Waist | Hip

[alewyn]

Hey folks, I haven't been on here in a long time! I've realized that being on technology is not very good for me unless I absolutely have to, so I took a long break.

I'm actually back because I'm feeling really discouraged. I've been stuck at just below waist (for me, about 30") for over a year now. I do trim, but very small amounts (.25"-0.5"), every 3 months or so--really just because my ends are so thin that they seriously bum me out. The kind of trimming I'm doing should result in still gaining at least 4" of length a year with the pace of my growth, but that's not happening.

I think I need to accept that my terminal length is not much longer than this, and that if I want ends that I don't hate, I'm not going to get past waist.

The photo on the left is from spring 2023. Pic on the right is from February, haven't taken a length shot since, but that's still the length of my hair.

I'm pretty bummed, because in high school I was able to grow my hair at least to hip, and I was really hoping to reach TBL at the very least. But maybe soon I'll have to consider just committing to waist or above for the long term.

[Greengable]

Hey folks, I haven't been on here in a long time! I've realized that being on technology is not very good for me unless I absolutely have to, so I took a long break.

I'm actually back because I'm feeling really discouraged. I've been stuck at just below waist (for me, about 30") for over a year now. I do trim, but very small amounts (.25"-0.5"), every 3 months or so--really just because my ends are so thin that they seriously bum me out. The kind of trimming I'm doing should result in still gaining at least 4" of length a year with the pace of my growth, but that's not happening.

I think I need to accept that my terminal length is not much longer than this, and that if I want ends that I don't hate, I'm not going to get past waist.

The photo on the left is from spring 2023. Pic on the right is from February, haven't taken a length shot since, but that's still the length of my hair.

I'm pretty bummed, because in high school I was able to grow my hair at least to hip, and I was really hoping to reach TBL at the very least. But maybe soon I'll have to consider just committing to waist or above for the long term.

Maybe it's not the terminal and you do something that stops it? I'm not an expert, I don't know, but maybe it's a time. It looks beautiful, long and healthy and I love those curls 😍

[rosenester]

Welcome back aelwyn. You waves are looking very nice in the more recent picture. I hope you are less discouraged by the growth. Maybe you’ve just had a slower growing year. I have short spells where I have no measurable growth, and figure it’s nutrition or stress related. Hopefully you figure something out that works for you

[Bat]

Hey folks, I haven't been on here in a long time! I've realized that being on technology is not very good for me unless I absolutely have to, so I took a long break.

I'm actually back because I'm feeling really discouraged. I've been stuck at just below waist (for me, about 30") for over a year now. I do trim, but very small amounts (.25"-0.5"), every 3 months or so--really just because my ends are so thin that they seriously bum me out. The kind of trimming I'm doing should result in still gaining at least 4" of length a year with the pace of my growth, but that's not happening.

I think I need to accept that my terminal length is not much longer than this, and that if I want ends that I don't hate, I'm not going to get past waist.

The photo on the left is from spring 2023. Pic on the right is from February, haven't taken a length shot since, but that's still the length of my hair.

I'm pretty bummed, because in high school I was able to grow my hair at least to hip, and I was really hoping to reach TBL at the very least. But maybe soon I'll have to consider just committing to waist or above for the long term.

I understand how discouraged you would be not having length gain, but look how much the quality his improved since the photo on the left, that is something to be proud of.

[alewyn]

Thank you all for the encouragement! (I've been having tech difficulties with the forum and it won't let me quote-reply to people individually for some reason). I'm definitely happier with the quality of my hair and my texture these days, so that is nice. I hope y'all are right that it is just a temporary stall. For the last two or three years my health has been much better than it ever was before, and the hair from that timeframe (12"-18") is visibly thicker than the longer lengths, so I'm hopeful both that the thickness will travel down and that I'm still shedding some shorter-growth-cycle hairs from my unhealthier days, but the healthier stuff will get longer. My longest hairs are 30", so about five years old at my growth rate, and back then I was... not taking good care of myself, so it would make sense if that hair has a short terminal. I think I'll stick with the occasional little trim for a while longer and see what happens, but I'm still finding ways to enjoy my hair despite the apparent lack of progress. I'm growing out my henna because I have some silvers coming in and I want to go gray naturally (I love gray hair!), so watching my natural color come back has been fun. I've been allowing myself to wear it down every so often, as well, which is a lot of fun. So I'm still on the journey, for sure, but it's up and down!