Most people do not remember the old wives tale of brushing 100 strokes morning and night..but it does work!
While in beauty college I did a study on the "Czar of long hair"..My own hair while in school was down to my waist and virgin blond....what fun I had...
anyway,..George Michael fell in love with his mother's hair..it was on the ground long...and he wrote many a books and study for years on how a person grows and cares for such long hair...
the brushing helps stimulate the blood flow to the scalp...
another thing was to trim the slightest bit, even 1/8" off the ends every 6-8 weeks!
another was less frequent shampooing...of course with today's modern products that might not work too well for most!
Here is a great article from the Czar!
http://ipaki.com/content/html/127/1057.html