Hair Growth - Growing Back Edges with Emu oil - Update 3

Hi guys,

As I promised, here is an update of my edges to date:

From top to bottom 12 May 09, 12 June 09, 15 July 09 and 31 October 09

So it's been about 5 months now and I think my edges have done pretty well. They're not only getting longer, but also continue to thicken. I couldn't be happier!

I also wanted to address other factors, besides the Emu oil, that may have contributed to the growth.

• I think, obviously, one of the biggest contributers has been not braiding my edges with extensions. Research tells us that hairstyles, such as braids, allow pulling forces to be exerted, causing mechanical damage on the hair follicles. This damage, if done repeatedly will cause inflammation and eventually lead to reduced hair growth (Khumalo, N.P., Jessop S., Gumedze F., Ehrlich., R. (2008) Determinants of marginal traction alopecia in African girls and women. J Am Acad Dermatol, 59, 432-438). So not braiding my edges would have reduced mechanical stress on my follicles and allowed proper growth. I have however left my hair/ edges unbraided before and my edges didn't grow back, so I assume that although it was a huge contributor, it wasn't the only reason for an improvement.

• Moisturising would also have helped retain the length that I got. If my edges were dry and brittle, they would have broken right off and I wouldn't have seen any improvement.
  

• Hmm... can't think of anything else. Can you? The reason I decided to do this list is that I don't want people to think that they can just slap on Emu oil and they'll go from neck length to waist length in one month. You still need to take care of your scalp and the hair that eventually grows as well. This along with the Emu oil that I believe has alleviated some of the inflammation caused by tight braids and weaves is what I think helped my edges grow back.

They're still not as full as i'd like them to be. But I'm certainly proud of the progress thus far : ) . I will continue to use Emu Oil regularly on my edges, but I'm also going to start incorporating Megatek to see if the results are any different.

Have you tried Megatek? Any Megatek hair growth success or failure stories?