Grow or Maintain?

[jivete]

Which do you prefer? I think I'm a maintainer at heart. I really like to trim and growing sometimes makes me feel bleh because I'm not seeing progress fast enough. I can't wait until I've reached goal and just get to maintain with trims every couple months and focus on improving quality. But I know some people really enjoy the journey.

What about you? Do you prefer the growing process or the maintaining process?

[Islandgrrl]

You know, that's a really good question. I'm not at goal yet, so maintenance isn't really an option.

But I don't so much enjoy the actual growing process.

I kind of think of my hair as just being. So maybe I'm enjoying the ignoring process.

[JCFantasy23]

I've been growing my hair for years without trims until the last four months, then started paying more attention to my hair with conditioning, S&D, deep conditioning, micro self-trims, etc. So right now I'm stuck between. Some of my hair has reached goal and I want a few more inches so I can then concentrate just on maintaining. I will then trim slightly every month to get rid of nappy ends and keep thickening the hemline and keep conditioning to hopefully thicken hair up from previous breakage.

[shockinglength]

I enjot the growing stage the most.

[Keildra]

I'm in one of the awkward phases where I can't do much with my hair and it's not growing fast enough so I'm maintaining by doing nothing but protective styling while trying to ignore growth, or lack there of. Growing is kind or annoying me right now but I'm not quite ready for just maintenance yet.

[feralnature]

Next week it will be TWO YEARS since scissors even came near my hair so i guess I am a grower rather than a trimmer. My hair really needs trimming but I wanted enough length that I could still pull it back into a ponytail after it is trimmed. I will be a member here for 2 years next January, and that is when I got serious about hair care, like many here. I aim to get a trim I guess every two years til my hair is really long and healthy.

[prittykitty]

The last time I trimmed my hair was when I first came to this site. I trimmed it in a layered style so that I could have a decent style while my hair was growing (it was a mess). I get very frustrated that my hair is taking forever to get to at least APL. I wish I could just maintain because I am so tired of waiting for it to grow. Once it is APL I will probably be happy enough with the length that growing it won't seem as bad anymore. I want to start CO washing and skipping washing my hair every day but at my length it is impossible to not wash daily as my scalp is oily. I started using monistat last week and am hoping for faster results. I don't trim my hair anymore. I am going to wait a while for that.

[Carolyn]

I go between growing and maintaining. Getting to the point of maintenance means to me I've reached a certain goal in length and I can now concentrate on quality.

[Little_Bird]

Growing, definitly. Altough I am very eagerly waiting for my goal to come, and then mantain to thicken up the hemline and make it straight, I am afraid I will find it strange that after say, a year, my hair won't be longer if I'll be mantaining... Well, I guess they are diferent phases in the long hair being right?... Oh welp... :p

[jera]

Good question. It will vary from person to person though. After a year of trimming off damage, I'm anxious to grow, grow, grow. :p

[Fractalsofhair]

I strongly prefer growing, as whenever I've had a hairstyle proper, it grows out of it too quickly!

[RoseRedDead]

I'm both.

I want to grow to hip (which I hope to hit sometime in the spring/summer of next year), than trim to thicken it up a little bit before I continue on to classic-length.

[Arctic]

Great question! I think I will enjoy the maintaining more, I love fresh ends!

[teela1978]

I don't think I've ever maintained. Guess I'm a grower :) Even when I was keeping my hair shorter, I'm so bad about going to get haircuts that it would go from shoulders to about APL and then back. I'm not planning on going much further than hip or tailbone... currently I just kinda self-trim off a 1/4 inch or so when I feel like it... probably every other month or so. I get to enjoy fresh ends, and its still growing.

[prittykitty]

I thought about this and I remember that when I was a child I had very long hair that I never took care of and didn't really care about, my hair seemed to grow much faster and nicer. I didn't like to wash it back then and would try and get around it, I let it blow in the wind all the time and it would get tangled and I didn't really care. Still, my hair just continued to grow nice and long. Today I use good conditioners, I oil my hair and comb it gently and it seems to take forever to grow out. What's wrong with this picture? This may sound crazy but I wonder if I quit caring for it if just maybe it will grow faster again (I'm joking). Seriously though, has anyone else ever noticed this?

[rogue_psyche]

I'm a grower. I'm actually freaking out a little because I'm very close to my first major goal (waist) and now I might need to maintain for a while before I can grow again due to damage. Maintaining means trims which means either learning the Feye self-trim method or going to the hairdresser, which is potential disaster. When I grow again I want to grow from waist to hip, rather than wherever the hairdresser left me back to waist.

I also love how chunks of my hair have this graceful little taper, but hate all the damage I'm harboring. Blunt hems don't flatter my not quite straight, almost wavy hairtype.

[teela1978]

I thought about this and I remember that when I was a child I had very long hair that I never took care of and didn't really care about, my hair seemed to grow much faster and nicer. I didn't like to wash it back then and would try and get around it, I let it blow in the wind all the time and it would get tangled and I didn't really care. Still, my hair just continued to grow nice and long. Today I use good conditioners, I oil my hair and comb it gently and it seems to take forever to grow out. What's wrong with this picture? This may sound crazy but I wonder if I quit caring for it if just maybe it will grow faster again (I'm joking). Seriously though, has anyone else ever noticed this?

Benign neglect. Put it up and forget about it for a year or so. You'd be amazed at how much it grows all of a sudden :)

[spidermom]

This is the longest my hair has ever been, and my goal is longer still, so I know more about growing than maintaining; it's been all things (frustrating, aggravating, fun, full of good and bad surprises, incredible, a pain in the butt .......) If maintaining is half the roller coaster ride, I'll be forced to cut back and re-grow because I couldn't bear the serenity.

[fawn]

I wish I was a grower. I like to trim alot, I hate damage. When I was young it was easy to just ignore and grow - now not as much but I am trying! Once I have my goal I will cut it monthly and maintain it healthy.

[Tinose]

I don't actually know. I make a point of not stressing about growth, because for me that's the fastest way to get myself to start not liking my hair. I suppose both? I like taking down my hair and noticing that it's gotten a lot longer since the last time I bothered paying attention, but I also like chopping it back and admiring the thicker hemline and healthier ends.

[krn2891]

I'm a grower. I can't even remember a time when I woudl focus on keeping one length. I have cut back because of damage but then i just let it start growing and haven't even had it trimed except for SD in 2 years.

[jivete]

I wonder if, in a few years from now, when all my damage is gone and I'm happily maintaining around waist, if I'll get bored and look forward to growing and seeing the change from year to year. As it is, I've always been growing. I maintained my hair between shoulder and APL for years, but that wasn't because I liked that length. It seems like I've always wanted longer hair and am always trying to get it longer. But once I finally have it (my goal), will I be bored with it? Don't know, but I'd sure like to get there.

[Tressie]

I'm trying to grow and take care of my hair during the process, I suppose, for now! I don't know how long I will try to grow before I reach the maintenance phase.

[klcqtee]

I don't particularly like the growing part. The only part I like about it is that my hair is getting longer! :eek:

If I could just have long hair, and let it be, then I'd be content. I can't wait until my hair is waist length and I can just maintain until it is all virgin!

[Konstifik]

I love to grow my hair! Unfortunately, my hair doesn't like to grow. Even if I'd like to be a "grower", I'm more like a "maintainer". Oh well, I like my hair anyways. :)

[pdy2kn6]

Hopefully when I get rid of my layers I will enjoy the growing stage much more

[Curlsgirl]

Well I used to be a maintainer for sure before I came here. Then I shifted to growth mostly until I just got to waist. I think I'll keep it around here for a while but not sure. I really like fresh even ends and longer than waist I THINK would be sort of a pain to me not sure though. Even the three inches I had cut made my hair much easier to deal with it seems like. Right now I am going to see how it goes. I still want to try to grow longer, goal is still TB and I would really like to just try and see how it feels one day, no hurry now though. I am trying to learn to accept my hair at every stage of growth.

[JamieLeigh]

I do both. I maintained for a few years at tailbone, though I actually did let it creep very close to classic for the couple of months I didn't feel like bothering with it (I was pregnant with my fifth child, you do the math :p). That was mostly because I was growing out bangs from fifteen years earlier and the hair at the front of my head grows more slowly than the back, which literally races down my back. If I were a big fan of the fairy-tale ends on myself, I'd be in heaven trust me. ;)

I tend to let it race ahead a couple of inches, then maintain until the rest of it catches up, or I at least gain some thickness in the hemline and lower portions of the hair. Then let it grow a bit more, then maintain. It's mostly because I prefer a blunt hemline on myself at this point.

At some point, I will let it go and see if I can hit my terminal length once in my life - and then I can cut it back to blunt at a length that works for me.....but I'm nowhere near ready for that yet. I think once I get past mid-thigh with blunt ends (if I can manage that, but I think I can :D), I'll let it go and see what happens. 'Til then, I'm still a grow-maintain-grow-maintain kind of girl. :)

[Bller]

GROW !! I wanted all my life to grow out my hair longer than like 16 cm. My dream is to one day reach my goal of 30" or so. Now i can grow my hair freely and most of all healthy, without having any problems with my parents anymore. But my hair is quite weird, it tends to curl as hell in the back, and having a hard time with split ends in that area. I would like to know if there is any other way to regenerate those split ends WITHOUT having to trim them ? :-s Thanks !

[halo_tightens]

I would like to know if there is any other way to regenerate those split ends WITHOUT having to trim them ? :-s Thanks !

Simple answer-- NO. Yeah, it sucks. Once a hair is split, there's nothing in the world that will repair it. All you can do is cut off the split part to prevent the split from traveling even further up the hair shaft.


And to answer the original question.... Wow. Right now, at almost-APL, it's hard for me to imagine being in the maintenance stage. It's going to be a long time before I get to a length that I want to maintain!

I'm very impatient with the whole growing process, but it looks like I'm going to be doing it for quite some time. :shrug:

[Bller]

Simple answer-- NO. Yeah, it sucks. Once a hair is split, there's nothing in the world that will repair it. All you can do is cut off the split part to prevent the split from traveling even further up the hair shaft.

Ah damn, we have very nasty hair saloons here, you tell them to cut your damaged ends, and they cut off half of your hair length.

[halo_tightens]

Bller--

What about doing it yourself? You could S&D, meaning that you go through your hair and cut off only the split parts, leaving the rest alone. You usually won't lose much hair this way-- just the very tips of the split ones!

[Bller]

Bller--

What about doing it yourself? You could S&D, meaning that you go through your hair and cut off only the split parts, leaving the rest alone. You usually won't lose much hair this way-- just the very tips of the split ones!

I`m scared of doing it, i don`t wanna screw up in the process. But at a closer inspection i saw that i don`t have that many split ends after all. And another thing, i didn`t use any conditioner before. I didn`t find it necessary at my hair back when it was shorter. Now it`s like 30 cm or more and i should start using conditioner. It will save me from lots of problems.