Reasons Why Your Hair Has Only Gotten To Apl And You've Been Here 3,4,5,6+ Years?

I have thin, fine relaxed hair, and I learned things the hard way. What works for most works against me.

• I spent a year trimming and evening up areas that had breakage...only to neglect my hair for a short while to suffer more breakage again.
• I stopped doing long stretches a year ago to avoid breakage.
• Weaves left my fine hair broken and sad.
• I don't even bother with protective styles anymore.

My hair is little past APL, and it's the longest and fullest it has ever been. BSL would be nice, but I focus more on maintaining fullness.

I get the average growth at the back from ear to ear, but the rest grows slower. I often trim the back so the other areas can catch up for a fullness. Yeah, I'm a little scissor happy too.

Bumping

I’ve been on my hair journey since 06’. I started off with damaged (root to tip) relaxed hair. By 11’ through trial & error and plenty of chops in between, I grew my hair a couple of inches past APL. By then I was over wanting long hair and just wanted my hair to look full and healthy. So, I cut it into an angled bob and had a fellow stylist relax and flat iron it for me. I’m not sure what went wrong, but my hair pretty much fell out…I tried everything to save it. Finally, in 12’ I decided that I would not be getting anymore relaxers.

I’ve had some hurdles with my natural hair, but nothing like the unpredictable breakage I would get as a relaxed head. At the end of the day I figured if I could grow my weak fragile relaxed hair, my natural hair should be a breeze! Currently my hair is grazing BSL. For me relaxers just do not agree with my fine 4b hair. Also, I have to use plenty of protein, even as a natural Joico K-pak is my best friend. This also means that my diet must contain plenty of protein as well.

What I have found over these 9 years that did not work for my hair was:

1. Following regimens that did not benefit my hair / Jumping on band wagons

2. Relaxers (lye, no lye doesn’t matter)

3. Hiding my hair

What I have found to work:

1. Finding a regimen that works and sticking to it – Even if it’s not popular on the hair boards anymore.

2. I had to learn my hair (still learning) – This means that I couldn’t keep trying to hide it under braids, weaves, and detachable hair.

3. Patience – I had to just wait.

I've been a member since around 2008 and I am currently full MBL. From 2008-2010 I hovered between SL and 1 inch from APL. I would not take care of my hair at all, I would just go to the salon and get a flat iron (I was natural, but had major heat damage) every 3 weeks and just wear it straight the whole time. I noticed my hair would grow and then I would get a trim and be back to just below SL again. I started researching and found this forum. I then started going to the salon every 4 weeks, then incorporated using heat protectant (my stylist at the time didn't see the point, but did it anyway). I started doing my hair in between with the help of this forum and then started going to the salon every 6 weeks while wearing braidouts in between flat irons. My last trip to the salon was January 2010 and by then I was going every 8 weeks.

In 2010 I flat ironed my hair a total of 5x and wore braidouts in between to grow out the heat damage. I finally reached APL in mid 2011. I flat ironed my hair a total of 6 times and trimmed a lot. I made BSL by march 2012 and flat ironed my hair 7-8x that year. I flat iron my hair more (9-10x a year) now that it's the length that I like (between MBL and WL).

I've noticed that it is best to simplify my routine. I have so many products in my bathroom cabinet from over the years, but I only use a few of them. I try to only do low manipulation styles whether my hair is straight or not. I learned my ends don't always HAVE to be perfect. I looked at the hair of my non-black friends with long hair and none of their ends were perfect, but from going to the salon so much I had become obsessed with the idea that you should never have split ends.

My hair grows 5-6in/year, pretty slow and I trim probably 2.5 inches a year

Back when I didn't care about length, my hair stayed at apl for years. I trimmed every 2 months.
I loved the look and I like fresh trimmed ends.
Now that I want longer hair I trim 1-2x yearly. Because I trim less I make sure to take care of it throughly. Wash and dc weekly, staying on top moisturizing and sealing, covering with silk scarf at night. Low maintenance protecting styles, buns, twists, braid outs.
My hair is now bsl chasing mbl

CurliDiva said:

Length milestones may also have to do with the size of your head, torso length, and overall height. A petite woman with a short torso might need less actual inches to reach APIL or BSL than someone closer to 6 feet such as myself.

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full bsl is something like 25 inches for me. wl would be about 30.

Wenbev said:

wow meow!
... There are some people that are slow growers, but I truly believe it has to do with diet, environment and water intake.

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...and age! Hair growth rate slows with age. Hair does not grow as fast when you are 43 as it did when you were 13.

Breakage and hair cuts and breakage some more.

CICI24 said:

I keep switching between my natural hair, texlaxed and relaxed hair. I've made it to armpit twice but I would like to get to waist but I kind of want to transition again.

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This is me. I just relaxed last weekend and I am already planning a BC in November. I just need to realize that I need to keep the relaxers out of my head!

I get bored. Actually I've been just past BSL at least twice. I then have hair anorexia, want to colour, or texlax or bc. I think once I found my regimen which is essentially deep condition at least once a week (max 2 weeks) with a slightly protein dc and moisturise and seal about 3 times a week and leave the hair alone with simple styles my hair grows just fine.

I took mane choice and a natures best combi vit for 2 months that has made my hair (and nails) seem indestructible recently. I bleached again and no breakage though my hair's a bit porous, I am at APL again and thinking of trying for MBL for December if I get the lilac shade I want without having to bleach more.

I haven't actually been on the hair side in eons but came to see what's new after a thread in OT reminded me this is a hair site lol

When I first started my HHJ in August 2009, I had natural hair with various shades of blond and brown highlights. I also blow dried and flat ironed my hair at least twice a week, every week. My hair was a BSL mess, damaged from root to tip. When I started my journey, I trimmed back to SL and got to work. I let it grow back to BSL and held it there while I slowly trimmed off all of the remaining damaged hair. Unfortunately, I developed a trimming habit and found it hard to step away from the scissors.

I determined that this was the year for me to break the WL barrier. So, I henna'd my hair on December 31, 2014 so that I could track my hair growth. I undercover joined the Grow it Long Challenge. And I hid my scissors.

So far so good. I hope to make it WL if not beyond by December 31, 2015.

The longest my hair has been is APL. It's back at shoulder now.

#1 reason is not realizing that MY hair needs A LOT of moisture to retain length. My length has also suffered because it took me a long time to realize I have fine hair and treat it accordingly.

A bad stylist and too much heat have been other factors over the years.

Bumping

Started in Sept/ oct 2009. I am armpit length but should be much longer. It's a combination of these factors:
PREGNANCY:had a mane like a lion, reached BSL,loved it and then ignored it after the baby was born. No postpartum shedding to blame, just couldn't be bothered.
SELF RELAX: caused a major set back thrice! Finally learned I just can't do it.
LAZINESS: I stopped making an effort in my hair relationship. My fave products ( eg aphogee 2 min and green tea reconstructor finished and I didn't bother to replace. Didn't bother with regular DC.
OFF TOPIC: I use LHCF to procrastinate, and I realise that in the last 2/3 yrs I rarely come to the hair section, I go to off topic. I want to repent.
SCISSORS: For absolutely no reason, I will often jump up and find scissors. I even cut a disaster fringe from watching YouTube. I didn't wait for the instructions, I just hacked away.... And yet despite my scissor-happy ways I can't be bothered to do my Search & Destroy / dusting which used to make my hair so much healthier looking.

@Begoody I ain't mad at you lovin on that baby! I just saw where you want to repent from leaving the hair section! Lol

That's one of the reasons why I went natural, hair kept breaking, and nothing to show for it so I chopped it off in 2014 and now looking forward to see what my natural hair has to say to me.

Going to the Dominicans when I was stretching.

Letting my stylist cut my hair every time I got a relaxer.

Not trimming my fine 4a/b hair enough is the biggest culprit for me. Another is bandwagon jumping!

I get about 4 inches per year, not 6. I don't have great hair practices when wearing my hair out...but I love to wear it out. I started to get extensions (Havana twists and crochet braids) to keep me from damaging my hair. I trim whenever my ends look thin. I trimmed 2 inches prior to my last crochet braid install. I got another trim today.

My hair has reached BSL when relaxed but I have had lots of trouble getting to BSL as a natural.
I discovered that curly hair is more fragile than relaxed hair. I could manipulate my relaxed hair with no problems and flat iron regularly but my curly hair cannot tolerate too much manipulation and definitely not a lot of heat.

My hair has reached tailbone. As of the last few years I have been diagnosed with a disease and it has contributed to my hair loss, and the medication itself wasn't helping any. I am now in remission and hoping that all goes well.

As someone who hair was consistently at apl for the majority of my life before I started taking care of my hair . Some of the things that kept my length form getting great. Not frequently washing to hold on to a style. Being really rough with my hair everytime I combed it. Never cutting it when my ends were bad. Letting other do my hair who were too rough.

I had some good hair practices like protective styles all the time but every time I styled I was way too rough.

Started my hair journey in 2008 with chewed up ear length hair grew it to sl maintained shoulder length bob until 2011 grew hair close to apl then decided to go natural..stayed natural 6 months then relaxed bone straight and cut it to ear length bob in Dec 2013..decided to grow hair back to apl textlaxed and would trim two inches each relaxer....almost there 7 years later....

JJamiah said:

My hair has reached tailbone. As of the last few years I have been diagnosed with a disease and it has contributed to my hair loss, and the medication itself wasn't helping any. I am now in remission and hoping that all goes well.

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@JJamiah - I am very happy to see you're posting regularly. I pray that your "remission" is God's sustained healing!

I was at apl at the beginning of last year and about 3 inches from bsl.
I neglected to do protein treatments and my hair started to break from being overly moisturized. My hair didn't feel mushy so I didn't think I needed to use protein and boy was I wrong!
In January I had my stylist cut my hair to neck length to start fresh and get rid of the breakage. She didn't cut enough off so I cut it back further.
At this point, I got a trim in October and I am almost apl again.

Lesson learned!

I've been an unsubscribed member since 2008, but really started taking care of my hair in 2012 and actually paid the $6.50 then. I'm BSB and have been there for the past two years. I think it's due to not trimming as much as I should and not enough protein internally and externally. I've increased my protein intake recently and would like to see if that helps with growth. For retention, I'm going to focus on keeping my ends dusted. I think I'm a slow grower anyway...the most I've grown is about 4 inches in a year. At BSB, my hair is the longest its ever been, but I would like to get to MBL, which was my original length goal when I first subscribed in 2012.

-Not understanding how to look after my hair and believing in hair myths.
-Using bad products.
-Not cutting off my damaged hair as soon as I recognised the damage.
-Not protective styling regularly.

ilong said:

@JJamiah - I am very happy to see you're posting regularly. I pray that your "remission" is God's sustained healing!

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@ilong Thank you sister so much. You are truly awesome. I am happy to be back.

JJamiah said:

My hair has reached tailbone. As of the last few years I have been diagnosed with a disease and it has contributed to my hair loss, and the medication itself wasn't helping any. I am now in remission and hoping that all goes well.

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Happy to hear you are in remission!

I think I've finally come to terms with my hair being damaged by Keratin treatments. For a long time I didn't feel like they damaged my hair despite the extreme heat....but the number of trims I've had to have since stopping Keratin treatments made it clear that the damage was covered by the product.