Hello everyone I am back with another post which will focus on how to grow our hair and retain length. The ends of our hair are very important, if we do not care for the ends of our hair they will break off and no matter how much our hair grows, the growth will never translate into longer hair. Take for example, someone who always goes to the salon to get their hair relaxed every 3 months and clearly has a lot of new growth/ under growth before the relaxer is applied however the person finds that at the end of the relaxer process their hair has not grown longer. This is a typical experience for most of us – where the hair grows hence the new growth, but the growth does not translate into length. One of the reasons for this could very well be that your ends are breaking off because you are not paying particular attention to them.

First off let us start with what the “ends” of your hair means. The ends of our hair is the tip of the hair, so when you take a section of your hair, the end part which is the bottom part of the hair can be referred to as the ends of our hair. This is also the oldest part of our hair and they therefore require a lot of care. Except for people with medical conditions and so on most hair grows, the issue I believe especially for those of African descent is that even though our hair grows the regular half an inch (on average) like people of other races we are not able to retain the length of our hair as much. A reason for this is because our hair tends to be drier and more susceptible to breakage and damage another reason which I will be covering in this post is because we do not take adequate care of our ends to ensure that they are always in optimal condition.



For those of us on the Hair Growth Challenge which I am hosting on this blog and for anyone who wants to achieve longer, healthier hair I believe that it is important to care for our ends so that they do not break off and our hair becomes longer and healthier. The rule of thumb is that in most things you do concerning hair care, focus most especially on your ends. I will share the following tips on how to achieve growth and retain length by focusing on our ends, here goes:

When applying deep conditioner concentrate on your ends: It is important to deep condition our hair regularly in our quest for longer, healthier hair. To ensure that our ends remain in tip top shape we should always apply our deep conditioner to our entire hair in sections and for each section ensure that your ends are properly coated with the deep conditioner. So when you are applying the deep conditioner divide your hair into sections of at least 12; the more sections you do the better. Then apply the deep conditioner on each section making sure it covers the entire section of hair then take a little bit more of the conditioner and put it on the ends of your hair.

When applying hair moisturiser concentrate on your ends: We all know that we should moisturise and seal our hair everyday, it is also advisable to do this in sections using a hair moisturiser that contains water as its first ingredient. I usually moisturise my hair in 4 sections if you want to however you can definitely moisturise in smaller sections. I have a post on how I moisturise in sections here. Anyway when applying moisturiser to each section of hair it is important to take a bit more and apply it to the very ends of your hair.

When sealing your hair concentrate on your ends: The ends of our hair are most likely to lose moisture the fastest. It is therefore important to ensure that after moisturising our hair, you seal the moisture that has been put into your hair with an oil. When sealing with an oil no need to work in sections however if that is your preference you can work in about 2 to 4 sections. Take about a coin sized amount of oil, rub your palms together and apply it on your entire length of hair concentrating on your ends.

Always keep your ends protected: This is where protective styles come in. It is important to wear protective styles as much as possible as they keep your ends hidden at all times. When your ends are kept away they are protected and are less prone to damage and breakage.

When detangling your hair be very gentle with the ends of your hair: When detangling your hair it is important to be very gentle with the ends of your hair. If you are finger detangling be gentle as you work your fingers through your hair and if you are using a wide tooth comb you may want to detangle by starting with the ends first.

Trim your ends on a as needed basis: Decipher when you hair needs to be trimmed and give it a slight trim. This could be 1-4 times a year it is all about finding out what works for you. You should never over trim your hair to the point where you are not able to see any growth because you are trimming every 8 weeks or more.

Protect your ends when you are getting your hair relaxed/texlaxed: When you are getting your hair relaxed/texlaxed it is important to protect the ends of your hair by applying a heavy moisturiser, hair butter, hair grease or anything that will stop the relaxer from penetrating your hair shaft. This will ensure that the ends of your hair are adequately protected as the relaxer is not meant to get on it accidentally or at the point where the relaxer is being washed out of the hair. It is also important to make sure that the ends of the hair are never relaxed as this may also lead to breakage.

Doing all of the above will ensure that your ends stay hydrated, nourished and moisturised which will translate to stronger, healthier ends which will result in longer hair. For all those taking part in the Hair Growth Challenge please let us try to follow the above tips in addition to the other rules of the challenge to ensure that we achieve as much hair growth as possible.

Thank you for taking the time to read through this post, please share any questions you might have or any tips for retaining length.

TONKABELLE, xoxo



“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; And my people shall never be put to shame”. – The Holy Bible, Joel 2, v. 25-25 (NKJV)