Terminal length? :(

[homehearties]

I don't know why I said 4 inches! I was thinking 2 inches in my head. You do have beautiful hair though, you are sooooo lucky!

[Charlottie]

Thanks for all your advice and comments on my hair. I got myself some of that Mane 'n Tail shampoo and trimmed some off last night. Probably gonna make changes to my diet as well. Keeping my fingers crossed my hair will start growing again, wish me luck u_u

[spidermom]

Fast hair-growing luck coming your way

[SpinDance]

I think it is too early to decide if you are terminal, although you may be terminal for your current hair routine. By that I mean if you wear it loose a lot, and don't trim, those factors may be causing enough breakage that there appears to be no growth. Try the trim method, it is really easy. I've been doing micro trims of 5 mm pretty frequently for almost 2 years now and in that time have gained several inches in length. It seems counter intuitive that I'd get growth when removing the very longest 5 mm every week to 3 weeks, but that's what is happening.

I do oil my hair lightly when wet and condition well to help with overall moisture, and I wear my hair up most of the time. If I don't wear it up then it gets into trouble and can be broken or tangled much too easily.

Try some different things, slowly, to see what effect it may have. You may have to change several things to get more length.

[torrilin]

The first picture is my hair now, the second one is from December last year and my hair actually looks slightly longer in it weirdly enough.

I really don't want to this to be my terminal lenght. I compared it to another picture from August 2011 and it was the same length then so it's been 10 months and not grown at all

Eeek! That is a lot of breakage then, because I seriously thought the older picture was more recent and showed longer hair.

You need to work out what's causing your breakage.

For me, the most common cause of breakage is wearing my hair down and loose. I've got fine, fragile hair, and it will break if you look at it funny. Janis Cortese's page pretty much sums up what I have to do to my hair for it to get to armpit length, never mind down to my elbows. And that's with hair that grows like a weed!

It's not just friction that causes breakage... tangles do too. Really, anything that causes me to touch my hair can cause breakage. So I try to set things up so I don't have to touch or handle my hair much. There's some minimum that's necessary, because my hair's long and dense enough that shed hairs don't just slip out. But going over that minimum is not good.

Since your hemline started out pretty thick and blunt, I'd guess your actual terminal length is a good bit below where you are now. You may have some hairs that are at their longest length now... as you deal with tangles, look at the very ends. Some shed hairs may have tapered ends, even tho they're quite long. Those tapered ends tell you the hair was not cut or broken the whole time it was attached to your head. Those tapered hairs are a good sign! Each one tells you it didn't lose length to damage or splitting. I know it may feel discouraging if the hair is shorter than you want, but we all have some hairs that have a fairly short terminal length around our hairline.

[frodolaughs]

I think when your hair is in the butt-length region it's got lots of opportunities for damage at the ends whenever you wear it down. Think of all the times you move around and brush against stuff--if your hair is between you and whatever you're brushing against, gradual damage and breakage is going to add up. I used to think my hair would never get longer than where yours is now, but for this attempt at long hair I've worn my hair mostly up and haven't gotten stuck the way I have before. If you were at terminal length I really think it would be more wispy.

[Panth]

If it has actually stalled (and really, 6 months is far too short to tell, plus I think you're being overly pessimistic about the photos) I would say it is a false terminal.

I had exactly the same thing happen - a false terminal at between TB and classic for about 5 years. Turns out I can't grow past that length without near-daily bunning. When I wore it down nearly every day (and in an unbunned plait when it wasn't down), I had damaged, nasty, tangly ends that tapered off drastically. I gained little to no length in 5 years. I switched to daily bunning and I am now (well, before my trim last week, at least) about 3" from knee and growing steadily still. I have increases in ponytail thickness, reduction in taper and improvement in the quality of the ends.

I also think the stress/anxiety/depression you mention may have a lot to do with it. Stress can cause hair loss - this can appear as stalling/shortening if the hairs that are lost are your longest ones. It may cause reduced growth. Also, from personal experience, you may be less likely to care for your hair well (e.g. lots of heavy-handed "angry" brushing, forgetting to / not bothering to comb it, forgetting to / not bothering to wash it (or washing it hastily or haphazardly, resulting in issues like not rinsing conditioner out properly), etc., etc.) One of the best things you can do, both for your hair and, more importantly, for yourself, is to get help for your stress/anxiety/depression. *hugs*

[afu]

I have to say I LOVE your colour, so beautiful

[Charlottie]

it was supposed to be just a TRIM. HE CUT FIVE INCHES OFF!!! so now it only just barely reaches my hips -_____-

[Mesmerise]

it was supposed to be just a TRIM. HE CUT FIVE INCHES OFF!!! so now it only just barely reaches my hips -_____-

That's why self trimming is such a great idea! That being said, your ends look super healthy now, so if you really care for your hair I'm sure it will grow back in no time, and will probably look better than it did before too!!

I know self trimming can be daunting BUT it gives you complete control over how much you want to cut off. A lot of hairdressers will cut off too much, especially if you have quite long hair, as they're leaving it still "long" in their eyes, even though it will be short to you.

My friend's daughter's hair was longer than mine a few days ago, and I saw her tonight after a trim, and her hair is now shorter than my DD's just past shoulder length hair (although my friend disagreed when I said her DD's hair was now shorter than my DD's hair... however, it really is... I think she's just in denial!!). The thing is, the hairdresser actually did a really bad job with her DD's hair, as she'd called me over to fix the damage (and no I am not a professional... but I can cut in a straight line... and I can tell when one side hangs obviously lower than the other...). I kind of think... I could just have used Feye's method on her hair and cut off just the straggliest 2" (which is seriously ALL IT NEEDED to remove the worst ends at the very maximum) instead of cutting off a good 6" which is what the hairdresser did!