Congratulations and good for you! That's no easy task. You stuck with it until you figured it out. That takes persistence and faith. Both of which will help to get you to waist length if that is something you want for you and your hair in the future.
No I big chopped all my relaxed hair off and had a crew cut lol. So I started from scratch and I had a lot of setbacks in the two & half years until now
Congratulations and good for you! That's no easy task. You stuck with it until you figured it out. That takes persistence and faith. Both of which will help to get you to waist length if that is something you want for you and your hair in the future.