Maintaining question

[Oberon88]

For those of you maintaining at a certain length, are you growing to a goal length and trimming back a bit shorter? Or are you growing past a goal length and then cutting back up to it?
I reached hip and celebrated by promptly trimming off an inch :rolleyes:... and now I kind of regret it (Though my ends are better)
Anyway, I was curious.

[HairyCarrie]

At my shortie stage my initial desire is length! I have some funky layers left, and my sides are still 2" shorter than the back, but I want to feel "long" before I clean it up. I think I want it all one length, but heck I just am not experienced enough at this time to know what would work best for me.

So I'd like to at least get to APL and then see what the wonky hairs are doing and whether I press on from there or do some clean-up and reeval.

That is what I like about this process. Thoughts change all the time depending on my new experience with a length and the great feedback I get from others who have had the same dilemma.

[carloota]

I'm not at my goal length yet, but I do plan on growing it a bit past goal length and then cutting back.

[cobblersmaid]

I do both. I grow a bit past tailbone, then cut back a bit before tailbone, and repeat. So my hair is always around tailbone.

[spidermom]

I can imagine a cycle of growing out to classic, cutting back to waist, growing out to ??? We'll see what feels right after classic length.

[zen_oven]

Right now, length is my main goal, so I'm very hesitant about trimming, even though I feel my ends will need it soon. I've got some funky layers that I'd like to even out a bit, but not much since I look best with some layering. I'm just over APL right now, so I'm going to wait till BSL (should hit it around April or May) and then reassess. I don't know that I can wait until I hit waist to do some trimming though. Ah well, hair grows back, and some trimming should make it look fuller.

[Bene]

um, i THINK my game plan is to grow to my final goal, then chop off to make everything even and then grow again to my final goal. my layers aren't too drastic, so my hair won't feel insanely short when i do. of course, it's a long way (at least 2 years) to my final goal, so this may change.

of course, i still S&D, like 5-10 minutes every day to keep any damage from ruining an entire shaft.

[jojo]

I am no where near my goal. Id love to see just how long I can grow to but realistically speaking I think anything past classic will be too much for me. My plan is to grow a few inches past and then trim it back up to classic and then continue with regular dustings to maintain.

[Queenie]

I've been going back and forth between growing and maintaining for a while now now. My original goal was mid-thigh but I think that's too ambitious for my hair. Now I'm dreaming of classic with healthy (thick, please) ends, and I've been hovering between tailbone and classic (with not so healthy ends) for years. With my hair it's not that easy and it is frustrating.
I've done both, growing past and keeping it at a length (although it's rocket science for me to trim to the point to where I truly want to trim!)

[logica_divina]

I haven't really decided what my main goal is. I'm thinking something between tailbone and classic.. Like jojo, I'm no where near my goal (also considering my slooow growth rate).

[chotee]

I grow to about 36" and then cut back to 33 or 34". The reason is i want my entire length to be of the same thickness. The day i reach that i will start growing past my tailbone.

[Carolyn]

I find myself waffling about goals length. Originally it was waist. I got to waist and then trimmed off 2" to get an even straight across hemline. Then I decided if I could grow to waist maybe I could grow longer so I set 40" or tailbone as my goal. I reached that about a year ago and trimmed back to hip. I'm heading towards 40 again now. I can see varying the length between waist and tailbone from now on. I've realized that my plan isn't set in stone anymore.

[MsBubbles]

Hi Oberon, I became so obsessed with a similar thought that I started the maintaining for a blunt hemline (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=16573) thread!! I hummed and hah'd about this one for many months and decided that for my thin, straight fine hair it'd look better the sooner I can get all the layers grown down by maintaining at BSL, and then keep it tidy via dustings when it's ready to start growing to waist. I didn't want to let it mosey on down to waist and have it look straggly. But with your lovely thick hair I think it'd look gorgeous whilst growing it to your goal and trimming it if you want to at that point. My hair on me needs to be all the same length because a V, U, or fairytale ends just look sad.

And because we often want what we can never have, I wish I had thicker hair that looked awesome while letting it grow like it wants to. :)

[rhubarbarin]

I grew to waist last year and chopped back to above BSL. It made me sad, even though the hair I cut off was just awful.

I am almost at waist again and will be maintaining somewhere between there and hip (30-33"), cutting off an inch of growth here or there - NO major cuts, they are too depressing (even though my hair looks and feels so much thicker and healthier after one). I have tons of damage and layers so will probably be in that area a long time.

[Ranee]

I grew to TB and recentely chopped back to waist. Didn't regret it for one minute. Almost all damage is gone now, so I'm growing it back out to TB.

[Eryka]

The age old debate: length or health.

Personally, I went for the length route with minor trimmings every 6 months. It did work but, some of my end and sides (I had bangs at one point, 1 million years ago), look really rough. Since I finally reached my most recent goal of knee length, I am keeping it here for a few years to regrow most, if not all of it. But eventualy, I'd like to have an ankle length braid with no taper. Ambitious, yes!

[suicides_eve]

i think i am going to wait until it gets a bit past my goal and then trim up wards

[Amoretti]

I passed my original goal of waist a couple of years ago. My hair still doesn't feel long enough and I'm now shooting for mid thigh! LOL.

[harpgal]

Knee length is my desire. However, at this point I am staying at 50 inches by trimming an inch, or so, every three months. I have the rest of my life to get to knee length so I really do not care when that happens. I have no plans to trim back shorter than 50 inches.

[Anje]

My clever plan was to grow to tailbone, maintain until I thought the ends were thick enough, and then grow past tailbone, chopping back if getting hair in my bum got annoying, then repeat. So I've been maintaining at a "high tailbone" since about September, and I'm debating whether I think the ends are thick enough yet.

[JamieLeigh]

When I was maintaining at tailbone, the reason was to let my bangs/fringe catch up with the rest of my hair, as that part grows more slowly than the back and undersides. So I would just let it get a little past there, and then trim it back every three months or so. Now that everything is to my satisfaction, I can let it all grow out together! :D

[Forever_Sophie]

I just reached my goal length and it's all very healthy, so I'll wait a few months and then cut up a couple inches :) If it weren't, I'd be trimming now. The condition of it is most important to me.

[Oberon88]

As I have said quite possibly a million times I go back and forth about my layers, they inspired this thread. I trimmed off the inch to sort of make my hemline blunter... but it looks no different. Oh well!
I really do hate cutting off any length.

[frizzinator]

I have been maintaining at 33", which is the longest length I've ever had. It is long enough to make every updo that I want to make. I hope to thicken the length because it is half as thick as the pony circumference near the scalp.