Regrowing after loss?

[Herb]

Hi! I haven't been on in years, but I figure you're the right folks to ask for advice. It's been too long. (:

So here's my deal:

I just saw a picture of me a friend took in 2018. It was an awkward picture, but my hair was down and draped across my lap. I was surprised to remember it was solidly knee length and even thick to my ends!

A lot of life happened between then and now. (Went back to college and took 18 units. Performed well. Had a landlord fiasco where I moved into an apartment, and within a week, tons of bedbugs had crawled out of dormancy; they poisoned the place repeatedly, but it didn't take care of the problem. Moved several times. Had a grocery budget of $45 a month for a couple years. Went through several personal losses and betrayals. Cried a lot more in these past years than I ever have. My body and immune system is a bit weaker, and my skin quality went downhill.)

After the pesticide stress incident, I had to chop about 6" off since it was getting scraggly.

In the ~3 years since then, I still haven't gained any length back. (Maybe I was at the end of a terminal cycle anyway?)

I'd really like to get back to healthy-looking knee.

Of course, I'm older now. I'm kind of worried I'm going "past my prime". Maybe regaining my early twenties length isn't realistic?

But if you have any growth and healing tips for those who have lost their gains, I'd love to try them!

Thank you! (:

[foreveryours]

Do you wear your hair down a lot? If so, don't. Your ends are 8+ years old and they are FRAGILE! Just compare to an 8 year old pair of jeans and marvel at the relative toughness of hair. But it ain't indestructable

[Glitch]

Oh wow. I've never had hair anywhere this long so all I'll say is that I'm proud of you for making it past those rough years! What a nightmare. I'm glad you're focusing on yourself like this and wish you all the luck. I'd also like to add that age really doesn't matter with these things - I know plenty of elderly and older women in general, including my own mom, who've grown to pretty extreme lengths after starting out so late. I think it's gorgeous! On top of fully possible :). Nothing can stop time anyway, so why let it stop you, ya know? Lots of love! :heartbeat

[Herb]

Do you wear your hair down a lot? If so, don't. Your ends are 8+ years old and they are FRAGILE! Just compare to an 8 year old pair of jeans and marvel at the relative toughness of hair. But it ain't indestructable

Yes; thanks! (: I mostly keep it up when I am out of the house. Have done so for over a decade.

I wonder if there's any new changes/additions I can make other than eating more (which I have been for a while now).

[Herb]

Oh wow. I've never had hair anywhere this long so all I'll say is that I'm proud of you for making it past those rough years! What a nightmare. I'm glad you're focusing on yourself like this and wish you all the luck. I'd also like to add that age really doesn't matter with these things - I know plenty of elderly and older women in general, including my own mom, who've grown to pretty extreme lengths after starting out so late. I think it's gorgeous! On top of fully possible :). Nothing can stop time anyway, so why let it stop you, ya know? Lots of love! :heartbeat

Thank you; you're sweet to encourage me. (: Does your mom or your elderly friends have tips? Especially if your elderly friends have experienced some frail health! (: I guess my body has slowed down, even if it's not specifically my age.

[Glitch]

Thank you; you're sweet to encourage me. (: Does your mom or your elderly friends have tips? Especially if your elderly friends have experienced some frail health! (: I guess my body has slowed down, even if it's not specifically my age.

You're super welcome! My mom used to have knee-length hair too, by the way! She lost her hair due to unfortunate circumstances as well, but finally started growing it back maybe a year ago. I do know what you mean about the slowing down part, because it's been very similar for my mom - however, she tends to put her hair in a braid and forget about it. She did that long enough and now her hair is way down her back already. I think when things get harder, especially health-wise, that benign neglect can be super helpful. The elderly women I know also tend to keep it bunned and don't do much to it, seem to ignore it as well. And basically, time flies and does the job. :D

Oh wow! I just realized we're the same age, actually I'm a year older! You're totally going to be fine. I didn't even begin to care about my hair until literally just a few years ago and went from scraggly nightmare mode to totally transformed hair. Don't give up, and do go in with a positive mindset as best as you can! :)

There are several other health aspects I'm going to begin focusing on later this year. It's absolutely never too late to care for health/hair/all these kinds of things. XO

[foreveryours]

OK that for me was a relatively recent discovery on this journey :D

One thing, have you ever looked at yourself closely in a mirror? Can you see any new hair growth? Me, up close, I look like I've got a 2" afro so I know it's emerging and I just gotta take care of it on its way down.

Have you had any blood screening done? For obvious defects which can impact hair growth I mean. Ones that spring to mind because they apply to me are thyroid function and whether I have enough iron and make enough vitamin D. I take medication for the former and supplements for the latter.

I also take other nutritional supplements, like 300X the RDA for biotin, not really for hair but for brittle nails (it works!). But you have to do your homework as some supplements can inhibit/enhance absorbtion of others so it's best to work in consort with a genuine nutionalist instead of google.

Protein is also important so get plenty of that.

[knobbly]

You’ve gotten some great tips already but I want to bring up an analogy I heard (on YouTube I think? Idk) that I found helpful. Hair is not necessary for survival, so when your body and brain are more focused on getting through each day (due to sickness, stress, major loss, mental illness, etc.) your body processes aren’t focused on your hair because they have bigger fish to fry. This is actually a good thing of course! So when you are looking at your hair, you can reframe it as a sacred testament to the fact that you effing made it, and you are here, after all of that. Go you! :heart:

[shelomit]

I joined LHC after a wild series of life fiascos, including a lot of couch-hopping/living out of the car and the worst era (touch wood) in a godawful chronic illness. I never had a major shed, but I had pretty much given up on caring for my hair at all for a period of two and a half to three years. I had a lot of mechanical damage from wearing it the same way every day and had allowed it to get badly dehydrated. It took about two years of babying to get my hair back to decent condition. Here are things that helped:

1. Caring for overall health, esp. in terms of nutrition and sleep. I had gotten so used to skimping on food to prioritize other expenses that, even when I got a better-paying job, it took a while to relearn that it was worthwhile to eat on a regular schedule, spend a little more money on higher-quality food or more varied ingredients, etc.

2. Investing more time/effort in my hair for a while. I've had long hair for most of my life and have always been pretty hands-off about it. For the first couple of years of the "recovery phase," though, I developed a fairly intense routine. I don't think that would have been sustainable for me in the long-term, but for that period of time it was useful.

3. Finding ways to enjoy my hair in its current condition. For me, that mostly meant learning new/different ways to put my hair up so that I wasn't stuck with the same old bun day in and day out. "Enjoy" might even be too strong of a phrase. . . perhaps more like "not be actively annoyed by."

[constancev18]

Lots of good advice esp about making sure the right vitamins are paired to maximize absorption, and also that the body has to triage sometimes. This is excellent for morale as it means your hair is in standby mode and will grow with a bit of TLC.

[lapushka]

I am going to be 50 this year. Age has 0 to do with it. What's age got to do with it, got to do with it. La la lalala lala lala la. :lol:

Anyway, all joking aside... Don't let that throw you off. I'm sure your hair will recover well, once you start paying more attention again. 27? You are a spring chicken, my friend. :D

Happy growing! & Welcome back!

[clairenewcastle]

27 is so, so young. (I'm 56!)

Believe me, your best years are still ahead of you. Your hair will grow and grow....enjoy!

[Pouncequick]

You've gotten tons of great advice and I third or fourth babying your ends and making sure you are healthy now. Those ends are much older than 3 so they're still being affected by the damage of that time. When I joined I had just experienced a horrible period of my life. I had a fuzzy new growth that was only a few inches long. Now it's around tailbone and I can still see the demarcation. My ends still need babying and probably will for awhile yet. I actually am a bit older than you and haven't noticed any issue with my hair bouncing back beyond it just takes a long time for hair to travel from an inch long to past classic.

You're not the first person I've seen this month who has referenced a "hair prime" that ends before the mid-twenties. Is there some article circling around that I missed? If you go to the threads for people with very long hair, like the knee length and beyond thread, there are quite a few users on here past the ripe old age of 25 who are past knee length with amazing hair. I actually think that's more common than seeing really young users with hair that long. Maybe because a lot of us felt pressure to fit in when we were teenagers so we started growing unusually long in our 20's or later.

I kind of think the changes we go through as we age can be a little exaggerated. Especially the changes from teens to late 20s or early 30s. Most of the ones I've noticed are that I need to warm up before a workout and that I don't recover as well from hangovers or sleepless nights. But these are minor differences and affect things that weren't healthy to begin with. The biggest change has been how little I care about what others think of my choices when my choices have no impact on them. Like having long hair. I like it and that's enough for me. It took decades to be this settled in my skin.