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Kristamommyx3
July 16th, 2011, 09:09 AM
...on length is funny! I updated my facebook pic with the same one as my siggy pic here. People came out of the woodwork to say how long my hair is! I wanted so badly to say how my hair doesn't even actually fall into the long category until it's fully waist! IMO Lol. I have to chuckle at how being part of LHC changes your view on hair so much! Anyone else experience anything similar?

Dr. Girlfriend
July 16th, 2011, 09:15 AM
When I saw my mom the other day she said my hair was getting so long. Funny part is I'm a shortie by LHC's yardstick. :) I'll consider my hair long when it hits waist.

Mesmerise
July 16th, 2011, 09:21 AM
Yup, my hair is firmly in the "medium length" category by my way of looking at things...and won't hit long for me until waist either! And if it's a straggly waist it doesn't feel particularly long, so it needs to have a relative amount of thickness too!

Dr. Girlfriend
July 16th, 2011, 09:31 AM
Yes, I agree. A solid waist would be my definition of long.


Yup, my hair is firmly in the "medium length" category by my way of looking at things...and won't hit long for me until waist either! And if it's a straggly waist it doesn't feel particularly long, so it needs to have a relative amount of thickness too!

Eire
July 16th, 2011, 09:53 AM
When my hair was waist, my sister's was just barely past APL. It was really funny because people would tell her, "Oh wow, your hair is getting long!" with me standing right beside her. It was like my hair was so long it was beyond comment.

RitaCeleste
July 16th, 2011, 09:58 AM
Yep, waist has always been my idea of long. When I hit midback, my sister told me it was very long by other people's standards. It will be to waist in a few more months and I just learned how to do a bun. I almost feel like I'm hiding it when I put it up now. But this site has me feeling like buns are okay to wear and not unusual at all. Also because this and other hair sites, I haven't felt like oil and Co-washing was bad either. My S.O. said I was making my hair look dirty by oiling it and my eyes about popped out of my head. I'm not really sure what he thinks of the bun, he said it made it look short. Then went on to say he worried the pencil I stuck in it would stab me in the neck. He wouldn't say outright that he disliked it up, and I did point out that I still had the hair and I could take it down unlike a bad haircut which would take years to grow out. Yep, its really easy to loose touch with what normal people think about hair after spending time here!

Wavelin
July 16th, 2011, 10:00 AM
Today I met an old friend, who knew me when I had shorter hair (shoulders). Her first response to me was that "You have so much hair!". I'm almost at BSL.. :grnbiggri I didn't agree but I thanked for the compliment!

Kyla
July 16th, 2011, 10:08 AM
I'm at waist (nearly hip when wet!) and DBF often comments on how long my hair is. I just think "no it's not....not yet." I've had bsl-waist hair all my life though, so it never feels long on me, although I see waist-length on other people and go "Woah! I wish I had that length!" not realizing that I do...

Angeletti
July 16th, 2011, 10:08 AM
Yesterday I was walking around with my mom and had my hair in curls, my classic length shrunk to just below waist and I was commenting on how it felt so short and she thought I was nuts for saying that. When your used to seeing people with knee+ on here it alters your view on what is long vs. short!

jojo
July 16th, 2011, 10:32 AM
Funny I always thought of waist length as really long, however I am a few inches past and it no longer seems that long. Now I think of hip as the start of long.

A work colleague commented on my number 8 bun which was held in place with a hair stick. She asked me to show her how to do it and was like "wow your hair is so long" when i took it down, I looked at her strange and said "your joking ive hardly started with long hair yet!!" funny how LHC makes us think differently!

kettle
July 16th, 2011, 10:57 AM
When my hair was waist, my sister's was just barely past APL. It was really funny because people would tell her, "Oh wow, your hair is getting long!" with me standing right beside her. It was like my hair was so long it was beyond comment.

I have a friend who does exactly the same thing! She's trying to grow her hair, and often comments on the hair of another friend of mine, whose hair is APL, saying how long and lovely her hair is. Last time she did this, I was stood right next to her, with my TB+ hair down. I must admit I find it strangely annoying! (If my APL friend's hair is "very long"... what on earth does that make mine?!)

Now I'm at TB, I find myself considering anything longer than TB to be truly long. I reckon our perception of what's long is afffected by our own length and how we feel about it, as well as the fact that we're confronted by some stunning and sometimes extreme lengths on here.

Bohemian Haze
July 16th, 2011, 11:00 AM
The kids in the school I work at are always horrified at the length of my hair - and it's only hip length! I think it just isn't fashionable (teen girls will let you know the second you're out of fashion!) The strange thing is that when they first meet me, it's all, "Oh, wow, are those extensions?" As soon as they find out it's not, and it's hair I've grown, they tend to look a little bit disgusted!

RitaCeleste
July 16th, 2011, 11:14 AM
That's the look of them doing the math and understanding they can't have it tomorrow. Bummer! lol They aren't disgusted by the hair but but by the time required to grow theirs out.

Alvrodul
July 16th, 2011, 11:15 AM
The kids in the school I work at are always horrified at the length of my hair - and it's only hip length! I think it just isn't fashionable (teen girls will let you know the second you're out of fashion!) The strange thing is that when they first meet me, it's all, "Oh, wow, are those extensions?" As soon as they find out it's not, and it's hair I've grown, they tend to look a little bit disgusted!
Now that's what I will call a very skewed kind of perception! That length of hair is acceptable when you buy it, but not when it is yours, as in growing out of your scalp??? :confused:

Bohemian Haze
July 16th, 2011, 11:23 AM
RitaCeleste; you're probably somewhat right. I think the funniest thing is when they ask me if I've ever cut my hair.....like hip length is the longest hair can grow to!
And Alvrodul, yep - they kind of peek in there and look for the joins....and beat a hasty retreat when they can see it's attached right to my scalp!

neko_kawaii
July 16th, 2011, 11:47 AM
LOL, reminds me of my MIL commenting on my hair at various lengths, "My, your hair is getting long" and it always seemed odd to me. Guess because I actually knew people growing up with classic and ankle length hair, I didn't really start thinking of my own hair as long until it reached my waist.

ilovelonghair
July 16th, 2011, 12:24 PM
Indeed, waist is where it is getting long. I am past the hollow of my back now, but it doesn't look like that because it has waves. Still doesn't feel so long.
My mother said recently: 'but you have so much hair'. Uh, I have thin hair compared with LHC people.

Lollipop
July 16th, 2011, 12:44 PM
Yeah, whenever i take my hair down my friends say "It's so long!" and I always just sigh and say not yet...(they don't understand why I wear it uo either)

podo
July 16th, 2011, 12:50 PM
Length is definitely one way that LHC & non-LHC differ, but I find it's more extreme (and more noticeable) in the area of hair care - including salons.

I always thought of shoulders and above as short, waist to shoulders as medium, and below waist as long - below tailbone is extra-long. ;) Now that I'm a few inches past TBL I guess I'm in the extra-long category (in my mind), but like several others, I just don't feel that it's all that long! I think it's more that since I see and handle it every day as it's grown, to me it's just there, you know? Plus, I keep it up in buns unless I'm washing or brushing it so I rarely seem to notice it.

It's almost a shame; now that I have it at a length I've always dreamed of (or almost), I won't wear it down to enjoy said length because I'm 1 - afraid of the damage, when every single millimeter on every single hair counts because of my growth problems and 2 - it always seems a bother to deal with the wind and heat and.. just.. arg!

KLin
July 16th, 2011, 01:00 PM
I love LCH because you ladies and genlemen do not think I am crazy for wanting to grow my hair longer than my waist in my 40's. That and not coloring is okay here. No pressure to use chemical color or any processing unless I wanted to.

spigette
July 16th, 2011, 01:03 PM
Yep, its really easy to loose touch with what normal people think about hair after spending time here!

This is so true! I forget that the average person thinks:

1. Not washing your hair every day is gross.
2. You have to use a lot of product to make it "behave".
3. If it touches your shoulders, it is "long".
4. Buns are for old ladies, librarians or the Amish.
5. People that look like me shouldn't be shopping in the "black hair needs" section :p

I usually keep the nasty details of my LHC haircare routine to myself for this reason.... but I pass them on judiciously to my friends if I think they can handle it, lol.

I spent a lovely half hour last night with my best friend, who has glorious natural curls, and she told me rather shamefacedly that she only washes once a week. I said, Good for you!! and told her about CO washing which I think would help her enormously.

She said she would try, but would have to hide it from her teenage daughter who is already disgusted by her mum not shampooing daily, lol.

Now if I can get her to come to the LHC...... :cheese:

JellyBene
July 16th, 2011, 01:40 PM
a few months ago I was sitting at lunch with my friends (I'm in high school, the land of chemically, and heat fried hair) and one of my friends commented on how oily her hair is and I blurted out "Oh well you know scalp oil, called sebum, is a supply demand thing. That means the more you wash it, the more it produces. If you stop washing it entirely, eventually it will regulate itself and you will have beautiful shiny healthy hair." I realized the whole table had gown silent and all eyes were on me. One girl cautiously said "Is that what you do...?" I replied yes and they all looked at me like I was crazy.

racrane
July 16th, 2011, 01:44 PM
Correct, I also have "warped" ideas on hair. People think BSL hair is super long and to me, it's medium length. Waist is the start of long. Anyway, people have been used to seeing me with chin-SL for the last year and a half so for them my APL is long! Makes me smile and think "Wait and see"!

Joliebaby
July 16th, 2011, 02:02 PM
I found that MBL was when I started getting comments about how long my hair was. I think BSL is still fairly common "long length" in real world, and after that it starts to be extra long. Of course it didn't feel all that long to me at 30", grazing waist. (But yeah, I will be really super happy to have that back, and it will feel longer this time being all one length..)

getoffmyskittle
July 16th, 2011, 02:05 PM
Yesterday I asked my friend, "should I grow my hair really long again?"

He said, "umm, how long is it now?"

I said, "a little bit past hip length."

He started laughing at me and said "wait -- that's not really long??"

I replied, "well, in April, I cut it to the shortest it's been in at least 5 years."

Yeah, I'd say LHC changes you. :p

Rhea
July 16th, 2011, 03:10 PM
Nonono... hair is never long enough... Iīm on tailbone and want to go to classic. :cheese: And then? I donīt know... :D

Sewas
July 16th, 2011, 03:40 PM
Oh yes. When my hair began to get long all I could do was a very bad french twist. So I went on Youtube to look at long hairstyles. Wow! I was blown away watching all the beautiful ladies with BSL and waist length hair doing wonderful things with their hair. I used to think shoulder length hair was really long!

FoxRain
July 16th, 2011, 05:17 PM
People around me usually think shoulder to waist is long. Any longer and you're probably considered "weird" :rolleyes:
Where I live shoulder is normal long hair, any longer and it tends to break off due to bleach and heat. However, in the larger cities I've seen many girls with waist long pretty natural hair. Seems like healthy longer hair is starting to be in fashion again here.

Copasetic
July 16th, 2011, 05:20 PM
I notice that a lot of people assume that if you wear your hair up it must be short. I get these comments a lot in real life. An LHC person would probably not make that assumption. A lot of real life people also tell me that anyone with hair past BSL should cut it. Whenever I ask why, they just say, "Because they should."

SpeakingEZ
July 16th, 2011, 06:17 PM
When my hair was waist, my sister's was just barely past APL. It was really funny because people would tell her, "Oh wow, your hair is getting long!" with me standing right beside her. It was like my hair was so long it was beyond comment.

Maybe at your sister's length, people think that she might not realize that her hair is getting long and they're reminding her to get a trim? Whereas, with your hair at waist, the length was obviously intentional!

ddiana1979
July 16th, 2011, 06:33 PM
LOL. . . I had this conversation with my husband a couple of days ago. DH: "Why do we have to keep measuring your hair every month? Hair is either long or short, and your hair is long." Me: "First I like to measure to know my average growth per month to see if something I'm doing is influencing growth. Also, my hair is NOT long yet." (It's 4" from waist.) He looked at me like I was nuts. DH: "I'm constantly rolling over your hair at night or accidentally trapping it with my hands. Your hair is LONG." *sigh*

Lianna
July 16th, 2011, 06:57 PM
I notice that a lot of people assume that if you wear your hair up it must be short.

Where I live, people only wear hair up if it doesn't "look good". Either too much frizz, or they don't like their natural waves or cut. Rarely just to keep it out of the way, or because of dirty hair.

Pretty much, if the hair is up, you're hiding something.

Slinks
July 16th, 2011, 07:00 PM
I'm at waist (nearly hip when wet!) and DBF often comments on how long my hair is. I just think "no it's not....not yet." I've had bsl-waist hair all my life though, so it never feels long on me, although I see waist-length on other people and go "Woah! I wish I had that length!" not realizing that I do...

I say this to my family and they all tell me my hair is longer !! well, bugger me :-) lol

Slinks
July 16th, 2011, 07:03 PM
Funny I always thought of waist length as really long, however I am a few inches past and it no longer seems that long. Now I think of hip as the start of long.

A work colleague commented on my number 8 bun which was held in place with a hair stick. She asked me to show her how to do it and was like "wow your hair is so long" when i took it down, I looked at her strange and said "your joking ive hardly started with long hair yet!!" funny how LHC makes us think differently!
Totally !! :-) I think top of hipster jeans is long ..

Slinks
July 16th, 2011, 07:24 PM
I love LCH because you ladies and genlemen do not think I am crazy for wanting to grow my hair longer than my waist in my 40's. That and not coloring is okay here. No pressure to use chemical color or any processing unless I wanted to.

:cheese: DITO :-)

Nae
July 16th, 2011, 07:57 PM
Well it looks like the facts are in.......LHC is in the business of warping minds.

Ah well, mine was warped to begin with.;)

kahill
July 16th, 2011, 08:20 PM
I once was talking to a little girl, about the age of five, who was not used to spending time with Caucasians. She was staring at my hair and then eventually told me that she liked my weave. I told her that it was really my own hair. She looked at me harder and said, "No. It's a weave." It still makes me giggle!

I totally understand about not feeling like it's long until it hits at least the waist. I never felt like mine was long until I hit that point, too.

One thing that made me smile is once I was at church with my hair in a bun with sticks, and I got cold. So, I thought I'd put on my "shawl" and took the sticks out and let my hair just fall down my back. I heard an audible gasp from the row behind me. Apparently they'd never sat near me before and didn't know how long my hair was. THAT was rather cool. :D

Spacescape
July 16th, 2011, 08:24 PM
My hair is still a fairly longish-average length for my area, so I rarely get "Your hair is so long!" What everyone always does is look at my French braids and say "You do that yourself!?" in a tone of disbelief and awe. Usually this happens when I'm wearing what I would consider to be a super-simple braided style. I love that complex styling on your own hair is considered normal on LHC :)

gthlvrmx
July 16th, 2011, 08:32 PM
Im not to the point where people gasp whenever my hair falls out of a bun (cant wait though!!) but i have gotten from my friend that i have "girl hair". I guess that counts in as the average person's view.

Juneii
July 16th, 2011, 08:48 PM
I get comments on how crazy long my hair is, I am so used to seeing beyond classic lengths here that I don't think my hair is that long at all.

Mesmerise
July 16th, 2011, 09:02 PM
Well I guess I've always been a "long hair" at heart, because even before finding LHC I didn't really consider hair "long" until it was waist! However, I always sort of modified my own descriptors of my hair based on what other people think is normal.

In other words, I'd think of my hair as "medium length" but if anyone asked me about my hair, I'd say it was "long" because I knew that to most people, my hair would be "long" even though to me it wasn't...

I also considered below SL to be "short".

I guess this is why I got in trouble getting layers a few years back when I asked for "long layers" meaning layers that were not much shorter than my MBL hair. Well to them "long layers" meant chin length :rolleyes:. Yup that was fun...

However, LHC has made me change my hair length goals from just wanting waist to wanting at least hip (if not BCL!!). It has also made me look at other people's hair more and notice it. I mean, I always noticed long hair...but now I think, "hmm looks like that girl has Classic length hair" when before it was just "super long" lol.

I also notice other things, like that in my part of the world, long hair isn't all that uncommon, and it's even not uncommon for women 40+ to have long hair (which from what many LHCers say, is quite uncommon where they live). So YAY for that! I do see lots of extensions to make hair long (I noticed one of the hairdressers where I took my boys the other day had obvious extensions...). I also notice more whether people are going natural, or dyeing etc. etc. It's just opened my eyes to more hair related stuff!

kielrain
July 16th, 2011, 10:59 PM
Just the other day my husband told me I had medium length hair.... it isn't even shoulder length! So, yes the "average" person does think different. :P

missoj
July 17th, 2011, 08:56 AM
Before I came on LHC I thought APL was long, my longest layer is now is now BSLish, and I feel now it's still short.

finzi
July 17th, 2011, 09:43 AM
I took off half an inch the other day and my hair is now BSL. To me, it doesn't look very long and that's mainly due to LHC's influence :D I won't think of my hair as 'long' until it's down to my waist.

dragonchickx
July 17th, 2011, 10:17 AM
I was just thinking about this, this morning! I don't really considermy hair long I would like it 3 more inches to be long. By most people's standards it is extremely long haha so funny!!

nazzooyzo
July 17th, 2011, 10:21 AM
I think non lhc people consider apl long yet on here that's seen as medium length.

Kristamommyx3
July 17th, 2011, 10:48 AM
Lol, screw 'em! My oldest son (I have three) always wears his hair longish for a guy. He's 11 and has collarbone length 1b blonde surfer hair. When we were over in Daytona last month a teenage girl came up to him and said he had absolutely amazing hair! Well, he does! However, when we were in Tennessee last week, my very handsome, manly looking son was called a girl three times in one afternoon! And on his tackle football team his nicknames are rapunzel and goldilocks. Hehe. I'm proud of him for not listening to the other jealous guys. He's a great athlete, and his hair is not slowing him down at all.





Im not to the point where people gasp whenever my hair falls out of a bun (cant wait though!!) but i have gotten from my friend that i have "girl hair". I guess that counts in as the average person's view.

Kristamommyx3
July 17th, 2011, 10:49 AM
I think apl is right at medium.





I think non lhc people consider apl long yet on here that's seen as medium length.

Jing
July 17th, 2011, 11:34 AM
I used to have waist-length hair when I was younger, and I didn't feel like it was unusually long, so I never really thought of anything shorter than BSL as "long", even before LHC.

SoulOfTheSea
July 17th, 2011, 12:08 PM
When I posted a length shot of my hair on my Facebook page, everyone was commenting on how long my hair was, and in my head I was like "Nooo, it's not even waist! D:"

....Wait til my hair is hip-length, then their eyes will REALLY pop out of their sockets! :D

Wally
July 17th, 2011, 12:20 PM
The world thinks I have long hair. I don't.

squiggyflop
July 17th, 2011, 12:45 PM
waist? long? nope.. waist stopped being long in my mind when my hair hit waist and i realized how short waist was.. hip is the beginning of long.. tailbone is solid long.. classic is quite long.. anything longer is super long

Arya
July 17th, 2011, 12:47 PM
I have waist/hip length hair (can we start calling it whip length? That sounds so cool) and I have been totally guilty of braiding in waist length extensions at the bottom of my waist length hair to see what a classic length braid would look like on me. Le sigh! That's only, what, 5 more years of growing?

ladylovecraft
July 17th, 2011, 02:07 PM
I think the skewed sort of perception is part LHC and part having long hair already. When I first started here with a pixie, I thought of BSL/waist as long. Now that I've been here for a while and have BSL hair, I think of waist as the shortest length that can qualify for long and anything beyond that extra long, and anything above that as short. So to me, my hair is short. Even though in about a year or so I'll have 'long' hair by my own standards, it still feels so short and blah... And I imagine I'll feel that way again at waist thinking, "Oh if it was just TB already it would be long!"

Yeah, and I think the highschool girls "disgusted" looks might be more that they feel confused/intimidated by it. I probably glare a little at people with long hair because I'm jealous and impatient that my hair isn't there yet, not disgusted. :P

Sweetie
July 17th, 2011, 03:14 PM
.....actually it happens to me all the time, everyone I know says I have long hair - and when I go "I think its so short!!" they look at me as I'm a weirdo. ..I'm only BSL....

nantang
July 18th, 2011, 01:53 AM
If you search "extremely long hair", Google will serve up pictures that most all fall into my "not short hair" category....

Alaia
July 18th, 2011, 03:54 AM
As some others have said, it's not just about length that LHC changes minds.

It's about hair care, products, everything. And the education about hair styles. All of us here can do more styles than pre-LHC, right?

I have to say, I've never had a comment on my hair style or length other than just before I had it cut ("You hair is so *swearword* long" from one of my colleagues). I don't think English people comment at all. I know that I'm generally too shy to go up to people in the street whose hair I think is amazing.

Avital88
July 18th, 2011, 04:42 AM
because of LHC i feel like my hair is short haha..
no i actually started to feel like a longhair again, then my ends got thinner.. now i feel the same as at mbl. "sigh"

punkcatknitter
July 18th, 2011, 06:49 AM
When I was a kid I always had hair between waist and tailbone and I always remembered one incident in fourth grade. All the kids in the grade were outside and we had a list of things (like blue eyes, has a cat, black hair) and we had to find a kid that to sign each thing on our list that had them. I remember watching a teacher walk PAST me and to a girl who had maybe flip length hair and ask her to sign next to "long hair".

I remember being so stunned! She didn't have long hair! I had long hair! :) It always stuck with me as funny.

I mostly wear my hair up so when I wear it down people are starting to comment on how long it is (just reached waist!) but I always want to tell them no it isn't! I am prone to telling them it's nowhere near as long as I want it... that always gets some surprised looks.

RuLueashk
July 18th, 2011, 09:57 PM
I have waist/hip length hair (can we start calling it whip length? That sounds so cool)


Whip length! I like it! I'll use it!

When I found myself growing my hair out, I hardly thought past "long enough to ponytail it all out of the way on top of my head for sleep" as a goal.

I consider it long now at waist and I'm pretty sure that if it gets long enough to sit on, that will be too long for me. Time will tell if my view changes again, but I know waist will be a safe length to "shorten" to, should I reach a length that annoys me prior to tailbone.

truepeacenik
July 18th, 2011, 10:56 PM
I think of my classic hair as short since I want knee length.

eternalknot
July 21st, 2011, 03:07 AM
I noticed the same thing when doing an online search for hairstyles - what's considered "long" seems, in fact, pretty darn short! I guess it's all relative :D

Lianna
July 21st, 2011, 03:20 AM
Pixie is short, shoulder-APL is medium. Maybe I'm an average person who happens to be here.