Make Your Hair Growth Easier by Treating it Like an RPG
Choose how your hair evolves!
This is part 3 of 4 in a series dedicated to prepping for hair growth. Be sure to check out the other parts as well:
Part 1: It’s not too late to grow our hair out in 2024
Part 2: Don’t grow your hair out until you do these 3 things
Part 4: Best haircuts to get before growing out your hair
I seem to have plenty of clients who are trying to grow their hair long for the first time in their lives. It is unexplored territory and can come with some excitement with trying something new but also some reservations as we may go periods without looking the way we want to.
If you’re giving it a try this year, like me and my clients, then you may be wondering how long will it really take.
We know that hair grows, on average, at a rate of half an inch a month. This means that 6 months will bring us roughly 3 inches of growth. It may not seem like a lot for half a year’s worth of skipped haircuts, and it isn’t if I’m being honest. I’d say that still falls within the realm of a short hairstyle if you’re growing it out from a fade or something similar.
Now, there are loads of tips and tricks on the internet suggesting that you can speed up the process with oils or natural remedies, but I can’t recommend any of these to anyone because there just isn’t enough evidence that the speed of growth increases.
So instead of throwing random stuff into your hair in hopes of making the process go by faster, I’d recommend a mindset shift. I already mentioned a few changes that need to be made with your mentality in hair growth last week, but this week I want to address how we can plan out our hair growth journey so that it can be more manageable and even enjoyable.
Treat Your Hair Growth Like an RPG
I will mainly be using the example of Pokemon to illustrate what I am talking about. If you’re familiar with the game or concept, which I think most people are, then you know that each Pokemon evolves once they hit a certain level [1].
The same can be applied to your hair growth journey.
Along your hair growth journey, your hair will hit a certain length (level), and you will be able to evolve it into a different haircut. This may not be the final evolution, but it’s significantly better than what you had previously.
I have always suggested that people have an end goal in mind when they start growing their hair so that they have something they can work towards. However, now I think it’s more beneficial to work backward from that final goal and find other haircuts they can look forward to having along the way.
By breaking up the journey with different hairstyles along the way, we can have a bit more fun and make things easier on ourselves instead of just endlessly grinding through bad hair day after bad hair day.
Imagine if you started with a Charmander at lvl. 5 and instead of evolving into a Charmeleon at lvl. 16, you had to wait all the way to lvl. 36 for the Charizard. I know I’d get kind of tired of having Charmander for so long without it evolving.
Now imagine you don’t get to see what level your Charmander is at, you blindly try to evolve your Pokemon, but you’re not even sure if it’s getting anywhere anytime fast. That’s what it feels like to just grow your hair out without some sort of plan.
By thinking about that middle-stage haircut that you can get once you hit a certain length, you’ll know that firstly, you’re on the right track and secondly, you’ll be able to enjoy having the upgrade as it keeps things fresh while you continue growing.
So How Does One Plan out their Hairstyle Evolution?
The first thing I’d suggest for people is to assess your lifestyle, hair type, and personality so that you can fall into one of two tracks.
The first track is the Clean Flow.
This is for the guys that usually go for side-part hairstyles, and like to stay professional with their look. The ideal hair type for this style would be something on the straighter side, with more softness to the hair strands. They tend to move the way you want them to but may lack volume when styled. You can give this type of hair direction effortlessly, but it tends to stay flat.
Those with wavy-to-curly hair may not be able to tame their hair as easily and this can add a lot of frustration to your daily routine. Instead, you may benefit from doing the second track.
The second track is the Messy Textured Look.
Also known as a more lived-in style. This track is for guys who can be a bit more casual with their style. You just want to have an effortless style where hair is allowed to fall out of place and possibly in your face. The ideal hair type for this is wavy-to-curly hair, as it tends to have a mind of its own sometimes, but we can use that as a strength.
If your hair is coarse, stiff, and stubborn, the messy approach may be the better choice for you as well. It can be hard to smooth the hair down when it hits an awkward length, so having it intentionally messy can make it easier to enjoy the longer lengths.
Anyone with fine or flat hair may find it hard to pull off the messy look, as it tends to require a good amount of product and effort to style it in a way that shows off all that texture.
It isn’t impossible for someone to try one track with a non-ideal hair type, but it will be a bit more challenging to keep up with the look as you are mainly fighting the nature of your hair.
Build Your Own Roadmap
Once you’ve decided on your track, it’s time to go to Pinterest and do some research on hairstyle inspiration. Find images of people with your hair type, and find pictures of different lengths that you like the look of within your given track.
Be sure to save those haircuts to a Pinterest board so that you can refer back to them later at your next haircut appointment. By having a visual collage of potential haircuts, your barber can then work with you on creating a plan involving what haircut you can get today, and how that can lead to the next haircut that you can get a couple of months later.
To help you get started, I’ve created some example boards that you can use for a clean flow look (mostly for straight, fine hair), a messy look (for wavy hair), and a look more for Asian hair (coarse, straight hair). This is in no way going to capture all the possible hair types and styles within each one but is more meant to help inspire you to make your own. These boards were all made within minutes, so it won’t take you much time at all once you get started.
Pinterest Boards:
If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out the haircuts that I have done on real clients in my portfolio!
References
Thanks for reading!
My name is Wesley, I am a Barber located in the city of Calgary helping my clients become more confident with all things related to their hair by providing customized haircuts that suit them best while demystifying all the complicated hair information out there!
