How To Make Your Hair Grow Faster
“How DO You Make Your Hair Grow Faster?”
Paired with different variations of “how do I get through the awkward stage,” these are the most common questions we get by far.
It’s understandable. Awkward stage hair is a pain.
It’s the biggest reason there are relatively few men with long hair. The awkward stage weeds out the experimental and noncommittal members.
Compare it to business, physical fitness, long-term travel, and frankly anything in life that’s worth a damn. Nothing worthwhile comes easy, or fast. If you could grow long hair overnight, every guy would do it, even if just for the weekend.
But you can’t. There’s no such thing as a longhair weekend warrior—although quite a few guys had their night of glory this past Halloween.
Can You Make Your Hair Grow Faster?
The answer is...kind of. You can grow your hair as fast as your personal genetics allow. In other words, you can reach your maximum growth potential—or fall short of it, if you don’t do the right things.
Within that context, the myth that there is a method, formula, or voodoo practice that can grow your hair faster is simply not true.
With that said, you can do a few things to secure your best head of hair possible. You can make it the fastest, healthiest version of itself, based on the genes you were born with.
More insightful hair growth content:
Hair’s Life Cycle
Anagen
Catagen
Telogen
Dive deeper on hair and it’s life cycle:
Health
Prioritize Needs
Manage Stress
Balance Activities
More on long hair and mental health:
Nutrition
Hair cells are among the fastest growing in the body, requiring a good source of nutrition. If there is a shortage of nutrients, your hair is the first to suffer as your body considers them “non-essential” cells.
There are several different “ingredients” your hair needs to be its healthiest. There are numerous benefits to many of these, but we’ll focus on how they contribute to hair health.
Confirmed
Proven to help with healthy hair growth and maintenance.Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Prevents free radical oxidation of hair follicles and hair loss. Without it, hair becomes brittle and the scalp weakens (Odchique, 2015). For you science buffs, a free radical is an atom with an unpaired electron in its outer shell, and may also be linked to aging, as it is defined as the accumulation of free radical damage.
This harm is achieved by altering lipids, proteins, and DNA, as well as triggering a number of human diseases (Lobo, et. al. 2010). The way to combat this is by the consumption of antioxidants (found in blueberries), which are molecules that can safely interact with free radicals and terminate the chain reaction before vital molecules are damaged.
Vitamin E
Proteins
In a basic sense, proteins are building blocks. Your hair acts as a time capsule, adding new proteins to the base of the strand as it grows. The strand is then pushed out of the hair follicle, creating a timeline of your eating habits.
“What you consume influences the proteins of that moment’s hair growth...such as whether someone is using food they eat for energy or consuming their own tissue for energy due to lack of protein” (Collins, 2006).
Zinc
Not Yet Confirmed
Suspected to help with hair growth, but lacking the research to confirm.Iron
Biotin
Touted as the end-all, be-all for hair growth in magazines and blogs, you’ve undoubtedly heard the craze surrounding this one. The proof that biotin helps non-deficient individuals is nonexistent. To date, the only randomized controlled trial to study the effects of biotin on hair quality and quantity showed a significant increase in thickness of the hair on 90 female subjects experiencing thinning.
“Biotin as a dietary supplement for normal healthy people without deficiency or any inborn error of metabolism on its own may not be an ergogenic aid for hair health.” (Soleymani, et. al. 2017).
In other words, if you’re not experiencing hair loss, biotin has not been proven to help your hair grow—though further study is warranted.
Your Hair Care Grocery List:
It’s rather intuitive; your hair grows out of your body, so if you take care of your body, you take care of your hair. Check out our suggested foods for the next time you visit the local grocer to ensure your hair is getting all the nutrients it needs to grow at maximum potential.Grocery Item | Nutrition Goal |
---|---|
Avocados, peanuts, sunflower seeds, vegetable oil, broccoli | Vitamin E |
Carrots, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, apricots | Vitamin A |
Citrus Fruits, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, tomatoes | Vitamin C |
Spinach and dark leafy greens | Iron |
Eggs, soy, lean beef, milk | Protein |
Blueberries, dark chocolates, pecans | Antioxidants |
Oysters, red meats, poultry, cashews, baked beans, chickpeas | Zinc |
Further reading on nutrition and hair growth:
Exercise
Choose Activities You Enjoy
Exercise comes in many forms. The goal is just to get your body moving. The CDC recommends 150 minutes of aerobic and/or muscle strengthening activity each week, or 30 minutes a day.
It could be yoga, walking, biking, powerlifting, gardening, playing soccer, or so many others. Any movement is better than none. If you’re a real savage you can even train like The Longhairs.
Nourish Your Hair
Reduce Stress
Again, reducing stress in your life helps to avoid premature hair loss. As you become active, your body releases “feel-good hormones,” called endorphins. These hormones help alleviate the symptoms of stress, which can include a number of endocrine, metabolic, autoimmune, and psychiatric disorders, as well as actually inhibiting growth (Charmandari et. al. 2005).
Hair growth is the goal. So make sure you’ve got some workout classes booked or go for a walk when it’s sunny, because it’ll do more for you than just get you out of the house.
More iron-clad content to get you jacked:
Can You Grow Your Hair Faster?
The hard truth is: there is only so much you can do to make your hair grow faster.
Overall good health, avoiding damage, and taking in the right nutrients can help, the details of which you can read in Quick Tips. Beyond that, it’s up to genetics. Patience and commitment are the name of the game...the long game.
Once you accept that fact, there’s a certain sense of pride that comes with it. As men in the awkward stage, we must embrace the struggle. Instead of being concerned with just getting through it, we should wear it proudly. Like a poor-looking badge of courage, ragged in appearance yet standing tall.
This cold realization begs the next question: ok, if you can’t make your hair grow faster, what can you do to mitigate the awkward stage? Glad you asked.
Awkward Stage Hair