Why is it that we don't grow our hair to termininal length as much?

[JustKiya]

You and everybody else! I know, I know, everyone else has the magic comb and magic conditioner to make my hair behave 'properly'. One of these days I'm actually gonna visit one of y'all and show you. Then I'm going to make you come back to LHCF and say "it's everything she said it was".

Girl!! I'm so first in line! I might be in Chi-town soon - if you get a PM from me, don't be surprised.

Though, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if you were right. It's taken me - at least a solid year of focused effort to get my hair to where it is - and I have to maintain it for it to stay this way. And I know, a single WEEK in a puff, would take me - oh, 2 months, at least, to fully recover from - esp. if I got it wet multiple times. *shudder*

JustKiya when you had dreads, how did you start/maintain them them?

Many people w/ dreads do stuff like constant twisting and using crochet hooks. That HAS to have some breakage using crochet hooks. LOL..they break/fray yarn all the time. My hair would be .000003 inches if I constantly twisted it.

Ironically enough, I latchhooked them - I loved it. Only had to tighten once every 4-6 weeks, and it stayed lovely for 3 to 5 weeks...I started them with two strand twists that I never took out. Funnily enough, I see that as how I'll preserve the most length now - two strand twists. I just take them out every weekend since it's SO much easier to handle now.

And having read your above comment, and thinking about the things I did to my dreads (bleached them at least 3 times that I can remember, dyed them with permanent dye an untold number of times, used nothing but cones - though, I was mostly a cowasher), and knowing my hair now? *shudder* I'm surprised as had as much hair still attached to my scalp as I did. Sweet mother, but I abused my hair.

 

[jamaraa]

mwedzi Nope, I have loose hair. Tell me, HOW do you comb and what type do you use? I have a confession, I comb on DRY hair mainly. I find I lose more hair doing it wet using that leave in stuff so popular here. Dry, I only lose the normal sheds.

Your hair is SUPER thick...a great thing....but I think that it might SEEM like you're losing more than normal and certainly more than you want to. My hair is also thick and it feels that way to me, but actually the strands are so thick it makes the combed out stuff seem far more than it is. That might be you too.

I find the longer that I don't comb, the more I "lose", but it's just sheds. LOL..I collected my "harvested" hair over a period time to do some henna experiments on. Most people, including myself, would die to see this much hair in my baggie, but in the long run it's not much. I found it wasn't breaks because when I henna'd the bulbs of the hair root became visibly red.

Oh, by "twisting" I meant some people do that w/ their locks to keep the loosies dreading into the main body. I don't mean the twist style, just twisting the locks and ng.

 

[discodumpling]

It takes patience, dedication, total avoidance of "stylists" (IMO) and alot of boring protective styling to get to HEALTHY terminal length. That's my goal so i'm game. Like some of the other ladies have said: The longer my hair gets the easier it is to manage. JustKiya I know what you mean about the single bun...it's so easy.

IMO BW do TOO MUCH to their hair to ever realize it's full potential. Weather it's styling or product usage.

I don't think there are enough long loose nappy's. Awesomely long dreads are common in my life but the manageability and boredom factors keep many loose natural heads in my circle at shorter lengths.

 

[JustKiya]

It takes patience, dedication, total avoidance of "stylists" (IMO) and alot of boring protective styling to get to HEALTHY terminal length. That's my goal so i'm game. Like some of the other ladies have said: The longer my hair gets the easier it is to manage. JustKiya I know what you mean about the single bun...it's so easy.

IMO BW do TOO MUCH to their hair to ever realize it's full potential. Weather it's styling or product usage.

I don't think there are enough long loose nappy's. Awesomely long dreads are common in my life but the manageability and boredom factors keep many loose natural heads in my circle at shorter lengths.

Good point! I've heard of so many nappies comment on the fact that they are just 'bored' with their hair, because they have to keep doing the same thing.

I kinda like routine. And - even though the overall scope of what I'm doing is (and I suspect always will be) the same - the details (esp. for an herb/ingredient/kitchenologist as myself) are - almost - infinite.

Ooooooh. I cannot wait - but I'm sooo going to try to enjoy the journey. That's one - interesting - thing about never planning on cutting my hair. I - really consider every length my hair reaches as 'the last time it will ever be this short' and so - even as I whinge about it, I kinda - enjoy it - because I know this is a once in a lifetime thing. *grins*

I like hair way too much.

 

[jamaraa]

It takes patience, dedication, total avoidance of "stylists" (IMO) and alot of boring protective styling to get to HEALTHY terminal length. That's my goal so i'm game. Like some of the other ladies have said: The longer my hair gets the easier it is to manage. JustKiya I know what you mean about the single bun...it's so easy.

IMO BW do TOO MUCH to their hair to ever realize it's full potential. Weather it's styling or product usage.

I don't think there are enough long loose nappy's. Awesomely long dreads are common in my life but the manageability and boredom factors keep many loose natural heads in my circle at shorter lengths.

I'm w/ you 100%....the funny thing about LHCF is so there are so many loose longhairs rather than dread...either natural or relaxed. Funny thing is that I can't recall a member w/ super long locks here. I'd guess there are.

Funny thing is, I wear my hair in ways where it doesn't hang or show it's bulk. My main "styling tool" is bobby pins. LOL..if you saw me you might think I have 2 in of hair. My hair doesn't really dig buns, but you can actually do alot w/ plaits.

 

[jamaraa]

JustKiya it's a funny thing about locks. Tho I don't have them and probably never will..I do love them, esp. UNcultivated locks. If there's "sisterlocks"...I like "Marleylocks".

I'm just learning via YouTube vids and the very few forums out there dedicated to locks and their various means of start/care. There's a real lack of info out there, IMHO.

What amazes me is how so many dreads do exactly as you say....they dye 'em, bleach 'em, henna 'em.....the ways they're maintained is so various it boggles the mind (or at least mine). LOL...the ways that people maintain them makes my little natural haired routine seem like neglect!

'm always interested in locks started from twists or braids. It seems few (online at least) try that method.

 

[LongCurlyLocks]

Well once upon a time, my hair was BSL so I know my hair is capable to at least reaching that goal. My ultimate goal is WL anyway-I might let it grow longer to donate to locks of love or something but I will at least try to only cut it to like MBL or something then grow it out again. I can't see myself going any longer than WL to maintain on a regular basis, it would be too much.

 

[JustKiya]

JustKiya it's a funny thing about locks. Tho I don't have them and probably never will..I do love them, esp. UNcultivated locks. If there's "sisterlocks"...I like "Marleylocks".

I'm just learning via YouTube vids and the very few forums out there dedicated to locks and their various means of start/care. There's a real lack of info out there, IMHO.

What amazes me is how so many dreads do exactly as you say....they dye 'em, bleach 'em, henna 'em.....the ways they're maintained is so various it boggles the mind (or at least mine). LOL...the ways that people maintain them makes my little natural haired routine seem like neglect!

i'm always interested in locks started from twists or braids. It seems few (online at least) try that method.

It was the natural way for me to start - if I choose to leave my twists in too long, they start to tangle within themselves. I kinda - learned that my hair likes to dread that way, by painful accident. *lol* So - at the point when I got sick of dealing with my hair loose, I just - left them in.

How do people online usually start them? I can't really imagine me starting dreads any other way.

 

[Poohbear]

I'm sure we can grow our hair just as long as they can, but it seems that more of us maintain a certain length and don't allow it to grow to it's terminal length.

I agree with your statement that I quoted above. I feel like if I never ever cut my hair since birth, I would have hair down my back too, but I keep cutting it!!!!

 

[Grow_it_out]

Back atch!

Personally, even though at times I get fustrated, I wouldn't trade my hair type. Would I make it softer, yet, a little fuller, of course! but I wouldn't trade my texture. I can duplicate a 1b...I just flat iron it all the way out, I can duplicate a 3b...I just set it on flexi rods.....but I have yet to see a relatively easy way to duplicate 4b.

Amen girl..........Preach on!

 

[jamaraa]

JustKiya it seems most I come across...of all races...start them by backcombing or palm rolling, usually w/ wax involved. There's all these wax products targeting Blacks and everybody else, so it's what so many net folks use. I've actually seen people discouraged from doing them from braids or twists, which I don't understand. That seems a great way for African textured hair to start locking since as we all know, leaving in braids/twists can easily do it when we DON'T WANT IT! Besides, it's cheap! The back combing thing seems popular w/ both Black and non Blacks. They do that for "instant" locks and maintain it by twisting the ng, crochet, or of course the sisterlocks tool thingie.

Then there's the crochet thing like sisterlocks. On YT, I saw this Fillipino guy doing them on another Fillipino and they were the best uncultivated cutivated "instant" dreads I've ever seen. Unfortunately, you couldn't easily make out what the locker was doing..it was not like the sisterlocks method tho.

Of course there's sister/nappy locks...they seem to "weave" the hair in some way and use a nappy tool (looks like a sewing needle threader to me) to push the hair back and forth thru.

Oddly, almost NO info on the sort of locks I love, Marleylocks, coming from Black people. The rastas seem quiet on the subject. The place I have seen this is from the Knottylocks forum. Ironically most of them are White and many Europe based. They use "neglect", but that's a misnomer. They encourage locks w/o the uses of waxes and tools. At the most, they thread the loosies in w/ a needle. LOL..sounds crazy, but the technique is simple and painless. Some use a crochet look, but most just let it do it's thing.

 

[JustKiya]

JustKiya
Oddly, almost NO info on the sort of locks I love, Marleylocks, coming from Black people. The rastas seem quiet on the subject. The place I have seen this is from the Knottylocks forum. Ironically most of them are White and many Europe based. They use "neglect", but that's a misnomer. They encourage locks w/o the uses of waxes and tools. At the most, they thread the loosies in w/ a needle. LOL..sounds crazy, but the technique is simple and painless. Some use a crochet look, but most just let it do it's thing.

A white girlfriend of mine just recently took out her locks like this - she has about 3a hair, thick and wiry, and she just kinda - left them be. Her locks were very - alive. I met her when I still had mine, and they felt so puny. Poor locks. She basically kinda - played with her hair. It was interesting.

 

[jamaraa]

Her locks didn't thicken up over the years? LOL..poor locks indeed, if so. Did she comb them out or cut them? From what I've seen of the combed out from mature locks hair, it looks fantastic and healthy.....LONG too.

 

[Gigi-07]

I'm growing my hair as long as I can grow it.

 

[JustKiya]

Her locks didn't thicken up over the years? LOL..poor locks indeed, if so. Did she comb them out or cut them? From what I've seen of the combed out from mature locks hair, it looks fantastic and healthy.....LONG too.

Ah, no, no, her's did! Mine fely puny next to them!

She cut them out, all together.

 

[vkb247]

Dread "counts" because the length is made up of hair that's growing. This is why when you unravel them (patiently) you lose little to no length. IOW, the length of hair you see represents the actual length of the loose hair....it's not the accumulated hair. The unshed hair tends to thicken the dread, but doesn't account for much length.

That's just my obs from taking them out.

Agreed on the rest.

I disagree. Most dreads on type 4 heads that I have seen can never be taken out and of course they contain accumulated hair. Whether or not hair breaks from damage hair will always shed at the end of the cycle and start to regrow at a later date. If you have dreads this shed hair will be retained when regrowth happens. When I first heard someone say this I was upset and disagrred but the more I thought about it, it is really common sense. Dreads will grow beyond terminal length.

 

[Solitude]

BTW, there are at least TWO posters on this site w/ pics of their little girls in their sig. Both of them have at least waist and possibly thigh length if straightened. One little girl is 3 years old and the other is about 6-8 years. The posters are Blessed_Angel and Cat Eyes.

Yes, their hair is beautiful. My 5-year old niece is natural and her hair is mid-back length straightened, but above the shoulders when it is kinky, so people would probably never guess that her curly hair is that long.

 

[BostonMaria]

My daughter's hair (she's 10) has passed waist length and I make fun of her because its butt length (I poke her butt to show her and she screams LOL) and I sometimes wonder if it could keep going and going... You know she's sick of it and if it wasn't for the fact that I'm forever up in her business and her hair it would be a matted mess. I don't know if she could possibly be able to handle anything longer than this when she gets older. I guess I look at her hair and day dream.... but wouldn't that mean that I would have to not cut my hair at all for like 6 yrs? Is that even possible or healthy? Right now I haven't had a trim in one year and I could probably go another 2 yrs without one (trust me I've done it before), but would I be pushing it after that?

 

[pringe]

But BostonMaria, y isn't it healthy? When we were younger our hair grew and we didn't get regular trims at a professional. some of us didn't get trims at all! I say if u want to try to grow it out, go for it! i'm starting to feel that the reason we have all these split ends and tangles r because we won't leave our hair alone

 

[BostonMaria]

But BostonMaria, y isn't it healthy? When we were younger our hair grew and we didn't get regular trims at a professional. some of us didn't get trims at all! I say if u want to try to grow it out, go for it! i'm starting to feel that the reason we have all these split ends and tangles r because we won't leave our hair alone

I dunno.. I just assumed it wasn't healthy LOL Maybe I'm more concerned at what people will think when I say "I haven't had a trim in 6 years"

You made a good point though. My mom always kept my hair in 2-3 buns and my hair was never cut and it thrived. I really have no intentions of cutting my hair so maybe I can be one of the lucky ones with really REALLY long hair. Thanks for the motivation ladies

 

[jamaraa]

I disagree. Most dreads on type 4 heads that I have seen can never be taken out and of course they contain accumulated hair. Whether or not hair breaks from damage hair will always shed at the end of the cycle and start to regrow at a later date. If you have dreads this shed hair will be retained when regrowth happens. When I first heard someone say this I was upset and disagrred but the more I thought about it, it is really common sense. Dreads will grow beyond terminal length.

The so called type 4 CAN remove dreads and have done so by unraveling. It takes time and patience, but it can be done. Of course many people cut them, but there are many reasons people choose this option. They CAN be removed/unraveled if the person really wants this.

I don't deny that shed hair remains part of the dread as it grows, but when they are unraveled that part simply comes off. There IS hair growth and length that is attached to the head, however. The sheds tend to add weight and width to the lock, not length from what I've seen in taking some apart. The person generally does not lose much length in this process, but 'thickness".

As for this issue of terminal length and dreads growing past that...how do you know what the individual's "terminal length" is to have that conclusion? Only if the dread is unraveled on a human head is this even partly determinable because you have to see how much length is left on the person. Even if you managed to do this, it would be only one person, so how can you conclude this as a general thing?

The hair grows to absurd lengths because it is left undisturbed and things which are grouped (locks) are stronger than that which is single (loose hair).That doesn't mean that most of the length of the hair you see is sheds...that accounts for it's density.

 

[jamaraa]

BostonMaria it's fine not to cut your hair. Nothing bad is going to happen. I honestly think this whole thing about cutting/trimming hair to keep split ends from traveling up is a marketing ploy to keep folks going to salons. My hair has never split from root all the way up to tip...has yours? LOL If the 'trim to stop the split from traveling' is so true, how come people who don't do it aren't bald?

 

[Miss*Tress]

I agree that split ends do not travel up to the root. That's a load of nonsense. One end breaks off long before and leaves the end of the strand thinner.

 

[Neith]

The so called type 4 CAN remove dreads and have done so by unraveling. It takes time and patience, but it can be done. Of course many people cut them, but there are many reasons people choose this option. They CAN be removed/unraveled if the person really wants this.

I don't deny that shed hair remains part of the dread as it grows, but when they are unraveled that part simply comes off. There IS hair growth and length that is attached to the head, however. The sheds tend to add weight and width to the lock, not length from what I've seen in taking some apart. The person generally does not lose much length in this process, but 'thickness".

As for this issue of terminal length and dreads growing past that...how do you know what the individual's "terminal length" is to have that conclusion? Only if the dread is unraveled on a human head is this even partly determinable because you have to see how much length is left on the person. Even if you managed to do this, it would be only one person, so how can you conclude this as a general thing?

The hair grows to absurd lengths because it is left undisturbed and things which are grouped (locks) are stronger than that which is single (loose hair).That doesn't mean that most of the length of the hair you see is sheds...that accounts for it's density.

I'm going to disagree. It's just logical that locked hair will grow past it's terminal length. Of course, we don't KNOW exactly when each person has hit terminal length because the whole thing is locked, but if they just continue growing and growing, we know that the terminal length will be passed.

Think about this...

A child has had locks since she was a baby... maybe 3 years old. At 23, she has the same locks and they are beyond floor length.

NO ONE has a growth cycle of 20 years. The longest I've heard of is 6 years.

Within those 6 (or 3 or 10 years or however long the person's growth cycle is) every hair on their head will grow to it's longest length and fall out.

Individual hairs do not just keep growing forever. They fall out after a couple of years, take a break, then start growing again. Not one hair on anyone's head that is growing is over 6-10 years old.

No head of hair continuously gains length for over so many years. I would say that very few have a growth cycle over 6 years and virtually no one has a growth cycle over 10 years.

So even someone who has had dreds for 50 years has A LOT of shed hairs that are NOT connected to the scalp in their head. In fact, most of their hair would not actually be connected and growing to the scalp after that amount of time.

​

 

[jamaraa]

^^^ Yes, the shed hair stays while the lock is intact and when the locks are unraveled, the shed hair goes. The real length in w/in the lock, the presently growing hair. IOW, the hair continues to lengthen BUT it's not all growing hair from the scalp. I stated this.

Dreadlocks, IOW, also hide the TRUE length of a person's hair....that is, hair which is attached to the scalp.

 

[Highly Favored8]

When it comes to getting from Full APL to Full BSL then I will go MBL that is it. I will not be cutting my hair again. Ever since I have been on this board I learned proper hair care management as well how to keep my hair at full APL length. I am almost touching the Top of my BSL =)!

 

[gloomgeisha]

mwedzi Nope, I have loose hair. Tell me, HOW do you comb and what type do you use? I have a confession, I comb on DRY hair mainly. I find I lose more hair doing it wet using that leave in stuff so popular here. Dry, I only lose the normal sheds.

I thought I was the ONLY natural like this. My hair DOES NOT like wet detangling at all. That's when it's most delicate and no matter how "gentle" I try to be, I can just hear and feel the hair ripping when I hit a snag. I've found that dry hair fully saturated with oil is so much easier to handle. Only the gods know how much progress I've destroyed over my 3 year natural journey from trying to follow the wet with leave in method.

I personally think I could make it to my terminal length if I wanted to. I butchered my hair this year, cutting off a good 2-3 inches in unnecessary trims and my hair is back to the length it was. So now I'm on the grow. I don't mind constant protective styling as wearing my hair out can be a bit of a hassle if it's not stretched. Heck even in twists I keep my hair in a single bun.

I think if we keep our hair moisturized, protected, and away from scissors we can reach great lengths indeed.

 

[anon123]

Girl!! I'm so first in line! I might be in Chi-town soon - if you get a PM from me, don't be surprised.

Though, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if you were right. It's taken me - at least a solid year of focused effort to get my hair to where it is - and I have to maintain it for it to stay this way. And I know, a single WEEK in a puff, would take me - oh, 2 months, at least, to fully recover from - esp. if I got it wet multiple times. *shudder*

*waiting for the pm* 2 months?! Hmm, well if it truly takes hair like yours and mine that long to recover from tangling, I guess it's no surprise that my hair should always be tangly. I've never gone 2 months in nothing but twists or braids. I have gone 2 months in a puff, though.

It was the natural way for me to start - if I choose to leave my twists in too long, they start to tangle within themselves. I kinda - learned that my hair likes to dread that way, by painful accident. *lol* So - at the point when I got sick of dealing with my hair loose, I just - left them in.

How do people online usually start them? I can't really imagine me starting dreads any other way.

Yep, the last twist accident for me, for a second I just thought of leaving them in. So easy to lock that way.

mwedzi Nope, I have loose hair. Tell me, HOW do you comb and what type do you use? I have a confession, I comb on DRY hair mainly. I find I lose more hair doing it wet using that leave in stuff so popular here. Dry, I only lose the normal sheds.

Your hair is SUPER thick...a great thing....but I think that it might SEEM like you're losing more than normal and certainly more than you want to. My hair is also thick and it feels that way to me, but actually the strands are so thick it makes the combed out stuff seem far more than it is. That might be you too.

I find the longer that I don't comb, the more I "lose", but it's just sheds. LOL..I collected my "harvested" hair over a period time to do some henna experiments on. Most people, including myself, would die to see this much hair in my baggie, but in the long run it's not much. I found it wasn't breaks because when I henna'd the bulbs of the hair root became visibly red.

Oh, by "twisting" I meant some people do that w/ their locks to keep the loosies dreading into the main body. I don't mean the twist style, just twisting the locks and ng.

okay, i see. you were mentioning having taken out dreads before so i just got to wondering if you had them now or in the past.

yes, i lose a lot of hair. I think it's because I have too many follicles. when people say they see 5 or 10 shed hairs in the comb, i'm like because that 50-100 shed hair a day average I read about is definitely what is coming off my head. After a week I really do feel like at least 200 or 300 hairs, just shed ones, come out. And however much breakage on top of that. And with the way my shed hair lassos itself around all the other hair, well, you can imagine.

As to how I comb, I have tried many many methods since being on the hair boards. I made a video so people with hair like mine wouldn't feel so alone and also to let people know in general what I was talking about, but the way I did it in the video is only one of many ways I have tried. I used an afro pick a lot, a shower comb, tried (and failed) with the Denman, love my Goody Styling Therapy, and several others that I've tried once and thrown away. Also my fingers. It's rough.

 

[ImFree27]

I agree that split ends do not travel up to the root. That's a load of nonsense. One end breaks off long before and leaves the end of the strand thinner.

yup i agree, i tested it on my own hair to see, i had a split at the end of my hair i was going to cut it, but i wanted to see what it was going to do, and it took about a week for it to break out wear the split was, it didnt travel no where, that part just broke, so i could have cut that part off, but it takes too much time to search and destroy, i'll just let the single strand split break at the split, because i know its not going to travel all the way to my hair shaft..

 

[naturalmanenyc]

I saw a guy with long locks today - hip length. His hair was grazing the bottom of his rear pockets.

I personally won't allow my hair to grow that long since it would bother me to no end to sit on my hair all the time. I also do not like the idea of having my loose hair flowing in my "crevices" in the shower....which is certain to happen while washing. I will cut anything past tailbone length.

I can imagine that it becomes more difficult to protect hair long enough rub on the chair when sitting - unless it's pinned up but what's the point of hair much longer than tailbone length hair if nobdy see's it? Plus, anything much longer than tailbone (say bottom of hips) would be very hard to even comb since the hair would be longer than your own arms.