mess. In fact, this is my max and I use blow driers even less than this. No, thanks to straighteners Since I went natural straighteners have only been used once, on my wedding day (11.11.11). Because they apply such direct heat to hair I think they're not worth the risk. HALF FACT, HALF OPINION Avoid heat, air dry as often as possible Yes, less heat is better than more heat but how much less depends on your particular hair. Course hair can take more heat without damage than thin hair. If you going to use heat use these 9 Tips to blow dry your natural hair gently - no more breakage! 
There are three things you want to protect against when you go to bed:
The solutions are simple:
When my hair was medium length (i.e. up until just over two years of growth) I didn't always twist it before bed so I did have to deal with matting sometimes. Matting was not excessive every time but as my hair grew longer it became a real problem so I stopped going to bed without twisting my hair, even after a long night out! Matting gets worse and worse the more nights you go to bed without twisting your hair.
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I now blog about wealth creation - so if you have any money questions meet me there, you can do all sorts of cool things like leave me a voicemail.
By Heather Katsonga-Woodward
I was a natural hair blogger and mixtress living between London & Chicago from 2012 to 2017. I always thought I was 4C but some say 4B; images below - you decide! Heather xx
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