How do I grow my hair longer and faster in a healthy way?

If you don't have someone you trust implicitly to trim your hair for you, find a salon that caters to long hair, has a long hair specialist, or at least be sure to glare at your stylist as menacingly as you can while you clearly explain your hair growth goals before letting her come at you with a pair of styling scissors. It also helps to ask your hair stylist to show you exactly their perception of the measure of your tresses you would like trimmed by showing you what they think is the same distance from the end of their comb. I am convinced hair stylists are taught a completely different measuring system from the rest of the world, and not once have I ever had a stylist show me an accurate half inch on her first try.

If you don't have inches of hair to spare, you'll be very glad you asked! It also helps to remember, it is not in the best interest of most hair salons or stylists if you rarely make visits to their salon, which is definitely a conflict of interest! If your hair is short and styled, you are always at the salon spending money for maintenance.

If your stylist tries to convince you that your long, healthy hair should be cut, run screaming from the salon immediately! In the end, it is up to you to make sure that anyone whose advice you consider, be it a stylist, friend or family member, has only the best interest of YOUR acknowledged hair growth goals in mind. Otherwise smile politely and ignore every word they say.

You absolutely are not too old, too thin, too short, too gray, too anything to have long hair. Avoid using any heated appliances whenever possible. No blow drying, no curling irons, no hot rollers, and especially no flat irons or hair crimpers!

If you absolutely must blow dry do so minimally, and contrary to popular belief, it is best to let your hair dry naturally for as long as possible and use the blow dryer just to finish it off at the end. If you must use hot rollers, use flocked or ceramic rollers that are safer for your hair, not spiked plastic rollers (and be sure to read about all the great alternative methods in our Ultimate Guide to Curling Long Hair first!) If you insist on using curling irons, flat irons or crimpers on a daily basis, really long healthy hair isn't in your future. If you do use any kind of heat on your hair, be sure to use a product that will help protect your hair from it, but keep in mind that every time you apply heat you are likely to cause some damage.

Don't use any harsh chemicals on your hair. Definitely no perms and no peroxide! If you must color, use non peroxide color or 100% natural henna (henna comes in a full range of colors, not just red).

In addition to being an all-natural way to add color to your hair, henna will "plump up" and add body to fine hair (but it's best not to use it on very dry hair). Check out our Hair Care Recipes Cookbook too, and learn to make your own organic hair color and products. Low-peroxide hair color is much less damaging to hair than permanent color, but using these products again and again will eventually detrimentally affect the health of your hair, it is unavoidable.

If you do choose to go this route, you will have to be even more diligent about taking care of your hair. Be sure to use a good daily shampoo and conditioner formulated specifically for color treated hair, which will make your color last longer, which equates to less exposure to damaging chemicals in the end. Using a line of shampoo and conditioner that adds a bit of color will make it last even longer.

And be sure to deep condition your hair often, again using a product forumated especially for color treated hair. With making your color last as long as possible as the primary goal so as to limit how often you have to use hair color, you may also want to consider using a leave-in color protectant. In the end, it's much safer, and less work and expense, to learn to love the color you have, or at least to use a hair coloring product that doesn't contain any peroxide at all.

Now, having spoken to hundreds of customers addicted to color over the years, I know how difficult it is to convince you kidz not to use it. That being the case, the least I can do is tell you how to use it while keeping damage at a minimum and long, gorgeous hair in your future. In this instance, 16oz.

Of prevention is definitely worth a ton of cure.