any way to determine terminal?

[tinah]

okay, so thanks to everybody here i think i have settled on somewhere between TB and classic as a goal, but it would help if i knew it was possible. other than by growing it out that long is there any way to determine terminal length? i ran across something about measuring taper, but since i have an artificial taper cut in i'm not sure that would help. does type and texture have anything to do with it?

[Riot Crrl]

It's not my opinion that natural taper would do it either. It just tapers, no matter how close to terminal one is, is what I think. I think you will just have to see.

[Igor]

You can estimate if you know your monthly growth and daily shedding rate. There are estimates for how many follicles the different hair colours have on their head too, so with some basic math you can get an estimate
It doesn’t take into consideration that some follicles have a longer growth rate than others

[trolleypup]

You need to know growth rate, shed rate, AND number of hairs on your head (or your actual average hair diameter + your ponytail diameter). With all that you probably can get a rough estimate.

[jojo]

Didn't we have a golden ratio thread on the old LHC? this works it out for you.

Try looking in the archives i am sure there was a post there.

[freznow]

Well, the golden ratio is just saying where on your body your hair length would be most pleasing, according to the golden ratio (and it turns out about fingertip or waist, depending on whether you go from the floor or your head)

I think it's been said before that the average terminal is classic, but it widely varies. I haven't seen any relation between type/texture and terminal length. Pretty much the only way to guesstimate your terminal is to go through a lot of measurements like trolleypup says, or look at relatives who may have had terminal length hair and assume that yours might be close to that.

[spidermom]

Let it grow without cutting it; you'll know within a few years.

[anna1850]

I haven't seen any relation between type/texture and terminal length.

I used to think that thicker haired-people had a longer terminal length than thinner haired-people but I've become confused about it recently. People have thick hair because their individual hairs are thicker rather than having more hairs, right? Because then it should be the same. Although maybe more thicker-haired people get to terminal because the taper is less noticeable so they don't get discouraged and cut it off...

I think I read that blondes have the most hairs, brunettes 2nd and redheads the least, so in theory blonde people should have the longest terminal length. But I've rarely seen photos of blonde people with past classic hair (although I think this has a lot to do with people not growing their hair that long in the West).

Can anyone explain it to me? I find this whole thing a little confusing.

Although I'm not too worried for myself as my hair is still pretty thick at waist (and I haven't cut since January 2007) so I think I should be able to make it to classic without too much trouble which is probably as long as I want to grow it. I'm just curious about how it works.

[Riot Crrl]

People have thick hair because their individual hairs are thicker rather than having more hairs, right? Because then it should be the same.

Not necessarily. That's why our profiles have two separate statistics, one for individual hair thickness and one for thickness of all the hairs together. Apparently it is somewhat correlated to hair color (http://www.hairboutique.com/tips/tip1412.htm). Blonde hairs tend to be fine, so it's common for blondes to have a high number of hairs.

[spidermom]

I used to think that thicker haired-people had a longer terminal length than thinner haired-people but I've become confused about it recently. People have thick hair because their individual hairs are thicker rather than having more hairs, right?

It can go either way. I have thick hair because I have lots of fine to medium hairs. If my hairs grow an average of 5 years before they shed out, I will have a shorter terminal length than someone else, even someone with thin hair, if their hair grows for an average of 8 years before shedding out. Terminal length is really a very individual thing. The formula for terminal length is: number of years hair grows multipled by how fast it grows per year.
EXAMPLE: someone whose hair grows 7 inches per year for 6 years will have a terminal length of 42 inches.

I once saw a woman with very thin hair wearing a high ponytail that wisped away to nothing at about her upper calf area. I was amazed! I don't think her ponytail diameter was more than 2 inches ... it looked like less. The hairs must stay on her head for a lot of years before they shed out and/or they grow very fast.

[anna1850]

The formula for terminal length is: number of years hair grows multipled by how fast it grows per year.


That way works but I was thinking of a different formula:

(number of total hairs/shed rate)*growth rate
eg 1000 shed hairs per month, 100,000 hair total, growth rate of 0.5" per month = 50" terminal

I think that should work but I've never been bothered counting how many hairs I shed and you'd have to guess how many hairs you have.

Anyway, thanks for the info spidermom and Riot Crrl. I get a bit muddled with stuff like thickness etc.

[trolleypup]

One thing to keep in mind with these terminal length calculations is that they will give you the length of the longest hair you can grow. To get the actual visual terminal length, you have to add the distance from your hairline to where these longest hairs start.

For me, my longest hairs are 42" long...my measured terminal length is 53"...so my longest visible hairs are actually fairly close to my nape.

The problem with calculating these figures is that hair doesn't shed evenly...hairs often shed well before the terminal growth cycle...this will introduce errors into any terminal length calculations...

The only way to get a real reliable length is to have the patience to grow out to terminal while taking decent care of your hair.

[FrannyG]

I think that Dianyla had what appeared to be a fairly accurate-seeming formula, but she ended up growing well beyond her projection.

I've gotten to the point where I doubt that there's any reliable way to determine terminal length. There are just too many variables.

I guess we just get on this crazy ride and keep on going!