Nonie, I understand what you are saying and No this is not directed at any one. I have read what goes on in the off topic forums and yes it is quite intriguing.
For example, when a football or basketball player is born and raised in a city a lot of times he comes back and builds a youth league or recreational center to help the people that are growing up there still, but everyone that is born and raised there does not always come back. Does this make it right or wrong? I don't know and it's not for me to judge. I'm from Hampton, Virginia and to name a few Michael Vick and Allen Iverson they came back and built leagues, clubs, and recreational centers but everyone did not give back to the community. It takes more than just the same ones to make a change.
I believe it is the same thing within the LHCF and in real life. A lot of people have not figured it out and it takes more than the same few to make a difference. A lot of OP's just leave the forum all together because "they have lives." This is not directed at anyone in particular. But just as sure as I'm typing there are women that made it to Waist Length and beyond through LHCF and did not give back and just lurk. Some are probably reading what I am typing. Yeah we can say all they have to do is press SEARCH but personal contact is much more personal. In real life I have noticed that there are women that are upitty and not tell you anything and don't want you to be to where they are. But that is not for me to judge.
I am grateful for LHCF and everyone that I have met since I have been here because without it I would not be where I am today.
OP I think your concerns would make sense to me if by the people leaving the HF and never coming back, the HF somehow deteriorated and no one was growing long hair. Then the idea of not giving back would make sense as to why it's an issue.
The hair forum is thriving even without oldies coming into it, and that's because there's never a scarcity of people with tips here. I mean, we get long-haired newbies all the time who bring in some fresh ideas or echo the wisdom of oldies. Adora Adora, for instance, comes to mind. Not only did she walk in with hair to die for, but she's also very helpful and has been natural for a long time and is now texlaxed (can give perspectives on both sides) and has reminded people of the wonders of juicing.
In all the years I've been here, that some people left LHCF altogether or just don't post in the hair forum anymore, has never affected it at all because their wisdom is archived here for all time. And if they are still here, they will GIVE BACK if you send them a PM and ask them to clarify something if you haven't been able to find the answer in any of their posts or others' posts. I think what can be annoying to someone is if you're asking something they already shared. So a search is always best because you may find you don't need their presence after all coz their answer is in the archives.
TBH with 100K+ members on the forum, I am kinda glad they're not all posting in the hair forum. It's hard to keep up with just one active thread when only the regulars are posting. It'd be bananas if everyone were posting on here. And seriously, just judging from how often I echo myself, what new info could they possible share that they haven't already shared? I mean, by the time you reach your goal, your "method" is pretty much set and I'm sure that "method" is discussed ad nauseum by you as you journey to that goal on the HF. And so why would you need to post again what you posted before? Like really, is the forum suffering without their input?
The more I read your posts OP, the more I'm confused as to why you are so bothered. Isn't there enough info here? Is there a particular person you want to hear from? A particular question you want answered? Seriously I don't think I've ever witnessed anyone else get so worked up about people leaving and never coming back.
Yes, we miss a lot of great oldies, but wonderful newbies come on and help us get over the loss of the great posters who left, and life goes on.
Gosh I hope not. I hate when girls that have long hair are asked what they did to get it and they just look at you like
.
Or they're like "I've always had long hair"
.
Might be because they are tired of answering questions whether they always had it or they had to learn to grow and retain, and think that ppl won't listen (Most won't)
.
Either way, I will try to give the best advice possible. To the people that watch me grow, the proof will be in the pudding.
Brg240 said what I was going to say in response to this: Many people IRL with long hair do not have as elaborate regimens as we do here, that's why for a lot of us before we found hair boards, IRL only the "lucky folks with special hair" had long hair as far as we knew, coz we did more or less the same things but some just seemed to have hair that grew long while we remained with "shrubs".
I don't know why it'd be so hard to believe that some people don't do anything and their hair grows. We've got members here who have photos of themselves as kids with really long hair and then somehow when they became in charge of their own hair care, things went downhill, and they recall doing very little to keep long hair when they had it. There are threads where people muse about how they grew long hair using grease and getting hair hot combed, yet if you look at them now compared to back then, their hair isn't as long. Another sign that some people do grow long hair w/o doing anything special.
BTW, my hair is longer than I had it as a child and I do very little to it, way less than I ever did in all my life. I shampoo, condition, ACV and baggy. That's it, no moisturizer/leave-in. There are people doing all the right things by their hair, things that logic would tell you should give them long healthy hair...but their journey seems more of a struggle than mine. They complain of knots, splits, tangles, breakage, shedding... Not to say I may not experience those at one time or another, but if I do, it's not often and yet, I'm not working hard. And I'm not lying either.
The Nonie of before 2001 (that's when I started the regimen I'm on) might not have believed it were possible to do what I do and not be bald. But after seeing someone else with long hair and hearing about her regimen, I decided to give it a try, and now I'm a believer and a member of that club. And really, the only reason we understand that CWing is
doing something or that keeping hair in a bun or braiding is
doing something so that the response "I don't do anything" seems dishonest, is because after being on hair boards, we understand the reasons that those things work. Someone outside of hair boards might do the same things but not realize how beneficial and instrumental they are to retention, so to them, they aren't doing anything; their hair just grows.
But really, why do we care what outsiders do to grow hair? Like will our hair grow longer because we have heard everyone's story? Aren't there enough threads on the forum and posts in archives (Thanks to whoever mentioned FOM) by long-haired folks that have armed us with more info than we can use?
Y'all better be careful, information overload when you can't even process it all to use it might be one of the causes of madness.
)
Your so right about this. Imagine how would me and You and half the other ladies on here ever have meant. MOST Of us know each other by the back of our heads LOLOLOLOL 
If you ever sent me a message and I didn't respond I really am sorry 
