Let's Talk About: Growth Aids!

Claiming a certain length is quintessential to just about every hair journey.   And most of us would certainly be open to trying out new things to get it there faster.  Even with that, you'll notice that I don't talk about growth aids much on this blog.  I like to keep things as basic as possible around here because growth aids are one of those things that don't work the same for each head of hair.  And they can be prone to causing some serious and unwanted side effects.

Disclaimer: If you are interested in testing out any of these growth aids, I strongly urge you to do extensive research. There are possible side effect and unsafe drug/ingredient interactions that I haven't mentioned.  And there are some brands of these products, which should absolutely avoided for health and safety reasons.

When I started my hair journey, I did test out a few growth aids.  But after not seeing much as far as accelerated growth rate (and/or having to deal with the side effects), I've sworn them off for the most part.  Below are my experiences with the growth aids I have tried and some new info on newer ones that have been circulating the hair blog/vlogosphere lately.

Which ones have I tried?
Biotin - It's a supplement that you can purchase from your local pharmacy or grocery store.  It's been claimed that it increases the growth of your hair and nails.  And it is also supposed to improve the quality of your skin.  When I started taking it I did notice that my eyebrows were getting out of control earlier than expected.  However, I distinctly remember is that I got a bunch of painfully large pimples on my face as well.  Some say you should drink a lot of water when taking them and/or take it in conjunction with vitamin B-complex.  But I was already over it by then and haven't tried it again since. 

Chlorella - It is a green algae that is high in protein and chloropyll.  And when I saw women on long hair care forum raving about how adding a one teaspoon to one tablespoon of this each day to their diet gave them an inch of hair growth each month, I was interested.  Despite hearing the possible side effects of gas, nausea, diarrhea, stomach cramps, I was still interested.  While I didn't experience any on the side effect (because I started with a 1/8 tsp and slowly built my way up to 1-2 tsp), my hair did not grow any faster. And I took this daily for several months.  Eventually, I let that one go too as a daily supplement. I still have a whole tub left of the powder, so I add a tsp to my smoothies and juices occasionally (it makes them green).

Oil Scalp Messages (I used Jamaican Black Castor Oil and Rosemary Essential Oil - two oils that have been purported to promote growth) - It's recommended that you do scalp messages 5 to 15 minutes a day to improve blood circulation and accelerate your growth rate.  I bought the oils, but I never was able to message my scalp for that long (especially not every day).  The closest I get to this is with the oil pre-poos and hot oil treatments that I am doing with each wash day now.  And even with that I'm not messaging my scalp for 5 minutes straight -- that would take some serious determination on my part.  Nor am I using those oils.

But if you are like me keep your finger on the pulse of things happening in the hair blogger/vlogger world, you too have noticed major increases in the amount of growth aid discussions going on.  I've rounded up some blogger and vlogger sources that have been testing out some growth aids that are currently popular.

What's been popular lately?
The Inversion Method - I first heard about it on youtube when LongNhealthy(here too), DessyGT and JourneyToWaistlength posted their video results after doing the inversion method for 7 days straight.  And each of them got at least an inch in that time frame.  What is the Inversion Method, you ask?  Essentially you commit to daily scalp messages for seven days straight and you must do this with your head upside down.  It sounds easy enough, right?  A part of me definitely wants to give this a try because who doesn't want an extra inch of hair after just 7 days, but the other part of me just doesn't have the motivation to actually commit to that.  Right now, my focus is on my ends -- not growth, so maybe after my ends are in better shape, I'll give this one a try.

Hairfinity - It is a hair growth supplement and Longing4Length was the first place that I saw this product mentioned.  At first I thought ok, just another hair growth concoction, but with celebrity endorsements from the likes of Keshia Knight Pulliam and Porshia Williams (Stewart), two women with beautiful hair, it certainly made me do a double take.  My cousin just let me know that she ordered some, so I'll be checking in on her impressions of it after she's used it for about a month.

Bamboo Tea - I like tea, but for whatever reason bamboo tea sounds like it would not taste very good.  But with benefits like promoting hair and nail growth, I can see why some are interested.  It's a fairly rare tea type, so most of us would have to purchase it online.  But if you want to see what other hair journeyers have to say about this growth aid, check out this before/after and this before/after.

And I'll give an honorable mention to Sulphur Mixes, because the girl who started this trend got a ridiculous amount of hair growth in one year, but personally the possible side effects are too much for me to really give that much attention.  Here is a link to her website and her growth results from using a sulphur mix.  She sells her own version now, but you can buy sulphur based growth aids in several other places as well.


While none of these have led me to change my no growth aid rule as yet, I still enjoy watching everyone else work with it and share their results.

What growth aids do you use (or have you tried)?  What was your experience with them?

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