For all those who never had long hair before...

[dropinthebucket]

....before now, before the last few years, or before LHC.
1) If you never had long hair before, why? What were the major reasons or obstacles that kept it short? And 2) if you have long hair now, or are growing it, why did you start? I would love to hear The Reason!!



(to start us off)
1) two reasons, i have fine, thin hair and everyone from my mother to every hairdresser i ever went to told me i couldn't grow it past my shoulders or it would look bad; AND, i'm a slow grower so, you know, when it takes five years to get from ears to shoulders, it's easy to get bored and do something to it ! ;)
2) lara croft braid envy :D

[Tabihito]

My longest hair ever was a bit past APL, and I only had it for a short time before I cut back to my ears.

Mostly, it was because I have fine, wurly hair that I didn't know how to properly take care of, which I now know is a recipe for frizzy disaster. At that length, triangle-head was unavoidable, and I didn't think I could get past it, so I chopped. Plus my hair grows slightly slower than average, which gets frustrating when trying to grow it out (though it seems nowhere near as slowly as yours).

The reason I'm growing it out now, is that I've always wanted long hair. And I mean always, ever since I was a tiny kid. Only the awkwardness at the in-between lengths for me and improper care has caused me to continuously cut it off, but if I do things right this time and accept that I'm going to have a while where my hair is in those strange stages, I should be able to make it through.

[Svenja]

....before now, before the last few years, or before LHC.
1) If you never had long hair before, why? What were the major reasons or obstacles that kept it short? And 2) if you have long hair now, or are growing it, why did you start? I would love to hear The Reason!!

Lovely topic! Thank you :cheese:

1. I have never had long hair for the main reason of my trich condition. After a certain lengths (usually shoulder lengths) the hair would break of and the end would split up several inches, plus I would have different lengths. At my worst times the back of my head was a mess of strains from 1 inch to 12 inches, bald patches in between. It was easier to keep it short for caring reasons and for my dignity, too :(

2. In October last year I had ended a very difficult yet exciting and somewhat positive phase in my life. I wanted change, I had fulfilled so many dreams in my life except for one. I wanted long, beautiful hair for once in my life. No matter if you're thin, big, ugly, pretty, beautiful hair is something we can achieve quite easily. So I was convinced I can do it too! Plus, I needed a new challenge in my life :)

So, enough soul striptease :p

[crystal_k]

This is a great thread . My hair has never been much past apl which is also where im at right now. This is due to fine hair but really it was down to bleaching it platinum and blowdrying . My hair would break all the time so i kept having to cut . This led to a cycle of extensions . I have now ditched the bleach , g rowing out my roots have about 3 inches virgin hair and only colour the top bit with a tint i shall be ditching this shortly too. I rarely use hairdryer if i do its on cold . Im Growing out old bleached damaged hair , but its finally growing im heading towards bsl for first time i shall not cut my ends until i reach bsl. im just going to carry on sd and oiling i have 2 -3 inches until bsl .a
This site has been a great positive influence on my hair care and keeps me on track i rarely post but read the boards every day . i truly believe with the help of this site on finally on my way to healthier long hair.

[HikerTrash]

1) If you never had long hair before, why? What were the major reasons or obstacles that kept it short?

I've had long hair off and on throughout my life. One thing that was always short were bangs. I'd never gone without them. It was always so hard to grow them out and so many people told me I was ugly without them (yes, multiple people actually used the word ugly.)

And 2) if you have long hair now, or are growing it, why did you start?

I started growing my hair long this time because my hairdresser kept making me wait. Sometimes I would show up for my appointment and she'd have given my appointment to someone else and ask me to wait for two hours. I tried another who insulted me every time I sat in her chair. I've always hated hair salons so I decided no more! Also, I was tired of fussy hair that looked bad when I wore a hat or motorcycle helmet.

I grew out the bangs and the hair and I don't think it makes me look ugly. I think I look natural and youthful.

[bunnii]

Good thread idea!

1 - My mother! when my dad left she cut her hair off to spite him :rolleyes: and wouldn't let mine grow because he liked it long. But so did I! The longest it ever got was bsl because I got older and refused to sit still in the salon but then I wanted it cut because it was fashionable.

2 - I also think Lara croft reinspired my love of long hair, I also grew up idolising Morticia Addams :D

[chipzahoy]

....before now, before the last few years, or before LHC.
1) If you never had long hair before, why? What were the major reasons or obstacles that kept it short? And 2) if you have long hair now, or are growing it, why did you start? I would love to hear The Reason!!





1) My longest hair was at BSL about 2 years ago, but it was super damaged from dyeing. Before even growing that long, I was living at home and my mom always discouraged me from letting it grow long because she would tell me how bad it looked long. So she'd convince me to get regular hair cuts.

2) Essentially, I feel prettier with longer hair. IMHO, even a woman who isn't necessarily "drop dead" stunning looks gorgeous if she has an impressive head of hair. I've gone through a couple cycles now of growing it to around APL, letting it get damaged or inflicting my own damage, and then cutting it back to a bob. So this time, I'm determined to keep it healthy so that I don't want to cut it when it gets longer!

[Marjolein]

My hair has never been longer than it is today - a whopping 25.5 inches. Yeah, well...

For me the main reason why it's never grown really long is because of it's growth rate. It only grows 1/2 centimeter (1/5 inch) a month. It takes me years and years to get to some sort of length and by then I usually got pretty bored by the style and chopped it/bleeched it/colored it what have you.

Why am I able to grow it long(er) now? Because you guys are such great motivators to grow it long! It really helps in keeping the urges (=scissors) down. And finally, for the first time in my life, I'm starting to feel somewhat happy with my hair. My hair finally has enough length for my waves to start looking good in stead of weird. :cheese:

[Ayn]

....before now, before the last few years, or before LHC.
1) If you never had long hair before, why? What were the major reasons or obstacles that kept it short? And 2) if you have long hair now, or are growing it, why did you start? I would love to hear The Reason!!

1) I was just thinking of this the other day because I suddenly realized that not one single woman in my family has ever had hair past their shoulders -- not one. As kids my sister and I had shoulder length at best, but for different reasons we each had difficult hair to care for. Mine is thick enough but an extremely fine texture. Growing up on a farm -- well, I suppose it was easier for my mother to just keep it shorter. And no one in my family had long hair so no one knew much about hair care or how to style long hair. As I got older - 20's and 30's - I had kids and each time I had a baby I went out and got what hubby calls the "mommy haircut" -- wacked off above my ears. (Why do women do that anyway??)

2) I am now finally growing out the long hair I've always wanted (at 44 years of age -- and no I don't care how many people say I have to cut it after 30/40. I did the whole "mommy haircut" - not doin' the "old lady" haircut too!) I'm very happy to say I'm actually having some success. My hair has always been extremely slow to grow and I didn't know how to take care of it or improve my hair's health. I'm learning thanks in large part to all the great advice/tips/suggestions/info here. My hair is growing faster than it ever has before (though still S-L-O-W compared to others) and it is healhtier than ever. This is the longest my hair has ever been in my life -- just creeping past BSL now. And I'm the only one in my family with hair past my shoulders. As a previous poster said, with my fine hair the hairdressers have always told me that 1) it'll never be long and 2) that it'll never be healthy if it is long. Well, last month I went in for a trim and the girl couldn't stop oohing and aahing over how healthy, long, and "pretty" my hair was :D Talk about inspiration to continue what I've been doing! She even agreed with me that all the things I mentioned that I was doing were great and more people should do them -- now how rare is that to hear from a hairdresser?! I will definitely go back to her from now on -- not that this will help her much as I only get a trim about every 6 months, but still I appreciated her attitude A LOT.

[naereid]

1) If you never had long hair before, why? What were the major reasons or obstacles that kept it short?
I never had long hair before because I didn't care about anything. And I don't mean it in that good, happy, free-from-society's-constraints way. It was some kind of totally dark nihilism. I thought I was ugly and didn't care about my hair or clothes or anything. It was between APL and BSL most of the time. That's not that short, but in my mind it still doesn't count because I hated everything about myself at the time. Long hair should be loved. Anyway, it was longish just because I didn't care about what it looked like and only visited a hairdresser every couple of years when my mother dragged me to it. I just wanted the world to disappear and take me with it.

Hell, even all those stereotypical goth and emo kids care a thousand times more about themselves than I did in my teenage years. :p

I've been progressively getting better in the past 4-5 years. Caring for my hair is one of the expressions of my improved state of mind, I think. :)


And 2) if you have long hair now, or are growing it, why did you start? I would love to hear The Reason!!
Well, because it's beautiful. And to express my inner mermaidness. :heartbeat

[spidermom]

I've wanted long hair since grade school, but I was too impulsive to leave it alone and let it grow until I reached my mid-40s and finally acquired some patience.

[lemonmelon]

1) I've wanted long hair for a long time but, I'm too impulsive and like to change AND I can't stand flip length and can never grow past it. Right now I'm right at the stage I hate, but I'm trying really hard not to give in and cut it back to chin.

2) I want long hair for the updos and also to have a more airy fairy, wild look. Short hair is so stern for me, I want loose and free hair!

[Lemur_Catta]

I never had really long hair...when I was a child my hair was always in a bob, and during my teen years, it went to a choppy layered cut just below my ears, to APLish, but I never grew it consciously...it was just that I didn't really like going to salons. I didn't really understood what the point was in having my hair blowdried and styled, if I was never going to do that at home. So I always asked for simple styles that would look good air dried or blow dried without the styling part. I didn't go more than 2 times a year maybe, anyway.
I started to grow my hair because I wanted something different, I wanted to be different :) Besides, my hair looks better when it's long, because it doesn't flip in strange places, and I also think I don't look good with short hair, since I am not thin.

[Delila]

I always believed the stylists who told me that my hair was too thin and fine to grow past my shoulders. I also believed that I 'needed' bangs.

At some point, I got tired of bangs, since they're the reason I always needed to wash my hair every single day, so I resolved to grow them out.

Basically I started at a pixie, to achieve the length I have now, but I had a lot of trims along the way to even out the layers before I hit shoulders.

[OperaTeacherMom]

My hair has always been between chin and BSL. Every single time it got to BSL I got tired of it and chopped it, generally not liking the cut anyway after a few weeks. I was not taking care of my hair, and my curls tended to fall really flat when they got longer, which I now know was probably a protein deficiency, my hair needs TONS of protein. I think now that my hair has what it needs, it'll be CURLIER when it's longer rather than losing curl.

Why I'm growing it out now? The reason above, that I finally know how to take care of it and LOVE the look of long curls.

[triumphator!]

1) If you never had long hair before, why? What were the major reasons or obstacles that kept it short? I just never had the patience of interest in growing it out past APL. Now I do!!

2) if you have long hair now, or are growing it, why did you start? I would love to hear The Reason!! I started after donating 11" of dyed, straightened, damagey hair to Locks of Love, and then realizing I had virgin hair to work with. I my hair has bounced from chin to shoulder for a while now and I'm tired of it. I want long and glorious now, and plus it's just something different.

[sugarpixie10988]

The longest my hair ever was, was probably a little past APL. I didn't keep it long for many reasons, one was I didn't know how to properly take care of it. My hair LOOKED fine, but the ends were full of splits due to it getting caught in seat belts, backpacks, etc. The result was it getting REALLY tangly! My usual length has always been the length I'm at now, a bit past shoulder, just because it doesn't get caught in stuff nearly as much and it isn't a tangly nightmare.

Another reason was my mom, she seems to love short hair on both herself and on me. She thinks on me it looks really cute. The problem with that though, is I have a rather young looking face for my age. Pair that with shorter hair, and I feel like I look 14 when I'm 21. I'd always end up getting frustrated with my hair at one point though, and she would tell me to chop it off to chin length or so. I often did since I trust my mom, but as I've gotten older I've learned that her style... isn't a lot like mine.

I'm growing my hair out now because I've always admired long hair, but never cared enough to try it on myself. I also had a bad hair cut back in September... a chin length razor cut with bangs. It did not suit me at ALL! After that nightmarish experience, I told myself I am never cutting above shoulder again. The good side of the nightmare though, was I cut out a lot of damage and hair that had semi permanent dye residue still lingering on it from months back. Now I have no dye residue and I'm back at the length I had before I got the cut, although these horrible bangs are only to my lips.

I also love the feel of my hair on my back, and there's something magical about long hair as well. Also, I didn't realize it at the time but my poor boyfriend was so sad when I decided to cut my hair short. It's not that he didn't like how I looked anymore, but I guess he just really loves long hair. I didn't really realize that until it was too late.

[Ruce]

1.) Because my mum kept shaving all mine off when it got to an inch or so long (I'm male) and also because the school rules don't allow long hair on men.

2.) I think it's so much more interesting than having a bald head. Not only does it look better on me than short hair, but there's more to mess around with when you're bored\!

[jivete]

1. I have thin, fragile, fine hair that I didn't know how to take care of, so it'd either break off or start to look ratty well before APL.

2. I've always wanted long hair, ever since I was a kid. I just couldn't grow it. This is, by far, the longest mine has ever been.

[Prettychild]

1- The longest I've had is right past BSL. I( was always told my hair was too curly to look good if kept long, or that I am too short to have long hair and that I would look like cousin "it" from the Adams family.

2- My toddler son wants a mummy with long hair. My husband wants long hair. AND after years of being made to feel like my hair wasn't "good" I want my inner "fairy princess" to come out of the "closet"! :cheese:

[Long_hair_guy]

1) My mother never liked boys with long hair so she never let my hair get to my shoulders.

2) I originally wanted to grow out my hair to look like a rock star but now I keeping it long because I like my long hair

[Stormphoenix]

short answer:

I am vain about my hair.

long answer:

1) I always wanted long hair as a kid, but my mother had it cut short and permed super curly. I think long hair is pretty, elegant, sophisticated and gorgeous (as long as it is well kept). Marketing folks don't show us shampoo commercials with short haired models for a reason. Did you ever see a Disney Princess or a Barbie Doll that you liked with ear length cropped hair? Long hair is sexy, confident and smart looking.

2) I don't want my hair to look layered, spiky or hostile with ends sticking out at the general public; Short hair that is spiky looks like "the finger" is being given in all directions. I had the short layered hair look(s) when I was a teenager in the 80's; back when I didn't mind spending a hour each day blowdrying, moussing, and styling my hair. I can find something better to do with the time I wasted then. Now, I realize that last hour of sleep is priceless.

[tinti]

When I was little my mom kept it short, and when I got older I often got so tired of growing it. Especially when It had no layers it was so thick I couldn't do anything to it, all my old styles looked weird. Hope LHC can keep me going to my goal now, which I don't now what is. I've allways envied people with longer hair than me, what they could do to it and all. The only thing is I'm too impatient :p I love long braids and big buns and all that, so I hope I can controll my desire to chop when it gets to that too much hair/to little to do with it stage now.

[little_cherry]

....before now, before the last few years, or before LHC.
1) If you never had long hair before, why? What were the major reasons or obstacles that kept it short? And 2) if you have long hair now, or are growing it, why did you start? I would love to hear The Reason!!

The last time I had long hair was when I was around 4-5 years old. My mother got tired of brushing it (I remember it hurting!), so she lopped it off...ever since then, it has been a habit to keep it above BSL.

I'm growing my hair long because I want to experience what it is like to have long hair- I don't remember my long hair when I had it.

[littlenvy]

....before now, before the last few years, or before LHC.
1) If you never had long hair before, why? What were the major reasons or obstacles that kept it short? And 2) if you have long hair now, or are growing it, why did you start? I would love to hear The Reason!!



(to start us off)
1) two reasons, i have fine, thin hair and everyone from my mother to every hairdresser i ever went to told me i couldn't grow it past my shoulders or it would look bad; AND, i'm a slow grower so, you know, when it takes five years to get from ears to shoulders, it's easy to get bored and do something to it ! ;)
2) lara croft braid envy :D
OH MY!! Another F/i on board!! YAY!!! :D:D

1. I tried to grow my hair long before (just pass APL which happens to be what I almost have right now again) and it DID look bad. The thin hair just looked sick and lifeless. Everyone was telling me to cut it. And it is true that I looked MUCH better in shoulder length hair.
2. Now that my hair is healthier ... or much healthier than ever. I want to see how long it can grow and how good I can make it. LOL ... and as my name says, I have a little bit of envy for the rest of the LHCers. ;)

[Lexy]

I've always wanted long hair, but whenever my life gets overwhelming to me I cut it all off. I have been through two of those cycles since I joined LHC. I expect I will really be able to grow it long now because I've been to therapy and I'm better at dealing with stress. Plus I finally do believe that it's OK for me to have something I want.

[swellmel]

1) If you never had long hair before, why? What were the major reasons or obstacles that kept it short? And 2) if you have long hair now, or are growing it, why did you start? I would love to hear The Reason!!
(to start us off)


1) prior to me growing it out now i would say the longest it ever was before now was freshman year of highschool and it was around APL. i got bored with it so i chopped it off into an angled bob right around chin length. from there it would vary from chin to shoulder but never more than brushing my shoulder. i never had the patience to grow it out long and getting it chopped and changing hairstyles was fun.

2) about 4 years ago my hair was at chin length and i decided that i was tired of short hair and longed for the long hair that i had always dreamed of having. so i started growing it out. my goal is terminal length simply because i want to know how long my hair will grow. it's about an inch and a half away from waist now which is definitely the longest it has ever been. and i love it!

[Yamainu]

1) My hair was baby-fine, and got rats nests if I looked at it wrong. The longest I ever let it get was BSL, but the vast majority of time it was just above my shoulders. It was just easier to detangle that way.

2) I'm a grown up now (at least legally:p), and I wanted to get rid of little girl short hair. I wanted to be able to do the beautiful updos I saw in movies. I wanted to look like the pre-raphaelite women, with their long dresses and tresses.

[klcqtee]

1. My hair was always about APL growing up because it's very thick, coarse, and wurly, not to mention it tends to tangle into mats and rats nests. Mom would get so frustrated with my hair that Dad would spend an entire football game (about 3 hours), trying to brush out my hair. I would spend at least half of it in tears. It was less painful for all involved if it was kept short as a child.

By the time I was able to take care of my hair (okay, that's still a work in progress!) I began dying it. It's been black, auburn, caramel, copper, henna auburn, henna red, drug store red, and dyed back to a brown colour God knows how many times.

2. I've sworn off hair dye (and henna), and man, has that helped! I was inspired to grow it out by Emily from The Corpse Bride (http://whisty.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/the-corpse-bride.jpg ) My hair is very similar in texture to hers (as far as curl pattern), and I just think it's so beautiful! Since my hair is so thick though, I think I'll only grow it to waist. Maybe hip, but that's a big maybe.

LHC has definitely helped me grow. It's kept me from making chops simply because my hair was at an awkward length, and has vastly improved the health of my hair. Breaking up with my dumb boyfriend helped me kick the dye habit :laugh:

[meph]

1) I need to say first that I only consider my hair long when it's around hip (strange that I actually think BSL is long on others), so even though my longest was waist length, it never felt long to me. I never really cared about how my hair looked, I hated it any way. After the hair hate went down a bit I discovered that I actually love the way long hair looks. I never been able to grow my hair long because I always convince myself that it looks like utter cr*p and end up cutting it - again. I'm going to blame my perfectionism here:p. Last hair cut (in March or maybe April this year) was because I hated the way my hair attracted all sorts of negative attention and because some bad stuff happened to me, and I thought that cutting my hair was the way to deal with all that (I was wrong).

2) What can I say ? I just love the way long hair looks, feels and moves. I also like the fact that you can just put it up and forget about it, and that it's easy to deal with. And I think that the underlying reason for growing my hair is because I just... want to do something for myself. I want to do something only for myself and something that makes me feel good, almost gives me some sort of power or pride by saying f*** you to the whole mainstream look that seems so forced upon people.

Yeah, I think that's it...

[pepperminttea]

1) I think the longest I've had it before now was BSL, and that was with dye/perm damage up to my chin so I don't entirely count it. I don't really know why I haven't actively grown it out until recently; I just got into the habit of having it cut now and then, without really thinking about it. When I was younger it was the same cycle; my hair loves to tangle, and I wasn't exactly a cooperative child, so when it got too long to detangle without a fight, the scissors came out. I always liked the look of long hair though, and enjoyed mine on-the-way-to-long before it got cut off.

2) I got a bob cut to get rid of the last of my dye/perm damage and absolutely hated it. I don't think there was a specific point where I said "Right, I'm growing my hair!" - it was more a point when I thought "I never want it short again!" :p And the longer it gets, the more my resolution grows to keep it that way.

[fisher2]

im a guy so the steriotype had alot my parents always cut my hair in sept
2. one day i just decided on it and went from there so yeah it was kinda just go and dont look back never had that stage off omg i want it off moments nothing just kinda let it fall

[Quezie]

The longest I can remember my hair being, it almost covered my boobs. Buuut it got so damaged, I cut it off into a short bob.

I've been growing it since then -- sort of. I've gotten a TON of trims in the past few years, sometimes 1-2 inches off, and I was more concerned about the colour and the way it looked then it's health.

Long hair is just beautiful to me. Long HEALTHY hair, more like. I can't really explain why other than that.
Lara Croft braid envy is a good one though. :D

[chelssix]

1) I have had longish hair- about bsl, but always went back to short hair, because, well... I like it. I think it looks good and makes me feel very styled. The problem? It takes a LOT of styling for me to maintain it, the way I like it. Constant trims- my hair grows fast- and SO much styling, especially if the climate was too humid, too dry, I slept on it wrong, etc.
2) I decided to grow my hair out, mostly because I was sick of all the trims and styling (it took forever, and I am decidedly someone who prefers sleeping in over spending an hour with a flatiron), but also to see how long I could get it. I decided first on BSL, then waist, and now I want it at hip or maybe tb, depending on how I feel when I get there.

great thread, btw!

[boomtownrat]

....before now, before the last few years, or before LHC.
1) If you never had long hair before, why? What were the major reasons or obstacles that kept it short? And 2) if you have long hair now, or are growing it, why did you start? I would love to hear The Reason!!

1) I've never had my hair longer than APL and that was when I was about 12 years old. As a kid my hair was always cut in a bob, about mid-neck length with bangs, because it was so fine that barrettes and ponytails wouldn't stay. Once I got past puberty it was coarser and had started getting wavy, but I would always get bored with it and want to try something new. Also, I was dyeing it myself until fairly recently and it was much easier to do that with hair that was above the shoulders. Now that I'm not dyeing it anymore, that's another reason to stop keeping it short.

2) Right now I'm not growing it yet because I'm trying to get rid of dye. The two-tone look is working surprisingly well at chin length but I don't think I would've liked it if the red were much longer than the silver. After it's virgin, I want to grow it to at least waist. I know that's not long by LHC standards, but it's much longer than my hair has ever been. I want to grow it because I like long, silver hair. My SO would be happy if I were to have my hair past my shoulders, but he hasn't asked me to grow it long.

[irisheyes]

I had tailbone length hair by the time I was 18 years old. I cut it soon after graduation-something to do with looking more mature as I recall. Anyway, I kept it anywhere from pixie tp BSL over the years, mostly in an attempt to look stylish and well groomed during my nursing career. I'm still working as a nurse, but doing home care nursing now, which is a bit more relaxed. Plus, my children are grown and out of the house, so I have more time to spend on myself. I never really followed the trends-if everyone wore curls, I would go straight. If everyone wore short hair, I would grow mine longer. Now I feel no need to conform to the idea that older women must have short hair. I enjoy my hair like never before, and plan to keep growing to waist and beyond...