At my most recent hair appointment, my hair colorist was shocked at how much my hair has grown since September. Although annoying AF for my highlights, my hair has been seemingly growing at the speed of light lately. For years, I spent time and money trying everything to make my hair grow faster (ahem, hair-growth vitamins, shampoos for hair loss, castor-oil scalp massages, aloe-vera treatments—the whole nine), and I’ve finally nailed down a few methods that have majorly helped encourage a healthier scalp and a lil hair growth.

But before I can reveal all my secrets let's get something straight first, because there are a lot of myths about hair growth out there. Unfortunately, your DNA and factors like hormones, age, genetics, and overall health are pretty much the only things that truly determine how fast your hair grows. However, there are a lot of options that can help slowly make your hair and scalp healthier, which is a great start for growing your hair long and strong. This where I—and the help of eight experts—come in! See below for 14 hair-growth tips I grabbed from three board-certified dermatologists, two trichologists (aka hair scientists), and three hairstylists, along with my tried-and-true techniques. But first, a science lesson on hair growth:

How to make your hair grow faster

1. Incorporate bond-building treatments

Sure, hair growth begins at your scalp, but if your ends are damaged and breaking off, it'll never look longer. Enter: Bond-building treatments, which thoroughly saved my own hair after a whole lotta bleaching and heat damage from styling. These treatments essentially restore the bonds in your hair shaft that get broken from chemical treatments, heat, and mechanical damage over time.

They all work a little bit differently. For example, Olaplex and Epres both use patented formulas that actively restore the broken bonds, while K18 combines a blend of peptides to rebuild and repair the broken peptide chains in your hair. Other treatments that are filled with peptides or proteins, like Living Proof, help strengthen your hair and fill in the cracks in your cuticle that lead to breakage.

How often you use a damage-repair product like this def depends on your hair's damage levels, FYI. When my hair was severely damaged, I would load up on a bond-building treatment once a week. Now that my hair just has a little bit of color damage, I smooth one of the below treatments through my hair about once or twice a month.

2. Ask your doctor about prescription hair-growth treatments

If you want to get serious about treating hair loss and making your hair grow faster, head to your dermatologist for a prescription option, like spironolactone (a blood pressure medication commonly used off-label in women to treat hormonal acne) that can potentially help increase hair growth over time, board-certified dermatologist Dhaval Bhanusali, MD, has told Cosmo. I've been on Spiro for years now to help with my zits, and I do think it's drastically helped reduce the hair thinning I started to notice beforehand from stress.

3. Increase your protein intake

When I started weight lifting and began majorly upping my protein intake, my hair seemed to grow a lot faster. And it makes sense: Your hair follicles are mostly made up of protein, and when you're not getting enough protein from your food, it can potentially lead to hair loss and thinning. A few things I incorporated were eggs, black beans, collagen peptides, plant-based protein powders, lentils, chicken, yogurt, and cottage cheese.

4. Remove build-up

Consistently removing buildup is majorly important for scalp health and hair growth. Why? When your scalp is gunked up with oil, grime, and excess product (dry shampoo and hairspray, I'm lookin' at you), you can cause buildup that leads to irritation and inflammation, which could potentially stunt hair growth.

Once a week or every two weeks (depending on your hair type and scalp—more often for oil-prone scalps), do a "reset" wash with a clarifying shampoo to help deeply clean your scalp and get rid of any built-up oil or product. I'm, personally, in the "pro-sulfates camp" every once in a while, especially on my ultra-oily hair or after I use any product that contains silicones, which are difficult to remove with sulfate-free surfactants. However, if you have dry, coarse hair, opt for a sulfate-free clarifying shampoo (Cosmo editors swear by the ones below, FWIW).

5. Massage your scalp with rosemary oil

No, scalp massage isn't some magic treatment to grow your hair faster. But it can potentially help by increasing blood circulation to your hair follicles. Even better? Pair it with a rosemary oil. Although it needs much more evidence to prove that it can help grow hair, rosemary oil has shown some data to *potentially* help encourage growth. One 2015 study compared rosemary oil to 2.5 percent minoxidil (the active ingredient in Rogaine) when used on men with genetic androgen-related hair loss and found that the two performed similarly. Actually, rosemary oil was less irritating for most scalps in the study.

Why does it work? Well, it's loaded with anti-inflammatory ingredients to help reduce inflammation (which is a major cause of hair loss and thinning), as well as antioxidants that supposedly can help increase blood flow to your scalp. Once a day, massage in a few drops of rosemary oil (either already in a formula, like Mielle's Rosemary Mint Scalp Oil, or mixed with a carrier oil, like castor oil or argan oil) into your scalp for a few minutes. Because my hair is oily, I always do my rosemary-oil massages before bed, then wash my hair in the morning.