A MOTHER of five has revealed how washing her hair just once a month helped it to grow thigh length.
Having previously suffered from postpartum hair loss, she now has a haircare routine that keeps her locks long and voluminous.
Katherine Sewing, from Ontario, Canada, has over 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, where she shares natural beauty and vintage fashion videos.
The 29-year-old told The U.S. Sun that she longed to have ankle-length hair like women in the Victorian era, but hers would become “whispy and thin” as it grew.
“It actually used to be a lot curlier than it is now and it was never able to grow particularly long,” she said.
“The longest it was able to grow was maybe to rib cage length.
“But by the time the longest parts of it reached my ribs, it was very wispy and thin at the ends.
“The upper layers were much shorter and the ends were very damaged.
“All through high school I barely trimmed my hair and I thought ‘great, I’m gonna grow it so long.’
“But it stayed at the same length and I didn’t know what was going on.
“Growing up, when my mom was in charge of how often I was washing my hair, I was shampooing once a week.
“I would say that’s less frequent than most people with straight hair.
“Then by the time I got to be around age 13, where I was able to disagree with what my mom said.
“I was like mom, like ‘I don’t want to use shampoo. It’s drying out my hair, it just makes my curls look frizzy and I don’t see the point of it.’
“I had never really experienced having oiliness or dirty hair.”
Katherine began to follow the curly girl method, which involves styling hair while wet but without using any shampoo.
She would rely on excessive use of conditioner to clean her hair and detangling products to define her curls.
“All of the products I was using were able to mask the bad condition that my hair was in,” Kathrine said.
“But after I had my first child, it started falling apart.
“My hair was literally falling out, getting thinner and it was breaking off at the end, it was getting shorter and shorter.
“I started heavily researching other ways of caring for my hair that weren’t so dependent on all of these products and that led me where I am now.
“I’ve learned a lot throughout each of those postpartum of how to deal with the postpartum hair loss, how to minimize it.
“My hair was the worst after the first child because I didn’t understand how to care for my hair.
“After my second, the hair loss was very little. I noticed some more shedding than normal and then it just tapered off.
“I cut my hair very short into a chin-length haircut shortly after my second was born.
“But the ends didn’t seem to be breaking too badly during that time and the hair loss was minimal.
“There had been a few years leading up to that point of me always knowing that I wanted long hair.
“I was just very unhappy with the condition of the ends. They were very unhealthy, with lots of split ends.
“I also had a lot of layers in my hair and I got to the point where I felt like I just wanted a fresh start.
“I wanted my hair to all be the same length.”
Katherine said her love of classical painting and history inspired her to consider the difference between modern haircare and old beauty methods.
“I dove into how most historical people didn’t wash their hair more than every two weeks,” she said.
“So that was when I was like, ‘hey, well, maybe I’ll try that because it is a lot of work to wash my hair.’
“It’s a big routine getting it detangled, and my hair was also getting longer by this point.
“So then I started spacing it out to every two weeks.
“And then my latest daughter was born in March 2023 and we moved as well, so those two changes combined made me just want to space it out even more.
“I was going through a period of maybe five months or so where I was only washing once a month.
“I felt a bit sheepish to even say this on YouTube because it felt like it was out of laziness, and that’s partly true.
“But at the same time again, when I reacquainted myself with the historical way of doing hair, that’s actually not unusual at all.
“I also learned that there’s other ways of dry cleansing the hair, like using a boar bristle brush which mechanically removes dirt and can also distribute hair oils.”
Katherine revealed the natural hair community on YouTube taught her how to dry finger detangle hair using oils rather than water.
She said using less water on her hair helps with length retention, rather than speeding up how quickly it grows.
“I also have a sister, who my family adopted when I was 14 and she’s originally from South Africa,” she said.
“She has 4C-type hair and looking back, I wouldn’t be surprised if me helping to care for her hair as a teenager might have played a part in influencing how I care for my own hair as well.
“Seeing how gentle you are with this kind of hair, how you can detangle and, and also the benefits of oils.”
Katherine swears by apple cider vinegar mixed with water to balance out greasiness.
She also makes Ayurvedic herbal hair masks using Amla and Shikakai herbs, to cleanse and strengthen.
It has been 10 years since she last used heat tools on her hair, except for a hair dryer that’s set at room temperature.
“I use oils in my hair in the days leading up to a hair wash, to dry and detangle my hair,” she said.
“The night before I plan on washing my hair, I’ll do either an oil mask on or some other mask – I’ll mix honey and coconut oil and egg yolk.
“Then for the hair wash recipe, I mix it up myself right before I’m going to hop in the shower, which is Rhassoul clay powder and water.
“For most of my hair growth journey, I would also use a natural brand of conditioner.
“But in the past year, I actually haven’t been using conditioner because I’ve just found it’s usually not necessary when I’ve done an oil hair mask before the wash.
“I do an Apple Cider vinegar rinse before hopping out of the shower which seals the hair’s pH and it also helps it not be so tangled.
“Then I rinse the vinegar out of my hair because I if I don’t it tends to dry it out too much.
“I usually use a homemade Flaxseed gel just to help style my curls a bit.”
“Most people today in the West tend to overuse shampoos,” she added.
“Look critically at what you’re using and maybe look into more natural ways of doing things and consider not washing your hair as frequently.
“If you’ve been washing every day, that might be a bit much. Maybe you could space it out a little bit more.”
Katherine revealed she takes a dietary supplement for her hair growth, two teaspoons of MSM each day.
According to Healthline, Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) is a sulfur-containing compound that can strengthen keratin which is a protein that acts as the main structural component in your hair, skin, and nails.
“I sleep with my hair in either one or two braids, usually two, and then I will put on a silk sleeping cap,” Katherine said.
“I also have a silk pillowcase just in case it comes off in the night, because I learned that cotton pillowcases against your head can really increase frizz and, and dryness of your hair.
“I only wear my hair loose for maybe two to three days after a wash. because that’s when the curls are looking nice.
“Then the rest of the time before my next wash, I will put it up in protective styles.
“Protective styles help with length retention.
“It doesn’t help your hair grow faster from your scalp, but it does help the ends not break off as quickly because your ends are protected.
“It also decreases tangling. If I were to wear my hair loose every day or just kind of like quickly put it in a messy ponytail, the tangles would be unimaginable.
“If you don’t pay attention to your hair ends and length retention, then you will not see any gains from what you’re doing to your scalp.
“I used to think if I want to grow my hair, I’ll never trim it, but clearly that didn’t really work out too well for me.
“And so now I do regular trims, I take sharp hairdresser scissors and just trim off little bits of whatever pieces of hair are the longest.
“My goal is to always keep the body of my hair roughly the same length and then if I notice single-strand knots or split ends, I’ll trim those off too.”
Katherine revealed she has a YouTube video coming soon specifically focused on postpartum haircare.
She is also working on a course for people who want to delve deeper into how to nurture their tresses.
“None of my kids have curly hair yet, although my daughter remains to be seen because she’s still fairly bald,” she joked.
“I would love my kids to have curly hair, but so far maybe one or two of them have a bit of a wave but other than that, nothing.
“So I guess my husband has no curly hair genes to draw on and they just took after him.”
