Did you have short hair as a child but it's long now?

[MamaBraidedIt]

Did you have short hair as a child but now it's long?

I always hear about it being the other way around: Long hair then, long hair now or long hair then but something happened to the hair to make it break off. But have any of you had any drastic changes in EXTRA hairlength since your childhood/teenage years?

If yes, what would you contribute the growth to.

 

[shynessqueen]

I had short hair as a child. My hair was barely SL when i was younger all the way to high school. It's not long now (almost APL) but this is the longest my hair has ever been.

 

[NeeSee]

Long hair then long hair now.

 

[Arcadian]

Yes. Some wouldn't consider my hair long, but I do because its the longest its ever been in my whole life.

As a child I had very short, brittle hair. Sometimes it would fall out in patches. My mother tried all kinds of things, baby it and so on but I just never retained hair. I don't blame my mother for it at all. She had a heck of a time trying to do soemthing with my hair. I stayed natural until highschool and got my first geri curl (ooo man I feel OLD!)

Not really sure WHY that was but my hair never got past my ears.

Even after adulthood I couldn't get my hair longer than ear length until now.

After I shaved my head (I was in chemo for 8 months) I didn't relax for a complete year and still, couldn't get past ear length. That was in my mid/late 20's.

I seriously thought my hair would just never get any longer no matter what i did or tried. I was somewhat resigned to that fact in many ways but still felt there had to be something I was missing.

I felt kinda doomed until I found this place to be honest with you. Once I started reading here, things started to really click. Before I even joined I was using quite a bit of the techniques I saw on these boards.

Once I applied the things I learned here, stayed on a consistent and simple schedule (and made some small oopsies along the way) I started to really retain the length.

I started seeing that wow, my hair WAS growing, and I could actually keep it on my head instead of in the sink on the floor.

And wow it looked pretty! I didn't realize I had so much hair!!! I didn't realize how THICK it was or even that it was actually strong and didn't break off in my hand!

I've had lots of wow moments since I've been here..this place and the people here are a blessing.

I also had to temper the wow moments with some serious common sense. Unlike some ladies here, I can't wear my hair out daily, though I wish I could. I do give myself a break from buns but buns have really helped me a lot.

For me, Lye is a no no cause it eats my scalp alive. Sure, no-lye can be drying but you have to know how to deal with that. I learned what moisterizer was the best on my head for my situation. Phyto isn't for everyone, but its sure for me! Its the relaxer I'll continue to use as long as I can find it and they don't screw with the formula.

Oils..well... I do have to take care that I don't use the wrong types of oils. Some oils make my hair hard as a darn rock!

And of course, I tried to jump on the Aveda band wagon and my hair totally started to rebel. I listened and went back to what worked.

So many of the ladies here are very inspirational to me, and though they don't know it, they've encouraged and helped me along the way.

Even though we all have unique situations, we do have a common bond. Plus, the amount of hair knowledge here is phenominal!


This place is just wonderful like that. its one of the reasons I keep coming back

-A

 

[RZILYNT]

I would have to say that I had soft medium hair. But never long. My sister and I wished for long bouncy hair when were kids. So our towels, half slips and leotards served as our hair as we wished for flowing hair down our backs, hair that moved when we jumped rope like the " blond haired" girls did in our school. It is nice to know what a little TLC dedication and education that we can now reach our hair goals as adults and use what we have learned on our daughters hair.

 

[shynessqueen]

I look at my daughter hair, It's BSL and i think how lucky for her. She doesn't have to wonder about having long hair. To think, she was bald for the first year of her life. I know this is total off topic.

 

[candiel]

I was born with a lot of hair, had BSL hair as a child and in high school.Now, I'm trying to get it to get back to that.

 

[RainbowCurls]

Nope. My hair was longer as a child. Before the relaxer.

 

[silvergirl]

shoulder lenght as a child, longest was almost midback length a week ago till i cut it.

 

[Sha76]

I had short hair as a child and didn't seem to grow much but as an adult it is not long but I DO keep cutting off from shoulder length plus to 1 inch fro

 

[prettypuff1]

It is difficult for me to tell. I think i had pretty long hair when i was younger.. My mom would always take good care of my hair. It would get long enough,but i would want to cut it.. Now since i have been older, i have been stuck at SL and never got any longer. I am going to get it back to the longer length..

 

[GoldenBreeze]

I had long hair as a child. In adulthood it has been short to long, and everywhere in between depending on how I was feeling about it.

ETA: I didn't vote, because I'd say other. Long hair then, medium now.

 

[aurora3140]

While I don't consider my hair long right now, it is longer than it has ever been in my life. Before middle-school, it had never grown below my ears. Ever since I began doing my hair myself (excluding chemical processes), my hair has just continued to get healthier and longer.

 

[PinkPeony]

For about 99% of my childhood I had short hair(around SL).For a brief period of time both my mom and I were DONE with dealing with my hair(we both had no clue what to do with it she'd just braid it and we'd leave it alone for up to a month... yucky I know,however it grew to an stretched bsl/midback then.(Which is not really impressive since the distance between necklength and bsl was probably just 5 inches).

 

[blue_flower]

When I was little my hair was long and extremely thick. My mom would just put my hair in plaits/cornrows 99% of the time. She was very lazy about doing my hair. However, when I was a teenager I wasn't taking good care of my hair and it stayed shoulder length all throughout high school. I wore buns all the time, but I used very tight rubber bands. Didn't trim my ends, washed my hair 2x month with no conditioner, always dying it, heat, etc. I didn't have the right tools, the right products, and the right skills to do my hair. But all of that changed once I discovered hairboard around 2000. After I got the right information, my hair grew to BSL before I chopped it off to go natural (2000). Before I got my layers last year, my hair was 2 inches past BSL.

 

[tiffers]

My hair was long as a kid, but, being a dummy, I cut it and it's been horrible ever since (until coming here, of course )

 

[frostydoll]

Is shoulder length considered long? I'm always confused about that. I had a lot of hair when I was born and then I was bald when I was 1 up until I was 2 I think (from pictures of course). Growing up I always had the longest hair out of my sisters I want to say between shoulder length and arm pit length. My hair fell out during high school from excema and stress and probably too much heat. I was still natural and getting it pressed. My last year of high school I got a relaxer and my hair actually started growing again probably because I was taking better care of it. Now I'm natural once again and my hair is shoulder length now.

 

[nelli711]

My hair was long until I was 9 years old. After that, my hair just went down hill. I think it may have been because I got a perm and my aunt didn't know how to properly take care of it. Now, my hair is about a couple inches past APL

 

[kally]

I had very short hair as a child, never past ear length. It is still very short and slow growing now. The longest it has ever been is collar bone thanks to this board, until I foolishly slapped a tex in it. Now I am back to square one. Since the shave It is almost three months and I barely have half an inch.

Nothing I do helps. I have improved my diet, work out daily, drink plenty of water and have used almost all of the growth aids. I am just going to cut my losses and be happy with what I have. I am sick of this ish.

 

[Candiss]

My hair was short when I was a child. Never went past ear length and the ends were just a mess. The nape was short and broken and the hairline was bad too. My mama pressed my hair and then started to relax it. She did the best she could but she was not one of those mothers who could "do" hair, so it was jacked up. Then I started giving myself relaxers which just continued the damaged. And I wold go to the salon once in a while and they wold jack my hair up as well. What really got me on the right path was starting from scratch. I went natural in 2003 and my hair began to recover. Then I came to this board and researched for months when I started thinking about relaxing again. And now I have shoulder length relaxed hair that also has permanent color and it is better than it ever was when I was a child.

 

[Poobity]

My hair was short as a child. It never grew past shoulder length. It started growing after I decided to quit using heat on a regular basis in high school. My hair is (finally!) brastap length stretched....anxiously awaiting midback...)

 

[caribeandiva]

had short hair all my life until i started caring for my own hair a year ago. now it's the longest it's ever been. it's almost shoulder length!

 

[Cayenne0622]

My hair was short as a child. I have a totally different texture of hair than ALL the women in my family. My mom couldn't do anything with it. I started going to a stylist regularly in highschool and it got sorta long (long for me) - right at the top of my shoulders. I didn't see its fully potential until I was an adult and it grew to APL. Now, I know I have the potential to have at least BSL hair and that's my goal now...growing out from a very short Halle Berry type cut.

 

[ohsosuzy]

I wish there was a medium option.... As a child my hair was past shoulder length until jr high then it was cut extremely short. I was pretty lucky though by the end of 6th grade it chin length. Since then my hair generally stayed at shoulder length, but I was guilty of perming too often, heat abuse, hair color and glue in tracks so I really couldn't expect any better. Once I stopped wearing the glue in weaves and the blonde highlights my hair has been growing really well.

 

[baglady215]

My first relaxer was at 8, and it pretty much broke my hair off. It grew back to shoulder length, but at 13 my mom gave me some Gold N' Hot curlers and that was the end of that. By the end of the school year, I literally had 1" of hair on my head. By 15-16, my hair was about APL, but then it was all about glueing in tracks and gelled up weave ponytails. So this is the longest my hair has ever been.

 

[carmella25]

Yes Ive always had short hair as a child. But its long now. My aunt introduced the relaxer to my mother when I was younger. She told her to apply the relaxer all over my head each month. So thats where all of the breakage came from while growing up.

 

[Jazzmommy]

My hair was past BSL as a child and very thick (tender-headed too). That all changed when my mom slapped a Revlon perm on my headerplexed . Now, I'm back natural trying to get back to that point... I do have my thickness back though since the BC.

 

[HoneyDew]

I had short hair as a child.

I don't have long hair now, but it is much healthy and easier to deal with vs. my child hood years. Much thicker, also.

I have fine fragile hair and I have to deal with it a certain way. Even now if my mom does something to my hair for me, she is so rough and just does not handle it the way it should be.

Henna has helped me a lot with this, but I still have to treat my hair with ease. She always tells me that I don't have fine hair and when I wil little she knew it was thick because of how kinky it was. She still does not know that density of stands does not really always have anything to do with texture.

Even now, when she says that I had such bad hair, I don't get it. I love the texture of my hair and know ing how to take care if is the key.

So, in short, I don't think my mom really knew how to take care of my hair and all the things she thought would help - relaxing at a young age, heat, etc. actually made things worse.

 

[Nature'sWay]

As a child I remember being shoulder length until Middle school. It fell out to ear length and it grew back my sophmore year of high school and then I got scissor happy and kept it cut neck length. Now my hair is ear/neck length because it is growing back from my BC from going natural last year.

 

[Iansan]

I had long hair as a child, that gradually got shorter and shorter due to monthly roots to ends relaxers, daily heat use, bleaching and other permanent hair colors, and general neglect and mistreatment. For a while I did believe that my hair could not grow as I never attributed the lack of length retention to my poor hair care practices, go figure. Since I have stopped the madness, my hair has been growing well.