I never knew that there were so many websites dedicated to growing your hair long. I never knew there were so many things to help with that either!

Anyone else have long hair and, if so, how do you care for it? What I have learned in my reading the last couple of days...

Using water only to wash your hair.
Using a boar bristle brush.
Massaging your scalp and working the oils down the hair.
Using henna and indigo mixed with various herbs (sandalwood sounds lovely) for hair dye instead of chemicals.
Always wearing your hair in an updo to protect it from wind and sun and breakage.
Using silk pillow cases.

So... In an effort to grow my hair to sitting-on-length I'm going to try water only, wearing it up (or braided), use henna for the red, got a boar brush, etc.

I wore my hair in a bun to work today and I felt EXPOSED!! :lol:

if you never use shampoo; keep spreading the oil through your hair by massaging and brushing it with pig bristles; and you'll need to wear it always in a bun ... to keep the gloppy strings out of your face so they don't make you break out in rashy zits.

you're gonna end up lookin' like one greasy-headed little old lady! :lol:

keep it clean. alternate between a "treatment" shampoo (i need the ones that add volume and body) and a clarifying shampoo. use a wide-toothed comb or one of those brushes with big spaces between the bristles. have the ends professionally trimmed when they start to look scraggly.

despite the trims, your hair will grow, shine and be healthy. and you won't have flies circling your head. :wink:

That's what I thought, that it would be really greasy, but the people who do it say that isn't so. It seems that for a month it will be but then your scalp and oil production adjusts. I guess it makes sense that if we are constantly washing away the natural conditioning oils, and then replacing them with conditioner, our scalp makes more, and more. Maybe what it does is adjust when it's not being constantly washed away.

Also using henna/indigo and powdered herbs cleans the hair.

I also read that many use a very, very small amount of shampoo, like a tablespoon, mixed with all water in a shampoo bottle, and use it to wash the scalp. I've done that a time or two when I forgot to get shampoo, just a little bit left in the bottle, so I add water and shake it up to pour over my head. :D

A Black woman at work asked me how often I wash it. I said I usually wash it every other day, at the most I can go 3 days before it's oily. She said that she washes hers every 2 or 3 weeks and she likes the oils in her hair. She always wears it in a pony tail. Certainly a different type and texture of hair but I can see how it would be beneficial in conditioning.

I took this picture a couple of days ago. The ends don't look the best here, not usually that poofy. I got it cut not long ago at a salon, first time in 10 years. I trim a little myself whenever the ends get ragged.

I wash my hair only when it looks greasy about 3 or 4 days apart and with not alot of shampoo, and then I keep it in a towel, and let it air dry before I brush it.

I rarely blow dry my hair, it takes way too long and it makes it flyaway. I haven't blow dried it in months and months and it is in much better condition. I wrap it in a towel, don't rub it, and I also don't brush it out until it's dry.

I either leave it loose or I twist it into one long rope and let it dry like that.

Now that is funny we do our hair the same.

use baking soda and water to wash it and apple cider vinegar to condition it. That's what we've been doing for several months now. It really works great. Even my 13yo dd has started doing hers that way. we wash about 1x a week. I will wet it with water and fix it if I need to though.

A friend of mine with long hair would wash it with shampoo once a week and wash it with conditioner the other 6 days. Seemed to work well.

My hair doesn't get greasy, really, my skin and hair is not oily at all. I wash my hair every second day just because I feel dirty. I shower every day, obviously, but I try to avoid wetting my hair every other day, because if I wash it too often it totally dries out my hair. My hair is probably about half-way down my back now, shortest it's been in many years. I've always worn it very long, it's sort of wavy and I don't like that it get's frizzy sometimes, so I do flat iron, sometimes, but I rarely blow dry. I've never put dye in my hair, I'm afraid of the damage, and if I ruin the colour, I can never get my natural colour back. Plus, I know people pay a lot of money to dye their hair my colour... don't want to mess it up.
I know a few black people who tell me they only wash their hair every couple of week or so, and I'm guessing because of they type and texture of the hair, it requires a different treatment and routine than ours... I can't imagine waiting more than a few days to wash my hair, I would feel disgusting. Even though it doesn't look dirty, I woud feel dirty. I can't really see how washing hair with just water would do any good at all, why bother.

My hair is long-ish. Middle of my back. It is very thick and has a tendency to frizz like crazy. I use Aussie shampoo and conditioner. Lots and lots of conditioner! I never blow dry but that's just because I look like Don King if I do. It is generally in a single French braid to keep it out of my way. I HATE to fix hair. I'm terrible at it so long hair works for me. I wash it and slap it in a braid. End of hair maintenance.