Hey there... when I wrote this thread waaaaay back when, it was because a lot of people with my type hair 4a/4b were going through periods of discouragement with the rate of which their hair was growing or even the length. Growing up as a child, I never really saw people of my race with my hair type have long hair... it was usually the type 3's. I love my hair! Once I've come to realize the proper way to treat it, I realized that growing it longer wasn't as hard as I thought. It's still presents it's challenges, don't get me wrong, just because it is more fragile. It snaps easily and needs to be handled with kid gloves. We would believe at first glance that it's really strong and "tough", but our strands really need the TLC. I've been going back and forth between lengths. I would have thought I'd have been at waistlength by now... however, setbacks occur. Why? My hair is "fragile" and sometimes rebels against certain things I may do. This results in me having to get a trim to rid myself of my thin ends. That was the purpose of this thread... encouraging people that though it may seem difficult for us to get the longer length, we can... not as a European standard, but simply because we are capable and aspire to achieve longer lengths.
As for the chart, the number actually indicates the amount of curl or wave one has in the hair. I believe the letters deal with the degree of coarseness or even diameter.
Here's a pic of my last relaxer... The way I see it, I should have been longer by now. It would be easy to be discouraged in that I set a certain goal and have not reached it, but I am reminded by this thread that patience, perserverance and protection will get me where I need to go....
Do you see why it would be easy to be discouraged? My avatar pic was taken November 2004 and I've had to use that as my motivational pic... after I reached that length, I slacked off and took everything for granted... it would get longer, than shorter, then longer, then shorter. Here this pic was taken last week and I look basically almost the same length... all due to negligence. I'm back on the wagon now though.