Measuring madness??

[MoldyCake]

I was just curious, because a lot of you seem to enjoy measuring your hair and personally it drives me insane.

I hate measuring, personally its not about the numbers, its about the look, and what I see in the mirror and it it makes me happy or not. I suffer from the same problem when it comes to weight, scales drive me bonkers as well, what matters to me is how my cloths fit, and how I 'look'

Perhaps I am the only person like this, anyone else?

If you do measure, why? What's it do for you?

[Garnett]

I measure because once every 50 times, I can say "oh yes, it IS growing" It's a good way to keep track of exactly how much growth I get per month, year etc. If you don't like measuring your hair, then don't do it! There are lots here who don't measure :)

[n3m3sis42]

I really only measured my hair so I could post the length on here. I don't know how often I will continue to measure, because I do feel like it could drive me a little crazy if I were to measure too often.

I don't own a scale, so if I want to know how much I weigh, I have to go to my parents' house or Weight Watchers. Although generally, I'll notice if my clothes are tighter or looser. :)

[spidermom]

I measured every month for about a year because I wanted to see what my growth rate was. I found out my growth is very erratic -- 1/4", 0, 1/2", 3/4", 0, 0 ... and so forth. So I quit. Every once in awhile I get a measurement out of curiosity.

[savi]

I belong to the part of LHCers that only mesure once in a while to post it here. I'd most likely drive myself crazy if I started doing monthly mesures etc.. Same with the scale, my weight is pretty stable. As is probably my growth rate.

[Gabriel]

I don't like measuring my hair either. It's like watching a pot of water boil. Of course I'll get carried away and measure every day. Which would be why. Maybe I'll start aiming to measure once a month.

[florenonite]

I try to keep myself to monthly measurements/photographs (both!) to prove to myself it's growing. I tend to just go overboard and do it too frequently, though.

[Iylivarae]

I do monthly measures & photos as well. I just think it is interesting to see how it grows. I also use the measurements if I try out something new to increase growth, so it is easy to keep track of the experiments if I measure. My hair is quite wavy, so often it looks shorter than the month before, although it has grown...

[Poolsoflaughter]

Well, I've done the monthly measure in thing, but I've been re-thinking that lately. If there's a stall, I don't want to get discouraged, so I think from now on I'm going to just stick with how it looks, not numbers.

[harley mama]

I measure so I can be depressed when the tape says the same thing month after month!:p;)

[Katze]

I'm another one who doesn't like measuring. But I'm trimming, trying to get rid of as much artificial taper as I can. It is hard, with people who came here long after me now having hair at or past my own goal length (SOB) but I am recovering from the bleach, curling iron, dryer, and bad treatment, and I would rather have quality over quantity. Since I wear my hair down much of the time, the way it looks (and feels) is more important than really knowing how fast it grows every month.

What always surprises me is that people here can predict how long it will take their hair to reach a certain landmark length! While I know they don't have (and hate) the damaged ends I do, I wonder how they can know that their ends will always look good...?

[kate46]

I measure monthly but only because i'm doing monthly microtrims to get rid of damage and I don't want to trim more than I've grown. I agree it can be depressing sometimes if I've had no growth.

[Saranne772]

I am an obsessive measurer! I measure once a week and mark it up on the calander. Currently I grow 1/4 of an inch a week. 1 inch a month! I dont know how long it will keep up but while it does Im happy :D

[dancingbarefoot]

I measured every month for about a year because I wanted to see what my growth rate was.

:agree: Same here. Now I measure about once every six months or when I remember, just so I can quantify my progress a bit.

[Angellen]

I'm another doing the monthly measurements for a year to gage growth. So far it's been pretty even (about .75"/mo), but I'm curious as to how fast it'll grow in summer. Go hair, go!

After a year, though (Aug), I think I'll slow down. I'll measure to see if I'm growing...the milestones get further and further apart as it goes. :shrug:

[Ursula]

I measure fairly rarely, and it is as much or more for other people here than for myself.

When asking for advice, giving good information about hair type and length helps people giving you advice that is more relevant to your situation. For example, if you ask for updo ideas, there will be a big difference in what works, depending on your length.

And when giving advice, letting people know a bit about your hair helps them decide if your experience is similar to their situation, and if they should take the advice. For example, if I ask for updo advice (with hip length hair) and you suggest a peacock twist, if I know you have shoulder length hair, I know that your updos are unlikely to translate well for my length.

It just helps improve the overall quality of the conversation.

[swanns]

I really only measured my hair so I could post the length on here. I don't know how often I will continue to measure, because I do feel like it could drive me a little crazy if I were to measure too often.

My thoughts exactly.

[AJoifulNoise]

I've been measuring monthly since October 2007. But, I'm trying to stop now. My growth rate seems to be slowing and I just don't want to know anymore. I think I'm going to measure bi-monthly or less from now on.

[Periwinkle]

I tend to just go with photos, simply because I always have expensive technology to hand but I can never find a tape measure.

[luciole]

I measure to see that my hair really did grow. Looking at my hair, it seems not to grow at all and comparing with other hair my length it always seems shorter.

[physicschick]

I don't measure because I can't be bothered and was never that concerned about growing longer anyway. However, I now wish I had, because I keep wondering which buns I'd be able to do if I cut back to some shorter length. Without measurements, I have no information on this. :rolleyes:

[Faepirate]

I don't like measuring, but this is because my hair always ends up getting caught in the metal tip of my tape measure when I do it and it bugs me! I measured when I first joined LHC but haven't done it much since. Now I only measure and follow my growth by eye only. I try not to think about how long my hair is though, as I do get rather impatient. ;)

[Elainehali]

I only measure when I find a thread on measuring.

...still 31. I've been trimming out layers so that's no supprize

[Anje]

I measure sporadically, every few months, when I think my hair has grown. However, what I feel and what the tape measure says rarely coincide (I either grow according to my body or according to the measure, not always both simultaneously). When I thought I would start the Monistat, I wanted to get a baseline with weekly measurements, but if I started measuring too often for any other reason, I would drive myself mad. My hair would probably suck back into the follicles, too.

[Katurday]

I just started measuring.
Going well.

[chrissy-b]

I don't measure my hair because I get too impatient waiting for significant growth. I decided to measure the other day and when I saw that I was only at 16.5 inches I was disappointed (I was hoping it was much longer than that) and remembered why I stopped measuring in the first place. It was good to do it for about 9 months so I could get an estimate on what my average growth was, but monthly measuring isn't for me.

I'm the same way with the scales. When I'm not working out and eating crappy I weigh at least 10lbs less than I do when I'm in good shape. My clothes fit better but I weigh more because of the muscle mass I've gained. Like hair measuring, I think it's good to weigh yourself every once in a while to make sure you're staying in a healthy range for your body type, but constantly checking your weight seems to exacerbate the problem when you're trying to get fit.

[Carolyn]

I've measured almost every month for the last 8 years of growing out. I've recorded it either in my LHC journal or in a paper notebook. I also weigh myself almost every day. I like to KNOW, KWIM? :p

[Anne~]

I measure once in awhile just out of curiosity.

[freznow]

I measured routinely for a while, then I seemed to stall, then growing again I measured sporadically, and I seem to be in another stall. But that may just be braidwaves and idiot tape measure, but yeah I haven't gotten results in a while so I'm just waiting... easier to wait when you don't know...

[ItalianFlower]

I'm kind of an "organized" person; I like lists, and charts, and numbers (the evil, I know) and knowing the growth I've had in a month makes me feel better. I can crunch numbers to see my average and how long it's going to take to reach my goal...

I can definately see people's adversion to measuring, however. My length doesn't REALLY matter to me, just that it's healthy length. :)

[MoldyCake]

Ahh, so its not about the numbers, its about the information you get from them. That makes much more sense!

Thank you everyone for answering my question, I never realized how useful measuring could actually be. :D

[ladystar]

I was measuring every month, but now I am stopping I haven't seen my hair grow at all since march and its bothering me. Now I will measure only when I get a trim witch is every 6 months so I can how much the lady cut.

[C_Bookworm]

I Measure because i am not very good at eying how fast my hair is growing. Sometimes it feels like it hasn't budged and other times it seems to be flying. Measuring it helps me keep a hold on how it really is growing. Plus when my hair hits a particularly irritating spot, seeing progress makes me realize this is just a phase that will pass

[Nevermore]

I measure so I don't get fed up thinking my hair isn't growing, as well as to be able to know about when I can expect different lengths. I try to measure once a month, on the 17th (random choice), not daily or weekly, though I sometimes want to.

Katze: I have a pretty good idea that my ends will continue to look nice into the foreseeable future because I take care of them and S&D. Constant updos, co washing, gentle treatment in general. I got rid of all the old damage when I chopped my hair off, so my hair is pretty healthy.