Worried about Hair length

[cdonald2]

I am positive there is someone who is in my shoes or who has been. My hair is just brushing shoulder atm. Ive never been past apl even when i tried growing it in the past. While i was stuck at one length i saw othera hair grow long while mine stayed in one spot. Now due to over processi g i had to chop off my hair to this length

i worry ill never reach my hair goal since i never did in the past. I take very good care of my hair yet my hair doesnt grow as fast as my friends who do evvverything to it. I feel like my hair isnt growing enough to back up my routine. I always hear "you do so much for it, i dont take anything and i use heat on mine and whichever shampoo smells good" its just so discouraging :/ is it all going to pay off? Has anyone been through something similar? How do you deal with it?

[Anje]

Hang in there. Be good to your hair, but don't worry about it for a couple months. You'll see a difference, but you're unlikely to notice on a weekly sort of time-frame. Particularly in the winter, when hair tends to grow slowly for lots of folks.

[cdonald2]

I just worry ill lever get to mid back or waist. :/ like that it will be a good 8 years before i make it or something

[woodswanderer]

Try to enjoy the journey as much as you can.

[lapushka]

I am positive there is someone who is in my shoes or who has been. My hair is just brushing shoulder atm. Ive never been past apl even when i tried growing it in the past. While i was stuck at one length i saw othera hair grow long while mine stayed in one spot. Now due to over processi g i had to chop off my hair to this length

i worry ill never reach my hair goal since i never did in the past. I take very good care of my hair yet my hair doesnt grow as fast as my friends who do evvverything to it. I feel like my hair isnt growing enough to back up my routine. I always hear "you do so much for it, i dont take anything and i use heat on mine and whichever shampoo smells good" its just so discouraging :/ is it all going to pay off? Has anyone been through something similar? How do you deal with it?

I'm sorry but didn't you just cut a huge chunk off? That way, of course, it's not going to grow much. You have to give it time and not trim on impulse in the mean time just because it doesn't "hang right". Right now I'd just focus on getting past the awkward stages and mustering up enough patience for that.

[AngryVikingGirl]

Why 8 years? I'd say waist in three years if you don't cut much off. (And don't let others cut too much either. Simple, but I've made that mistake several times.) F/M i/ii doesn't seem too hard to grow out, be gentle though. Crossing fingers! :)

[Anje]

You're in the slow stage right now where you risk it looking mullet-y if you just let it go, but I think from your pics that you're just about past the point where that's a problem. Just let it go and it'll be getting caught in your shirt before you know it.

ETA: I think I made shoulder-brushing to hip in about 4 years, with a trim or two and a markedly uneven growth rate (I think it averages a bit faster than average, but it does it in spurts with long periods of not much). I would have gotten better ends if I'd trimmed more in that time, but I can assure you that your hair will most definitely grow if you just wait it out.

[cdonald2]

Thankyou ladies for the uplifting advice :) ive always wanted wasit length hair but it always seemed to just stop at bsl even at my longest :/ hoping that i reach the goal f moving past bsl since ive joined here

@lapushka Yes i did >__< i dont regret it, i know it will get to bsl again no problem, but ive never in my life been past it :/ it feels like its an impossible feat because of that.

[Madora]

Patience is the key and taking care of your hair the best you can. Forget about others. Concentrate on yourself. Growing healthy, beautiful hair is achievable..provided you have the patience to see it through.

[shutterpillar]

If I've learned anything from this community (and life in general, really) it is to not compare myself to others. It's a frustrating process waiting on hair to grow, but right now all you can do is the best you can for it and have patience. You'll get there. You've got a new cut - a fresh start - you've got this. :)

[Firefox7275]

We live in a society where instant gratification is easy. Long hair takes work and patience. Some of us will take years to reach our goals, you can ruin the journey for yourself with pessimism or enjoy learning about health and haircare, meeting old hands and helping newbies.

[Nebulae]

It will pay off! It's always hard in the beginning, but if you just stay patient you will definitely notice growth and improvement. :) and once you see that, that will be encouragement to continue.

Also, it's said all the time and I know myself it's hard, but don't compare to others. I've started to realize I can only be so much compared to others and ideals, so now I'm simply looking at myself and what my body can do and do as best as I can from there. Some things can't be changed, so I stopped trying to change them and now I'm just trying to make it as good as I possibly and reasonably can. We're only human and we are all different. :)

[Theobroma]

I am positive there is someone who is in my shoes or who has been. My hair is just brushing shoulder atm. Ive never been past apl even when i tried growing it in the past. While i was stuck at one length i saw othera hair grow long while mine stayed in one spot. Now due to over processi g i had to chop off my hair to this length

i worry ill never reach my hair goal since i never did in the past. I take very good care of my hair yet my hair doesnt grow as fast as my friends who do evvverything to it. I feel like my hair isnt growing enough to back up my routine. I always hear "you do so much for it, i dont take anything and i use heat on mine and whichever shampoo smells good" its just so discouraging :/ is it all going to pay off? Has anyone been through something similar? How do you deal with it?

OK, I'm seeing a contradiction here between "I take very good care of my hair" and "due to over-processing I had to chop". No matter what else you may be doing to help your hair grow, if you're also, at the same time, exposing it to things (over-processing) that will damage it, you're likely to see less growth because of breakage, or get so much damage that your only option is to trim -- which seems to have been the case with you.

Unless you have actual health issues that are slowing or stopping your hair from growing out at the roots -- and if you suspect anything like that, do check with your doctor before taking supplements or anything -- you'll probably find that your hair will grow past APL if you stop doing the damaging things. Be gentle to it and cultivate a lot of patience, and you'll get there in the end!

[cdonald2]

I over processed it years ago and it took forever to get rid of the damage, since then im dye and perm free.

[Liz_park]

Has anyone been through something similar? How do you deal with it?

Hey there! I think I can relate. I have never been past APL and for years I have been stuck at shoulder length. This mostly happened in the past because I would go to a hair stylist and ask for a "trim" and I would end up with 3-4 inches being chopped off. Thus, I kept losing my growth.

About a year ago I had a disaster haircut -- super short, super layered. I had been growing my hair out and it suddenly was all gone, despite asking specifically for a 1/2 inch. That's when I started researching long hair and eventually joined LHC. I started self trimming (1/2 inch every 4 months to remove layers and keep ends fresh) and my hair has started to grow.

Don't compare yourself to others who abuse their hair. Focus on your own growth and good hair care :)

Also, a thing that really helps me is to look at photos of real people who have been growing for a few years on LHC. I really like this girl's blog:
http://gloomyfashion.blogspot.ca/2012/02/two-years-of-growing-my-hair-long.html

It shows that she started at shoulder length and after two years reached BSL. I'm pretty sure she's at hip now with her new blog. (http://savagegardenbeauty.blogspot.nl)

Hair grows slowly, but it DOES grow if you stay away from hair salons and unnecessary trims! Hang in there! I am almost APL and my layers are almost all gone 10 months after my disaster cut. You'll make it there too! :)

[QMacrocarpa]

You may find that wearing your hair in updo's a lot of the time is helpful in reaching your goal. In my teens my hair reached an equilibrium length around BSL where it would break off as fast as it grew (I wore it down pretty much all the time). Of course, more resilient hair can be worn down without sustaining as much damage.

Make sure you are not getting all your growth trimmed off! In my twenties, I still didn't have terribly long hair (I already "knew" I couldn't grow it long) but a gal I worked with was really trying to grow her always-shoulder-length hair long and asked me for advice. It turned out that she was regularly getting her hair trimmed at a salon, where they consistently cut off all her growth. Don't fall into that trap! Personally, I self-trim twice a year. You may be able to go even longer between trims.

I second trying to enjoy the journey. Look for some styles you like that you can do with the hair you have today. Every length has some styles that work well and others that don't. I fondly remember some of the ones I did when my hair was shorter that I can't do anymore. Enjoy them while they last!

[cdonald2]

@Liz
@QMacrocarpa
Thankyou both for the wonderful answers. and the blog is amazing :) hoping to get around there around the same time give or take a couple inches :D Im still tring to find styles that work with my length. If it werent for the layers id be set. Right now its mostly up with scrunchies or hair ties until i can braid it or use hair sticks

[palaeoqueen]

You say in your OP that your hair has never been past APL then later on you say that it used to be BSL? There's quite a big difference between the two, do you know which one it is?

Have you thought about sharing your routine so people can comment on what you're doing well and anything you could change? You will get there I'm sure but it does take an awful lot of time and patience.

[jacqueline101]

Patience is the key and taking care of your hair the best you can. Forget about others. Concentrate on yourself. Growing healthy, beautiful hair is achievable..provided you have the patience to see it through.

This is well put except read learn and share your progress with us. We do help others.

[lapushka]

You say in your OP that your hair has never been past APL then later on you say that it used to be BSL? There's quite a big difference between the two, do you know which one it is?

Yes, that had me puzzled as well!

[cdonald2]

My longest my hair ever was i was apl, maybe a bit past it. my bad >__< BSL is my first goal, its a typo error. Me and my one track mind. Which part of the forum would be appropriate to post my routine? heres the best photo i have of my length. Thats the longest its ever been :/ i remember it being so much longer.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/AwCx3aBCMAAYfLa.jpg

By the way, im a cigar smoker lol.

[RancheroTheBee]

My little side wisps are just now brushing the tragus (centre) of my ears. I'm still about six to eight months from getting it into a pony stump, and I started over in September, so I feel your pain. It can be really discouraging when you think of where you could be in some alternate universe, but honestly, that doesn't get you anywhere. When you "[blank] time frame is so far away", you just start hating your hair and getting all itchy to do something to it.

Also, don't compare yourself to other people. Honestly, unless you've got a tape measure to their heads, all you have is their word, and most people have no idea how fast their hair is actually growing.

[Rushli]

I have found that my hair grows very slow from brushing shoulders to APL. I always got board and chopped it, so I never knew if my hair ever started growing a normal speed when it got longer. This time when I decided not to cut my hair it was for a certain amount of time, not a certain length. Being a busy SAHM, my hair has mostly been forgotten about and put in pony tails. It was not until I found this site that I changed my goal to a certain length and skipped the elastics and added hair toys. I was thankfully already doing most of the things that keep hair healthy. I recently looked back on some pictures and realized how much it has grown, though it still seems short because I cant seem to do any updos (mainly because of thickness.) I also measured my hair for the first time and found that my hair grew 3/4" last month! I never did any measurements previously, but I am pretty darn sure it has never done that before recently. If I were you I would post your routine to see if there are any suggestions, baby your hair, wearing it up and forget about it for a year or 2. lol

Eta: I take huge amounts of b2 for migraines and was looking up to see if it might be the source of my big boom in growth. I read that certain things like drinking and smoking can block the bodies ability to absorb the b vitamins which in turn can slow hair growth. It was not a scientifically backed article, but interesting non the less. I thought I would mention it since you are a cigar smoker.