Did you think you could do it?

[LongCurlyTress]

Shepherdess---
That is fantastic that you are a thick/fine/curlygirl and have reached knee length!! How do you detangle without having alot of breakage? Sadly I just chopped from 37in TBL to 32 in HIP to deal with the breakage... ugh.. I detangle with conditioner in the shower.. but had so much breakage... that the halo/rfrizz was horrible and I decided to go with health before length.. but with my curls, my hemline now shrinks up to almost waist!! Esp on a rainy day.. I am so sad!! But it is reassuring that you are still growing strong at knee!! Wow! Very impressive with curly thick hair!! Congrats!!

[Rebeccalaurenxx]

I voted I've always had short hair so I doubted myself a little. I've never had long hair before now so I just couldn't imagine myself as a longhair. Now that I'm creeping towards hip I'm starting to believe it.

This is exactly my issue. I have never had hair longer than APL/BSL, so trying to imagine myself with long hair is hard.

My issue is much like DweamGoil and Chromis, my mom kept me in bob cuts til I was in middle school, and then when I hit puberty I started using hair straighteners and coloring because as a teen, my hair would grow into that triangle shape because I did not know how to take care of it. Hated the texture and hated the color so I ruined it for years. And now I am a young "adult" and have some self control.

[Shepherdess]

Shepherdess---
That is fantastic that you are a thick/fine/curlygirl and have reached knee length!! How do you detangle without having alot of breakage? Sadly I just chopped from 37in TBL to 32 in HIP to deal with the breakage... ugh.. I detangle with conditioner in the shower.. but had so much breakage... that the halo/rfrizz was horrible and I decided to go with health before length.. but with my curls, my hemline now shrinks up to almost waist!! Esp on a rainy day.. I am so sad!! But it is reassuring that you are still growing strong at knee!! Wow! Very impressive with curly thick hair!! Congrats!!

Thank you very much, LongCurlyTress! I have been kind of depressed about my hair lately and thinking about going back to trimming this coming year. I can really relate about the breakage issue. Curly fine hair can be difficult to manage and prevent from breaking. I finally decided to put away all my wide tooth combs, since I can't really use them to get the knots and matting out of my hair, the tooths are just too thick, and finger coming doesn't work for me either, so I am trying to use a fine tooth soft plastic hair pick to get out the knots, and it seems to not break my hair as easily as the thick wide tooth combs did, and I really did try to be careful when I used my wide tooth seamless combs before, it is just my hair is so fragile that anything heavy can break it, no matter how careful I try being, so I am trying out this thinner lighter pick to see how it turns out. There was a time period where I tried detangling in the shower, and I know they recommend it for curly hair, though when my hair gets wet, it is even more brittle than when it is dry, so I usually only detangle when my hair is slightly damp/almost dry some hours after my shower, though not sure if I am getting any less breakage from doing this or not. So I am still trying to learn and figure out how to detangle without getting breakage. My hair has a lot of shrinkage too, so it doesn't look like it is near knee at all, it looks classic. The shrinkage part when it comes to curls can be frustrating, so I can really relate to you there. I think my main goal right now is to reach a length that looks knee length with the curls, which I feel like is impossible sometimes, haha.

I am sure that your hair looks lovely that way, and the nice thing about getting a chop is that you have much healthier ends that will grow out better than before! I know I have some unhealthy ends and the splits keep travelling up, even though I do S&D, and just feeling my hair I can feel that some are swollen and porous and likely to split soon, so sometimes I think it can be easier to just trim off all that damage and grow out from there.

[nekosan]

When I was 8 years old, I wanted hair that was *at least* knee length, hopefully longer, and figured I'd have that by the time I was in high school, if I took good care of it. Terminal is quite a bit shorter on me, however. So it goes.

[missrandie]

I had long (hip-TBL) as a kid, so I have no doubt that it's just a matter of time before I get back to that length. Also, I'm using better tools than I used to, so there should be even less breakage and fairytailing than there was before.

I used to use a metal Goody barrette, and they had pretty sharp edges. I also used a regular fine tooth comb and a nice scratchy nylon bristle brush. Eek!

[LongCurlyTress]

Thank you very much, LongCurlyTress! I have been kind of depressed about my hair lately and thinking about going back to trimming this coming year. I can really relate about the breakage issue. Curly fine hair can be difficult to manage and prevent from breaking. I finally decided to put away all my wide tooth combs, since I can't really use them to get the knots and matting out of my hair, the tooths are just too thick, and finger coming doesn't work for me either, so I am trying to use a fine tooth soft plastic hair pick to get out the knots, and it seems to not break my hair as easily as the thick wide tooth combs did, and I really did try to be careful when I used my wide tooth seamless combs before, it is just my hair is so fragile that anything heavy can break it, no matter how careful I try being, so I am trying out this thinner lighter pick to see how it turns out. There was a time period where I tried detangling in the shower, and I know they recommend it for curly hair, though when my hair gets wet, it is even more brittle than when it is dry, so I usually only detangle when my hair is slightly damp/almost dry some hours after my shower, though not sure if I am getting any less breakage from doing this or not. So I am still trying to learn and figure out how to detangle without getting breakage. My hair has a lot of shrinkage too, so it doesn't look like it is near knee at all, it looks classic. The shrinkage part when it comes to curls can be frustrating, so I can really relate to you there. I think my main goal right now is to reach a length that looks knee length with the curls, which I feel like is impossible sometimes, haha.

I am sure that your hair looks lovely that way, and the nice thing about getting a chop is that you have much healthier ends that will grow out better than before! I know I have some unhealthy ends and the splits keep travelling up, even though I do S&D, and just feeling my hair I can feel that some are swollen and porous and likely to split soon, so sometimes I think it can be easier to just trim off all that damage and grow out from there.

Thanks.... Actually, I started using Garnier shampoo and also Dove shampoo both with SLS and the hair fallout and breakage has decreased considerably!! It has only been a week or so that I am using sulfates, but so far so good. Hopefully my hair wont dry out, but I throughly coat the length in conditioner and now I am using a vented plastic brush with soft bristles.. not the wet brush, just a good old fashioned vented brush for detangling... starting at the conditioner coated thickly tips in small one inch sections. Then rinsing out the conditioner.. using a towel!! until after makeup and dressing, then using a drop of evoo and hairserum and combing the length out. I know this is all so bad, but at hip length, I can still do these bad things without alot of breakage... but oh wow.. do I miss my tbl length.. I was abou4 iinches from classic too... oh well!! When I try to finger comb my hair, I can never get out all the matting. In fact, when my hair was breaking, I almost started to allow my hair to matt up and go into dreads! I watched some dreadlock youtube videos but sadly, I am almost 60 and they would have looked really wierd on me.. but trust me, that would have solved alot of problems!!! the vented brush for detangling in the shower with alot of thick Kirkland Conditioner (from Costco.. generic for Pureology) has been working great... fingers crossed it continues!! Maybe the KIrkland shampoo had too much protein in it? who knows! Good luck Shepherdess!

[Shepherdess]

Thanks.... Actually, I started using Garnier shampoo and also Dove shampoo both with SLS and the hair fallout and breakage has decreased considerably!! It has only been a week or so that I am using sulfates, but so far so good. Hopefully my hair wont dry out, but I throughly coat the length in conditioner and now I am using a vented plastic brush with soft bristles.. not the wet brush, just a good old fashioned vented brush for detangling... starting at the conditioner coated thickly tips in small one inch sections. Then rinsing out the conditioner.. using a towel!! until after makeup and dressing, then using a drop of evoo and hairserum and combing the length out. I know this is all so bad, but at hip length, I can still do these bad things without alot of breakage... but oh wow.. do I miss my tbl length.. I was abou4 iinches from classic too... oh well!! When I try to finger comb my hair, I can never get out all the matting. In fact, when my hair was breaking, I almost started to allow my hair to matt up and go into dreads! I watched some dreadlock youtube videos but sadly, I am almost 60 and they would have looked really wierd on me.. but trust me, that would have solved alot of problems!!! the vented brush for detangling in the shower with alot of thick Kirkland Conditioner (from Costco.. generic for Pureology) has been working great... fingers crossed it continues!! Maybe the KIrkland shampoo had too much protein in it? who knows! Good luck Shepherdess!

Oh, I am glad that it is working for you so far!! Using a slightly stronger shampoo on my scalp helped some with shedding too, it must help to clean the scalp better. Yeah, our hair type would probably be a good type for dreadlocks. I haven't heard of that conditioner, though sounds interesting! I hope it continues to work well for you!! Thank you! Same to you!

[Rebeccalaurenxx]

I had long (hip-TBL) as a kid, so I have no doubt that it's just a matter of time before I get back to that length. Also, I'm using better tools than I used to, so there should be even less breakage and fairytailing than there was before.

I used to use a metal Goody barrette, and they had pretty sharp edges. I also used a regular fine tooth comb and a nice scratchy nylon bristle brush. Eek!

Would TBL on a child be the same as say -- BSL/waist on an adult, though?

Personally I find it harder to compare growth from childhood, because we are a different size/height.
But maybe some people haven't grown an inch since they were 12? Maybe... LOL.
I certainly have!

[pili]

I've managed to grow my hair, without a clue for proper care and protecting it, to waist, dry and curly. My great grandmother also had a braid to her ankles until she was 90. I figure if I care for it properly, I'll at least hit TBL, curly. Not sure about wanting to go longer.

[WeirdCatEars]

Wow! The poll results are really close! I started growing about a year and a half before joining when I was at waist length with my goal being TBL. I was confident I could grow it because I had made it to hip before cutting it and mantaining it at waist for like two years and it hadn't shown any signs of waning its growth rate.

Here's hoping I can get to knee one day!