Did anyone here actually join this forum

cafe au lait

New Member
with short hair. I am talking about those with shoulder lenght to bra-strap to waist lenght and beyond. I am new to this forum and I joined with short and unhealthy hair. seeing sistahs with longer hair on this forum actually encouraged me to treat my hair with care and give it a chance to grow.
So if you use to have short and/or unhealthy hair, (like me) how long did it take you to grow your hair to the lenght you are now? and what is your secret weapon.

Note to moderators: could we use this as a sticky? I think it will be beneficial to newcomers?
 
I sure did (There are many threads on this subject). In fact, that picture in my signature was taken much after I joined. I used to wear my hair like in my throwback album. You can read my Hair Journey webpage to see all the crap that I had to go through.

I was so tired of having unhealthy hair. I went online to find help and I am so happy that I did! I grew my hair from bottom of neck length to brastrap in 14 months (with several big trims that were unneeded).

There is no secret weapon. No secrets. Just baby your hair back to health, paying attention to your ends-- the oldest part of your hair. Keep reading tips on this board and try not to follow every rave. Sometimes the most inexpensive are the best. HTH.
 
I started out with thinning relaxed hair that was at the nape of my neck. I gradually was shoulder length. I decided to transisiton to natural hair. So now my natural hair is shorter than my relaxed hair length. I barely could squezze it into a little pony tail.
 
My hair wasn't short-short but it is longer now than it has ever been. I was always stuck at a 1-2 inches past my shoulders. I guess b/c my stylist was giving me a touch-up with trims every 5 wks. :mad: My last touch up was in Dec and I was grazing bra straps. I had a few setbacks because I have diabetes and was not eating properly or exercising. I now have 1.5-2 inches of new growth and I am trying to stretch to 16 wks. You will reach your goal by being patient and consistent.
 
Great thread and thanks for asking cafe au lait, I was wondering the same thing. Right now I consider my hair to be short, but I want it to grow as much as it will grow. Achieving a healthy head of hair is my goal as well as caring and maintaining it. :)
 
cafe au lait said:
with short hair. I am talking about those with shoulder lenght to bra-strap to waist lenght and beyond. I am new to this forum and I joined with short and unhealthy hair. seeing sistahs with longer hair on this forum actually encouraged me to treat my hair with care and give it a chance to grow.
So if you use to have short and/or unhealthy hair, (like me) how long did it take you to grow your hair to the lenght you are now? and what is your secret weapon.

Note to moderators: could we use this as a sticky? I think it will be beneficial to newcomers?

Well, I've been apart of these hair forums since 1999. In 2001 I cut my hair very short (tapered cut longest at top about 2 inches). My hair is currently natural, but I grew out the cut to slightly longer than chin length before I started transitioning. My hair is currently around sholder length. I have pics under "past hair" in my album link in siggy.
 
I joined the forum with hair that measured 1-4 inches (measuring from the scalp to the ends) on various spots on my head. Now I'm very close to bra strap in the back when streched.

I'm natural and the shrinkage can be decieving, but in my fokti album is a pic of my starting point and a pic of a braidout that shows some of my length.


ETA:
I forgot to mention that I was tranitioning the first year or so. If I hadn't needed to trim and cut off so much hair the first year, I might be bra strap already.
 
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cafe au lait, thanks so much for starting this thread. I'm a newbie too starting out with short hair, and I was wandering the same thing. It was very encouraging to hear from the ladies who progressed from short to long. It just gave me more faith that we can do it too.
 
IntelligenceisBeautiful said:
cafe au lait, thanks so much for starting this thread. I'm a newbie too starting out with short hair, and I was wandering the same thing. It was very encouraging to hear from the ladies who progressed from short to long. It just gave me more faith that we can do it too.

Right on, SIstah!! I wanna say a big thank you to the ladies that responded. It may not seem like a big deal. but it is. It is like everything else in life. you have to talk to people who have gone thru what you are going thru. It doesn't mean you will get the same results, But it gives you the strenght to try harder. :bouncy:
 
I started out with really damaged hair and my nape area wouldn't stop breaking for anyone. Now my hair is doing great. No secrets from me, but what I've changed is:

No longer getting relaxers every month--now at least 4-6 months apart
No longer blow-drying my hair--I air dry my hair
No longer falling asleep with unwrapped hair--I will wrap my hair even if it's 3am
No longer combing my hair--I keep combs out of my hair and use moisturizer first if I have to and comb in sections
No longer brush my hair--I don't even own any brushes :laugh:

I went from this:
hair5-th.jpg
to this:
100_1592-th.jpg
from being on this board
 
I am also another person who joined with short hair. Here's my starting length when I joined this board:

October 2002

October212002small-vi.jpg


Here is my hair now:

March 2005

March112005resized-vi.jpg


To grow out my hair I had to wait until I was at least shoulderlength to be able to do protective styles. But after that, I did protective styles 5 days out of the week to protect my ends. I didn't use special shampoos, but I did comb out my hair carefully, and detangled carefully. I did use vitamins, but I got tired of taking them, and don't do it much anymore.
 
I joined this forum with a nice fresh cut right under my ear lobe. I cut it due to a damaged left side that would grow slower than the right and noticeably thinner. I kept my hair in braids and weaves for months, and didn't relax my hair until I had about 4 inches of new growth.

I have no special products or anything, I am still a work in progress, while my right side is grasping mid blade, the left side is about an inch shorter. :perplexed . I am trying my best not to cut it!!
My main style was/is a bun which I will continue until I reach bra strap.
 
JenniferMD said:
Skegs, your hair progress is the BOMB!!!!

It sure is! Skeegsmb you're going back to natural? I noticed the ticker in your siggy....If so, why? Tired of the chemicals?
 
TigerLily said:
It sure is! Skegeesmb you're going back to natural? I noticed the ticker in your siggy....If so, why? Tired of the chemicals?

Yup. Just tired of doing it, and making sure I don't overprocess. I miss my natural hair.
 
I'm just starting seriously of taking care of my hair. Right now I'm happy with the results that I'm getting I think this year I'll reach my goal which armpit length.
What I changed in my haircare regimen since I've joined:

No heat except when I get a relaxer.
Extend the time between touch up with the help of braids
Taking vitamins
Massaging my scalp
Satin Scarf
among other things
 
My hair was short(I mean darn near bald) when I joined in December. My hair is much healthier and I have alittle more length than what Im used to. It is still considered short but it is longer.
 
If you look at my album, you will see that my hair was short, in fact shorter than the first picture shown. The next pictures were about a year later and my hair had grown a nice amount. Still working on it.
 
I got a haircut two months before joining. My hair was real short, above my ear short. It was damaged due to frequent relaxers and coloring.
 
I joined about a year ago right after I cut my hair to right below my ears. My hair has never been long because I never took care of it properly. right now it is almost shoulder length, once I get my relaxer in three weeks I should be at my my goal. :D
 
I started like this:

The finished product is in my avatar, it took me about a year and 3 months to get to that length from where I started!
 
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Babygurl said:
I started like this:

The finished product is in my avatar, it took me about a year and 3 months to get to that length from where I started!


BG - I LOVE LOVE LOVE your hair.
 
JenniferMD said:
I started out with really damaged hair and my nape area wouldn't stop breaking for anyone. Now my hair is doing great. No secrets from me, but what I've changed is:

No longer getting relaxers every month--now at least 4-6 months apart
No longer blow-drying my hair--I air dry my hair
No longer falling asleep with unwrapped hair--I will wrap my hair even if it's 3am
No longer combing my hair--I keep combs out of my hair and use moisturizer first if I have to and comb in sections
No longer brush my hair--I don't even own any brushes :laugh:

I went from this:
hair5-th.jpg
to this:
100_1592-th.jpg
from being on this board

Jen--> What's your regimen and hair type?? Your hair is a beautiful inspiration, along w/many others.
 
I started with a neck length layered cut (layered because my ends kept breaking so I had to cut them to try to keep the damage at bay). I then decided I wanted my hair all one length, so since I became a member, I've been putting in practice all the things I've been learning here and now my hair is one length at the shoulders. I'm now trying to grow it to my bra-strap. I'll be settling then and just maintaining it healthy.

This was how my hair journey started:
karinaaa-vi.jpg



This is where I'm now:
22705010face-vi.jpg


There isn't that much length difference because I was trimming out my layers, but it's definetly healthier!!:grin:
 
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