A philosophical question...

[RavennaNight]

So I ran into someone after about 2 or 3 years, a former co worker. When she sees me, she exclaimed: "Wow your hair grew fast! Its so looong!" of course this compliment made me happy. But I have had a pretty good measure of growth, and I grow the average one-half inch per month and I have trimmed twice in 2 years.

My question is:

Did the hair grow fast, or did time fly by fast?

[spidermom]

To her, I'm sure it appeared that your hair grew overnight. She's been carrying around the image of you as you were 2-3 years ago and suddenly your hair is 12-18 inches longer. I know it's not sudden for you but a very gradual thing that you didn't really see happen because there's not much change from day to day.

[hurricane_gia]

Did the hair grow fast, or did time fly by fast?

Well, I think it's both. As Spidermom said, the last time she saw you, your hair was much shorter, and she hadn't yet adjusted her mental image of how you ought to look.

On the other hand, most people, even if they want long hair, do get their hair trimmed more often than just once a year. :D Someone else, who gets monthly trims whether they need them or not, may only grow 3 or 4 inches of hair in a year. You grew twice that much! So while it is a normal and expected amount of growth for someone at LHC, for the general public, that is a phenomenal growth spurt.

I remember going to my mother's hairdresser, who thought dry ends -- which LHCers consider normal and a sign that we need another SMT or some oil -- she saw them as split ends waiting to happen. So she routinely lopped off four inches at a time, every August, and I let her because she was the "expert." At that rate, I was lucky to get 2 inches of growth a year! But I find that that "growth rate" is typical of people who believe everything their hairdressers tell them.

[MsBubbles]

This might sound stupid but...is your coworker older than you? If so, time is passing faster for her :suspect:. Unless she decides to grow her hair too - then it'll slow right down again for her :D

[DecafJane]

This might sound stupid but...is your coworker older than you? If so, time is passing faster for her :suspect:. Unless she decides to grow her hair too - then it'll slow right down again for her :D

So what you are saying is that growing our hair long makes us live longer . . . . ;):p

My time is flying at the moment, and consequentially, my hair seems to be growing really fast. :D

[1nuitblanche]

I agree with Spidermom. It's because she has your hair from way back when in her haid so when she saw its length now, it was a huge surprise. This happened to me in high school because it was really short, then over a summer, it got long enough to put up, so I had it up for the first, oh, seven months of that school year, then I wore it down and people were so surprised thinking my hair grew fast when really it grows at a pretty average rate.

[forgetmenotak]

This might sound stupid but...is your coworker older than you? If so, time is passing faster for her :suspect:. Unless she decides to grow her hair too - then it'll slow right down again for her :D

:laugh: Now that's funny!

I think that it is probably both, the shock of seeing you with long hair even though it's been 2-3 years made her temporarily forget that it has had time to grow. Just my two cents.

[MotherConfessor]

tempus fugit

[Nevermore]

My mother did something similar recently, I was doing an S&D and since my brother was running around yelling, "I'M SO SOFT, FEEEEEEEEEL ME!" (his first time using retained glycerin soap was very exciting, apparently O.o) and my hair was also so soft and smooth, I had my mother feel it. She does a triple take and I say, "O.o...what?" and she says, "I didn't know it had gotten so long!"

And I live with her. This is proof that I keep my hair up often. Possibly too often, if the people I live with forget how long it is.

[florenonite]

I think it's just that she hasn't seen you in a while. I came home from uni for the first time since January, and both my wee sisters, on separate occasions, told me that I had long hair, even though it's really not that long, just because I haven't had it this long in ages, so they had in their minds an image of me with shoulder-APL hair, and suddenly they see me with BSL hair, and think it's long.

[FrannyG]

If my hair has grown since I last saw a person as little as 4 months ago, they unfailingly comment on the length of my hair. It's a combined factor of time flying, and them holding on to what you last looked like. It happens all the time.

[RavennaNight]

This might sound stupid but...is your coworker older than you? If so, time is passing faster for her :suspect:. Unless she decides to grow her hair too - then it'll slow right down again for her :D

Actually, she's 6 years younger than I with BSL hair. But I will agree that time seems to go faster as you age. I remember endless summers as a kid, but today I ponder how it could possibly be June, because January was, like, yesterday! :D its a nice wishful thinking, I wish growing my hair would slow time perception a bit.

[puredoxyk]

As a philosopher, I can tell you that one of the following is the case:

- both: you are immersed in time, and she is outside of it, so to her your growth seems fast and to you it seems slow. (call this the "Relativity answer", hail Einstein)

- neither: time is an illusion, and your hair is and has always been neither long nor short. How it appears in this time-slice is just a function of your perceptive mechanisms. (the Eternalist answer)

...Or possible neither of those is true and something else is. Sorry, philosophy doesn't actually answer questions like this; it just provides a ton of options and then runs away, laughing.

::runs away, laughing::

[Tapioca]

As a philosopher, I can tell you that one of the following is the case:

- both: you are immersed in time, and she is outside of it, so to her your growth seems fast and to you it seems slow. (call this the "Relativity answer", hail Einstein)

- neither: time is an illusion, and your hair is and has always been neither long nor short. How it appears in this time-slice is just a function of your perceptive mechanisms. (the Eternalist answer)

...Or possible neither of those is true and something else is. Sorry, philosophy doesn't actually answer questions like this; it just provides a ton of options and then runs away, laughing.

::runs away, laughing::

And this is why I took Logic instead of Philosophy in college. Actually, I agree with option one.

[aprilmay]

same thing with other people's kids. They grow visibly even from week to week and it seems like a huge amount because you don't see them day to day.