Is everyone going to reach Mid back or waist length hair EVENTUALLY???

[anon123]

The bold is not true since the length of the Anagen phase (that's the growing phase of the cycle) determines how long your hair can grow...and most people do not grow an inch a month. At the average growth rate of 1/2 an inch a month, someone's whose growth phase lasts only 2 years would have 12 inches of growth in that time before the hair started to shed. If they retained it all, that would mean they'd probably be at BSL, or very close for a tall person. So I think the realistic thing is to say, that unless there is ill health, at least BSL is possible for just about everyone...since 2 years is about the shortest an Anagen phase can last. Now if you are one of those lucky to have a 6-year-long Anagen phase or a faster growth rate, then you might be sitting on your hair in a few years.

I agree. Except I'd go further to say that, while the average growth rate is 1/2", not everyone's is. Some will be shorter so those people who have a slower growth rate and a shorter time period for growth will have the shortest hair. I'm also inclined to believe even the best regimen will lose some hair to breakage.

So my short answer to this question is "no".

 

[Denise11]

No, I don't think so. No matter how much we would like to think so. Not only because some peoples hair grows slowly, but some people's scalp has problems that prevent their hair from growing long. I have people in my family with scalp problems. At one point their hair is growing, then it's breaking and shedding.

 

[GoldenBreeze]

I am almost BSL now should be there in MAY(keeping my finger crossed)....But watching all you ladies with long full waist and mid back lengths makes me wonder.... you know I get anxious about my hair and feel like I will probably never have hair that long...so are we all destined to have hair that long...can everyones hair even grow that long....I know every persons hair on this forum is different and we all have different hair goals but ultimately I think we all want longer HEALTHIER hair!!!
It would be interesting to know if there are ladies on this board who actually did the best they can for YEARS and are still not at the length they want to be.....If there are please share!!

In answer to the general "are we all destined to have hair that long?" I'd have to say no not all, but I also believe that most ladies are capable of having at least MBL and longer. It is likely that a great percentage of those of us that don't believe that our hair can be that long actually can maintain those lengthts. When we have really and truly done our best for YEARS, then and only then can we know.

 

[rsmith]

I would love to get to BS length.

 

[lipyt]

I may be completely ignorant but, I've had a perm since I was in third grade until the time I was 25 and I don't remember not having new growth to perm. Are you saying that once you've reached your terminal hair length the hair just stops growing? Because I have never seen that.. Nor have I seen some hairs on my head that were permed straight at the root because those hairs has reached terminal hair growth while other hairs on my head had kinky new growth. I don't understand.
Ok just read through the thread. So supposedly once your hair strand reaches it's optimal terminal hair length it is shedded!? If all the hairs on your head were shed at different times, how can you ever find out what your terminal length is? How can you find out which part of the cycle your hair is on??

 

[HoneyDew]

I may be completely ignorant but, I've had a perm since I was in third grade until the time I was 25 and I don't remember not having new growth to perm. Are you saying that once you've reached your terminal hair length the hair just stops growing? Because I have never seen that.. Nor have I seen some hairs on my head that were permed straight at the root because those hairs has reached terminal hair growth while other hairs on my head had kinky new growth. I don't understand.

I personally think there is more to length than the hair that emerges from ones scalp. There are so many other things involved. The quality of that hair can be good or bad based on diet, hormones, sickness, age, etc. Its ability to stay on a person's head is varied. Then there is the enviroment and stress, etc that can effect it even more. And of course we all know about how care effects it.

I just think is is more involved.

 

[locabouthair]

I may be completely ignorant but, I've had a perm since I was in third grade until the time I was 25 and I don't remember not having new growth to perm. Are you saying that once you've reached your terminal hair length the hair just stops growing? Because I have never seen that.. Nor have I seen some hairs on my head that were permed straight at the root because those hairs has reached terminal hair growth while other hairs on my head had kinky new growth. I don't understand.
Ok just read through the thread. So supposedly once your hair strand reaches it's optimal terminal hair length it is shedded!? If all the hairs on your head were shed at different times, how can you ever find out what your terminal length is? How can you find out which part of the cycle your hair is on??

The hair doesnt shed when it's reached a certain length. It sheds after a certain amount of time. The average growth phase is 2 to 6 years. So let's say one strand has a life of 6 yrs. After it has been growing for 6 years it will shed because it's reached the end of the cycle.

Now for those 6 years, that strand could be MBL or it could be BSL, or even SL. How much hair you retain during those 6 years will tell you how long it will reach. Your hair doesnt say ok I'm growing to BSL and then I'm done, it will grow for a certain time and depending on how well you have taken care of it for that amount of time, that is the length you will have.

Im not sure if you can figure out what part of the cycle your hair is on. It is safe to say when your hair is shed, it has reached the end of the cycle.

 

[locabouthair]

I personally think there is more to length than the hair that emerges from ones scalp. There are so many other things involved. The quality of that hair can be good or bad based on diet, hormones, sickness, age, etc. Its ability to stay on a person's head is varied. Then there is the enviroment and stress, etc that can effect it even more. And of course we all know about how care effects it.

I just think is is more involved.

I agree there are so many factors that affect hair growth. More than people realize.

Im very content if I dont make MBL just dont tell me I can't make APL

 

[Naturelle]

I'm really trying to reach mbl to wsl unstretched...in my 3/4 natural hair state....

Yeah I really want this but sometimes I'm thinking can I really achieve that without straight hair...Im trying to stay positive...of course I can!

 

[CenteredGirl]

I prefer to keep it real.

Not everyone is going to get it - even if they want it.

I'll agree with this on the premise that not acheiving it is largely due to mismanagement of hair causing breakage and the fact that all hair entually reaches a goal length. I do beleive that if you find a regimen that works to prevent breakage you can acheive more length than you normally do. Whether or not that is WSL who knows? But it's longer and that's okay.

 

[vestaluv1]

Before finding LHCF, I didn't think I could ever have hair past SL.
Now that I am almost BSL (or BSL if I stretch my hair, but I'm not going to claim it yet), I do believe that I can reach midback length.
My original goal was BSL, because I thought that would be hard to achieve in itself, but its only been a year and I've reached APL twice (after a big trim) and I'm very close to BSL.
NOW I'M GOING FOR MBL .

I think everyone can achieve MBL/WL with the work it takes and dedication.
For me, growing my hair has been quite time consuming and a lot of effort, but well worth it all.

 

[*Frisky*]

I am beginning to believe this. My niece who is half-Asian has the slowest growing hair I have ever encountered(I meantioned Asian because it dispells my previous belief that Asian hair grows at the speed of light).

She got her hair cut to the top of her neck in May of last year and it's currently at the bottom of her neck. She's had no trims, her hair stays moisturized, it's not damaged...it just grows sloooooowwwwww.

She's only 8 so she can reach wsl eventually, but I really do believe that some people's hair grows slow...wether it's due to growth cycles or unknown phenomenons.

My step daughter is the same way..she will be 8 next week...I have been knowing her for almost 7 years and I swear her hair has only grown an inch or two if that..although her mother hasn't done the best caring for her hair, I think it still would have grown more. She was born premature and I always wondered if that had something to do wth it. Like maybe her hair follicles didnt develop the way they should have or something.

 

[lipyt]

The hair doesnt shed when it's reached a certain length. It sheds after a certain amount of time. The average growth phase is 2 to 6 years. So let's say one strand has a life of 6 yrs. After it has been growing for 6 years it will shed because it's reached the end of the cycle.

Now for those 6 years, that strand could be MBL or it could be BSL, or even SL. How much hair you retain during those 6 years will tell you how long it will reach. Your hair doesnt say ok I'm growing to BSL and then I'm done, it will grow for a certain time and depending on how well you have taken care of it for that amount of time, that is the length you will have.

Im not sure if you can figure out what part of the cycle your hair is on. It is safe to say when your hair is shed, it has reached the end of the cycle.[/quote]
OOh I get it. The only way one could tell their terminal hair time would be to not trim and completely protect their hair for atleast 6 years. That would tell you how long your hair can grow. Got it.

 

[Tif392002]

" i think i can ..... i think i can.. i think i can!!!!" lol

 

[bklyncurly]

I'm hopeful!!!

My mom's hair grows like grass. We have to keep cutting it because it grows too fast, but she has bone straight hair so maybe that's the reason? Or, the fact that she does nothing to her hair, and it still grows ALOT!

My hair grows at a steady rate (I don't have bone straight hair) but if I start touching it too much it starts to break and that's the end of that story ---> wind up cutting off inches and inches of new growth.

My sister's hair used to grow really fast and was very thick and healthy. But, the results of a bad relaxer a few years ago (before she went natural), took out all of her hair in the middle of her head to the forehead (like a reverse mohawk - it was horrible!), plus blood pressure meds, and her hair still grows, but alot slower (and shorter) these days.

Long story short . . . I think we all can attain long hair, but for some it's really easy, and the rest of us -- well, for me at least --- I need to work on my patience because I want mid back length/hip length by summer 2010 (YEAH RIGHT!)

I agree with the other posters, hereditary, health, stress, playing with our hair too much, not using the right products, etc. can all aggravate or retard our hair growth. But, I'm still hopeful!!

Oh, and one last thing. I knew a guy who used 'Dawn - Dishwashing Liquid' on his hair which he washed 1x/week and he had long, beautiful flowing hair. Go figure!

 

[Distorted Barbie]

I won't...I'm too short and too impatient...

 

[beans4reezy]

I don't k now about everyone, but I know for me, I will go down trying to make MBL...

 

[GreenD]

I know it's my plan to be WL by 2012. So I'm hoping the odds are in my favor.

 

[mscocoface]

To paraphrase MLK I have a dream that one day....... You get my meaning.

 

[vainღ♥♡jane]

i agree with honeydew. everybody don't have it like that... but thats okay. its not the end of the world. ♥

 

[preciouslove0x]

Sometimes I feel like people should take some "science" with a grain of salt. I'm a science major and I'm still trying to figure out what scientist/physician or whomever came up with the 2-6 years is the average hair cycle. Is that truly possible... to acquire this figure without doing a study on hundreds of people for many many years (maybe even a lifetime) and observe their haircare practices AND health extremely close. I mean this is for any science "fact" put out there these days.... we should ALL take them with a grain of salt unless there has been studies on it time and time again. Now when we read articles, dissertations and research studies in general people have the tendency to quote others instead of doing their own intensive research.

With that said, I *think* ANYONE can get to MBL if they work VERY hard for it. Don't listen to science all the time (a doctor told my aunt 5 years ago that she was going to die in 6 months... guess what... she's still alive but I digress). Think about it, scientists can put out any information they want and can get you to believe anything without it being 100% true.

I was actually reading an article the other day about how dark chocolate was good for you. Case in point I'm not saying it is or isn't. But then I looked up who the study was sponsored by. Hershey Co. Go figure...

ETA: I read through the whole thread and I'm sad to find some ladies stating things that they *KNOW* is fact. Instead of crushing (maybe not purposely) peoples dreams how about you tell them the peer-reviewed article or dissertation you found your information from.

ETA again: There IS one article cited in this thread by Sarah Tennant. Ms Tennant gives great information about terminal lengths. But again... look a little deeper... Her name is *clickable* (is a link) in her article. It gives more information about her (its below). You can decide for yourself if she has the credentials to be writing about terminal hair length without citing ANY sources from which she got her information from. I don't mean to be rude and point her out so I'm going to say this type of "research" seems to be on the rise on the internet (i.e. sometimes wikipedia pages do not cite where the information is coming from and yet its always the first link in the search engines and many people find themselves looking at only wikipedia and then spreading the "facts" they found to family and friends)

Sarah Tennant is a onetime English major who lives in New Zealand with her husband and daughter. Her interests range from haircare to Tolkien, baking to presuppositional theology. Sarah blogs about all of the above as Smokey the Magnificent, devising a series of weekly homemaking and life challenges to keep her off the streets.Sarah's print credits include Fitness Life, Bride & Groom, Organic NZ, Mindfood and Kiwi parenting magazines Littlies and OHbaby. In addition to her web writing at Suite, Sarah writes and edits at The Untrained Housewife, a community of women who share tips and tricks for housekeeping and life in general.

 

[Jewell]

I think if the hair care, lifestyle, and body care techniques are right, and a lady wants to grow her hair to those lengths, there should be no issue as to why she can't, besides repeated cutting, medications/disease, and lack of retention...which goes under the hair care techniques list. I frankly don't believe in the "genetically predisposed" mess...which states that you have a terminal length or can grow to a certain length b/c other women in the family have or have not. It's all about that particular individual.

I shouldn't have hair as long as I do, because 99% of the women in my fam have SL or shorter hair, I'm very anemic, and also because I have cut it nearly all off (2) times in the last 2.5 years. The only women with SL hair and longer are my younger sis, paternal grandma, and me. I plan to grow my hair to infinite lengths (I'm currently long MBL, not quite waist) just to show that black women don't have to have short hair, and that is DOES GROW LONG and THICK. My hair has never officially been waist length, but thas only b/c I never let it get that long due to trimming/cutting.

All women can't do what it takes to grow their hair long (due to knowledge about hair, busy schedule, finances, etc), and all don't have a texture that they want to spend extra time "working" with to have that type of length, so they just choose to wear it short, or prefer a shorter hair length. It's really preference, but I believe any woman who is willing to put in the work deserves and can have that ultra long hair (past BSL/MBL). The same goes for working to have healthy hair, whether relaxed, natural, or texlaxed.

 

[Kurlee]

Sometimes I feel like people should take some "science" with a grain of salt. I'm a science major and I'm still trying to figure out a scientist/doctor or whomever came up with the 2-6 years is average. Is that truly possible... to acquire this figure without doing a study on hundreds of people for many many years (maybe even a lifetime) and observe their haircare practices extremely close. I mean this for any science "fact" these days.... we should ALL take them with a grain of salt unless there has been studies on it time and time again. Now when we read articles, dissertations and research studies in general people have the tendency to quote others instead of doing their own intensive research.
With that said, I think ANYONE can get to MBL if they work VERY hard for it. Don't listen to science all the time. Think about it, scientists can get you to believe anything.

I was actually reading an article the other day about how dark chocolate was good for you. Case in point I'm not saying it is or isn't. But then I looked up who the study was sponsored by. Hershey Co. Go figure...

 

[*CherryPie*]

Genes has a LOT to do with how long our hair will grow.....and not everyone has it in their genes to grow long hair (MBL and longer).

I know most folks just don't wanna believe that MBL won't happen though.

 

[luckiestdestiny]

I sometimes wonder the point of stuff like this and rarely respond. I understand that we want to know about terminal length but I feel like would anyone get anywhere if they didn't have something to aspire to? How many times have people been told something is impossible only to surpass the impossible task?

If you believe it's not possible, it will be impossible. If you seek to find a way most times you will. That's just my opinion. I do believe we can grow our hair to great lengths and that it's far beyond what we think is possible.

 

[*CherryPie*]

I understand what you're saying. But this is not a task that you could just keep working hard until you acheive it.

No matter how many techniques or products etc. you use, if it's not in the genes, it's not gonna happen.....and we need to be aware of that.

I sometimes wonder the point of stuff like this and rarely respond. I understand that we want to know about terminal length but I feel like would anyone get anywhere if they didn't have something to aspire to? How many times have people been told something is impossible only to surpass the impossible task?

If you believe it's not possible, it will be impossible. If you seek to find a way most times you will. That's just my opinion. I do believe we can grow our hair to great lengths and that it's far beyond what we think is possible.

 

[Soulberry]

I definently hope so. I always thought my hair would never be longer than SL now I'm almost APL I truly think hair growth has a lot to with genes. My sister can cut her hair and in a couple of months she will gain twice the length. When she told me I might be allergic to fake hair thats why my hair wasn't long and healthy like hers I took her advice and my hair took off like a rocket She was right. She is 6ft.tall and MBL with layers.She said her hair started growing fast with her first layered cut. My hair did too. Finding what works for your hair is the key

 

[nymane]

I look forward to being mid-back by Dec 10 & WL by sometime in 2011

 

[Goombay_Summer]

I am the eternal optimist and here's why, as a young kid I was the weird one on the playground with a sweater on her head pretending like she had long hair LOL. As a teenager my hair grew to SL and I mistakenly thought that I had long hair. A series of things happened to me four years ago, my husband went to visit his family in another state for thanksgiving and disappeared for four months I was left alone, broke because I was unemployed at the time and with a 3 step-kids. Due to stress my hair became badly damaged. At the end of my rope I dropped the kids off at their maternal grandmothers house filed for a divorce and in a "Waiting to Exhale " moment I walked into the barber shop and cut it all off. I was Amber Rose bald and free as a bird. I began my natural hair journey, on April 1st 2006. My story has a happy ending because four years later my hair is MBL and I'm two inches away from WSL. I no beyond a shadow of a doubt that anything is possible I can emphatically state that this is the longest my hair has ever been in my adult life. I haven't done a length check in two months so here's to the next time that I straighten my hair I might just be at goal and when that happens I'll set a new goal of HL.

 

[Lynnerie]

I definently hope so. I always thought my hair would never be longer than SL now I'm almost APL I truly think hair growth has a lot to with genes. My sister can cut her hair and in a couple of months she will gain twice the length. When she told me I might be allergic to fake hair thats why my hair wasn't long and healthy like hers I took her advice and my hair took off like a rocket She was right. She is 6ft.tall and MBL with layers.She said her hair started growing fast with her first layered cut. My hair did too. Finding what works for your hair is the key

I think MBL/WL are possible to acheive but I agree with Soulberry's statement in finding what works for your hair is key. I love the look of relaxed hair but it doesn't work for me. Its just not good for my scalp. I was on this board for years while relaxed and it seemed like my hair grew so slow (now maybe my reggie as a relaxed head wasn't good enough) but finding a better regimen as a natural has optimized my growth and retention.

I also believe its a combination of things- exercise, diet, and healthy hair care practices that work for an individual affect whether a person will attain long lengths. MBL and waist-length are possible for those who want it. Its not like we're talking about trying to reach classic length or hair down to the floor and hair to your ankles Women with hair that long are special cases. And I dont want that much hair.