How long was your hair?

[M.McDonough]

How long was your hair when you started growing it out?
I notice that a lot of people start from scratch, meaning they shave off their heads prior to their decision of letting their hair grow long which is weird..shaving off doesn't mean that your hair is gonna grow equally. Inevitably, some hairs are gonna be longer than others and some are gonna be shorter..

[mira-chan]

Hip length or so when I found LHC. I wasn't a fan of having short hair to begin with.

[lapushka]

It hasn't been shorter than chin for years now. Chin. Yeah. Multiple times due to stupidity and dyes, bleaches, henna, starting over and a chemical cut & burn. All that. I knew I wouldn't go shorter than chin, because I'd never grow it back out again in that case.

[brickworld13]

The shortest I've ever had my hair was just barely brushing the tops of my shoulders. Before that it was always at least APL except when I was a baby. When I found LHC, I had been growing that shoulder length cut for about 18 months with a couple of trims in there. I was also growing out bangs. That was a bad decision. They looked cute when I was a child and they layed on my face correctly. As an adult they never ever layed right and I gave up on them.

[gthlvrmx]

When I started growing my hair out as a kid, I started from short hair, so about 1 inch long. It definitely was not 1 foot long that's for sure so between that and bald is where I started growing my hair out for the first time. I was getting short haircuts before I decided to grow it out. More recently, I started over from bald at the end of 2013.

[amino]

For as long as I can remember, I've either been letting my hair grow long or cutting it back when I got tired of it. So it's hit waist and tailbone length. The shortest it's ever been was a pixie cut in September 2011. :)

[TwilightShadow]

I started growing it at BSL.

[lapis_lazuli]

I've always kept my hair between APL+ and WL. I've never had short hair.
My last 'styled' haircut was BSLish with subtle layering a few years ago.
When my hair got to around waist length, I started putting it back into a braid and forgot about it. I didn't go for haircuts and generally wasn't worried about it. I realized it was gaining length around past hip, and decided I wanted to grow it really long. :) That was verging on 2 years ago.
Since, I've found LHC and have been really consciously growing my hair to its limits.

[Robi-Bird]

Less than an inch long. I started growing it out after sleep-hacking it. I grew it out to a bob and then kept on growing.

[VeggiePixie]

It's about two inches now. It has been as long as waist and completely buzzed bald at various times. Hoping to brave my way through the mullet from Hell stage this fall/winter, and come out this spring with a bob.

[TheMechaGinger]

Well the first time I started growing my hair it was around APL, but then as it approached hip I had the brilliant idea of bleaching it to counteract all the henna I'd used over the years. Bad idea. I completely trashed my hair and so made the decision to cut it all off to around pixie length several months ago. Growing it out has been a major pain so far but the wait will be worth it!

[Stiria]

I cut my hair from mid back(ish) into a chin length bob seven years ago. Didn't like it, and decided to grow my hair out again, but I never gave any thought to how long I wanted it. It was about waist when I discovered LHC three years ago. Thats when I decided I wanted to grow to classic. Before that I never considered the possibility of having classic length hair. As silly as it sounds, it just never occurred to me that I could grow my hair past my butt. Now I am at classic and going for mid thigh, perhaps longer! :D

[Nique1202]

I had cut a pixie into my hair in early 2011 just to try something new, so I had hair ranging from shaved almost to the skin at my nape up to about 1.5 inches long up top. I liked it well enough, it was cute, I got a lot of compliments (I have great bone structure for ultra short hair) but it felt SO WRONG that I started growing it out after a couple of months of touchups, which is also when I started lurking around these parts though I didn't join for another year after that.

I don't think most of the people who started from a shaved head did the shave specifically to start growing their hair from scratch. Maybe in some cases of intense bleach or heat damage or something, but mostly I'd guess they shave their heads for other reasons (like raising money for charity, or together with a friend or family member with cancer or something) and then start growing it back out, maybe to where they were before or maybe longer.

[browneyedsusan]

Pixie: shaved close in back and over my ears, and about 2 or 3" on top.

My siggy shows about 6 or 8 weeks after I started growing. I felt like I needed a haircut. BAD! :)

[David W]

Crew cut during my senior year of high school. Haven't had it shorter than shoulder length since.

[hannabiss]

Well this weirdo shaved her head. Reason I had a side shave and extremely fried hair.
Also your hair strands will never be the same length so it makes difference wether you want to shave your hair or not...
on the flipside...I had tailbone length hair in high school.

[hannabiss]

Also i really do like the look of a bald head. And wanted to try it obviously or I wouldn't have even considered it.

[ThingitHair]

I had it cut to chin length just before the birth of my second child, then decided I wanted it long again, had a couple of inches of damaged ends cut of (and highlights in, I might regret that...) right before finding LHC, I was about APL then. It's just BSL (stretched) now, going for waist, or possibly BCL.

[goneJackal]

I shaved my hair every two weeks before I decided to let it grow.
Then, in the first week of university it was shaved once again (prank). So frustrating! But that was almost 10 years ago.

[Frankenstein]

This most recent time I started growing, I started out at above APL. Before that I had waist/hip-ish length hair, but bleach caused it to break off so unevenly I was forced to cut it.

[parkmikii]

My hair was around apl-bsl when I started lurking on this forum. I decided to grow my hair from shoulder length after a haircut that went wrong.

[Hypnotica]

I had a longish pixie and decided to go for long hair again (had long hair through my childhood). Joined the forums when I was about shoulder lenght.

[alishaxmarie]

My hair was always cut to my shoulders when I was in elementary school but it was around BSL when I found the forum and learned how to take care of it so that it would actually grow (senior year of high school). I started using hair sticks (pens/pencils and plastic spoons) in my first year of college/university and I'm nearly BCL now and entering my fourth year of uni!

[dancingrain91]

Just past shoulder length when I discovered this forum. On the downside I had just bleached it so it hasn't grown super fast.

[Hairkay]

I've always had BSL hair since I was a young child. I never felt the need to cut it really short. Last year I decided to find some deep conditioning treatments that my super allergy skin could handle to deal with my many slit ends. When I'd got that regimen in place I next focused on growing my hair out. This year I joined these forums.

[PalomaSincera]

Oh man, I can't imagine ever shaving my head. I am nowhere near confident enough.

My hair has been MBL most of my life, but without really thinking about it. When I decided to grow it out, it was SL :( I cut it for no good reason and I hated it. I'm almost at APL now :(:(:(:(:(
My goal is HL. How long do you think until I get there? :cool:

[hinabelle]

Shortest ever was chin in the front, EL in the back. When I decided I didn't like my short hair, it was chin all around.
Slow growing since then. Now that I know healthy hair practices hopefully it will grow faster! :)

[Lauraes]

BSL when I joined LHC and started taking hair care seriously. I've only ever had one big haircut in my life and it was to APL, so I've never had my hair short.

[Jo Ann]

A short shag in 1971...had the "tail" cut off in spring of 1972...it hasn't been shorter than APL since...now I'm in the "Mid Back Abyss" between BSL and WL...ain't no stoppin' me now! :p

[M.McDonough]

Oh man, I can't imagine ever shaving my head. I am nowhere near confident enough.

My hair has been MBL most of my life, but without really thinking about it. When I decided to grow it out, it was SL :( I cut it for no good reason and I hated it. I'm almost at APL now :(:(:(:(:(
My goal is HL. How long do you think until I get there? :cool:

Sure the buzz haircut or the bald head just doesn't suit some people, including me BTW

[Suguru]

I don't think most of the people who started from a shaved head did the shave specifically to start growing their hair from scratch. Maybe in some cases of intense bleach or heat damage or something, but mostly I'd guess they shave their heads for other reasons (like raising money for charity, or together with a friend or family member with cancer or something) and then start growing it back out, maybe to where they were before or maybe longer.

I agree with this. I actually had hair somewhere between hip and TBL when I found the LHC and decided to grow my hair longer (I made it as far as fingertip-length). I have since shaved my head for a fundraiser and am planning to grow back at least to TBL, maybe longer, over the next ten years.

[Alun]

There are really two answers to that. I had an average guy's short haircut until I was 13, which was the first time I started growing my hair. By the time I was 15 it was more or less shoulder length, and for a long time I thought that was long, even though now I would think that was medium length. Then, when I was 23, a chance remark by a girl who lived in the same house as I did caused me to have an epiphany. She told me it was 'long for a guy', and I realised she was right, so that's when I really started to grow it long. Even then, I have never been able to produce longer than waist length hair, and I don't suppose I ever will now, in my late 50s.

One important thing to understand is that in England the only people who shaved their heads before the '90s were neo-Nazis and their fellow travellers, such as soccer hooligans, i.e. the sort of people who took weapons to soccer games with every intention of using them. As I emigrated to the US in '89, I have never had the experience of shaved heads being considered normal in my native country. I know they are in the US, but I find it weird/frightening, especially on the heads of police officers. To me that makes them look like Nazis. So, when I speak of having a normal guy's haircut up until age 13, a crew cut is definitely NOT what I mean. In fact, I had a fringe (bangs in American), which means I looked a little like the Beatles even before they did, although like them in their early days, my hair was short at the back. Although there were no crewcuts atall, not even in the army, some guys did have the back of their hair trimmed with clippers, but I never did.

[MadHouseWitch]

I've had it as short as a "longer pixie" different lengths all around but pretty darn short, it looks good on me TBH. But then I went through a cycle of grow and chop mostly in the summer I would cut to chin length. Probably not getting much more that APL at the longest. When I was young I had LONG hair, but not as long as others I knew (waist or hip I think) until I cut it to chin one summer, what can I say chin is a default length that looks good! Then a few years ago I made the decision to just let it grow and see how it was. Now I'm at BSL (well, just shy as I had a trim recently, it was badly needed) not that anyone can tell since my curls tend to put it around APL at least the front, I swear it is hiding 4-5" LOL. Of course I didn't join on here until like this week? Finally after coming here for so much advice I figured it was just easier to join up. Mainly when I was looking up henna info (recently took that plunge too, and I LOVE IT)

[bte]

I'd had shoulder length for some time before I decided to grow it to terminal.

[Wosie]

I've said this a few times before, but what's another time, right? ;) I cut my hair into a short, short pixie (similar to Anne Hathaway in this picture: http://www.short-haircut.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Elegant-Pixie-Hairstyle-with-Short-Bangs.jpg) in March 2012 and haven't cut it much since then. I guess I wanted to go really short before I went really long. :)

[pailin]

I've had pixies, up to BSL, and everything in between. I had been keeping it short for a year or so last time I decided to grow it out, in fall of 2012. My last short haircut before I decided to grow was a chin length bob, not really layered, and it was perfect.. . I had a nice even hemline (no mullets) down to shoulder, when I got it layered in 2013. That was my last cut.

[dogzdinner]

I decided to grow mine when I suddenly noticed it was waist length! My hair has been pixie short before but its more often longer due to wilful neglect and a fear of hairdressers. Discovering LHC was a big part in the decision as I had always thought that buns were magical, complicated things that involved hours in front of a mirror and loads of hairspray to achieve!:o
Im currently midback as I chopped my layers out and Im aiming for classic.

[Arctic]

Pixie for me. Several times :D My whole life, before I decided to let my hair grow, I was into pixie to bob to shoulder continuum. Ha ha, it's not that much longer now, and I don't plan to grow super long, more like "long to me" long.

[Marika]

When I joined LHC in 2009, my hair was at waist and I grew it to TBL+. I cut it to shoulder length 3 years ago and now it's back to hip. So in a way, I started growing 3 years ago from shoulder length. I can't remember when I originally started growing out my hair consciously. When I see old photos of me, it looks like my hair has been ~midback length since I was 3 years old. I've never had short, short hair since I was a newborn. My hair is almost shoulder length in my 1 year old photo.

[cathair]

First cut I got that I deeply regretted was somewhere between shoulder and chin I guess. Never wanted to cut it again after that, but had my arm twisted. Was about past waist, probably about hip when I got to LHC. Shortest I ever had was a pixie when I was about four, has never been that short since.

[Anje]

Growing up, my hair bounced between shoulder and bsl a lot, but was usually apl on average in middle school and high school. In college, it got down to waist when I was talked into donating and got it chopped to shoulder, which was too short for my taste. I was in the process of slowly growing it back (with "trims") and was at about bsl when I joined LHC.

[Veridical Angel]

In 2000 when I got in church. I had just cut it off to the tops of my shoulders because of my divorce. Today, it is as long as my hinder parts, but now they re sending since I am almost 50

[Veridical Angel]

Now very thinning...

[Eastbound&Down]

My hair was growing out from a chin length bob when I joined, before that I had yoyoed back and forth between pixie and short bobs in my college years. Being growing since then and hoping for BSL by the end of the year.

[Gamma Vector]

I've always had long hair. My mother wouldn't let me cut it above APL as a kid. When I seriously decided to start taking good care of it and grow it out, it was about BSL. I had a lot of damage from heat styling, wet brushing, etc (being a teenager with curls and a stick-straight haired mother and grandmother wasn't easy, let me tell you...) that I gradually trimmed off. I grew it out to classic, decided that was too long, and maintained at tailbone for a while. Now I'm at waist, and probably heading for hip. :)

And to think it's only been eight years.

[PurpleMoonstone]

The shortest mine has ever been is BSL with neck/chin length layers through it, never had short hair ever - short in parts but not short :P.

[Loveisaverb]

Before I joined the forums and was first thinking of growing my grow my hair long, I was between APL and BSL.
When I joined I was at MBL, now I growing it out from pretty much a buzzcut, trying to start fresh with my natural hair color and cut off the dye.

[missrandie]

Grew up with at least waist/hip length hair, cut to BSL 8th grade, then APL with epic layers for volume when curled. Rodeo queen style, because it was expected of all queens.

Cut to shoulder after that, then out to BSL again in time for HS graduation. Cut to above shoulder first semester of college, then back to BSL and a little longer with layers and bangs (always bangs) by our wedding in 2012. Day after that, short pixie. Maintained my close crop for 2.5 years, then started growing it out. Grew the red out first, and once it was gone (last December ish) I went for controlled length. Grew the top out first, until I was almost a real bob, then said Let 'er Rip! Been going for all over length since May. Here comes shoulder by New Years!

[Kendrix]

I had hip length hair as a kid, but by high school I wore it very short. I had a hairstyle where I wore the hair in front of my ears as long as my chin and the hair behind my ears only 1 inch long and spiked up and shortly after, I started dying it red.

I asked a family friend to cut my hair and she cut my front bits off! My hairstyle was transformed into an ugly burgundy pixie cut. It was disastrous.

I had originally decided to grow it back out to shoulder and chop the back off only. (Had an obsession with Pandora from guitar hero. I wanted hair like her style) but shoulder length and bleach came and then prom, for which I dyed my ugly lemon yellow hair back dark brown.

At some point, my high school boyfriend mentioned how hot it would be if my hair covered my chest. I think that's when I officially started growing, though we broke up before I got there. I maintained at apl/bsl for a long time with regular trims, but my sister stopped having time to cut it and i found myself at waist by my college graduation. Then I found LHC!

[trolleypup]

How long was your hair when you started growing it out?
I notice that a lot of people start from scratch, meaning they shave off their heads prior to their decision of letting their hair grow long which is weird..shaving off doesn't mean that your hair is gonna grow equally. Inevitably, some hairs are gonna be longer than others and some are gonna be shorter..
Umm, last haircut to control the length? That would be a cut to make it impossible to get a bite of pizza and hair again. Which I eventually regretted and went to alternate methods of not eating my hair.

I think the longest bits were a little past shoulder length.

[flickm]

Mine has been long all my adult life, except when I had it cut to chin after childbirth. Looking at old photos, my longest was around waist length. In recent years it's been up and down between BSL and shoulder: no rhyme or reason to it, I'd just look one day and think it was getting straggly and cut it. The last time was this April, cut to shoulder, now between APL and BSL. I'm not cutting it again, not even a trim till it reaches hip or classic if it does!

[Arctic]

Mine has been long all my adult life, except when I had it cut to chin after childbirth. Looking at old photos, my longest was around waist length. In recent years it's been up and down between BSL and shoulder: no rhyme or reason to it, I'd just look one day and think it was getting straggly and cut it. The last time was this April, cut to shoulder, now between APL and BSL. I'm not cutting it again, not even a trim till it reaches hip or classic if it does!

If you've had problems with your ends getting - what feels/looks to you as - straggly, then why wouldn't you trim? Trimming a bit here and then doesn't really set one backwards much at all, but helps a ton to keep the ends more even and undamaged. Especially with fast growing hair I wouldn't worry about losing a few centimeters per year.

[JadeTigress]

Mine was classic length until I was 19. Cut it to BSL, then to pixie. Finally grew it back out to BSL+ (3-4 inches until waist), and then impulsively cut back to pixie in December 2013. Should've followed that two week rule... Now (after several trims) I'm just barely past shoulder again. But atleast I've gotten rid of most of the layers, so it can just grow from here.

[flickm]

If you've had problems with your ends getting - what feels/looks to you as - straggly, then why wouldn't you trim? Trimming a bit here and then doesn't really set one backwards much at all, but helps a ton to keep the ends more even and undamaged. Especially with fast growing hair I wouldn't worry about losing a few centimeters per year.

Yes, I agree, but I was cutting off from BSL or longer to shoulder each time - a bit more drastic than a few centimetres :) i'm taking proper care of my hair now, instead of the wash, hot blow dry, brush hard, put it in an elastic for the bath etc regime, so the ends look a lot better.

[spirals]

It was past APL but not yet at BSL.

[YvetteVarie]

I started at 1 inch.

[TatsuOni]

Less than an inch. I had a sidecut at the time, so I cut all of the hair to the same lenght. People thought that I was a boy until the hair reached about sholder lenght...

[Groovy Granny]

Mine was at chin length.
My silver curls are tight when the length is short (especially in humid weather), so I looked like my grandmother with a perm lol (I loved her ...just not her hair on ME ;) )
Even with cutting out all my layers I still curl, but in cold dry weather it is SLEEK;I love the versatility my hair type gives me :)

[Hurven]

I cut my BSL+ hair to chin length two and a half years ago. I had always wanted really long hair, but it wasn't until then that I really started longing for it. But I still went to the hairdresser twice a year to cut 5 cm at a time. I didn't make the conscious decision to grow it long until I found this forum, which was a few months ago, when my hair was just brushing APL.

And for the record, I didn't regret my big chop at all and I still don't. I enjoy having short hair and my hair was quite damaged. I feel that the big chop gave me a fresh start. :)

[DaniJoy]

I didn't start paying attention to my hair health and wanting to grow it out till last year at bsl which has been my longest length. Shortest was shaved.

[Saldana]

Mine had gotten to TBL (about 33-34 inches on me) when I did the 'big chop' to get color out. So......I guess this time I started at a longish pixie. I seem to be stuck in the BSL wilderness right now, but am trying to just leave it alone and let it grow. Or not.

[merseaone]

How long was your hair when you started growing it out?
I notice that a lot of people start from scratch, meaning they shave off their heads prior to their decision of letting their hair grow long which is weird..shaving off doesn't mean that your hair is gonna grow equally. Inevitably, some hairs are gonna be longer than others and some are gonna be shorter..IM' always growing my hair out but this last time I HAD to start from 0 inches because my hair was coming out due to chemo. i shaved my head and have kept it in a bag so I can make some kind of hair toy with it or paint a picture on it.

[Entangled]

I had long-ish hair as a kid, then one summer my mom went to the barber to get our hair cut instead of trimming it herself. Let's just say, while he's fantastic with short men's haircuts, he wasn't as skilled with ours and ended up cutting my hair to shorter than shoulder, from apl/mid back hair. I loved it, though and went back and forth between those lengths, with on and off bangs for most of elementary school. When I got to middle school, I wanted to grow it out and got to about BSL (heavy mechanical damage from brushing too hard and when wet, plus damage from a flat iron I gave up on (I used those "bad" tools, but they never helped my hair look good like the other girls')) before I chopped it to ear length. Then, after growing to collarbone length and another chop back, I started growing out my hair. This time around I've been a lot gentler. Now, I'm at hip, aiming for the classic or longer I've always wanted.

[alexis917]

I had been on LHC years ago with about collarbone hair. I grew to waist, and chopped to APL-ish to remove old color. I then grew out to hip before getting a pixie after a breakup. During the grow-out of my impulsive cut, I returned :)

[yahirwaO.o]

Suoer Layed Shoulder Lenght Mess!!!!!! I had split ends all over, so short razored layers and updos were a nightmare. Decided to grow just to keep it out of my face but as lenght was progressing I love it more and more and then it was down my butt in 2 years!!! :o

[Swan Maiden]

In 2008 I shaved all my hair to the lowest the clippers went. I found LHC in 2012 and actively began growing from waist.

[RainbowBowser]

Between SL and APL, after I had some nasty damage chopped off (4 inches according to the hair stylist, so it wasn't even really BSL before that)

[hypersensitive]

I don't think most people shave off their heads to start growing. I'm not sure where OP is getting that idea from. Take a look at members' starting lengths on their profiles. Mine was APL.

[Techmouse]

Pixie to SL+ to chin before learning to care for my hair properly, and finding out that long hair is easier to handle. I don't think I'll be cutting my hair for more than a trim any time soon. I discovered LHC just before I hit BSL.