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View Full Version : Hope for terminal length



MariaAZ
August 9th, 2008, 11:49 PM
It's been a long time since I've been a regular contributor to the board, so I thought I'd share what I learned. A little background first: I had been frying & dying my hair for quite a while when I first found TLHC in 2005. Length was about 23", most of it pretty badly damaged. I had stopped styling when my hair dropped below shoulder length, and quit dying when it got a bit longer. After discovering this board, I switched over to henna and tried just about everything to preserve the badly damaged ends. I became absolutely obsessed with my hair (although a thoroughly enjoyable obsession!)

Growth was sooooo slllooowwww! I knew I was experiencing breakage, but when the growth seemed to stall around 26" I figured I was approaching terminal length. My goal had been waist length but figured that BSL would be ok too. I started trimming about two-three times a year, taking off anywhere from 1/2"-3". DH did the trimming (his hair is longer than mine and we trim each other's hair) and I let him determine how much needed to come off to remove the worst of the damage. Life started taking up my time, and the attention I paid to my hair dropped to practically nothing.

A couple months ago I figured it was time for a trim, so I asked DH to tell me where he'd trim. He combed out my hair, studied it for a moment and said "I'd only take a little bit off, but it sure looks awfully long". The longest bits, it turns out, are probably 31"-32" long, about 4" shy of waist length. This is the longest my hair has ever been.

Also, I quit hennaing about 2 years ago. I was pretty active on the henna board, and I absolutely loved the color. I was getting tired of all the touching-up, as I had a lot of grey roots that drove me nuts when they grew out. I hadn't seen my natural color for probably 10 years so I decided to check it out. I'm probably 50% grey with some rather interesting dark streaks, and I've come to really like it. The hennaed parts bothered me a bit; they weren't noticeable when my hair was down, but showed up quite well when I was wearing a bun. I've always held that henna is permanant, so I resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to trim an awful lot of red hair before my length was fully natural colored.

Well... I learned that my hair slowly releases henna. Two years later there is still an orange tint to the lower 6" or so, but it's barely noticeable even when my hair is up.

So, I guess the moral of this story is; if you feel you are at or near terminal length, give yourself a year or two before making that determination, especially if you have damaged hair.

Flaxen
August 10th, 2008, 12:58 PM
Good advice, and I'm glad you're seeing progress! :grin:

Bene
August 10th, 2008, 01:48 PM
edit: oops wrong thread :o


thank you for sharing, though. i'll definitely keep this in mind when my hair isn't growing. which is right now. it's at the length where it doesn't do much, and i get so tempted to chop it off

podo
August 12th, 2008, 01:23 PM
s'good story on letting your hair be. :)

spidermom
August 12th, 2008, 01:26 PM
Didn't you have a significant amount of length cut in about 2007 and start a thread titled something like "do you hide behind your hair?" Or do I have you mixed up with someone else?