I was eighteen years old when I experienced my first round of hairloss. It wasn’t a great experience, as I’m sure you can imagine. Not only was I losing what had always been my favourite physical feature, but by that time I was already knee-deep in my YouTube adventure as a hair tutorial channel and hoping to eventually turn it into a full-time career. I went to see my doctor, but they couldn’t find anything wrong in my bloodwork and hormone levels and didn’t deem the hairloss dramatic enough to send me to a specialist. So I simply waited it out, and after a while the hairloss stopped and some of my hair grew back. I never got the thickness back that I used to have as a teenager, but at least I wasn’t losing more hair.
As the years went by, I’d go through periods where my hair would gradually go thinner again, followed by a period of re-growth. For all the factors I’ve considered, I’ve never been able to pinpoint what exactly might be causing my hair to shed. Hormonal changes? Stress? Deficiencies? Inadequate hair care? A combination? Who knows.
I’m currently in a period of regrowth, which is a difficult time to sit out, styling-wise. As a layer of new hair grows in, the longest hair, which is already severely thinned out, continues to shed. This leaves me with very thin ends that stand out even more in contrast to the new growth on top, resulting in an overall look of unhealthy, thin hair.
In anticipation of a new period of hair loss (I’ve kind of accepted it as a cycle at this point), I’m trying to make the absolute most of this re-growth and push it as far as it’ll go. Today I’d like to share what concrete steps I’m taking to maximise my new growth and make my hair as thick and long as possible.
Biotin
The one thing I feel has made the most dramatic difference in my hair growth has been taking biotin supplements. I’ve been taking 1000μg of biotin daily, and since then my hair (as well as my nails) has grown significantly faster than it ever has before. I’m honestly surprised by how well this has worked, and it’s definitely something I intend to keep up for a little while longer.
Washing
For the longest time, I thougt washing your hair as little as possible was the be all end all of growing long, thick, healthy hair. It’s what everybody says: washing dries out your hair, you lose more hair in the washing process, and an oily scalp like mine needs to be trained to produce less oil. In short, washing less is supposed to be the best thing you can do if you want to grow long hair.
What nobody told me though, is that having itchy buildup on your scalp the day after washing isn’t a normal part of having oily hair, and can’t be trained away. Buildup on the scalp can actually cause hairloss (on top of all the other symptoms that come with it) and if you experience it, you should definitely wash your hair as often as necessary. I’ve found my sweet spot at washing every other day. I compensate for the extra washes by using more nourishing hair masks, conditioners and leave-in products.
Speaking of the products I use… I did a couple of sponsored videos with Function of Beauty over the past months and have been using their products ever since, and my hair looks and feels amazing. This post isn’t part of a collab, but I did want to share that the products have made a huge difference. I feel comfortable washing my hair more frequently with these products, and my hair has even gotten wavier since I’ve been using them. I use their shampoo, conditioner, hair mask and leave-in treatment with scalp health as one of the focus points and it’s been great.
Tea Rinses
A while back I did a video about tea rinses and how they can help boost hair growth. Since that video, whenever there’s some cooled down tea left at the end of the day I put it in a jar to use next time I wash my hair. I pour the tea over my scalp, massage it in briefly, then apply a hair mask on my ends. I leave this on for a few minutes and then rinse everything out. The caffeine in tea is supposed to be great for stimulating hair growth, and is often used in hair products made specifically for thinning hair. I’m not exactly sure how much this is contributing to my hair growth on top of everything else I’m doing, but it definitely doesn’t hurt to do a little tea rinse every now and then.
The Chop
This isn’t really something I did to aid my hair growth, but more so to make my hair look fuller. Like I mentioned above, when I have new growth coming in, my ends look extra thin and unhealthy. Once the layer of new hair reached a length I deemed acceptable, I cut off the ends to make all of my hair one length again. I like to push this off for as long as possible as I really value having long hair a lot, but I took the plunge when my new growth was at around armpit length. It’s definitely (much) shorter than I like my hair to be, but the difference in how full it appears is huge. I’m hoping all of the hair can grow longer at the same time now, so fingers crossed!
No Heat
During my last round of hair loss I had a suspicion that my hair might be thinning not just because of shedding, but because of damage and breakage as well. I had taken a deep-dive into making historical hairstyling content and found myself curling, teasing and styling my hair several times a week. All that styling and heat definitely didn’t help the state of my hair.
A good few months ago I decided to dial down on the heat styling again, and do overnight curls whenever possible. I’ve been letting my hair air-dry again and I’ve been focussing on different kinds of historical beauty content, that are gentler on my hair.
That’s it, those are the key steps I’m taking at the moment to give my hair its best chance. I feel like I’ve tried every trick, technique and method there is to stimulate hair growth at this point (these are the ones that stuck), but if you have any golden tips I’d be happy to hear them!
Try minoxidil! Rogain. It is a proven effective topical drug and it works just as well for women as it does for men. It is also cheaper than all the other non proven hairloss serums I used to waste money on… Check out Dr Dray’s videos on it for more info. Love your blog and youtube! :)
Hi Lucy!
I wanted to ask you if you could share which Biotin are you using. I am experiencing great hair loss and I would like to takr some, but there are so many to choose from!
Thnak you!
Just generic supplements from the drugstore or supermarket. I don’t think it matters much, biotin is biotin as far as I’m aware!
I always had VERY thick hair as a young person. I never really noticed it changing in thickness until after I had each child. My hands would be covered in hair as I washed! I had twins, then three more singles and I lost hair for months after each birth. But it always grew back. Years later, at about 55 years old, my completely straight hair became beautifully curly, mostly on the sides- from my ears back. The front has a wave to it and it I put “product” (Moroccanoil Curl Control) on it, it will get a slight curl and blend in. I buy the product at Target or on Amazon. And, although my hair now thins, it seems to thicken at the same time. My hair always looks and feels thick. Just wanted to pipe in here and let you know even good things can come as you get older!
Great post!! You are doing a lot for your hair. Have you tried weekly hot oil treatment? They are amazing for your scalp health and help you de-stress as well. There are a lot of oils which you can use for this. I would personally recommend Castor Oil with any other carrier oil you prefer. This oil has literally helped me lower my hairline and make my hair thicker and stronger as well. Another home remedy that helped me a lot with my hair is red onion juice. You can watch Audrey Victoria youtube channel for a detailed information for this. She has a lot of videos on castor oil and one for onion juice. If you try this tips, I sincerely hope it helps you because I know how despairing hair loss can be. All the best!!!
I’ve been curious about Function of Beauty’s full ingredient list. They show their unique ingredients per hair qualities and what they don’t use in their products but none of their “other” ingredients. Do their bottles list ingredients? I imagine my hair type and goals would be the same or similar to yours. Thanks for the tips and have a great day!
Hi Ada,
Function of Beauty products come with a little leaflet that lists the customisations you chose, use recommendations and full ingredient lists for all the products. The list is waaay too long for me to copy, but I could email you a picture of my leaflet if you like?
Thanks for the reply. I would be grateful for a leaflet picture. Thanks so much!
Scalp exfoliation comes highly recommended especially for people who experience alot of buildup. There are different exfoliant shampoos out there, I’ve tried the green tea one from the Body Shop and loved it, but I think I’ve seen one in Lush as well as beauty supply shops/salongs (though Body Shop always gives you a free sample if you ask for it!). How often you use it depends, some people say once a week, some say once a month, but I think it’s entirely depending on your own scalp situation
Hope this was helpful!
i too experienced hair loss some time ago. It left me completely decastated as before my hair was thick, strong, shiny and superhealthy ( i didnt even have to use conditioner to make it tangle free and glossy!). I used to get compliments all the time. A year ago I chopped my hair off quite short and my hair is growing back thicker. I dont know what causes these changes in my hair. One time my hair will look amazing and the other time it will look frizzy and matte while using the exact same products. Previously I could just do whatever with my hair and it always behaved. Well im glad my hair is thicker again and I hope it will stay this way!!
You might wanna try some homemade flaxseed gel to prevent hair breakage in the future. The ingredients are very cheap, it’s all natural and super easy to prepare. I’ve been using it for several months now as kind of a leave-in conditioner after every hair wash and it truly was a real revelation for me. Always struggled with split ends and hair breakage before but now my relatively thin and super straight hip-length hair looks just super healthy. The other day my friend even approached me to ask what I did to achieve this.
Maybe it’ll help you as much as it helped me, judging from your videos I believe you have a quite similar hair structure to mine.
Hey there!
I had left a comment on recent video regarding this, and you told me you’d be putting this post up! Thank you so much for sharing, I can’t believe my timing! I loved these tips. The biggest thing I’ve found that’s beginning to make a difference in my hair loss is a supplement called Viviscal (this is in America – its name may be different in other places but I’m sure you’ll still be able to find it). It contains nutrients found in shark cartilage, and has pretty reliably good results. I’ve only been on it for a short time, but I swear I’m noticing less hair fall already. Thank you again for this, losing your hair is so hard to go through but it’s not uncommon. It’s so comforting to find more people who share this problem, so that we can get to the bottom of it as a community!
Have a great day,
Charlotte