How often would you get your hair cut before you decided to grow it?

[Avis]

First of all, hi there! I'm still relatively new here and don't know a lot of people yet. And if there is a thread like this already, please shut me up.

I had a few questions for all of you that I've been wondering about recently:
1) How often would you get your hair cut to maintain a certain length?
2) How many times have you grown your hair out and decided to cut it short again?

I'm just curious because ever since I've been the one making decisions about my hair, I've NEVER maintained a certain length or style. I would cut it short, grow for about 2 years, get bored and cut it short again. Now that I want it long, I don't really plan on going back for a while. So I've never really gone for regular hair cuts before and I was just wondering if some of you would share your similar or different experiences.

[FireFromWithin]

I cut my hair twice, once at 11 and once at 16. The bleach at 19 prevented properly growing but I've finally grown back out from BSL to waist (longest I've ever had) this year.
To maintain a length you cut off the growth, usually around half an inch a month. I wasn't very good at maintaining the same style though even when it was shorter!

[JodiAaby]

When I was maintaining my hair at waist length, I would go get a 1/4inch trim every 4-6 months depending on if I needed it or not. My hair stylist really encouraged me to come in every 6 weeks but I didn't feel it was necessary, as I didn't see breakage or split ends until at least the four month mark between trims. I've cut my hair short twice in my life. The first time was about two years ago, I cut it to my shoulders. Then I went and had it cut to just below my shoulders again in August of last year to get rid of a lot of damage from bleach & overprocessing.

Since I've started trying to grow my hair out, I've not been to a salon. I've been doing my own trims and it's just to maintain my layers. I started trying to grow my hair out in Sept 2013 and I've only trimmed my hair once, so I'll still be doing it every 4-6 months as I deem necessary.

Okay... Where is my brain? lol I wasn't maintaining waist length, I was letting it grow & grow and it hit waist length just before I cut it off to my shoulders in August.
Like FireFromWithin said, maintaining a specific length requires regular cuts for the growth. I've never done that. Always wanted my hair to just keep growing or wanted to chop a bunch off.

[Avis]

Ok, I'm starting to feel less unusual about not being good at maintaining or going to the salon as often the hairdressers tell you you should. My two closest female friends have had really short hair for years and both of them are really good at maintaining their hair and I've never been good at it. People like them plus my mom (who has never had her hair past APL in her life as far as I know) sometimes made me feel like I was weird for not maintaining my hair when I would get it cut short and not having some kind of goal length.

I'm enjoying hearing your experiences, I'd like to hear more!

[0xalis]

Approximately once a year. I've never actively kept my hair short, 1) because I'm poor and 2) because I've been attempting and failing to grow my hair back out for the last like 5-6 years. Even when I got my big first chop at the age of 10 and I liked having short hair, It took my mom like a year to get me back to the hair dresser [and we go to Supercuts if you've ever heard of them, hahaha. They're really cheap and no appointments needed.] I remember being irritated by my hair getting longer! Hahaha.

[Avis]

emilylightning oh yes, I've had my fair share of Supercuts hair cuts before (most of which were not so super). In fact the first time I'd ever been to a salon that required appointments was October 2012 and boy, did I feel fancy! I can relate in general to trying and failing to grow out my hair as that's pretty much what I've been doing since high school. Now that I'm truly committed to growing it out I'm excited by the money I'll save on hair cuts (woohoo Feye's method! )

[tlover]

Hmm I have had just past shoulder since I was 12 (I am 26 now) and I have only cut it/trim it when needed for social accaptens, about once a year.

Since I was 12 (Before that my mother decided what hair should have since I was bad at brushing) I have only cut my hair "in front of my ears" once in a kind of extra wide bangs, and I have cut bangs once other than that I have had semilong (shoulder-waist) or long (waist+) basically all the time.

[Snidget]

1
I've grown my hair out about two times and then gotten it cut short, I think. I had really long hair when I was younger but because I was terrible at brushing it my mum made me chop it to shoulder length. Three and a half years ago I got a short cut that was supposed to be shoulder length, but the hairdresser basically gave me a bowl cut! I sort of had to grow it and maintain it at the same time, because it had lots of layers and if I just let it grow it looked a bit odd. But even those haircuts I took ages between them. Once it got to about shoulder length the layers were much better and I've been growing ever since.

I think maintaining depends on the haircut- if you've got a short hair cut and you want to keep it looking the same, that would need frequent trims. But maintaining anything beyond shoulder length you only really need to go every few months, because a few inches doesn't really make much of a difference in appearance, unlike a short layered cut.

[ExpectoPatronum]

I used to get my hair cut every 12 weeks. My mom is one of those who gets her hair done every 6 weeks, and she'd take me along with her every other time to get mine cut (and colored with some pretty magenta highlights a couple times!) This was when I was in my teens, and though I wanted longer hair, I wasn't actively trying to grow it out. I was kind of into the emo/punk/goth thing back then (still am now >.>) and so I liked having my hair on the shorter side with lots of layers. Even then, my hair has never been shorter than shoulder length.

[Avis]

Thanks for the insight, everyone this has been helpful. My mom gets her hair trimmed every month and if she goes about 5 weeks without a trim, she starts saying "ugh, it's getting too long" even though her longest layer only touches her shoulder haha. I guess her example always made me feel like an oddball for not maintaining a cut like she does. Plus I never really liked getting my hair cut anyway.