Hair hasn't grown in over 5 years

Sarah.Jeanne

I've had longer hair in the past when I was younger and I cut my hair to chin length about 9 years ago and have only had trims since. I keep looking back at photos from years ago and my hair is the same length yet all of my friends have had their hair grow well past mine in 2 years even though they had much shorter hair.

I have red hair so I never dye it and every hair stylist I have seen says it's very healthy hair. My hair is dry so I only wash and style it about 2 times per week. I don't use shampoo with sulfates and I now do coconut oil treatment at least twice per month. I do use heat to style but again, only about twice per week and my hair is healthy. And I know heat is the worst thing you can do but going to work with natural hair is not an option for me. I use protectant and high quality tools. I've tried biotin for over a year but gave up. I eat super healthy everyday and lots of drink water and weight lift and do cardio. I just don't know what else to do and it kills me that my friends who dye and bleach their hair have hair that grows like crazy. The other thing is that my nails grow much faster than most people and I couldn't even keep up with acrylics because I needed a fill after about 4 days.

Blueblood

Are you on any medications including birth control? When you lose hair does it have a bulb at the end? Does anyone else in your family who is a blood relation have or had problems with hair growth or hair loss?

The fact that your nails grow fast indicates your problem is unlikely to be a vitamin or mineral deficiency.

Aliciamelena87

Overall, you are doing the right things. I am 99% certain your hair is growing. The key is length retention. I would switch from hair trims to hair dustings to lose less length. I would also monitor hair loss of any kind (e.g. shedding, breakage, etc). Do you have any issues with tangles, knots, etc? If so, then you may want to alter your hair-handling procedures.

Aside from that, it is possible that your hair has a short growth period. Let's say that person X has hair follicles that are in the growing phase for 6 years before resting and eventually falling out; that's about 36 inches of growth (from scalp to ends). let's imagine that your hair has a significantly shorter growth cycle, say 3 years, and each hair strand only grows 18 inches from the the scalp before being falling out. This would explain why your hair is growing but looks about the same length. I hope that makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't.

naturecat

Fermented rice water (dumping it over my head once/week) has been very helpful to me. It is said to make hair grow faster, though my hair grows fast anyways so I couldn't tell you about that part anecdotally. But it does make the hair stronger, healthier, more elastic, more moisturized, and shed much less.
How long is your hair now? I do agree with the post above that you may have reached terminal length (unless it's still at chin level--then that's too short not to grow). Some people can grow their hair extremely long, whilst others cannot.
Anyway, back to rice water: The Yao women of China wash their hair with it, and their hair grows quite long. Google it to see pictures; it's quite something. So maybe this can help you as well.

Curlista93

Well, I've heard that you can tell of you've reached terminal length based on your ends ( sorry I can't confirm this). Your ends don't look thin or that bad at all. Some people's hair just grows slowly. Your friends' hair probably grows faster than average, don't compare yourself to them.