I recently cut my hair and already, I am missing its length.
One of my subscribers asked me if I have ever tried the Inversion Method for rapid hair growth and I had no clue what she was talking about. After a looking into it, I was intrigued.
Here’s how it works
Invert your head for a few minutes for faster rate of hair growth
Do this method for 7 days straight, then wait a month before trying it again
Basically, the concept behind the Inversion Method is that when you invert your head for a few minutes, you are allowing all of the blood to rush to your head. The idea is that all of the nutrients beneficial for healthy hair will reach the scalp a lot faster, promoting hair growth at a much more rapid pace.
A simple scalp massage already stimulates blood flow to the area to promote hair growth, so inverting your head afterwards is said to boost the results to one inch in one week. Since there have been several success stories, I was really hoping this would work for my curls.
How I did the Inversion Method
Use Jamaican Black Castor Oil and massaged my scalp for 4 minutes straight
Lay down and hang my head on the edge of the bed
While there are a few different ways to do this method, I chose to go with the most common. As instructed, I massaged my scalp for a solid four minutes first. Since I typically use Jamaican Black Castor Oil for the amazing scalp and hair benefits, I decided to include it in my massage for this method. After the four minutes were completed, it was time to invert. I did this a few different ways.
Article continues after video.
At times I would just flip my head down past my knees and just let the upper half of my body hang, while other times I would lay on my bed and allow for my head to hang over the edge.
I felt more pressure at my temples on nights where I had my head hang over the edge of the bed, so I assumed that was most effective in getting the blood to rush to my head. Once inverted, I had to wait 4 minutes.
It is important to state that when the 4 minutes were up, I really had to get up slowly so as to not feel woozy. With that being said, I don’t recommend anyone who was pregnant or suffers from migraines or regular headaches to attempt this method. No sense in the risk.
Did it work for me?
Unfortunately, I didn’t really see much difference other than the top left side of my head having grown a little over an inch. I am not quite convinced that the growth came from the inversion method, though. It is recommended to do this method for 7 days straight and once the week has passed, wait a month before trying it again so that your body doesn’t get used to the method. Do I plan on trying this again next month? Probably not.
The first two or three days were filled with hope and excitement, thinking that I’d come out of this week looking like Rapunzel.
It gave me a headache at times and by day 4 though, I grew tired… sleepy. On one night I went to bed and forgot, then quickly got up and went through the steps. Mind you, I recorded the process so I had to set up the camera and lights, too.
Let’s play a game. What do you think of when you hear the word “mousse?” If you’re anything like me, it may bring up associations with crunchy curls, the 80s, and drying alcohols, but you should know that things have changed. Hairstyles, techniques, brands, and product formulas have all evolved since the days of teased, crispy curls. But because we still get flashbacks when we pick up a bottle of mousse, we spoke with a few curly hair experts about when to use mousse, who should be using mousse today – and who shouldn’t.
Why use a mousse?
Brooke Michie, curl stylist and owner of Lyric Salon in Austin, Texas, first made me reconsider mousse when she used it in Grace’s wavy hair transformation. She loves using mousse on her curly haired clients because it’s “easy to apply, economical per use, has buildable coverage and hold, and can be layered with so many other types of products.”
Maya Smith, International Master of Natural Curls and founder of The Doux®, a haircare line she created specifically for naturally curly hair, says mousse can be used for “any style that requires definition and light hold. It can be used not only to set wash & go’s, but for twist outs and rod sets as well.”
As I’ve been starting to experiment with mousse more, I’ve wondered if I can use it on my dry hair as a refresher on second-day hair. According to Maya, “Mousse is best applied to wet hair for Wash & Go styling, but it can also be used to set a dry twist-out and to redefine the curl pattern. I wouldn’t recommend using it to replenish moisture on next-day hair.”
What causes that crunch?
Maya says, “It’s common for mousse to be combined with gel or cream because most mousse on the market contain alcohol to make the hair dry faster. They are also polymer-rich, which creates a sticky coating on the hair, much like a hairspray. This can leave hair feeling dry and stiff. We formulated our Mousse Def as an all-in-one solution for this problem. It creates the shine and definition of a mousse, yet leaves hair soft and touchable with no flaking.”
Maya recommends watching out for ingredients such as sodium laurel sulfate (SLS, Isopropyl, and Prolyene, which “have been found to cause breakage and dry out your hair). The best way to achieve healthy hair is to have that balance between protein and moisture.”
Brooke says it depends on the mousse, “lightweight, airy mousse or foam is great for wavy hair. Denser mousse is great for 2s and 3s and as a thin layer of added hold for more definition over a moisture foundation for well-hydrated 4s even!” For Maya, it depends on the hairstyle: “I recommend mousse for hair up to Type 4B, depending on the desired results.”
But before you rule mousse out for your Type 4C coils, Gerilyn Hayes, NaturallyCurly Senior Copywriter, loves using mousse on her 4C wash and go (like Camille Rose Spiked Honey Mousse). “I use about 5-6 pumps of mousse in my hair after shampooing and conditioning. I do this because I want to make sure that I’m starting with a clean scalp and curls that are free from any other previous products. And because my curls are very coarse and need lots of hydration, I make sure that my curls are soaked with water (which is why the shower is great for applying mousse to my hair).
To avoid product and water getting into my eyes, I flip my head over and scrunch my curls’ ends to my scalp. Although I do not have a lot of length, I still use this ends-to-root scrunching method to get the optimal curl definition. Sometimes I rake the mousse through my curls and then wrap them in a scarf, giving them more shine. Although rake versus scrunching may look similar to any onlooker, the textural differences are apparent to me!”
Who shouldn’t use mousse?
“Curls with moisture as the number one priority,” says Brooke, “or those who don’t need a product with general hold, but seek more of a product/product combo to hydrate than seal.” So if your curls are thirsty and your top priority is moisture, then you may want to opt for something like the LOC Method, which layers a leave-in for moisture, an oil to seal in the moisture, and then a cream for hold.
When to use mousse
Brooke prefers “the lightest weight mousse (she loves Bread Beauty Supply Hair Foam) in wavy hair for primary, general hold,” and this is how she recommends applying it:
On freshly rinsed detangled hair in the shower, glaze a small amount over the surface area of the hair.
Then flip and glaze another small amount over the underneath surface area.
Then, apply the majority of it via scrunching and distribute it in your palms, making sure not to flatten the airiness of the foam.
Before scrunching the ends of the hair up toward the scalp with a flat palm into a clenched fist motion, rotating your head to reach curls on either side.
If you’re using a denser foam and need more moisture, Brooke recommends applying it:
Once a leave-in or moisture foundation is either combed through or scrunched in sopping wet hair.
Then add a little denser mousse by finger combing detangled sections, or for longer curls, scrunching as above.
“This will create a cast of hold,” says Brooke, but before you worry about the crunch, remember you need to break that cast by scrunching out the crunch. “Release the cast once hair is fully dry by touching curls gently, or scrunching once more to release the wet-looking hold that was necessary during the drying process to maximize definition.”
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