Did anyone elses goal length get shorter while visiting here?

[Andthetalltrees]

I feel like there's always talk of "Not long enough" syndrome around here, getting caught up in ever increasing inches and the next milestone. Oh believe me I did too, I wanted tailbone, then mid thigh length at least. Which is fine, something to aspire to I guess and I still love the idea of super, super long hair.

But practically speaking I've grew and chopped my hair more than once, I knew at some point I always grow to despise it. Naively thought maybe this time would be different with different care or attitude because thigh length is so magical and I want it! Nah, Once it gets a few inches past hip it becomes unbearable to me no matter what. Tried wearing it up more often, tried different conditioners, washing less often to mitigate my complaints(too long to dry, in the way, tangles). The more I clung to the idea I had to keep it that long or longer the more I hated it :shrug: .

So I self trimmed off about 3-4" and I'm back to waist, Realistically thinking I'll probably keep it around waist because I really like waist(28-30") long enough without being too much. I'm actually proud I realized I could have shorter long hair instead of cutting all the way back up to shoulder or shorter like I usually do(I don't think I can stomach APL length again to be fair :laugh:). I'm EXTREMELY happy with this, Guess I'll be joining the maintainers now!

[Ylva]

I haven't actually reached my goal length of classic yet, but I totally get where you're coming from. Now at TBL I am starting to feel that it's a bit overwhelming, having to watch out for my ends so much when I actually much like to have my hair loose, and my hair and scalp like it too. I think I'll grow to classic, but if I feel like that's too much for me, I'll happily maintain at tailbone. Of course, I might not feel that way, I might just grow into it.

Congratulations on finding a pleasant length!

[leayellena]

that's what the thread for shorter lengths is for.

[Corvana]

I am very realistic about my potential desire to cut back. I want to grow to fingertip length because I want to just hit that milestone. See what it's like! See if I like it! And along the way I'll make note of other lengths I like as options to go back to if FTL isn't right.

[lithostoic]

For a while I thought about thigh length but it became way harder to manage between waist and hip so I scrapped that plan. There's no way I could adequately care for hair that long. MAYBE classic st the most.

[lapushka]

I'm here more than 10 years, during that time I went back to chin 2 times, due to damaging practices more than anything, and once from hip to BSL and once from classic to hip (November 2016). Now it's 2 years later and I am FTL with *no* intention to cut it shorter.

I think it's a constant yo-yo rather than a fixed thing. At some point your hair is going to grow *too* long and some scissors may have to be used.

I thought I couldn't get beyond classic (which was my ultimate goal), but somehow I did it this time.

The timing has to be right as well!

[Joules]

I haven't reached my goal yet (Classic, maybe fingertip), so I can't say for sure, but the idea of length getting too much to handle doesn't seem strange. I don't think I'd be able to handle anything past fingertip, and who knows, maybe Classic would be too much for me too.

[Lady Stardust]

Congratulations on finding your happy length!

[YvetteVarie]

My goal has been HL but I don't know if I will grow that long. But if WL works for you, go for it. I would be ecstatic to have my hair at WL

[lapushka]

My goal has been HL but I don't know if I will grow that long. But if WL works for you, go for it. I would be ecstatic to have my hair at WL

I just peeked at your stats, I know what a TWA is (teeny weeny afro), but what is BSB? :)

[spidermom]

I've discovered that I like variety way to much to just leave my hair alone to grow longer longer longer. I did grow to my goal of classic length, then cut back several times to around waist length, but finally I made the cut all the way to shoulder/collarbone and enjoyed that length for 1-1/2 to 2 years. Now I'm growing out again to at least waist. After that, I don't know.

[almostghost]

As you might guess from my signature, since I joined LHC, my goal length has fluctuated wildly between everything from BSL to knee, back and forth and back and forth. I look at all the beautiful knee length photos here and just go Ooooh I want that!, but when it comes to the hair on my own head, I know I won't want to sink huge amounts of time into caring for it. I certainly don't want so much hair that I get head- or neck-aches from the weight of a bun. Plus, the longest my hair's ever been in my whole life was somewhere around BCL, so I have no idea what it would be like to deal with, say, classic length hair, let alone fingertip or knee.

So now my official plan is to just find out at what length the caretaking becomes tedious enough to outweigh the enjoyment, and then maintain wherever that is. :shrug: I assume this "balance" length will probably shift around quite a bit after I find it, too. I'm kind of fickle and enjoy a change every now and then. :p

Congrats on figuring out your ideal length! :D happy maintaining!

[ravenskey]

I haven't reached my goal length yet but my main reason for going for terminal length is sheer curiosity - before this year I didn't know about terminal length and now that I do I really want to know what mine is!
Once I've found out it'll get cut back if I can't handle it, either way I am still perfectly happy and part of the "Not Long Enough" Club :lol:

[Growitagain28]

For me, I’m just really undecided on a goal length. I like the idea of waist and I *think* that might end up being my goal but I’m just in the air. I see so many different lengths on here, it makes me so unsure where I want my hair to end up!

[littlestarface]

Yea, I never reached my goal which is to have loong hair to my ankles but I know that's never gonna happen so now i'm just stopping here at a shorter length of knee or above knee.

[GrowlingCupcake]

I've always had a fixed goal length on LHC - terminal. But I've also been aware that terminal, might be too annoying to deal with, especially if I have a long terminal (knee or knee-plus is a long terminal, in my opinion).

For me, once my hair grew somewhere between MBL, and waist-length, it started to get annoying. My night time braids just kept getting stuck under me, and I had to switch to two braids which still got stuck under me. Wearing my hair up for sleep is frequently painful for my scalp, and wearing my hair down for sleep leads to tangles, and getting stuck with hair under me. At hip+, I've learnt how to deal with them, but they're a lot more time consuming than just wearing my hair loose or in a braid which I used to be able to do. My hair care routine has also had to get more time consuming.

Having to keep my hair away from toilets - be it my own or outside my home - is also annoying; add my OCD to that, and it can mean having to wash my hair far more frequently than I like. Drying my hair takes forever, which is something I hate in winter; and I prefer to wash my hair in the morning, so.... yeah.

That said, I am learning ways around all of it, so it's not all bad. And I like my hair long. While this isn't the very longest it has been, it's weird, and affirming to have people who know me go "Your hair is so long!". I've always been the one with short hair among my peer group, and my sister, and cousins, so it's kinda nice to now be the one with hair that is longer than any of them. Of course, this means learning to keep my mouth shut when they tell me "Oh, but I could never grow my hair long". Like I said, having long(er) hair is something I have to learn ways around xD

^ Would like to point out, though, that my nearly BCL hair still annoys me all the time for those reasons. Like I said, I am trying, and learning new ways, but it still annoys me all the damned time.

And of course, I do feel the "my hair isn't long enough" push from the LHC forums, since I only have ~BCL hair with fairy tale ends. So it is difficult reconciling my 'long' hair with all the 'actually long hair" (as I call it) on this forum.

Even with my 'fixed' goal of terminal, I do have a goal I aspire to: knee. Again, this has been a goal for as long as I have been on LHC.

And with all that said, and done, I honestly don't know how I will feel about my terminal.

If my terminal is classic, I might be able to deal with that. My partner doesn't think that is likely; according to him, given how much I complain about getting my hair stuck, it'll get worse when I can sit on it. Given he's had classic length hair, and knows me very well, he's probably not wrong.

If my terminal is FTL or somewhere around there, that also carries the issues of classic with it.

If my terminal is around knee, well, I can only presume I will find that even more annoying than I would classic+. But it would take 2+ years to get there, so maybe I will adjust sufficiently? Again, though, my partner thinks that I am going to find anything past knee to be so incredibly annoying, I will be reaching for the scissors almost immediately. Sure, he might be wrong, but he rarely is.

If it is between knee, and ankle... I cannot honestly say I will allow it to grow that long, even if it can. Yes, I really want to find out my terminal length, but is it worth the annoyance that would come with it?

And if it's past ankle, I am almost certainly cutting it back up to ankle at the very least.

So yeah, this entire ramble (sorry, new meds make me ramble-y) has been to show you that yes, you can have a goal length, but yes, your goal length can a) annoy you, and b) not be a length your are happy with. Hell, the journey to that goal length can annoy you. In the end, the important thing is to find what makes you happy. That might be your goal length, that might be less than your goal length, or that might be more than your goal length. None of them is wrong. Just do you :)

[2gaits]

Considering that long hair is a very relative term depending on who you talk to, I definitely think goal lengths can change. My hair is somewhere between APL and BSL and people have remarked how long it's getting. On here it is considered short. Most people would consider waist length hair crazy long especially someone that has a pixie or short bob. Honestly I think waist is all I would ever grow to because I don't care for the way hair seems to look once it's longer than waist. I usually get the random urge to cut though and may go for a crazy chop. My husband loving long hair is the only thing keeping me growing.

[Andthetalltrees]

I totally see what a lot of you are saying, That goal isn't always a definite for enjoying or wanting it to be that long and it's ultimately a moving target. I won't be surprised in 6 months, year maybe getting the urge to grow out longer again, realistically I won't have to regrow the shorter stages which is nice. I think part of my issue is I've never dealt with long hair for very long(As I've said I've had the cycle of grow-chop),

[AmaryllisRed]

So my initial goal was just not to get a haircut, indefinitely.
But then I realized that if I never cut it, it could actually grow to the floor or longer. I guess before joining the LHC I thought hair would stop on its own around classic length. So I had to make a decision that at some point, I WOULD cut it, because I don't really want floor length.
I think my first length goal was waist, then hip, then classic... and I think I've even considered growing to thigh.
I still don't really want to cut it, but I also don't want floor... or ankle...
I don't think I want knee, but I do want classic.
Somewhere between classic and floor lurks my true goal length and I suppose i won't know until I get there. Or more likely, when I pass it. :)

[hannabiss]

Yes. I wanted terminal at one point. Now Id like waist to tailbone thats about it.

[Wendyclaire]

Yes I will probably stop at hip length. I hate buns or up doos and that’s what a lot of people like to do.

[bokeh]

I'm dreaming of waist length hair and I think I'll be happy maintaining there. I started out just wanting chin length, then shoulder then collar-bone length but I kept increasing my desired length. When I heard that my great-grandmother had waist length hair that she kept in a braided bun I knew that was my goal. So not, my goal only never got shorter. It only got longer and longer!

[YvetteVarie]

I just peeked at your stats, I know what a TWA is (teeny weeny afro), but what is BSB? :)

BSB is Below Shoulder Blade length. I prefer using that marker compared to BSL because my bra rides really low

[lapushka]

Yes I will probably stop at hip length. I hate buns or up doos and that’s what a lot of people like to do.

Have you ever had hip loose/down? When my hair was past BSL, I needed to start wearing it up, heck when it was APL it already got in my way. LOL.

How long is your hair now?

[lapushka]

BSB is Below Shoulder Blade length. I prefer using that marker compared to BSL because my bra rides really low

Thanks for explaining.

[blackgothicdoll]

It's not a direct result of visiting here, but I start to think that my hair type is just not the type to grow very long and I should be happy if I ever get BSL. I'll try to grow it as long as I can, just because I'd like to know that I could, but the majority of people with very long hair do not have hair like mine. Not to say I haven't seen any, but the majority.

If by some miracle I got to tailbone or longer, I'd be inspired to continue growing to classic or even more because of this forum. Otherwise I doubt hair that length would have ever crossed my mind. :p

[YvetteVarie]

Blackgothicdoll I'm sure you'll be able to grow beyond BSL. I have never had my hair longer than SL before discovering the hair forums, but I'm now an inch away from that marker. Stay positive, you will grow long hair

[Vacurlylady]

When I first started growing out my hair, I decided to keep growing until I’m able to retire. (7 years). I know realistically, that would be quite long. I’m at SL now. I have NEVER in my life had what I would consider long, so I’m not quite sure how I will like even having that long of hair. I’m a former pixie gal. I may find myself maintaining somewhere before the 7 year mark. Like most here, I won’t know until I get there. I’m enjoying the journey so far! I spend quite a lot of time here in LHC!

[Laura1986]

I discovered the forum when I just had two fairly big chops (solid BSL --> lob --> short pixie). At that time I was so shocked by the looks of my pixie that I wanted my hair just to grow long. I thought about waist (never had my hair longer than BSL and a bit).
But since my hair was really annoying for me at BSL, I doubt that I'll ever grow longer. I was happy with the lob cut so that is my goal for now. Then I can let it grow to APL, reevaluate there or just cut it back to a lob when it gets too annoying and maintain there.
I know thats a really short length for this forum and I like the esthetic of long hair, but I also like shorter hair (shorter then a bob only on other people apparently).