Day 15 - Growing for 2 weeks

In theory, my hair should have grown around a quarter of an inch since the start of this project, which is exciting. I can't really notice the difference, as it would only be small. But I do hope it has grown! It certainly feels softer now that I haven't been using heated tools on it, and have been conditioning a lot. I seem to be managing to get it to look presentable enough, without resorting to heated tools - it certainly helps that I've been towel drying it rather than letting it completely drip-dry - towel drying it seems to make it dry neater. Another thing - I seem to be getting better at doing neat plaits, from all the practice I've been having from wearing plaits all the time! I have worn my hair in a single plait whilst going out, sometimes, without feeling too unpresentable.

Day 11 - Growing for 1 week and 3 days

Sorry I have not posted for a while, I was away at the weekend and have had a busy week. I have continued to treat my hair as nicely as I can, I did on one occasion straighten my fringe, but that is the only time I have used any heated tools. I have been washing my hair gently with lots of conditioner, in fact, the other day I stocked up on conditioner, buying a bit bottle of Herbal Essences 'Hello Hydration' Moisture and Shine conditioner. I'll start using that once I've used up the other one. I have brushed my hair around once a day, when I wake up in the morning and it is very messy and a little tangled, after I take it out of my plaits. I have been wearing my hair in plaits for most of the time, and keeping them in at night. My hair feels soft, although it does frizz a little. I'll upload some pictures in a near future post!

Day 3

This morning I washed my hair, using Herbal Essences Tousled Look shampoo and conditioner. I used loads of conditioner. I towel dried my hair aferwards, to get most of the wetness off, so it didn't take so long to dry, and it seemed to dry a little less crazy and frizzy so I may keep towel drying it. I worry though that it might cause 'wear and tear' on my hair but I'll try to do it gently. By the way, if anyone has any tips or suggestions for me, or anything they think I'm doing wrong, please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you! Anyway, today my hair has been very soft, probably from all the conditioner I used. I wore it in a plait all day. That's all I have to say about today really! Tomorrow I am going away for the weekend, and coming back on sunday, so I probably won't be updating until then.

Day 2

Just wanted to say that I'm not going to do a post for every single day, because that would be a lot of posts, and would get quite repetitive! But I'll do one when I have something interesting to say. But anyway, last night I slept with my hair in a plait, and I took it out this morning. My hair was a bit tangled so I teased it apart with my fingers, and then gently brushed it. I put it into two plaits, and kept it like that until the afternoon, when I let it down - it had some nice waves from where it had been in plaits. I read somewhere that plaiting your hair encourages hair growth, so that's another reason why I'm plaiting it lots, as well as to protect it. My hair is looking reasonably shiny today, without being greasy or anything, but it's a bit frizzy on top and at the sides of the front - the parts of it that don't go into a plait. My fringe hasn't been too bad though, it's reasonably straight in fact. I don't intend to grow my fringe out, I'll keep that trimmed, for the time being at least! I also may allow myself to straighten my fringe, on occasions where that may improve a bad hair day! At least I will be trimming any damaged ends of my fringe quite regularly. Tomorrow morning I'll be washing my hair, so we'll see how it turns out after that!

Day 1

My name is Sophie, and I have medium length, brown hair, which has a mind of it's own. I've decided to start a project, and attempt to grow my hair as long as possible whilst keeping a blog of my progress. This may sound like a bit of a crazy thing to do! My hair is currently just below my shoulders, but I used to have much longer hair. In the last few years I have been using heated styling products on my hair and it has made it dry and damaged, and it does not seem to grow as fast as it used to, probably because my hair is breaking off. I miss having really long hair and so that's why I decided to try this project, as well as to improve the health of my hair! I think that making a blog about it will keep me motivated to treat my hair nicely and not resort to things like hair straighteners when my hair is going a bit wild!

So, I have set out a few rules to begin with, although this is all a bit of an experiment so these may change as things progress and I try different things, and work out what is better for my hair! But from the research I have done, there are a few things that should definitely help my hair. Firstly, I aim to change my hair washing habits, by washing my hair in warm or cool water instead of hot, by using more conditioner, by shampooing more gently, and by letting my hair dry naturally instead of blow drying it, and to avoid brushing or combing my hair whilst it's still wet. Secondly, I aim to brush my hair less in general, and brush it more gently and pull tangles apart with my fingers, to avoid pulling my hair out, and I also aim to plait my hair more often, including when I sleep, as I read that this helps prevent damage. Thirdly, no more hair straighteners or curling tongs! Unless it's a special occasion and I may make an exception! (I shall also try and find other ways to make my hair look presentable without heated tools!)  Lastly, I shall try to eat more protein rich foods, and vitamins that will help hair growth - I need to do some more research on what these foods are though! I also aim to drink more water, as that's always a good thing! Basically though, I'm just going to experiment and see what turns out good for my hair.

So today was the first day of my project. I washed my hair this morning, with a Lush shampoo bar called 'Squeaky Green' - and I tried to smooth the shampoo into my hair without massaging it too much, to avoid tangles. Then I used a generous amount of conditioner - I believe it was a Pantene one. I gently towel dried my hair afterwards and then left it to dry naturally, rather than blow drying like I used to. Once it was dry, it was a bit curly and frizzy and all over the place, typical of my hair if left to it's own devices! I went into the kitchen and my mum commented that I looked like I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards and asked if I'd like to borrow a hairbrush. I declined.

Later on in the day though, my hair seemed to calm down a little. I put it in a plait in the afternoon, and it's been like that ever since. I'm going to take it out now though and attempt to take a photo to put on here!

Photos taken! Not particularly good ones... but it will be good to have a reminder of how my hair was on day 1! I look forward to the rest of this project and hope that somebody will enjoy following my progress and maybe learn some tips as well!