Wonderful compliments plus seeking advice for a friend

**SwordWomanRiona** · July 26th, 2011, 04:22 AM

Hi all! A little more than a week ago I went to our annual Tolkien convention, where, as usual, we had a lot of fun dressing up, doing archery, playing music, listening to conferences and so on.
And as usual, I think I was the one with the longest hair (

), so I had a lot of fellow members, known and more or less unknown, commenting on it. Only the nice thing about Tolkien societies is that having long hair is a plus rather than a 'weird, uncomfortable thing', because you look more like an Elf if your hair is long, or something

. I noted no one told me the typical 'Why don't you cut it?' thing, which is great.
Well, I'm starting this thread partly just to comment on that (because we longhairs are too much accustomed to being told the 'Why don't you cut your hair' thingie, are we not?), and also to seek some advice for a fellow member of the society.
Well, during the festive dinner she told me that she would give anything for my hair and that I had the loveliest hair she had ever seen

. I can't deny one likes to hear such compliments, although I do think she was overestimating my hair a bit. Anyway, she has her straight hair near waist length, so I told her keep growing it, and you'll get to classic soon too. But she told me her hair won't grow any longer, it falls off when it begins to get longer than the length she had...

And I'm wondering, can that be because she has already reached terminal length, or maybe is it that she doesn't care for her hair well in some way or other? The thing is, not that many people try to care for their hair in an 'LHC way', so maybe there's something she could do so that her hair could get longer without falling off? Anyone has had a similar experience or knows how to treat that?

It's just, it saddened me to think that I've met a person outside LHC who actually wants to grow her hair to classic, but can't!
Thanks for your help

**cindy58** · July 26th, 2011, 05:03 AM

It would be hard to say why she isn't growing past waist length unless we learned how she cares for her hair.

**Alaia** · July 26th, 2011, 05:56 AM

It's possible that it's terminal length but it's very unlikely to be that. It's far more likely that it's how she cares for her hair is causing damage and that's why it doesn't get past waist. Does it break off or fall out? Are her ends blunt or fairy-taled? It is true we would need to know more about what she does to her hair to see about more specific advice.

You might want to pass her the link to this forum if you think she'd benefit from it!

**SwordWomanRiona** · July 26th, 2011, 11:10 AM

Yes, I know...I didn't really find time to ask about her hair routine, during the festive dinner it would have sounded so hair-geek of me (yes, I know that's stupid

)
She has fairytale ends, maybe a bit thinnish but not really unhealthy-looking. I'm not 100% sure, but I think her hair's fine (like mine), so it would be more prone to break if she's not handling it carefully enough...About her hair breaking off/falling out, well, she spoke about it falling out a couple of times. That confused me a bit, what I understood was that her hair started to fall out as soon as it began getting past waist (I don't know if I got that right, though).
I know that I'm giving you so few details, but thanks for your help all the same! You're the best

**Sunshineliz** · July 26th, 2011, 11:15 AM

Perhaps she is not noticing the small, steady breakage that is happening before it hits waist and then the hair is finally falling out, having grown it's specified time? I think that is more likely than waist being her terminal length.

**Avienda** · July 26th, 2011, 11:15 AM

It could be her terminal length. I read about a guy here who wasn't not able to grow his past his shoulder blades and he took excellent care of his hair. Of course we have no idea what she does with her's so really can't say for sure either way...

**GRU** · July 26th, 2011, 11:58 AM

I had a "false terminal" around BSL -- it came from "brushing out the tangles" (which really meant ripping off the hair at every knot).

I now detangle in the shower when coated with conditioner, or using a Tangle Teezer brush. If not for my having taken off a couple inches a few different times over the past year (trying to rid myself of my old damaged hair), I'd probably be approaching classic when wet/straight.