5 Top Tips for Growing Out Short Hair

Willing your short haircut to get its skates on and grow the heck out takes patience, several stealth hair styles and some common-sense corner cutters! 

Short hair is a great leveler. No matter who you are, what you earn, whom you know or what you wear, short hair is something you simply have zero control over. Especially when you want it to instantly be long again!
But even the most celebrated celebrities are not safe. Recently, we saw Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence emerge seemingly overnight from a slightly awkward and androgynous pixie cut that lingered for a little too long.
Bam! Just like that she’s again being ushered past the paparazzi with a feminine asymmetric bob when it seemed like only yesterday she was donning a short back and sides.
But to get to ‘The Bob’, even Jennifer had to outrun ‘The Grow Out’ phase. It’s long, it’s arduous and it can prove exceedingly challenging.
But before you make a mad grab for the Beanie to hide your poorly thought out pixie cut, side-shave or last Saturday nights tipsy attempt at a 'Miley Cyrus' moment,  there are some tips to trick your hair into growing faster. Or at the very least, observers into thinking it is.
All you need is a little patience, approximately 4025 hairpins and the following:

1. Root Maneuvers:
To stimulate hair growth, one must lavish some loving on the scalp. So often are we predisposed with pulling and tugging at the ends in an attempt to magically make them longer, that we neglect the heart of the matter: The Root. Taking more time in the shower to massage the area and stimulate blood flow to the scalp is a great first step. In addition to this, there are some budget-friendly scalp serums containing jojoba, caffeine and menthol to give hair growth a little help.

2. Healthy Diet = Healthy Hair:
A clean, vitamin packed diet sends seriously beneficial signals to the cells of the body, including the ones that maintain scalp and hair health and vitality. So by cleaning up your diet – and replacing overly processed, fatty foods, sugars and salts with boundless greens, grains and water – you are guaranteed to grow healthier, sturdier, increasingly super-stylish hair.

3. Let There Be Light:

Hair colour - be it blonde, brown, bright pink or purple - can detract from an unloved, uninspiring hairstyle, and make it modern again. No length required. All you need is some at-home hair colour and application smarts. Have fun with it and play around with pastels if the mood takes you. These offer a budget friendly, temporary diversion whilst you wait around for your hair length to get a wriggle on.

4. Trim Regularly. Repeat.
The only hair worth growing is that of the healthy variety. If your short hair is damaged, bleached and porous at the ends, it will continue to grow that way. Eliminate this false follicle economy by getting a professional – ever-so-subtle- trim - once every 8 weeks as you grow your hair out. This will ensure ends remain ultra healthy, and you don’t have to get a whole heap cut off once you’ve reached your desired style.

5. Fake It ‘til You Make It:
You’d be gob-smacked at how many of those sneaky celebrity hair stylists are actually adding extensions ever-so-sparingly to their client’s hair to give the overall illusion of longer locks. (The jury is still out on whether J-Law has extended the truth on her new do.) But before you call The Crop Cops, rest assured that you too can be this sneaky! Ask your own humble hairdresser about your options, but tread carefully as no two extensions are manufactured equally. If you choose human over synthetic hair, ensure you go with a brand that is ethically ‘harvested’ And start slow; a few here and there may be all you need, and can help prevent too much damage – and cost!