Q: Stimulating your scalp with massages, pinching, or brushing with a soft bristle brush can promote hair growth. This increases blood flow to the hair follicles, which brings needed nutrients to your hair. This can also help to reduce headaches brought on by the too-tight hairstyles mentioned above. Try one of these common scalp massage techniques:  Effleurage: This technique is meant to warm the muscle tissue and improve circulation to the scalp. It involves gently stroking the scalp with the fingertips or palms of the hands.  Petrissage: This massage involves kneading the scalp, resulting in a deeper massage than the gentler effleurage technique. Petrissage relaxes and stretches the muscles, and also improves circulation to the scalp. Eating healthy will have a huge impact on hair growth. Your diet affects the nutrients in your body, and those nutrients are used to build new hair. If you do not have the proper nutrients, your body cannot build hair as quickly or as strongly. Eat a proper diet with the correct nutrients to promote hair growth.  Protein: Hair is made mainly of proteins, so your body cannot build good strong hair if it does not have enough. Make sure you are getting complete proteins, either by eating meat, soy products, or multiple alternative sources of protein. Beans, seeds, nuts, milk, and seaweed are good alternative sources of protein but must be eaten in combination to produce a complete protein. Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Your body needs these to produce hair. Hair is made up of 3% fatty acids such as these. However, your body can’t produce these on its own, so you need to be sure that your diet includes these. Fish (such as salmon) and nuts (such as walnuts) are an excellent source of these healthy fats, as well as protein. Zinc: Without zinc, your scalp will become dry and itchy. This can lead to poor hair growth or even hair loss. Get more zinc in your diet by consuming fortified cereals and grains, oysters, and eggs. Vitamin A or beta carotene: Consuming beta carotene allows your body to produce vitamin A. Vitamin A serves many functions in your body but also helps to regulate the oils on your scalp. Without these oils your skin will become dry and your hair will become damaged. Increase beta carotene in your diet by eating lots of sweet potatoes, pumpkin, apricots and carrots. Iron: Iron is necessary for helping oxygenate the blood. This oxygen is necessary for healthy hair. Low iron is a major cause of hair loss, especially in women. Get more iron in your diet by eating dark greens, eggs, and meat. Vitamin B: The entire vitamin B class will help promote healthy hair. Vitamin B5 is necessary to process the fatty acids mentioned above and B7 and B12 are used to process proteins. B9 affects cell growth directly. Get more B vitamins in your diet by consuming turkey, tuna, and lentils. Vitamin E: Vitamin E is absolutely essential to healthy skin and healthy skin means a healthy scalp. It also helps to protect hair. Get more vitamin E by eating sunflower seeds, nuts, and avocados. Taking vitamins will help ensure that your body has the nutrients it needs to produce healthy hair. While eating a well-balanced, healthy diet should allow you to have the proper nutrients, vitamin supplements can help you ensure that you are getting the proper amount of each vitamin. Prenatal vitamin supplements are probably best suited to promoting hair growth, as these contain the vitamins most commonly associated with healthy hair. Not everyone reacts to vitamin supplements in the same way, or has the same dietary needs. Consult your doctor before starting any dietary supplement. Applying a couple tablespoons of olive oil and coconut oil every couple weeks will flush your hair with antioxidants to fend off decay from free radicals.  Mix the oils together and heat the mixture up until it's warm. Make sure it won't burn your scalp. Comb the mixture through hair. Make sure to get both the ends and the roots. Let your hair sit for 20 to 30 minutes, then wash thoroughly and air dry. Drinking water will promote a healthier scalp and healthier hair. When your body doesn't get enough water, it begins to dry out. The skin and hair are the first and most noticeable areas of dryness from dehydration. Eight glasses of water per day is the typical recommended amount for an adult. Regular sleep cycles help your body regulate melatonin and cortisol levels, both of which affect hair growth. Also, sleep is necessary to maintaining your body in general. When your body doesn't get enough sleep, it begins to shut down side processes like hair production. Each person is different in how much sleep they need, so be sure to get the right amount for your body.
A: Stimulate your scalp. Eat healthy. Take vitamin supplements. Give your hair an antioxidant mask. Drink water. Get plenty of sleep.

Q: Try to do this in person instead of on the phone. Wait for him to have a few moments alone, or text him saying you need to talk to him about something and plan a time and place to meet. Having the conversation privately, especially when his girlfriend isn’t around, will help you talk about your feelings without feeling pressure or extra nervousness.  Avoid having this conversation over text, as you don’t want his girlfriend or anyone else to find the texts and read them. You might text him, “Do you have time to grab a quick coffee this afternoon?” or go up to him when he’s alone and say, “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Instead of immediately admitting your feelings, ask him about his day or talk about something you both have in common to start a more natural conversation. This will make you less nervous and help the conversation flow more naturally.  You might say, "Thanks for meeting with me, I know you just had a kickball game. How did it go?" You don't need to chat about things for too long, but asking a question about his day or telling him something about yours is a good way to help you both feel more comfortable. This is your time to tell him how to feel, to get your feelings off of your chest. Be honest about how you like him, but realize that he’s still in a relationship and might not give you a response. After you admit your feelings, you’ll likely feel much more free to move on.  You might say, “I know you have a girlfriend, but I needed you to know that I really like you. It’s okay if you don’t respond, I just wanted to get it off my chest.” If you think you'll be able to maintain a platonic friendship even after telling him, you might say, "Even though I told you how I feel, I'd really like it if we could still be friends." Whether he says he likes you or he doesn’t, it’s best to set up boundaries so you don’t interfere with his relationship anymore. If he does like you, make it clear to him that he needs to respect you and his girlfriend by being honest and making a choice. If he doesn’t like you, distance yourself from him and avoid any flirty behavior to respect his relationship and help you move on.  If he doesn’t respond at all, take this as a sign that he doesn’t like you back and try to move on. If he does like you, now the ball is in his court and it’s his turn to make a move. For example, you might say, "Thanks for telling me how you feel. I think it would be best if we didn't talk for a while to put some space between us."
A:
Find a time to talk to him when he’s not around others. Ease into the moment by starting with a simple conversation. Tell him your feelings honestly without expecting him to answer. Set boundaries for the two of you depending on how he responds.