We’ve all had that one bad haircut, or one period of time where we spent all of our 11:11’s on wishing our hair would grow. Trust me, I once let a friend talk me into thinking I could rock a bob. As you probably guessed, we are no longer friends. Joking… kind of. 🙊
Hair loss is an especially tough pill for us ladies to swallow. I feel for anyone who’s struggled with losing a drastic amount of hair, or gone in for a harmless brush, only to find clumps of hair on the ground. It’s heartbreaking, and at times, embarrassing. Whether you have or are dealing with hair loss, a little or a in a big way, I’m here to help clear the air on some tips and tricks that can help.
After my bad cut, all I wanted was for my hair to grow back. Believe me when I say I read everything under the sun on how to stimulate hair growth. I swear if I opened my computer, Google already knew what was on my mind. Why did my hair stop growing was a daily search of mine. It was as if I got one cursed haircut, and then my hair stopped growing. Just like that.
I tried the special creams, the horse shampoos, literally everything. After months of trial and error, I can now proudly say that I am a hair growth expert. Okay, don’t quote me on that, but I did finally get my hair to grow into long luscious locks, and I think that says a lot!
Today I’ll be sharing everything there is to know about how to stimulate hair growth. I’ll spill everything I learned from lifestyle swaps to supplements that actually work. If you’ve been frantically worrying because your hair stopped growing, too, fret no more! I am hair to save the day.
Why Did My Hair Stop Growing?
The question no one ever wants to have to ask: Why did my hair stop growing!? Sometimes it’s obvious (hello, bleach blonde hair), and other times, it seems to happen out of nowhere. Here are a few possible reasons why your hair stopped growing:
1. Stress
This is the #1 reason I think people struggle with how to stimulate hair growth. Just like stress can cause grey hairs, stress can also cause hair to stop growing. When we stress, we put our bodies into fight-or-flight mode. When we do this, we give our body and our brain much bigger tasks to worry about than hair growth. So if you have been feeling overworked or overwhelmed and noticed your hair stopped growing, it may be time for some mindfulness practices. Yoga, running, meditation, baths, prayer, whatever helps you zen out, make time for it every. single. day.
2. Aging
Some well-known, albeit unwanted, side effects come with aging. Wrinkles, grey hair, sagging skin, etc. But no one ever tells you your hair stops growing. The reason for many signs of aging is often due to decreased collagen production. When we hit 30ish, our collagen production seriously declines. If we can eat a diet rich in collagen or supplement with high quality collagen, then we can help our skin and hair to age more gracefully.
3. Excessive damage
If you’ve been dying your hair since you were 13 and curling it every day for the last 20 years, there’s a good chance your hair is about ready to give up on you. The golden rule of treating others how you want to be treated applies to your hair, too! By using poor quality products, exposing your hair to excessive heat damage, and washing it everyday, you’re sending your hair fighting words. Luckily, you can reverse a lot of hair damage done with these seven hair growth tips below.
7 Hair Growth Tips
If you’re struggling with how to stimulate hair growth, these 7 tips will help steer you in the direction of healthy, luscious locks.
1. Reduce your use of hot tools (and use heat protectant)
This is probably one of the most important tips for healthy hair. Any heat exposure will dry out and kill healthy hair follicles. Even taking long, hot showers isn’t great for our hair simply because of all the pollutants found in most tap water. When using blow dryers, curling irons, and straighteners, always use a heat protectant serum or spray. They get applied before using hot styling tools and help to reduce heat damage.
2. Use good-quality hair products
If you’ve had to ask yourself “Why did my hair stop growing?”, it may also be fair to ask yourself, “Have I been treating my hair well?” Just like you would use the best quality ingredients to make your wedding cake, you want to use the best quality hair products possible to keep your hair growing and healthy. So many hair products are full of natural-oil-stripping, drying, and downright damaging ingredients. My rule of thumb for hair care is sulfate-free, paraben-free, phthalate-free, and phosphate-free. If you can avoid those four damaging chemicals in your hair products, you are in a good place.
3. Take hair supplements
Before you breeze over this section, let me share my experience. As you know, I got a horrible bob cut. In trying to cover it up, I was straightening my hair like crazy (damaging), styling it with harsh chemicals and accessories (breaking), and completely neglecting what it really needed. I’ve seen all the social media ads for gummy bears for hair growth. Reluctantly raising my hand, yes, I tried those. But it wasn’t until I started taking clean supplements that I started to get the results I was promised. After a lot of trial and error (and a lot of wasted money!) I swear by these three supplements for hair growth:
Top three supplements for hair growth
- Collagen—For anyone who’s wondered, “Why did my hair stop growing?” it is time for you to start taking collagen! This seriously saved my life, aka saved my hair. Because collagen protein makes up so much of the human body, it also plays a big role in hair growth. Taking collagen not only helped my hair grow, but it came back stronger and silkier than I ever could have hoped for. The collagen I trust and swear by is SkinnyFit Super Youth. It contains five types of collagen from four natural sources, making it the cleanest and meanest collagen around.
- B-vitamin complex—B vitamins play a large role in cell growth. Without them, we can experience brittle hair and nails, dry skin, and even feel fatigued. I never knew how important it was until I had hair trouble. I started taking SkinnyFit Daily Glow to see if it would help, and holy moly, help it did! Even though I took it for my hair, my skin was glowing and my nails looked like catalogue nails, if that’s even a thing. Seriously, Daily Glow was a lifesaver when my hair needed it most.
- Multi-vitamin—I realized my diet was not its best around the same time I was struggling with hair loss. My hair loss was making me sad, so I was eating like trash. Turns out, treating your body like a temple has some reason to it. Once I cleaned up my diet and started taking a women-specific multi-vitamin, both my energy and my hair came back.
4. Massage your scalp
This is my favorite tip for how to stimulate hair growth. Give your scalp a little TLC with a head massage. You can do this in the shower while you’re washing your hair, before bed to also help calm your nervous system, or really whenever you want! Pro tip, though, don’t do it if you’re not near a mirror and have somewhere to be. I once showed up to work with a birds’ nest for hair post-scalp massage, and let’s just say I wish I hadn’t! For the full spa experience, add some essential oils to the mix to feel and smell amazing.
5. Stop using elastic hair ties
This one may come as a shock, but your beloved, trusty elastic hair ties are causing major damage to your hair. Elastic hair ties pull and snag hair, causing unwanted breakage. In my pursuit of figuring out how to stimulate hair growth, the first swap I made was to cloth and non-elastic hair ties. It was a win-win, too, because they’re way cuter! Plus, funky patterned scrunchies are totally in again. (Raise your hand if they never left! 🙋♀️)
6. Gentle brushing
How skeeved out would you be if I told you I brush my hair about once a month? I know, I know, it sounds insane. But my hair is naturally wavy and gets so frizzy when it’s brushed. Plus, my mom once said if I brush too much I’ll go bald early. In all seriousness, the amount and force that you brush your hair with matters! Don’t yank knots out of your hair, spray in a little leave-in conditioner first or work in small sections, starting from your ends up to your roots. Think about it. If you’re constantly pulling on your hair, wouldn’t it be more likely for it to fall out?
7. Don’t shampoo as often
There’s a reason all the beach bums in movies have great hair! They never wash it. 😂But seriously, even though washing our hair is important, shampoo is still a chemical treatment. That’s another reason why it’s so important to buy high quality products. Just as if you were to wash your face too much, shampooing too often can dry out your hair. On a good week, I only shampoo 1-2x. I know that’s not doable for everyone, but at least giving yourself the “every other day” rule will help save your hair from a lot of unnecessary damage.
The Bottom Line
There’s never a great time in life to have to wonder, “Why did my hair stop growing!?” So if you’ve been struggling, or have struggled, with how to stimulate hair growth, I hope this blog helped give you some hope. Having to ask yourself why your hair stopped growing is a scary and sometimes lonely process! If you start doing even half of the tips and tricks I shared, I promise you will start to see growth and results. Slow and steady wins the hair growth race, so be patient and stay positive! A long, sweeping ponytail is just around the corner.