Anyone who isn’t careful can find themselves facing a beauty and natural hair nightmare that will leave them with the ultimate question- how to grow your edges back. Our edges are the forefront of our appearance, definitely a determining beauty feature, and one of the most fragile components of our hair.
Whether you prefer to where it slick back or loose and all in their fuzzy glory, this is certainly nothing we take lightly. It’s not fun and quite embarrassing to see your once full hairline transform into broken, balding edges.
Frankly, it can leave you feeling hopeless and incomplete. Especially after the negative backlash many celebrities receive after being caught with not so pleasing edges.
Fortunately, if you find yourself falling victim to losing your edges, there are a few practical solutions to re-growing your hairline naturally. Like most solutions, it’s most effective to determine the cause and then react.
Causes of thinning edges
Firstly, we must identify and understand the root of the problem to prevent balding around our hairline. What caused your edges to thin out?
Here is a list of few common things that you may unknowingly do that prevent your edges from flourishing in their full and dense glory.
Excessive use of gel
The gel is known to “lay our edges” but too much can be more detrimental than beneficial. Specifically, gel with alcohol can dry out your edges and cause damage which leads to extreme breakage.
For a replacement, try using gel treatments that utilize organic ingredients designed to nourish your hair and create a charming style.
Over-styling
Tight buns and/or ponytails may look cute, but they definitely are a nightmare. Constant tension such as tightly pulled back hair, over a short period will cause thinning edges and result in long-term damage as well.
Over-styling includes but is not limited to over brushing. Typically, natural hair wearing women are not advised to use brushes often, but more important our edges cannot take the pressure of being raked by a hard bristle brush.
Softer brushes have been introduced and sold more as an alternative.
Postpartum
Unfortunately, the loss of your edges after giving birth is completely out of your hands, but at least it can help you identify the issue. Pregnancy and post pregnancy affects everyone differently and with the right techniques you can bounce back better than ever.
It is recommended that you turn to vitamins and more water intake to onset hair loss.
Night time maintenance
How you treat your hair at night is the breaking point in its health. Using a cotton hair scarf to tie only contributes to edge and hair loss over time.
Movement in our sleep causes friction between the cotton scarf and our edges resulting in unnecessary hair loss, possibly permanently.
Lace front wigs
Yes, our dearest and nearest friend, the lace front wig can be detrimental if we aren’t careful. Applying glue on top of our edges often will result in loss in the quickest manner.
Any glue that can hold a wig in place can snatch your edges in a heartbeat. As well as, the glue will create build up and result in a loss as you remove it.
Try glueless lace front wigs and treating your edges before any lace front wig glue application.
Neglect
Plain or ignoring your tips can easily be the cause of thinning hairline. Just as any other part of our hair, our tips require lots of moisture and care.
Many try to give their edges 5-10 minutes of their time right before bedtime, so avoiding being that person who never cared. Sounds familiar?
Well, I did say that all hope is not lost. Because although losing them may seem easy, you can believe that growing them back is just as simple.
Here are 3 easy, simple, and super effective techniques to grow back full edges in no time!
Oil treatment
Oil has been a go-to remedy for regrowth for a while now. Many have trusted Jamaican black castor oil to replenish their edges because of its useful properties such a stimulating growth, adding moisture, and antifungal and antibacterial characteristics.
Using oils rich in fatty acids to massage your scalp (affected area of hair loss) can genuinely stimulate regrowth within the scalp and create a foundation for healthy scalp and hair. I recommend oil massages as many times a week as possible.
You don’t have to start a two-hour mini-spa in your bathroom, but ten minutes of application and massage can make a significant difference. Other oils you can add to castor oil or use as a replacement includes, olive, coconut, argan, jojoba, and sweet almond oil.
Creating an oil mixture is ideal and can help you take advantage of all the benefits of each oil to see much faster results.
Edges friendly natural hairstyles
Remember when we said earlier that tight buns and ponytails are a huge no for thinning edges?! Well, you don’t have to give up entirely on styles just to regrow them.
There are a plethora of natural hairstyles for thin edges that you can choose from. Twist and braid outs do not require that your hair is pulled to the max.
Also, loose high puffs using a shoe string or an old stretched out headband are alternative updos without the tension. Pinterest will be a best friend in finding low manipulation styles that make free and untamed edges look beautiful.
Hydrate
Hydrating your body AND your edges is a major key in regrowth and maintaining health. Spritzing your edges with water and adding oil afterward is a great way to make sure it remains most hydrated and doesn’t become brittle.
When our hair is dry, it becomes brittle and more prone to breakage. Moisturizing, as usual, will be the key to maintaining healthy edges and promoting growth.
Hydrating your body is always beneficial to our natural hair because healthy hair starts within. A dehydrated scalp will not produce anything let alone anything healthy.
Products Supporting the Regrowth of Your Edges
When shopping for products, it’s important for them to have ingredients that deeply penetrate the hair. When these ingredients are gently massaged into the thinning edges, they encourage the hair follicles to heal so they can continue to produce hair.
Oils such as castor and emu penetrate the hair and scalp better than other types of oils. Emu oil can be found at Walgreens and online. Using these products is as simple as gently massaging the thinning area with the oil for a few minutes. Doing this a few times a week will help strengthen the hair that’s present, and encourage strong and healthy new growth.
Because thinning areas are very delicate and prone to more breakage, it’s best to avoid manipulating them at all. Stop any smoothing, brushing, pulling or hairstyles that would add tension. Once your edges are strong and healthy again, you can gently continue with your hairstyling.
Castor Oil
Castor oil has been known to help strengthen and regrow thinning hair, making it a powerful addition to your haircare regimen. When purchasing, look for castor oil that has been cold pressed. Cold pressing is a method of oil extraction that preserves all the benefits of the oil. Other methods of extraction can cause the oil to lose some nutrients.
The lighter the color of the oil, the purer it is. Black castor oil has the ash from roasted castor beans blended with the oil. Some people say the added ash delivers extra nutrients that hair loves. It has excellent reviews and is widely available.
To use castor oil, simply massage it onto your edges for 2-3 minutes. Do this a few times a week to get the best results. Before long, you’ll notice healthy new hair growing. It won’t take long to see results, but it can take several months for your edges to return to their normal state.
Sew In
If you’re experiencing thinning edges you may want to know how to regrow with a sew in. Sew in weaves are a method of hair weaving that uses strips of hair that are attached to the natural hair every inch or so. This technique lays a foundation for the tracks to be laid. The tracks are sewn into the strips rather than onto the natural hair. The weight of the tracks is on the sewn-in strips rather than on the natural hair. This reduces the chance of the natural hair becoming stressed from bearing the weight of the weave.
If your edges are very thin, this may be an ideal option for you. While it is never recommended to have back to back weaves, this may be a temporary solution that would give it an opportunity to regrow without sacrificing your favorite hairstyle.
Emu Oil
The benefits of emu oil for skin health have been known for a while, however using emu oil for edges has been quickly gaining popularity. Emu oil is very lightweight, cloudy in color and easily blends with other oils. It doesn’t feel greasy or oily at all which is why it’s excellent for skin and now hair. When emu oil is used on the hair, it helps stimulate hair follicles into producing healthy hair. Massaging emu oil on edges several times a week helps them regrow to their natural state.
When growing your edges back, remember to avoid hairstyles that pull on the hairline. Don’t brush your edges. Your scalp needs a break so it can recover. Other than regular massaging, allowing the emu oil to work its magic undisturbed will restore your soft and gorgeous edges.
Thinning edges are by any means not fun to deal with, but there are answers to re-growing them back stronger than ever. Our precious hairline just requires a little TLC that will spring it back to its healthiest stage.
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