when do you officially reach the next length goal?

[darklion]

How do you decide that you've "officially" reached the next hair length?
I was at my Grandma's and we were talking about hair (Grams is an old school beauty parlor longhair). She said that my hair had almost reached the next length goal of waist. I said "oh, I thought I had already passed that one," and pulled at the longest parts to show that it was approaching tailbone.
So when does it count?
I have a deep-U hemline so there are a couple of inches separation between the longest and the shortest hairs. Does it count when ALL my hair is past waist or just the tip of the U? Personally, I like to use the longest parts to measure length... it's much more rewarding. But what about everyone else?

[Cupofmilk]

I go with the visual effect. If a stranger were to look at your hair (assuming they knew wear waist was!) - would they say your hair looked waist or not? So if 2 or 3 hairs are waist probably not. If your V or U hemline looks to be waist - then yes.

[hibiscus]

I tend to go with where the tip of the u or v reaches as long as the ends are not too thin or tapered.

[Avital88]

i tend to go with the longest too, but it has to be thick enough to see though,sometimes i see girls with classic length hair but its so thin that it looks more like tailbone to me,if you understand what i mean.

[Dragon]

I go by where most of the hair touches.

[torrilin]

I go by visual effect. Right now, my hair is touching my elbows, so I'm ok with claiming that. But it doesn't look like waist, even to me. So while a lot of folks at LHC would say elbow length and waist length are the same, I'm not ready to claim waist yet.

Now if my hair is getting caught in my elbows and I'm still hanging around in the BSL to waist thread... y'all can bop me. My hair didn't start getting caught in my armpits til I was at elbow length, so I'd have to be around a foot past elbow length for my hair to get caught there.

[dRummie]

I'd say go by the look you're going for. If your U hemline is the one you want to keep, I think it'd make sense to take the longest measurement. On the other hand, if somebody had layers, but were ultimately planning to grow them out to a curtain, I'd measure by the shortest.

In my case, I'll probably be going by the longest, unstretched, since I have wavy hair and plan to go BSL with layers.

[spidermom]

To determine waist, I'd cinch a belt around my natural waist (smallest part of torso). When the ends overlapped the belt, I called it waist.

For everything else, I go by visual appearance in pictures.

[jojo]

I choose my goal when it visually reaches. Measuring is fine but its hit and miss sometimes, a camera never lies!

[Jenn of Pence]

I go with the visual effect. If a stranger were to look at your hair (assuming they knew wear waist was!) - would they say your hair looked waist or not? So if 2 or 3 hairs are waist probably not. If your V or U hemline looks to be waist - then yes.

This is a good point about waist; most people think waist is where the waistline of pants sit. For the past couple of decades, waistbands on pants have been lower than they were before that (ug...I'm personally not a fan of high waisted pants :p). But anyways! That means a person's perception of "waist-length" could be affected by where they think pants should sit. But I agree with Spidermom's assessment of waist; you can visually use a belt on the smallest part of your torso to see if your hair overlaps.

I do think there is a difference between actually being at a goal length and being "visually" at a goal length. In the end, I also don't think it matters that much to stress over it, because your hair is what it is, it is growing every day, and by saying it's "around waist" just means it's obviously not at BSL anymore and on its way to tailbone. ;) The markers are just macroscopic visual affirmations of the fact that our hair is actually getting longer and convenient sub-goals in our larger journeys.

[Yame]

I choose my goal when it visually reaches. Measuring is fine but its hit and miss sometimes, a camera never lies!

Personally, I think a camera is just as reliable (or unreliable) as measuring. Depending of the angle of the camera when you took the picture, your hair might look longer or shorter. If you tilt your head ever-so-slightly up, your hair will look longer. If you tilt it down, it will look shorter. For the camera to be reliable, you have to use the same angle and pay attention to keep your head even... just like you would if you were measuring.


As for the original question, I will count my goal as being officially reached when all or most of my hair can physically touch the landmark I assigned. For hip length which is my next goal, I picked my back dimples, so I will consider it achieved when my hair physically touches my back dimples (with my head in a neutral position... currently, if I look up even slightly I am there). I want a blunt hemline, so most of my hair needs to be that length, and not just a little piece, otherwise it doesn't "count." I am growing out bangs, however, so I do have 2 little pieces that are currently at BSL, but they are behind my ears most of the time anyway so it doesn't make much of a difference in my hemline shape.




I do think there is a difference between actually being at a goal length and being "visually" at a goal length. In the end, I also don't think it matters that much to stress over it, because your hair is what it is, it is growing every day, and by saying it's "around waist" just means it's obviously not at BSL anymore and on its way to tailbone. ;) The markers are just macroscopic visual affirmations of the fact that our hair is actually getting longer and convenient sub-goals in our larger journeys.
Well said!

[BlazingHeart]

I count when a visibly noticible amount of hair is at the mark. I have a lot of layering due to growing out from a very short cut, and while I eventually want to cut it out, I don't plan on doing that until I'll be able to put it in a bun after the cut. I'll probably do it all in one go because I don't have a local stylist I can trust and only see the one I like once or twice a year, when I visit my parents.

~Blaze