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Thread: Growing for Thickness Instead of Length / Reaching Goal Length

  1. #21
    BeyondClassic Webmistress Cinnamon Hair's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dianyla
    I reached my goal of ankle-length about 6 months ago, and have trimmed a few times since then. In some ways I feel a sense of relief, like I don't have to worry or wonder or feel impatient about getting somewhere. I can just be where I am.

    When I joined LHC and decided to stop keeping my hair cut back to knee-length, I felt sure that I did not want to grow beyond floorlength. And yet I feel a little bit wistful when I trim to maintain where I'm at. I find myself peeking over that edge thinking "Well, maaaaaybe I should just let it get a little bit longer and see if I can stand it!"
    Dianyla, LHC has a way of putting doubt into us all. Always thinking "what if I grew just a little longer." That's how I reached knee when I was aiming for classic. (Even my website is titled Classic Length...duh!) I'm glad I did it though and hopefully it will be refreshing to let my hair just be.

    Shanarana, hope you reach your goal soon! Hips are not too far away.

    Quote Originally Posted by Juliet's Silk
    But yeah, I'm still wondering how my hair would look like if I hadn't trimmed that much off. I'm not sure about the entire amount, it's something between 10-15". ETA: I checked, I cut about 13" all in all, I made a good guess
    Juliet, yes that what-if factor can be quite a pest.

    Willowcandra, that is great to hear! I like seeing progress.

    Quote Originally Posted by Anje
    Then again, I've always been the sort who would let my hair grow for 6 to 18 months, then chop it back, so growing hair long isn't a change to me. Maintaining a length would be.
    Anje, I don't have much experience at maintaining length either. I'm more of a sensationalist, in that when my hair was too thin for my taste I chose to cut 7" at once rather than multiple smaller trims. I like my thickness now though (although more is better) so it isn't quite the same as last time.

    Thanks for the encouragement Gothic Lolita.

    Mira-chan, nice to know I am in good company I quite admire your fairytale braid signature pic and am sure it can only get better.

    Quote Originally Posted by Harpgal
    I am very near to the end of my lengthening journey. I plan to stay at mid thigh for a year or two and then reevaluate. I have a feeling of relief and contentment about it.
    Harpgal, congratulations on nearing your goal! Yes, that is a good point..deciding to maintain a length does not have to be a permanent decision. One can always choose to begin growing again.

    Zift, what a great story. Thank you for sharing it. I can see how that would be very inspiring. Also, thanks on the congrats (blushing).

  2. #22
    Member n3m3sis42's Avatar
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    Thank you, Cinnamon Hair! It's been a lot of fun reading what works for all of you on LHC.
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  3. #23
    Member Riot Crrl's Avatar
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    I don't really have a length goal, but my intention is to grow out peroxide. I have around a couple of feet to go.

    I used to be happy with my peroxide (and daily SLS, and cones, and harsh brushing, etc.) and then I would just ignore it and get it cut two or three inches once a year or so. It used to be easier to ignore. Since cutting some of it off and realizing it was curly and also doing a major color change (peroxide to henna, so my color is still permanent now but it's not damaging) I've been probably paying way more attention to it than I should, lol.

    It has taken a lot of experimentation to figure out what works now, but I think I'm just about there. If I can get in a routine of throwing conditioner on it every day or two, and color every month or so again, it'll be easy to just ignore it some more for the most part.

    I have no honest idea what a knee length brushing/combing routine would consist of, but I know this. When my hair was waist/TB and I thought it was just wavy, I used to brush it out dry daily. Now I lose like 1% of the shedding and breakage that I used to then, lol.
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  4. #24
    Member Schnee's Avatar
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    For a while now I've been a bit torn between my curiosity to see how long it can grow and cutting back and maintain at upper thigh, a length I really liked. At this point I'm sure that anything beyond knee might be more work than what it's worth, I want to enjoy my hair... buuut.... Well, the debate goes on and meanwhile my hair keeps growing..
    October 2009, troll hair with braid waves.

  5. #25
    Secwet Wannabee Wavee Juliet's Silk's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ursula View Post
    But growing for thickness does give you more opportunities to be happy, overall, with your hair. The changes are subtle. And there is far less worry about trade off the way there is when growing for length, and trying to choose carefully for each trim between more length versus more trim for interim thickness/end-look happiness. .
    I'd like to disagree with you on this. For some people, this might be true - for other, it's not. I myself found always more pleasure and happiness in growing my hair as the achievements came month after month and while you can't see a 1" gain if you just look at the length of hair, your measure tape will assure you, yes, it has grown, you achieved something. My hair never stalled and grows a bit faster than average, so I never experienced such worries, but as I said, for other people the experience will differ of course.
    Thickness on the other hand... as I said, I maintained for quite some time now, and I think 13" is quite a large amount. Still, I'm unhappy. You trim and trim away, but unless you cut a large amount off at once, you don't see a difference because the change is so small, subtle as you said. Even a measuring tape cannot help you. Taking pictures might but still, the difference a year made in thickness was almost not noticeable. Also - depending on your hair type, getting a nice even thickness all over might take you considerably longer than reaching your length goal in the first place. I figured that I might spend the next 5 years maintaining to reach a thickness I could be happy with - and it took me "only" 2-3 years to reach this length.
    So for me, this maintaining thing has led to more frustration than happiness and I'm really happy that I'm back on the growing wagon again. I think I'll be one of those persons who grow grow grow for months, then do one drastic chop and start growing again, because I never felt the happiness of "nice ends" after a small trim - only when I did my last chop (5" I think) I could see a difference.

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  6. #26
    Royal Buness/Jedi Master Hypnotica's Avatar
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    I don't know if I have a goal length. I do know that my hair feels very shor and that I'm close to wais now. I don't have any taper to speak of, few splits, my ends are fine....

    Heck, I don't even know why I decided to grow my hair again. But I like it and I'm content with that.
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  7. #27
    hrrr zift's Avatar
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    It's interesting how different people's experience will be with the maintaining and gaining thickness issue. I think there has to be certain conditions to stay at a length and gain thickness.
    -If you started your journey with damaged hair or with an inproper hair-care routine, as you learn to take care of your hair better your ends will eventually thicken because the splits and breakage is no more there.
    -If you went through a very long trimless and cutless journey and suddenly stopped, your ends will thicken again with the slower growing hairs reaching the ends eventually.
    -If you have the genetic potential at that length,meaning if you stopped before your terminal length you can have a thicker hemline too.

    So if someone's not having health issues and have grown their hair with the ultimate care and stopped at a length and trimmed for years and still not gaining any thickness at their ends, it means that probably they have reached their terminal thickness for that length. Forexample I did gain a lot more thickness at my ends with my trimming efforts but the thickness at waist or hip level almost never changed because I've already reached my maximum potential there. So if I cut back to waist today I know that(if I didn't have shaved the underlayer of my hair) I wouldn't gain thickness at that length ever.

  8. #28
    Member eresh's Avatar
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    First my goal was classic length, but when I reached it, I thought, why not see how long it will grow, I'm enjoying my hair so why stop now.
    I'm really curious at what length my hair will be terminal.
    So I made the plan not to trim, only do S&D.

    Now I'm a bit past the knees and beginning this week the frustration was so high, I cut 4 cm off.
    Not a lot, but still made a bit of a difference.
    My natural hemline bugged me (it's an upside down V shape, while it looks kindof unique having this snakes tongue shape hair....
    it started to irritate me) and also the ends were thin.
    I thought, what a poorly braidtassle.
    I do like a fairytale hemline, blunt cut is just not my style.
    With this small trim it's still fairytale BUT without the weird shape ;-)

    Now my plan is to see if I can grow to ankle, and if the ends are too thin to my liking (if I can ever reach ankle)
    than I'll cut back to knee to gain some thickness.
    So, first see if I can reach the length and after that cutting back for thickness and perhaps growing back to ankle again
    (as then I will know I can reach it again )

    Hm, I look back at my post and it seems chaotic to me.
    Hope you understand what I mean
    Last edited by eresh; May 3rd, 2008 at 06:42 AM.


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  9. #29
    Member Mangachan's Avatar
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    When I had a chemical relaxer and I noticed I was loosing thickness and I didn't want to grow my hair to my goal (hip length I guess?) and have it be thinning and damaged looking. I chopped off the thin relaxed ends so thickness is no longer an issue. It also helps not to do anything that would damage the ends (I'm referring to heat here).

  10. #30
    mythical equestrian Lady Godiva's Avatar
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    I think I'm going to ramble...

    This is such a great thread. We can express our ambivalence with our hair length choices, can't we? We don't always have to present positive vibes, do we? As I've written before on other subjects, it's OK not to know, to have doubts, and even to be inconsistent on matters (not just hair). It all shows that we're thinking, weighing options and growing as persons. Those are good things.

    Something I also believe is that how long a person's hair is has no moral bottom line. It's a personal preference; that's all. No one should feel compelled to grow longer unless s/he wants to. Hair has the inherent ability to be cut just as much as it has the ability to grow long, and really, this lifts the burden of feeling pressured to do either.

    I've been at floor length since late autumn 2006. The ends were very thin then, but a small bunch did hit the floor actual-factual. I've been maintaining that length more or less, sometimes trimming up to my ankles and other times letting it "drag" (presently it's an inch on the floor, so Hubs tells me). I don't know, and I don't really care. Floor length didn't become a goal until a friend suggested that having six feet of hair would be very cool-sounding, so I thought, what the heck, why not, and went for it. Maybe all I'm doing is a simple mathematical game, after all.

    My hair still isn't completely where my, erm, goal is, because my ex-bangs are somewhere longer than my knees. I don't really know or care how long they are, except they showed up in a photo from the West Virginia Penitentiary meet last September, when the wind kicked up. Now I'm aware that they're not all the way grown out yet, and it simply would be cool for them to join their compadres down there, just for grins. I'd like to see how much volume I could get at floor length, again, just for grins.

    I deliberately don't permit myself to get wrapped up in measuring or worrying about trim amounts because I don't want to be bound by that. I want to be able to cut much shorter and not regret it. I am so much more than my hair length. I want my hair to be nothing more than just a fun aspect about myself, and it's fun to share that with others.

    What have become very important to me are the social implications that surround the long hair choice, and I'm quite focused on those aspects because I really dislike the social injustices implied in them, the inequality that people face simply due to their personal preference to have a hair style out of the norm. The stupidity of western culture forcing a short-hair norm onto people and applying false values and pressure for us to conform to that norm riles me. There's that, plus the age-related pressure, and then there's the gender bias that men face, and again, I am disgusted by the unfairness and inequality of all that. These are the things that drive me to love my hair styling choice because these issues point to much greater problems in our world, and they're not small personal grooming matters. They are larger social issues that highlight prejudice, judgmentalism, societal norms, and even politics and religion. There's nothing small about those subjects.

    Cinnamon Hair, I have waxed far beyond your initial query. Please forgive, but all of it relates to why I keep my hair at this length. For each inch I keep, I defy prejudice and have my own little platform of experience to back me up. Still... I always keep mindful that I *can* cut if I *want* to, because my preferences don't have to take a back seat to enjoying life. I just happen to enjoy *both* my hair length and the fact that it can point to much more, for me. I don't want to forget to mention that I happen to think that long hair is beautiful, too, and I just feel right having it long!

    So I'm waiting until my ex-bangs reach the floor. I'm there, but kind of am not there.
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