23 Tips On How To Grow Black Natural Hair Fast & Longer

The rumors are true, according to a study, black people grow hair slower than Caucasian hair.

This study demonstrated significant differences between African and caucasian hair growth parameters, which might suggest a trend towards increased hair loss in Africans, even though it contrasts with a lower and slower incidence of the development of alopecia in Africans.
Loussouarn G, “African hair growth parameters” Pubmed, August 2001, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11531795/

Growing longer hair can sometimes seem like an impossible task when you have natural black hair. All you need is a good hair care routine and patience.

Not only is black hair growth slower, but due to how our hair strands are wrapped around each other you will likely also encounter issues such as breakage, thinning, and shedding when trying to grow your afro hair.

From intense moisturization to protective styles and avoiding heat styling, we’ve got all the secrets to help you take proper care of your beautiful hair to encourage healthy hair growth.

Table Of Contents

Black Hair Growth Tips For Longer Hair
How To Achieve Healthy Hair Growth
FAQ About Hair Growth Tips For Black Hair

Black Hair Growth Tips For Longer Hair

Having curly hair can be frustrating, especially because it won’t let moisture in and your hair needs moisture to thrive. But, with a few of these hair health tips, you will have your hair looking and feeling more moisturized and alive.

Although you’ll have to work a little harder than most hair types, it will be well worth it once you start to see that length retention.

You can mix and match these tips and find what best works for you because your hair has a mind of its own, not all these tips will work for you. An important part of taking care of your hair is knowing how to listen to your hair.

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1. Clarify Your Hair:

Clarifying your hair is the process of cleaning out product buildup from your hair follicle as well as your scalp.

Product buildup clogs up your hair follicle prevents hair growth and may even cause hair loss.

Because of the type of hair products we use, our hair is prone to product buildup, so it is important to regularly clarify your hair. I recommend clarifying your hair every wash day (every 1-2 weeks), with a good clarifying shampoo.

2. Deep Condition With Heat:

Heat is a great way to open up your hair’s cuticle, which is especially important for curly hair, especially low-porosity hair.

When doing a deep conditioning treatment it is best to use heat to allow your hair to reap the full benefits of the deep conditioner.

When clarifying your hair, make sure to use warm water to open up the pores, then while the pores are still open, apply your deep conditioner to the hair.

Cover your hair with a shower cap and then your bonnet to trap the heat from your scalp and then, sit under a hooded dryer if you can.

Alternatively, you can run a blow dryer over your hair (while it is in the bonnet) if you do not own a hooded dryer.

Allow the deep conditioner to sit for 30 minutes to an hour.

Do a deep conditioning treatment at least twice a month, I do them every wash day.

3. Use Humectants On Your Hair:

Humectants love water molecules, so using them in your natural hair (which is often dry hair) is a must. Honey, aloe vera, flax seed gel, and glycerin are all great humectants.

These humectants have moisturizing ingredients that create a clear, penetrateble film around your hair strands to lock in moisture.

Humectants draw moisture from their surroundings to keep the environment moisturized. This is a great way for dry hair to retain moisture.

4. Always Pre-Poo:

Hair in shower cap after detangling hair

Pre-pooing is the method of preparing your hair before shampooing.

Because shampoos can be harsh on our hair, it is always a smart idea to pre-poo your hair to form that protective barrier and keep the shampoo from drying out the hair.

There are many ways to pre-poo your hair, here are the Best Pre-poo Treatments For Natural Hair, in that post, I share with you not only how to pre-poo your hair, but also the best pre-poo to choose based on what your hair needs.

If you’re a DIY queen like me, here are some of my favorite DIY pre-poo treatments to try.

5. Add Moisture To Your Hair As Needed:

Because black women tend to have hair on the dryer side, it is always a smart idea to moisturize mid-week when your hair feels dry.

Adding that moisture back in prevents hair from breaking off.

Mid-week moisturization prevents hair from feeling brittle and snapping off. Add some aloe vera to spray bottles with some water.

Because it is a humectant it will absorb moisture from your surroundings and add it into your hair.

6. Use A Sulfate-Free Shampoo:

Sulfates dry out your hair, causing hair breakage, loss, and damage. Use alcohol and sulfate-free shampoos and conditioners that contain natural ingredients like humectants and hair oil.

7. Protective Styles Are Your Best Friends:

Protective styles are the best way to retain length. Because your hair is tucked away and untouched for a period of time. From twists to braids or weaves, protective styles are great for moisture retention.

If you find it hard to commit to one style at a time, there are cute protective styles that you can use to define your curls while they dry and take them out the next day, ie; twist outs, braids outs, and Bantu knots.

8. Moisturize Properly:

When moisturizing your low-porosity hair, use the LCO method.

The “L” stands for liquid, this is the hydration you are adding to your hair, which should always be water.

So after washing your hair, make sure that your hair is drenched in water.

The “C” stands for cream or leave-in conditioner, this should be added to your hair to help style and form your curls, while also helping to add more moisture to your hair.

The “O“, stands for, you guessed it, oil. This step is the step that locks all the moisture into your hair, so using one of the best oils for sealing will help you retain that moisture.

9. Use Lightweight-Water Based Products:

Low porosity hair means the hair cuticle is tightly packed and doesn’t let large water molecules in.

This means a lightweight water-based product will have more of a chance to penetrate first, than your medium-weight cream product.

So choose products that have water, extracts, and milk in the top ingredients.

10. Stay Away From Silicones:

While silicones add a nice shine to your hair they are synthetic ingredients that just coat the hair. Making it hard for water to penetrate the hair.

11. Do Protein Treatments As Needed:

Hair is made up of protein, so it’s hardly surprising that it’s needed in your hair to help with natural hair growth.

Do regular protein treatments as needed diet to keep your locks healthy and strong. Protein treatments I like are rice water rinses or using coconut oil as a pre-poo treatment.

12. Use Natural Oils:

Hair oil is a great idea for your hair type because it helps seal moisture into the ends of the hair. Opt for oils like; argan oil, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, and baobab oil. These natural oils are great for low-porosity hair.

Avoid using heavy oils like jojoba oil, olive oil, and castor oil often. I would also stay away from heavy butters like shea butter.

I do recommend using an array of hair oils and essential oils like peppermint oil and rosemary oil. But you should know how to best use these oils on your hair, and the best oils to use for your needs, you can read all about that here.

13. Steam Your Hair:

Steam works great when applying product to your natural hair.

The steam opens up your hair follicle to allow the hair products to better penetrate the hair and allow the moisture to get fully absorbed.

Steam in itself also adds moisture to your hair. Because the water is in it’s gas form, the particles are more active and make their way into the hair follicle much easier than in its liquid state.

14. Protect Your Hair While You Sleep:

Once you have gotten the moisture into your hair, it is best to keep that moisture locked in.

When sleeping, wear a satin bonnet to protect your hair from friction. You can also sleep on a satin pillowcase or a silk pillowcase. This is because satin and silk don’t absorb the moisture from your hair like cotton pillowcases would.

15. Eat A Balanced Diet:

Your hair grows out of your body, so it only makes sense that you nourish your hair from within. having a healthy diet is ideal for growing healthy hair.

If your diet lacks protein, hair is likely to become dry and brittle which can cause hair loss as well as limiting growth. Eggs, dairy, nuts, and chicken are all high-protein foods that you should include in your diet.

Add moisture to your hair by adding moisture to your body. Drink plenty of water and stay hydrated, also try and eat these foods to stimulate hair growth.

16. Apply Product To Wet Hair:

When styling your hair, make sure your hair is drenched in excess water first. This allows you to lock that water into your hair follicle as you add product on top of it. Make sure to seal with a good sealant oil.

17. Get Trims When Needed:

Because natural hair tends to have dry, more brittle ends. Make sure to get rid of these ends regularly to avoid the split ends moving up the shaft and causing breakage.

18. Avoid Chemical Treatments:

Chemical treatments cause breakage, and breakage makes you believe your hair isn’t growing. If you want healthy hair growth, avoid doing any chemical treatments on your hair, this includes hair dye, relaxers, and bleaching.

19. Have Regular Wash Days:

Avoiding wash day is something every natural does. But no matter what, I implore you to stick to your wash day schedule. I wash my curly hair every week, to a week and a half, that is my sweet spot.

Anything less than a week and I’d be overdoing it for my hair, anything more than one and a half weeks is too long and my hair becomes a matted mess.

When I skip wash days, my hair is more tangled and it causes breakage when I’m detangling my hair, so I try to not skip wash days, and neither should you.

20. Oil Your Scalp Regularly:

Scalp oiling or hair oiling is the process of treating your hair or your scalp for styling or as a pre-poo treatment.

It is just what it sounds like, applying oils to your scalp to nourish dry scalp and also help with itchy scalp.

Scalp oiling has also been used to help stimulate healthy hair growth, this only works if you use the right oils that contain the essential nutrients to grow your, avoid hair loss, and give you thicker hair.

Find out how often you should be oiling your scalp here.

21. Avoid Heat Styling:

We all know that heat styling can damage hair by causing split ends and breakage, as well as dehydrating the ends of your hair.

The sun with its UV rays can also dry your natural hair. Vitamin E can help to provide protection from sun damage so make sure to add it to your diet as much as possible.

Keep heat styling to a minimum and always apply a heat protectant spray before use.

Also, invest in an SPF hair product to limit the effects that the sun can have on your hair.

22. Be Gentle When You Detangle:

Black hair tends to be dry hair, and this can make it more prone to tangles and matting, meaning you’ll need to detangle often.

But while it might be tempting to run the brush right through, that could be the worst thing you will do to your curly hair.

Roughly pulling a brush through tangles hair is going to place stress on both the root and hair follicle and can also lead to breakage and snapping, something which is entirely counter-productive for those wanting to see hair growth.

Rather divide your hair into small sections to make it more manageable and gently tease the comb through your hair.

Detangling sprays can help brushes glide through much more easily.

23. Avoid Over Manipulation

Leave your hair alone! If you want to grow your hair, it is best to leave your hair alone. Over-manipulation can cause breakage and affect length retention.

If you want to achieve hair growth quickly, then avoid placing your hair under stress through regular changes in hairstyles.

While some hairstyles protect the hair you should try to leave them in place for up to a month at a time.

How To Achieve Healthy Hair Growth

Many factors affect the rate at which your hair grows, like genetics, styling, manipulation, heat, and chemicals.

The key to hair growth is a healthy scalp so clarifying your scalp as needed is important. Ensure your hair follicles are not clogged by oils and excess product.

While you may be growing your hair, if you do not take good care of it, you will lose the hair as fast as you grow it.

So you need to focus on length retention.

The best way to retain length is to get regular trims, keep your hair moisturized and to do protective styles.

My hair was stuck at shoulder length for years and I believed I was just one of those people whose hair didn’t grow until I started doing my protective styles at home.

Now I notice that I retain length much easier than when I manipulated my hair often.

FAQ About Hair Growth Tips For Black Hair

1. How can I grow my black hair faster? Maintain a healthy hair care routine, including regular trims, deep conditioning, and protective styles to minimize breakage and encourage growth.

2. How can I grow my hair faster naturally? Promote hair growth naturally by eating a balanced diet rich in protein, staying hydrated, and minimizing heat and chemical treatments.

3. What promotes black hair growth? Regular scalp massages, proper hydration, and using moisturizing products can promote black hair growth.

4. What oil grows black hair the fastest? Essential oils like peppermint oil and rosemary oil are believed to promote black hair growth due to their stimulating properties.

5. How to get long hair in a week? While it’s not possible to grow significantly longer hair in a week, maintaining a healthy hair care routine can support overall hair health and potentially contribute to growth over time.

6. What foods help hair growth? Foods rich in protein, vitamins (particularly biotin and vitamin E), and minerals like iron and zinc can support hair growth. Examples include eggs, nuts, fish, and leafy greens.

7. What oil helps hair growth? Essential oils like coconut oil, argan oil, and jojoba oil are popular choices for promoting hair growth and maintaining scalp health.

8. How can I make my hair grow faster in 7 days naturally? While significant growth in a week isn’t realistic, you can support natural hair growth by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, minimizing stress, and following a consistent hair care routine.

9. How can I make my hair grow faster in 2 days naturally? Hair growth doesn’t happen overnight, but ensuring your hair is well-nourished and protected from damage can support overall health and potential growth over time.

10. Does rice water grow hair? Some people believe that rinsing hair with rice water can promote hair growth due to its potential benefits for scalp health and strengthening hair strands.

11. How to grow hair quickly? Patience and consistency with a healthy hair care routine, including regular trims, deep conditioning, and protective styles, can support healthy hair growth over time.

12. How can I make my black hair grow faster overnight naturally? While it’s not possible to achieve significant growth overnight, protecting your hair with a satin bonnet or pillowcase can help prevent breakage, supporting overall hair health and potential growth.

13. Does cutting black hair make it grow faster? Regular trims can prevent split ends and breakage, which may give the appearance of faster growth, but cutting hair itself doesn’t directly influence its growth rate.

14. What oil thickens black hair? Natural oils like castor oil, known for its moisturizing and conditioning properties, are often used to help thicken and strengthen black hair.

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