How long was your hair as a child?

[Bint Yusef]

APL until my mom decided to start relaxing with her really bad technique(relaxing the whole head every time and raking thru with a rat tail comb). Hopefully I will be APL by the end of the year, which will be longer because my back is longer now

 

[Gryphyn]

I voted ear length. I don't remember how long my hair was before my mom relaxed it when I was 7. I do remember it was so short that it would never stay in a French braid. Sometimes it would undo throughtout the day and I'd go home looking a mess
When my mom started relaxing my hair, it broke off a lot and I by the time I was 11 it didn't even touch the bottom of my ear.

 

[tweezer6]

My hair was chin-length. I starting getting relaxers when I was about 12. Prior to that, I would get my hair done with a straightening comb (ouch!).

No one in my family was ever really good at taking care of hair. That's why they rolled their eyes when I started my "hair project" a couple of years ago.

But now that my hair has gone from fried, ear-lenghth to swinging shoulder length, nobody's laughing...oh yea, I am!

 

[xxxxcherishxxxx]

My hair was between APL and BSL (lol I was wearing bras at 11 so I can remember). I didn't relax my hair regularly till I was 9th grade. I use to have super thick hair in plaits when I was younger. My mom braided my hair religiously and use to take GREAT care of my hair. Her hair is absolutely beautiful. I want my young hair back or to look like my mama's.

 

[~*~ShopAholic~*~]

My hair was probably btwn APL and BSL, plus it appeared to be thick but was really medium/fine strands just alot of them pack together. I didn't start getting relaxers till I was a little over 16 and after the cut it was a little past APL.

 

[Legend]

My hair was waist length because I mother never cut our hair nor chemically straightened it. She used the old hot comb, some Royal Crown hair grease, and braided ponytails every day.

 

[chayil0427]

Wow...what interesting stories. I think the blessing in this is that when we have daughters (or for those of use who already do) we'll know how to better care for their hair.

Chayil

 

[~*~ShopAholic~*~]

Girrrrrl you just gave me a flash back, , sitting in that chair sweating to death praying to God momma don't burn you, , and it was defiantely a special occassion for press and curls. I remember sleeping under, that's right under, the fan or airconditioner so it don't sweat out for picture day.

My hair was waist length because I mother never cut our hair nor chemically straightened it. She used the old hot comb, some Royal Crown hair grease, and braided ponytails every day.

 

[Hair Peace]

My hair had to be BSL until I was about 10 yrs old. I can remember my 5th grade picture with my hair in a ponytail up high and to the side and my barrett on the end touching my shoulder.

It would take my mother all weekend to wash my hair! She would wash it on Saturday (I don't remember if she blowdried it or not). I would wear it to church on Sunday in these big poofy ponytails and then we would go to my Grandmother's house and she would use the "hot comb"! Then she would make me grease my scalp every other night! I hated that soooooooo much. I used to sit on the side of the sink with the door to the medicine cabinet pulled towards me so that I could see the parts in the mirror and I just cried the whole time. If I NEVER see another jar of ALberto V05 again it will be too soon!

My grandmother passed when I was 10, and my mother tried to do all of my hair herself, but it was too much for her to handle (even with the Vigorol...anybody remember that? You know you'll never forget that smell!). She managed to find a stylist who was an older woman and she did my hair for a while, but when she passed, no one else in the shop would touch my hair. They used to call me "The Dreadlock Customer" b/c of how much my hair would shrink when it got wet. They cut my hair to about SL to make it easier to deal with, but by the time I was 13 they convinced my mom to put a relaxer in my hair. They used the strongest one they could find. She still regrets letting them do it. She said I would wake up in the morning and there would be clumps of hair on my pillow.

 

[Blackoutzangel05]

I miss the hair of my youth. I have been getting permed (it was actually what we have come to call texlax'ed) since the 3rd grade. Now don't go jumping on my mama but I had a great stylist, who only processed my hair chemically 2 times a year and she never trimmed my ends because uneven ends made it easier to plait up during the week. I only wore my hair down on Sundays. My hair was MBL at its longest, I consider that the point between BSL and WL. So it did flourish with a perm. But I didn't need them tha often, she never overprocessed my hair, at least from what I can remember but when my grandmother decided to give me a trim and even out my ends so it couldn't be plaited, that is the point where it went downhill for me. I had to wear my hair out constantly and I was always in it, brushing it, combing it. It just got shorter and shorter. See I have always loved hair and especially long hair. My mother for the first time in her life grow her hair out to BSL at the age of 35 to 38. She always wore it up and in these gel styles and when you would see it down...it was thick and gorgeous. Man....I want my hair back and I am determined to get it!

 

[KiniKakes]

I wore braids growing up, up until Junior year of high school. As a little girl, they were just braided pigtails. When I got older, it was with extensions. So i really dont know how long my hair was exactly, as i didnt wear it out. I think a little past shoulder length.

 

[glamazon386]

The longest my hair was as a child was apl. It usually hovered around shoulder length though.

 

[bablou00]

I think around 4 or 5 my hair was almost APL. I thought I wanted to be grown and do all things to my hair that my older sister was doing. Plus my natural hair was is so hard to deal with that the hot comb and relaxers were introduced to my head a young age. HS and 1st 2 years of college neck length and then I wore micros. This is the longest I remember my hair being and cant wait till it gets longer

 

[bLackButtaFly]

I had apl or longer length hair when I was little, and until I was like 15 I had midback length hair. But looking back my mom was pretty up on protective styling b/c I only wore it down for about a week right after a perm and the rest of the time I was in buns and braids, and she would never let me go a day w/out moisture and heat only once a week.
When I went home I was looking at a picture when I was in 6th grade, and I was playing in leaves, and my ponytail was like back length and it was high, and I always thought my hair looked bad b/c it was so thick.

 

[cheetarah1980]

When I was young I never had long hair. Through most of elementary school it was about ear length in the front and neck length in the back with horrible breakage at the crown. I got a perm at 6 years old because my mom just couldn't deal with my hair. She wasn't too up on how to properly care for nappy hair so my hair never got but so long between all the pressing, dry combing, etc. When I got to 6th grade I started wearing braided extensions on a regular basis and without all the manipulation my hair thrived. By 7th grade it grazed my shoulders and the front was down to my chin. Unfortunately the growth didn't continue because I went right back to relaxers, curling irons, and heavy hair grease the second I saw I had a bit of length. I wore braid extensions through most of high school and grew my hair out to shoulder length. When I tired of braids I pressed my hair on a regular basis to get it straight (the perm was grown out by this time).
It wasn't until I went natural again in 2004 (got another perm after freshman year of college) that my hair has broken the shoulder length barrier. It's creeping toward APL for the first time in my life so I'm excited to see how long it can get with proper care and low manipulation.

 

[prospurr4]

As a child, my hair hovered around neck length, with maybe a few strands reaching collarbone length, at times. It was natural, and every two weeks, it was washed and pressed to within an inch of its life. For years, I was told that my 4b hair was "bad" hair, so I didn't even think it could grow any longer. Two of my sisters have 3c/4a "good" hair, and their lengths were approximately APL...so what people told me about my hair SEEMED to be true.

Thank God for you ladies here at LHCF. My hair is now blunt BSL (much longer than my sisters' , and I'm aiming for WSL.

PS - I have offered hair tips to my sisters, but they won't listen. erplexed

 

[sunshyne_krissy]

Mine was WL or a lil longer. Man I wish I could post picks!!! I'll never forget this....I was about 7 or 8 years old.....one time me and my mom were shopping at Ross and she was in the fitting room and I was playin in the mirrors outside her door. Some lady and her friend came out of one of the other rooms and said "girl your hair is looooonnnnggg!!! Are you mixed???" I will NEVER forget that!

 

[WhipEffectz1]

neck length

 

[*Michelle*]

BSL or maybe longer...I'm gonna have to go to my moms house and look at some pictures!

 

[tetbelle]

Mine was past BSL is that mid-back? Anyway that's how long it was and super thick...What happened??? LOL

 

[dlewis]

My hair was waist length as a child.

 

[neenee280]

Waist length and THICK! Hairdressers would HATE to see me coming in. I would be in there for hours...the washing, the pressing, UGH! They would charge my mom extra because they said I was too much work. When my mom did my hair, I would HIDE because I know I would get burnt on my ear!

 

[felicia]

about midback

 

[sunnydaze]

about midback

Same. Around midback..pre-permerplexed then the gradual snipping began!

 

[camellia]

Waist length as a child. Once I discovered curling irons it was all down hill from there.

 

[lsubabiedee]

it was midback until my first relaxer, then it got cut to bsl. why? i dont know.

 

[prettypuff1]

girl you!

my mother put a relaxer in when I was like 6 and then took me to the braid ladies LATER THAT AFTERNOON so it would be easier for THEM to braid. What about me?

Then again when I was like 9 some lady wanted to corn row my hair. Even though i already had a relaxer, she put ANOTHER one all throughout my hair in order to "catch the hair". Good lord, I cry for my childhood. the worst thing was she had just finished relaxing my cousin's hair with "Just for me" relaxer. So she ran out of that and then picked up some old men's texturizer (who knows how long it had been sitting there) and slapped it over my already relaxed head. and neutralize what? Needless to say, my wasn't that hot

Oo ooo wow...
I may have been apl when io was like 8, but i never made it past sl really, just kinda hovered there.

 

[getmoore]

My hair never grew past ear length as a child! My Mom trimmed too much! It seemed like every time she did my hair she trimmed!!! I had great ends though.

 

[Lucia]

around bra strap/midback after shrinkage and superthick

 

[SkinnyMocah]

Shoulder length. I started losing it when I went swimming in a chlorinated pool. My hair started falling out something serious and until recently, was not a joy to handle.