For the last five years or so, I have been rocking a pixie haircut. Over the last year, however, I have decided to grow my hair out. Not that I didn’t like the pixie. The pixie is great for a variety of reasons: your hair dries super fast; it looks good even when your hair texture is wonky; and it gives you that gamine look. I get bored easily with my hair, which is the real reason I decided to grow it out. If anyone else has experienced the awkward growing out stage, you know it is ROUGH. I am talking I-Have-to-Wear-a-10-Year-Old-Headband-in-Public rough. As Jack from “30 Rock” once so wisely said, “your hair is your head suit.” So you don’t want to wear a terrible, ill-fitting head suit. My hair is finally getting to a length that looks like it isn’t in the middle of awkward city. Here are some tips I found useful:

1) Get your hair trimmed. Like, for real.

Yeah it may sound counterintuitive but it is necessary if you want healthy hair. Plus shaping your hair is KEY to making it look at least presentable to you and the outside world. I tried to get my hair cut every 8-9 weeks. Bang trims were needed in the meantime so I didn’t get lost behind my shaggy bangs.

2) Vitamins!

A lot of people have success with biotin, however it always made my skin weird so I stuck to just good ol’ regular multivitamins. Still, it helps. You need to feed your hair!

3) Experiment

I am talking experimenting with texture and accessories. Get yo head out of the gutter, perverts! Try curling your hair or wearing it messy with some pomade. Bobby pins can be fun too, especially colored ones. I am a fan of headbands as well. In order to stop myself from chopping my hair off out of boredom, I used color to mix it up enough where I felt like I wasn’t settling for boring hair.

4) Condition! Condition! Condition!

Healthy hair is key in growing out your hair. I try to deep condition my hair at least once a week and use leave in conditioner or moisture product every day I style my hair (which is, unfortunately, every day). Phyto has good conditioners that keep my hair looking and feeling soft and manageable. You can find recipes to make homemade masks for cheap on Pinterest too!

5) Patience!

Lame. You would think science would have given us something so we wouldn’t have to rely on patience. At least it’s free!

Any other tips you swear by? Would you ever cut your hair into a pixie? It really isn’t as scary as it sounds!