Introduction and Hair Growth Retrospective

[PWild]

Hello all,

New member here, and hope to contribute from time to time. I'm a 68 year old married male, grandfather to four, retired for 18 months now, and enjoying the freedom to make changes - not the least of which has been growing my hair. It's something I intended to do many times, but a series of corporate gigs kept that in check. When I was about a year away from retiring, I stopped getting it cut the "usual" way, and began a series of periodic mullet-avoidance trims once I found a stylist who was willing to help. The montage below shows where I started - nearly 50 years ago in college - and ends up with me today.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/323061...in/dateposted/

The first row of pics show the slow growth during year 1 - keeping it trimmed maybe four times a year to control things. The second row shows more rapid progress as it grew longer and I began to experiment with braids and other things. Pic 7 shows the results of a braid I left in for a day, then used a barrette to hold it back. (I especially like silver Native American (Hopi) barrettes.) Pic 8 is the first successful french braid I did on myself. I learned how to do this on my wife, but doing it on myself is a whole 'nuther thing! Pic 9 is a fish-tail my stylist did a couple weeks ago after a bi-annual trim. Not sure I'll master that one any time soon. Pic 10 is me today.

I'll keep growing until I feel it's time to quit, but my current thought is to let it go for another couple years, then re-evaluate. I don't mind the upkeep, and so far so good as far as hair loss/thinning. I should take more and better pics. Maybe I'll set up an area to do that. By the way, I have an idea related to a new way to think about hair length progress I'll share. Im a visual person, so I'm working on some illustrations that may be of interest here.

Until then...

Paul Wild

[PWild]

[shayna]

Hi, Paul, and welcome to the Long Hair Community!
That is some very impressive hair you have, and some great looking styles.

[SandyBottom]

Nice to meet you, Paul! Welcome. Impressive is the word that came to mind for me too. Nice job on the photos (and your hair)! I especially like the braid waves with the barrette and the Fishtail Braid.

[Für immer]

Hello Paul, and welcome to the forums.

[WednesdayAddams]

Your hair is just amazing!

[PWild]

Just testing the image insert function.

[sarana]

Woow, pic nr 7 is fantastic! You look just like Blackbeard from Our flag means death.

Welcome. We've got a couple of mature guys such as yourself here as well.

[PWild]

I see what you mean Sarana. I was not familiar with that character. Not much of a beard guy myself, but the rest of his look is close. I'll have to do the braid wave thing more often.

[paulownia]

Beautiful hair
Welcome to the forum and happy growing!