flat ironed my hair (pics)

[chen bao jun]

http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a481/uloma1/20150314_144710_zpsove1eknv.jpg (http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/uloma1/media/20150314_144710_zpsove1eknv.jpg.html)
http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a481/uloma1/Mobile%20Uploads/a9be7c24-b753-409c-b655-4034fadaeda5_zpsmizdblgy.jpg (http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/uloma1/media/Mobile%20Uploads/a9be7c24-b753-409c-b655-4034fadaeda5_zpsmizdblgy.jpg.html)

[chen bao jun]

sorry one pic is so much bigger than the other.
I don't have as much shrinkage as I thought, at all. that's not more than two or three inches longer flatironed, to my surprise. maybe not even that much, when you look at my siggy.
Curly I think looks better.
Flatironed is much easier to make buns. I can make a lazy wrap easily. It's usually a struggle. I can put hair toys more easily too. They glide more. I can use different sizes hairtoys. Some things I can usually use only for half ups can fit a whole ponytail in them now. However, I can still use a large ficcare for half ups. and my hair is definitely not thin. The hairdresser thought she would get done flatironing in a 1/2 hour, but it took her two hours. Fortunately she is a friend and did not complain, up the charges, and she also was fine with me not getting my hair 'trimmed' although my ends are beyond fairytale. the end in the photograph, thats what they look like after I used large sponge rollers on the bottom for an hour.
Now the question of the week would be, why is my hair growing at the speed of molasses? I thought it was growing a lot and that the growth was hidden by shrinkage. but clearly this is not so. So why did I grow from 17 inches (last time I flat ironed back in August 2012) to only 24 inches, in THREE YEARS? Three years, 7 inches, that's very very slow. I have my hair up all the time, I have trimmed once a year (roughly) not more than half an inch--I don't understand. Do you think I'd grow if I sacrificed my damaged ends from before LHC (you can kind of see in both pics, the last 2 inches is a mess). But I'm scared to do that and take one year to grow back the 2 inches.
Maybe because I'm 58 and long past menopause?

[chen bao jun]

http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a481/uloma1/october2012flatironed2_zps59285a98.jpg (http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/uloma1/media/october2012flatironed2_zps59285a98.jpg.html)
flat ironed hair in August 2012.
Much worse condition. and it is longer. It jsut doesn't seem like much for three years.
Oddly, I had more shrinkage then?? It used to shrink up to my ears 3 years ago, about 50%, when wet. It is much less than that now. (except when I go to visit High humidity Houston)

[lapushka]

It's nice. Nice & smooth. But can I say, I still like your curls better? ;)

[diddiedaisy]

Looks great. You can see the improvement in the quality of your hair. I'm surprised at the lack of shrinkage you have, it's similar to mine and I'm only a wavy, you must be pleased about that.

In respect to cutting, I'd just stick to micro trimming. You may find your hair is growing slow due to being post menopausal, I'm not sure what you can do about that if anything. It's a hard life being a woman lol :)

[proo]

That is some healthy, strong, shiny hair, chen -
personally I prefer it curly although I hear ya on the ease of manipulation while straight.
As for your growth rate, it could just be what your body is comfortable with.
I'm assuming you're asking yourself the usual:
enough protein, sleep, hydration etc.
The improvement is phenomenal!

[Groovy Granny]

I think it looks great ~ growth is growth ;)

The curls are awesome....and no questionable damage from flatirons to worry about as well :thumbsup:

[restless]

All I can think when I see those new pictures are wow :) Im sorry you didnt find as much growth as you had expected and Im afraid I dont have a good answer to your questions, but I just have to say the improvement is amazing. It looks so healthy and the curls are lovely!

[chen bao jun]

Thank you, Lapushka, Diddle Daisy, Pru and Groovy Granny and Restless.
Yes, the curls look better to me and of course easier. My flat ironed hair actually looks better in buns, which I wear most of the time, but that would make no sense. Bunning for growth while damaging with flat ironing.

I could feel while she was flat ironing me that this was not a good thing to do regularly, plus of course the time it took to do it.

Proo, I think I am good on all those fronts, hydration, sleep nutrition. Getting a physical soon and I will check my health in general. I have to think though, that I can't be that lacking, because my hair is definitely really healthy. And it may not be growing so fast, but its not falling out.

My instinct is keep micro trimming too, rather than even a two inch cut.

I wonder if the shrinkage differene is length? If being even this much longer drags the curls down, perhaps because in my case, my hair is so thick and hence perhaps heavy? although it doesn't feel like heavy hair. Its always felt somewhat light--weight, in the sense that its always been hair that moves around a lot--that's in fact why I prefer it up, even when its short it get in my eyes, mouth, keeps falling in my face, annoying (and a bit unusual for a tightly curly. One of the great benefits of tightly curly hair, it seems to me, is that normally, it stays where you put it? My husband's certainly does. he can go out in strong wind and have no issues and he was always like this, even when we were young and he used to wear a large afro. I had one, too. Mine blew around and did not, in general stay up). But even though it feels light weight, maybe somehow the curls are dragged down? they don't seem larger than before in diameter, but maybe, the space between each curl, which I once heard is what causes shrinkage. Not so much the diameter of each part of the spiral on a curl, but how crowded up they are against each other? If that makes sense?

If I always had this hair, I think I would use ketylos all the time and not lady iduns and barrettes more (France luxe, the large volume) and ficcares less. i would prefer 60th street to Jeterforks, now its the opposite.

[lapushka]

But there is definitely growth there. It might be slower (esp. if you're trimming as well!) but it is still *growth*, which is always a good thing!

[jeanniet]

I'm really shocked you have so little shrinkage. I think I may actually have more than you do, and I'm a pretty loose 3a with some 3b mixed in. I don't have an answer for the lack of growth. It could be related to menopause, but I don't know if menopause affects growth so much as thickness. I haven't seen any change in my growth rate, anyway. But your hair looks much healthier!

[starshade]

I love your curls- the tighter the better! Maybe the lack of difference in length is because the canopy curls more than the under-layers?? It seems to me that the sides look much shorter when curly than in the pic where your hair is ironed.

[chen bao jun]

Thanks, starshade!
Maybe that's it, the top definitely is looser curls than the rest.

Strangely enough, I do still have some shrinkage while flat ironed (???!!)
I will try to take pics later. It's still going strong after almost 1 week.

[starshade]

You're welcome! I think I said the opposite of what I meant but you understood me anyway :cool:
I've also noticed that about ladies I see with tightly curly hair when it's ironed- it does appear to have shrinkage even then, it still has a springiness about it. Maybe taking pictures when it's soaking wet and stretched will give you a better idea?

[MINAKO]

Your hair looks great! Full and shiny. You can definitely wear both. But i know how much you love your curls andprobably not want to mess with the pattern too much.
If its not shrinkage that made your hair appear to grow slow, but at the same time it isn't breaking i would go for a blood test. Luckily it's just growing on the slower side, which is not exactly a bad thing, but i feel you on how being patient can be hard.

[chen bao jun]

thanks Starshade and Minako.
Starshade, when my hair is soaking wet, its not at its most shrunken. that happens after it had been soaked wet and has dried. As it dries, it shrinks and shrinks and shrinks.

I may have more shrinkage than I am noticing if I don't have leave in conditioner in my hair? (I use the tresseme or garnier triple nutrition). But I am not going to test and see, because letting my hair dry without leave in conditioner is a disaster. I could get intense breakage simply from doing this. In fact, for years and years I had incredible breakage, when I first started to wear my hair natural and didn't know about leave in conditioner--much more than I ever got from heat or chemicals. My hair got shorter and shorter and shorter. At that time, however, I didn't care about having long hair, so it didn't much matter. what I cared about was giving a good imitation of type 4 hair and I'm only successful at that (have tried twice in my life) when I have really dry and unconditioned hair. Otherwise, it does a kind of flop thing that is typical of type 3s--even afro curly type 3's, which I definitely am.

I did note my shrinkage with unstraightened hair--this is a new concept that there is shrinkage with straightened hair--but its definitely something I am seeing. starshade, you are right, my hair does still have some springiness about it straightened. On the very first and second days it was flat ironed, it was doing a decent imitation of being 1A (or more likely 1B or C) hair. It was even slippery. So slippery that hairtoys were sliding out. By day three, it was clearly and definitely straightened 3c or whatever it is hair, and although it feels very soft and nice (which it never used to--the reason I hated straightening so much was the feel it got), it is a different animal than what a type 1 person has, definitely. It is doing something that is like pouffing up, for instance, at this stage, though it still is straight. Very interesting.

I have noticed before that people who get their hair curly permed, still do not have hair that behaves like truly curly hair. I have had friends do that and then 'empathize' and they just do not know what they are talking about, which is fine. It is a compliment that they like curly hair enough to perm. As for curling irons, etc, that usually doesn't even stay curly without lots of product and effort. Mine isn't staying straight for this long without a lot of trouble, I can assure you. I am wrapping it in a doobie around my head every night, tying it down with a silk scarf and frantically avoiding weather and sweat. Way too much to do on any kind of a regular basis, even if I didn't so like my curls. Managing to avoid product so far. The person who flat ironed it used coconut oil, which worked well (rather to my surprise). I am putting Fox's shea butter (recipe in the recipe section) on the ends, which show the most tendency to want to 'go back' (they are so damaged, left over from when I had my natural hairstyle without conditioner).

MINAKO, I know you have been successful at getting your hair to be a very very good facsimile of type 1 hair, without damage through a lot of research and care, with the keratin straightening system and careful flat ironing. I admire how yours look and at this moment and really saluting you for your success with this, its a stunning accomplishment and looks very nice. Plus so very long.

I don't have health problems. I read somewhere that its not uncommon for type 4's (and type 3c would be close enough) to have slower growth--although there's just one study saying this and people dispute it intensely. I am thinking back to how my hair grew back when I cut it off when young (which I did twice) and yeah, it was at about this speed. I had assumed when joining LHC that it must have breaking off back then due to chemical straightening and flat ironing, but now I'm thinking, maybe not. I may just grow at about 1/4 inch per month--and I may have thought my hair was fast growing because it grew back at all, which was unusual in the community I grew up in (people with various African types with very abused hair). I was probably mistaking good retention, which I've always, with fast growth.

Oh, well.

[Hairkay]

Hi Chen the hair looks great. It's possible that your hair is heavier now being longer hence less shrinkage.

[kitschy]

I love your curly hair!

[spidermom]

Definite length progress, but I'm sure it must be frustrating to have slow growth. You hair looks really good, though.

[Nellon]

Sorry about the disappointment over how it didn't grow more. But I'm in awe still, those curls! That colour! The thickness! And quite long too! Lovely!

[Isilme]

Your hair looks good both ways, but I must say I prefer the curly look. If you have a white sink in your bathroom you could make a habit out of combing your hair over the sink and see if you notice any breakage. But I'm sure you know all the tricks since you have been here for awhile.

[gthlvrmx]

The leftover damage might be causing you to have that "slow growth". Your hair might be breaking off. Cutting it off will take care of the damage and it should grow at it's normal pace. You'll retain that growth better if you cut out the damage. You probably have a bit more damage now from the recent heat styling though, heat causes damage. Here is this thread, holothuroidea mentions there that heat has to damage the hair in order to see the change you want. http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=134009

[chen bao jun]

The leftover damage might be causing you to have that "slow growth". Your hair might be breaking off. Cutting it off will take care of the damage and it should grow at it's normal pace. You'll retain that growth better if you cut out the damage. You probably have a bit more damage now from the recent heat styling though, heat causes damage. Here is this thread, holothuroidea mentions there that heat has to damage the hair in order to see the change you want. http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=134009

I have wondered about this, honestly, also.

and I am SURE that the flat ironing caused more damage to the already damaged ends. I could sort of tell that was happening as it was flat ironed--? and afterwards they felt crappi-er, if you know what I mean. The fox's shea butter is helping smooth them out, but I know it doesn't 'fix' them.

They take such babying, my rotten ends.

One day I will get tired of them and cut them off--but not right now, because at the stage I am at, two inches will make my hair APL, instead of almost BSL and I can't stand to go back there.

It's just amazing to me how bad mechanical damage can be. And its amazing to me that my whole head of hair was in that condition. I deliberately put up a photograph where you could see the damage, in daily life it was quite disguised, people, even hairdressers used to say what healthy hair I had (!!!!!!!)

In the flat ironed photo and also in my siggy pic, i can clearly see that the ends are damaged, I don't know if you all also can, but they look very different from the rest of my hair (not to speak of, so thin)

[DollyDagger]

The improvement in condition is apparent for sure. It looks healthier, shinier and thicker. Definite progress if not so much in length in other markers of quality. Hope that the length starts coming in like gangbusters for you. :magic::heartbeat I hope you didnt incurr any damage from this last straightening. Mechanical damage is real for sure though particularly on a fine hair type-One day I will post a picture of my horribly damaged ends from daily flat ironing. I agree with you about not cutting your ends now though..just hang in and keep an eye to make sure theres no breakage going on at the ends.

[gthlvrmx]

I have wondered about this, honestly, also.

and I am SURE that the flat ironing caused more damage to the already damaged ends. I could sort of tell that was happening as it was flat ironed--? and afterwards they felt crappi-er, if you know what I mean. The fox's shea butter is helping smooth them out, but I know it doesn't 'fix' them.

They take such babying, my rotten ends.

One day I will get tired of them and cut them off--but not right now, because at the stage I am at, two inches will make my hair APL, instead of almost BSL and I can't stand to go back there.

It's just amazing to me how bad mechanical damage can be. And its amazing to me that my whole head of hair was in that condition. I deliberately put up a photograph where you could see the damage, in daily life it was quite disguised, people, even hairdressers used to say what healthy hair I had (!!!!!!!)

In the flat ironed photo and also in my siggy pic, i can clearly see that the ends are damaged, I don't know if you all also can, but they look very different from the rest of my hair (not to speak of, so thin)

The only difference I see is how shiny your straightened hair looks from the siggy pic :) But it doesn't look damaged to me, not even in your siggy would I have expected your hair to be damaged. I just thought that's how your curlier hair looked like! How long are you planning on keeping it straight? Also, your shrinkage doesn't look like too much to me when I compared the curly photo to the straightened hair photo! So lucky you, maybe your long hair will probably look long as it grows :)

[AutobotsAttack]

Oh my goodness it's absolutely lovely :) as for your growth rate, I'm not really
Sure what to say (I'm only 20 lol) but I tend to have 3/4-1 inch of growth a month. But I'm young and exercise daily. Maybe you could try exercising? Increased circulation of blood to the scalp does help encourage more growth. But I have fairy tale ends too but I actually like them so I wouldn't worry about them unless you really want that blunt hemline look. Your hair is round about the same length as mine maybe an inch or so longer. But it definately looks absolutely pretty and adorable! And compared to
Your 2012 your progress is amazing :)

[starshade]

thanks Starshade and Minako.
Starshade, when my hair is soaking wet, its not at its most shrunken. that happens after it had been soaked wet and has dried. As it dries, it shrinks and shrinks and shrinks.

I may have more shrinkage than I am noticing if I don't have leave in conditioner in my hair? (I use the tresseme or garnier triple nutrition). But I am not going to test and see, because letting my hair dry without leave in conditioner is a disaster. I could get intense breakage simply from doing this. In fact, for years and years I had incredible breakage, when I first started to wear my hair natural and didn't know about leave in conditioner--much more than I ever got from heat or chemicals. My hair got shorter and shorter and shorter. At that time, however, I didn't care about having long hair, so it didn't much matter. what I cared about was giving a good imitation of type 4 hair and I'm only successful at that (have tried twice in my life) when I have really dry and unconditioned hair. Otherwise, it does a kind of flop thing that is typical of type 3s--even afro curly type 3's, which I definitely am.

I did note my shrinkage with unstraightened hair--this is a new concept that there is shrinkage with straightened hair--but its definitely something I am seeing. starshade, you are right, my hair does still have some springiness about it straightened. On the very first and second days it was flat ironed, it was doing a decent imitation of being 1A (or more likely 1B or C) hair. It was even slippery. So slippery that hairtoys were sliding out. By day three, it was clearly and definitely straightened 3c or whatever it is hair, and although it feels very soft and nice (which it never used to--the reason I hated straightening so much was the feel it got), it is a different animal than what a type 1 person has, definitely. It is doing something that is like pouffing up, for instance, at this stage, though it still is straight. Very interesting.

I have noticed before that people who get their hair curly permed, still do not have hair that behaves like truly curly hair. I have had friends do that and then 'empathize' and they just do not know what they are talking about, which is fine. It is a compliment that they like curly hair enough to perm. As for curling irons, etc, that usually doesn't even stay curly without lots of product and effort. Mine isn't staying straight for this long without a lot of trouble, I can assure you. I am wrapping it in a doobie around my head every night, tying it down with a silk scarf and frantically avoiding weather and sweat. Way too much to do on any kind of a regular basis, even if I didn't so like my curls. Managing to avoid product so far. The person who flat ironed it used coconut oil, which worked well (rather to my surprise). I am putting Fox's shea butter (recipe in the recipe section) on the ends, which show the most tendency to want to 'go back' (they are so damaged, left over from when I had my natural hairstyle without conditioner).

MINAKO, I know you have been successful at getting your hair to be a very very good facsimile of type 1 hair, without damage through a lot of research and care, with the keratin straightening system and careful flat ironing. I admire how yours look and at this moment and really saluting you for your success with this, its a stunning accomplishment and looks very nice. Plus so very long.

I don't have health problems. I read somewhere that its not uncommon for type 4's (and type 3c would be close enough) to have slower growth--although there's just one study saying this and people dispute it intensely. I am thinking back to how my hair grew back when I cut it off when young (which I did twice) and yeah, it was at about this speed. I had assumed when joining LHC that it must have breaking off back then due to chemical straightening and flat ironing, but now I'm thinking, maybe not. I may just grow at about 1/4 inch per month--and I may have thought my hair was fast growing because it grew back at all, which was unusual in the community I grew up in (people with various African types with very abused hair). I was probably mistaking good retention, which I've always, with fast growth.

Oh, well.

Yes that is what I've observed too- a certain poufiness with 3c-4a and up hair when ironed and even when chemically straightened. It doesn't fall straight down like natural 1a's and b's. It kind of still has a sideways volume to it.
Incidentally whatever damage you have is not visible in the pics at all. I love curly hair too and love it to curl more rather than less!
We have a lot of students from various African countries here and though there's some variation in hairtype, I notice many have quite thick and long natural hair that's usually done up in amazing braided hairstyles.

[starshade]

What helps me with length gain apart from diet and exercise are regular scalp massages- I try to do them everyday for at least 10 mins. I find it quite relaxing too. Also scalp oilings 3x a week. So even if your growth is just naturally a bit slower than average, you should be able to boost it some with the massages.

[betterhairday]

I have wondered about this, honestly, also.
and I am SURE that the flat ironing caused more damage to the already damaged ends. I could sort of tell that was happening as it was flat ironed--? and afterwards they felt crappi-er, if you know what I mean. The fox's shea butter is helping smooth them out, but I know it doesn't 'fix' them.

They take such babying, my rotten ends.

One day I will get tired of them and cut them off--but not right now, because at the stage I am at, two inches will make my hair APL, instead of almost BSL and I can't stand to go back there.

It's just amazing to me how bad mechanical damage can be. And its amazing to me that my whole head of hair was in that condition. I deliberately put up a photograph where you could see the damage, in daily life it was quite disguised, people, even hairdressers used to say what healthy hair I had (!!!!!!!)

In the flat ironed photo and also in my siggy pic, i can clearly see that the ends are damaged, I don't know if you all also can, but they look very different from the rest of my hair (not to speak of, so thin)

Can I share this with you all http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/08/04/428982232/straighten-your-hair-without-frying-it-engineers-are-on-the-case?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150804

I am now checking out the Karmin Salon Series hair straightener!

[luxurioushair]

I read somewhere that its not uncommon for type 4's (and type 3c would be close enough) to have slower growth
Eh, that is completely untrue, hair type doesn't determine the growth speed at all, that person is sad. Your health really determines how fast your hair will grow. And then you have to make sure you're not doing anything to cause extensive breakage.
My hair is only growing faster with time. I guess I'll find out how much it's grown the next time I check the length. Right now measuring is off-limits!

Also I know everybody's already said this but your hair is 1000x more beautiful when curly!

[chen bao jun]

thank you, ladies. I appreciate all the encouragement and compliments and feedback.

I'm so glad no one else can see the damage.

My hair is kind of like that, though. Nowadays the damage is only at the bottom, but I had damaged hair for a long time and didn't even realize, because even hairdressers thought my hair was healthy. It's that kind of coarse, strong hair that always looks like its in great shape--I had search hard for a photo that showed something of its true condition before LHC. Even at that time, when I curled the ends under and put a little product on it, it looked good. The way you can tell my hair is damaged is more from the way its feels. I never thought my hair could FEEL soft until LHC.

Here's the same seriously damaged hair, photos from the same time, when worn natural (you can see I was quite successful at masquerading as a type 4) and when natural but with the curls combed out (explosion). You can see its deceiving--you wouldn't jsut look at it and say 'what damaged hair'. In fact, I myself was surprised when I realized how bad it was. Again, in these photos, the whole head of hair is damaged, not just the ends and if you put your hand in it, you'd feel dryness and the hair would feel harsh, but people (even hairdressers) were like, your hair is just like t his, its the kind of hair that doesn't feel soft.

When I didn't comb it out (I seriously didn't used to do anything to my hair but wash it, with no conditioner or anything, in very hot water, scrubbing it around a lot roughly, with sulphate shampoo), the curly squiggles at the ends, masked the breakage and mess that you can see in the photo in the blue shirt. When I did comb it out, I'd pat the bottom into shape (anybody who ever had an afro knows what I mean) and it would stay that way, again, masking the breakage and the un even mess--it wasn't fairytaling, it was severe breakage. In those days, when I used to comb (pick)my hair, the sink was full of broken off ends--heck, when I used to wake up from sleeping (which I did without doing anything to my hair first) the pillowcase was covered with little short hairs all over the place. It seriously isn't breaking off now--I know what breakage is.
http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a481/uloma1/100_0911_zps2y9mdc21.jpg (http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/uloma1/media/100_0911_zps2y9mdc21.jpg.html)
http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a481/uloma1/100_1398_zpsu2onbn9e.jpg (http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/uloma1/media/100_1398_zpsu2onbn9e.jpg.html)

[chen bao jun]

Thanks also for all the suggestions and encouragement re, more growth.

It would be nice, although I am happy that I am growing, even if slowly, which clearly I am.

I've always been a big exerciser. I walk every day, yesterday I also bicylcled for an hour, I do Zumba off and on, I do yoga every week, I do all kinds of stretches--and I drink a whole lot of water. I also eat plenty of protein, pounds of fruite weekly (and its organic) and I am a green and yellow vegetable FREAK--I have been known to upset people's dinner plans by taking all the vegetable on the table, just for me (seriously, I embarrassed myself like this the first time I met my future mother in law, I couldn't fathom the idea that the little bit of string beans she had on the table was meant to serve 9 people and assumed it was just for me, lol, so embarrassing)--

I'm reallly very very healthy.

Luxurioushair, thanks for your sweet compliment about my curls and I know there are plenty of people with type 3c or 4 African hair whose hair grows very fast--My mom is 4c and when she started taking care of her broken off hair, it grew like 4 inches in 6 months, it was crazy (though in her case, shrinkage masked this. but when you braided it, it just kept going and going and going--I couldn't believe how much hair there suddenly was). However, there is a study out there, done in England (not with that many people, its true, so maybe not a definitive study, more research needs to be done) that shows African people, not African Americans (and they didn't say which part of Africa), having an average 1/4 in per month growth. So its possible this could be an 'average--which does not mean that every single person out of African descent grows slowly--or that there aren't some people with AFrican curly hair who grow 1 !/2 inches per month or whatever the record hair growth is.

I don't know that this is true, and I don't know that I could never grow faster--its just thinking back, I never did grow faster, so I personally may be at my optimum growth speed now. Or maybe I slowed down because of age. I don't know. (My mom was over 80 when her hair grew so fast, though). But I think its possible that I may have slower growth and that it might be, if its true about African hair type growing slower, because of that. Which is a lot of 'mights'.

I have to disagree with a part of your post and say hair does have racial characteristics. It just does. It doesn't mean one type is superior and one is inferior, but there are differences, broadly speaking. You can always find exceptions to everything. You can find East Asian people with curls and you can find Caucasians with very tight curls, you would say an afro, and you can find people of African descent with every possible hair type. But certain things are more usual and more typical. I would not be surprised if growth rate were one of them (though there need to be better studies). Having lived in an East Asian country, although there will obviously be exception, I can tell you that the speed MOST people's hair grows there is not typical of either people of African descent or Caucasians, no its not just because many of them have the 1A hair type that shows all growth, nor because many of them have coarse hair that just does not break under any circumstances. (Again, there are exceptions. and I'm black and my hair is just as coarse, which made me very happy with Chinese hairdressers, who know exactly what to do with coarsies). After being around that, I'm not surprised that not just many, but like 100% of people who have from 12 to 18 foot long hair are from this background. I don't think anyone else can manage this. there are East Indians with 7 or 8 feet of hair, and back in the day when people didn't fry their hair, and here on this forum, you see people of European descent with floor length or longer, but you don't that East Asian extreme in other racial groups hair. At least, when not in dreadlocks (in which your shed hairs are still attached, not exactly the same thing, I'm not saying it doesn't count, but its not the same, what's at the bottom is not attached to your scalp with dreads and that's different).

I don't think this matters empirically as how many people really want 12 foot long hair? Or even 8 feet? I think floor length would satisfy most people even on LHC :)
And I certainly know people of African descent can grow long hair--at least, long enough to make me happy--my grandmother had classic, every single one of my paternal aunts had at least waist, my other grandmother had midback.

I don't know how fast their hair grew, as from childhood they had long hair and just took good care of it.

I'd be very happy with waist and I am thinking I can get there, barring some horrid health thing (which can happen) when you are 58, just had that birthday.

But maybe not as fast as others.

[Beborani]

I am also surprised at your lack of shrinkage--my hair that has no root curl coils up only in the bottom section as it grows longer and still shrinks at least 6 inches (close to classic). Your hair looks lovely both ways though I too prefer the curly version. I am also impressed with the density and color--you have a lot of positives going on there to make up for somewhat slower rate of growth. And even then it is growing,not stalling! I have also seen that study referenced in books about hair growth patterns and did a quick search--it if of East African hair.

[chen bao jun]

Thank you very much, Beborani.

The study was a small sampling and may not be true ... I do find it interesting though and wish they would study further.

I am the queen of high density--in real life, anyway. On this forum, there are people with thicker hair, as in higher density. it has plusses and minuses, like everything. I actually have more hair now than I did in the 'explosion' photo--when I started using LHC methods, my hair not only got softer (a real praise, it was so harsh to feel I can't describe) but within a year, year and a half there was MORE of it. I must have been pulling it out at the roots as well as breaking it off at the ends. However, interestingly, it now looks like less. when its in better condition, its not as pouffy and I think more length also drags it down. In my case , looking like less is a very good thing....Of course, the half-up hair style I usually take photos with also makes it look like less and its normal for me to do a half up rather than totally loose hair...I do hate that out of control look.

As to color, I have always loved my color, but it is getting grey, so I am hoping I will love my grey. At the moment, the curls also hide a lot of the grey. That's one definite benefit of curls--they hide things...

But I am glad the days when they hid large foreign objects are over. Seriously, I would lose bobby pins and even pencils in my hair for days when I had the out of control 'pouf'. I am not kidding--I'd shove a pencil in there for safe keeping and forget it was there and only find it when I washed, days later. that didn't just happen once, either.