“My hair isn’t growing!” We hear it from our subscribers all of the time. But unless you have a medical issue, your hair is indeed growing. The reason why your hair isn’t flowing down your back is due to a failure of hair retention.

How to Know Your Hair is Growing

We will prove to you that your hair is indeed growing. If you color your hair, do you notice your natural hair coming in at the roots after about four weeks? How about those who chemically straighten their hair with relaxers and Japanese straightening. Do you notice your natural hair texture coming in at four weeks? How about eight weeks?

Those “roots” or “new growth” is hair growth.

What is Hair Retention

You may have heard people discussing “hair retention”, but what is it? On average the human head grows about six inches of hair each year. So theoretically, after 12 months have passed,  your hair should be six inches longer. That is call hair retention. Simply put: you keep all of your hair growth.

If you fail at retaining your hair growth, then you need to figure out why. Year after year, your hair should not be stuck at shoulder length.

Variable Affecting Hair Retention

Besides cutting the hair, breakage is the main reason why you fail at retaining your hair growth. Below are a few ways breakage is caused. These actions (or lack thereof) can impede your lengthy hair goals:

• excessive heat styling
• excessive chemicals (e.g., relaxers, color) or over-processing
• failure to moisturize (e.g., deep conditioners, leave in conditioners)
• failure to incorporate protective styles
• not living a healthy lifestyle (e.g., not drinking enough water, eat well, exercising)
• not protecting your hair at night
• brushing/combing too often
• brushing/combing roughly

Check out our article on preventing split ends and breakage for advice on how to combat it.