Never thought it could be long.

[dahllia]

Hi, Im a

to this board and I've been reading a whole lot about everyone and their journies and progress which makes me feel good about my own attempts to healthier hair. But I have a question. Please forgive me if it has been asked before, but Is there anyone, who has grown their hair long for the first time in their lives. I mean someone who has had hair that never went passed their necks throug out most of their childhood but now as an adult has hair at least 18 to 20 inches long? And if you have, what did you attribute most to this? What Im really looking for is someone other than people trying to sell products to say that YES IT REALLY CAN BE DONE.

 

[katie]

This is a good question.I have alwasy wondered the same thing.

 

[godzooki]

ask me again in about a year!

 

[Peachtree]

welcome

 

[adrienne0914]

my hair was longer when i was a kid but not as long as it is now. i understand your skepticism. i was the same way until i started making progress beyond the length i was stuck at for almost 20 years. once i past that, i realized that the sky's the limit!!

oh, i attribute my progress to mainly just leaving my hair alone. because i do very little to it, it thanks me by staying on my head.

 

[pebbles]

Welcome dahllia!

 

[Nonie]

Throughout my teens - which is when I took charge of my own hair - I wore a 2-inch TWA. I couldn't braid my hair coz that was not allowed in school and my hair never seemed to grow beyond that length. When I finished school, I started to wear microbraids and grew my hair to about 6 inches. Then I got a...shshsh Jheri curl and my hair continued to grow. Only the scissor happy stylists wanted to keep my style the same so chopped off any length I achieved. Overprocessing by a bad stylist when I moved led to breakage and I found myself back to braids.

As my hair grew, I slowly chopped off the processed hair every time I redid a braid (I constantly repair them) until I was rid of processed hair. But I did something wrong while in braids that I never thought about at the time... Since I wore human hair, I would use a curling iron and wear it in curls or a bob. I didn't just curl the part that extended beyond my hair. I curled the entire braid. Not always, but often enough to damage my hair. Still I got my length back...albeit in poor condition. I then got it relaxed. when I got my touch up, it was underprocessed and overlapping occured, and I got a lot of breakage. (BTW, I had no idea how to take care of hair then also. Maybe I coulda saved it if I had known of a board like this one.) By the time I found a good stylist, my hair was so damaged that when I went back for my touch up she actually pulled a chair beside me and held my hands like a caring mother and begged me to give my hair a break. I remember blinking away tears as she said, "It could be some people maybe aren't cut out for relaxers."

But I knew she was wrong about my hair. I knew what I'd done wrong and the hell my hair had been through; and that if she'd seen it after my braids she'd have been impressed. Back to braids I went, promising myself to return to her when I have a mane worth writing home about. And that's where I am now...on a mission to grow nice, healthy hair. But this time, I am not using any dry heat on my hair. I can cook the extension hair all I want but I avoid letting that iron touch my own hair. (Because my hair is natural, I can see where it ends so can stop the iron just short of it.) But I haven't been able to use the iron lately and so I only wear my extensions in braid-outs or straight. And that's because my hair has grown so much it's only between 1-3 inches shorter than the extensions, which makes it hard to keep the iron at a safe distance. I am looking forward to buying longer human hair from hisandher.com so I can go back to being creative.

So to cut a long story short (A little late for that, isn't it?

) I attribute my success to wearing braids without leaving them in too long so they strain that one section of my hair they were started at; washing and conditioning often; and not using any dry heat on my hair.

 

[dahllia]

Thanks. I have had shoulder length hair all my life. Then back in 1991 I had it cut and styled into a Tboz look. Two years later, I was determined to grow my hair back after growing tired of the short look. I received something in the mail from a model name Wanakee who was selling hair products and telling this long detailed story about how all that beautiful (afro textured) hair was her's and she grew it herself. The more I read, the more shocked I was, because I never thought it was possible for me to do that. So I was determined to grow my hair as long as I could. No I didnt buy her products because my friends and I discussed that we shouldnt have to pay for her expensive products when we could find similar products for each in the store, just try to match up the ingredients and purpose and trying to stick to everything she said in the booklet. Well some parts grew reaching as much as 17 inches (the back) and other parts couldnt get passed 5 inches (the very front and sides). I did many good things to make it happen, but it grew fast when it felt like it and stopped growing when it felt like it. It currently remains about 15 inches in back and sides and around 11 inches in the front. It has been this way since 1998. Now that I am on this board reading posts and getting ideas, that feeling is coming back again. I feel that Wanakee was selling a product and could say any darn thing to get us to buy it. I felt that here, I could get the truth. I see that there were alot of things I wasnt doing right as well like wraping tightly every night, not taking multivitamins, using petrolium and mineral oil based products (wont go near them now), not using a clarifying shampoo and simply giving up in frustration. But now I'd like to try again. I am really bored with my length and would love to see my hair go down my back to my waist. I just need the dedication, the positive attitude and the assurance that this can be done.

 

[garr6982]

My hair was long four about 5 years of my childhood and from that point it was always just at neck length or cut. I remember swimming every day one summer without carefully washing the chlorine out and my hair broke off. I've always wanted long hair (growing up in the bouncy/flipped hair era of the '80's), but I could only grow it to about chin length! It still bounced though

!

I didn't learn about how to achieve length until I read Wanakee's pamphlet. Something about protective styles and applying little to no heat rung a cord so I tried it and my hair really took off growing! (That was 1996)!

I made up my mind that I was going to leave it along, very much like Adrienne did, and just wash, condition, put activator throughout, and shea butter the ends! I wore my hair in a bun, let it air dry, and my hair went from shoulder length to near the top of my bra strap! Now that may not sound like a lot to you but for someone who could never grow hair past the shoulders and it look even and healthy, it was quite an accomplishment! It remained at 21 inches, measuring from hairline to back until a hairdressed overlapped my entire head with relaxer after we both thought I was totally natural

! (Another story for another day

)!

Anyhoo, and again, like "Queen Adrienne"

, I realized the less you do to your hair the happier it is to stay with you!

Know that it will grow just keep it clean, free of dryness, and left alone as much as possible!

Happy Growing

!

 

[garr6982]

By the way...

Welcome!!!!

 

[Breeze]

Hi dahllia, nothing to add...just wanted to say

 

[dontspeakdefeat]

[ QUOTE ]
ask me again in about a year!

[/ QUOTE ]

No that's what I call a positive attitude!

 

[CaramelKiss]

Welcome Dahllia!!

 

[dahllia]

Thanx Garr6982, I believe this now too, the less manipulation and stressing, the more length you can retain as it grows in. One thing that helped my hair take off growing I noticed was ALWAYS keeping my ends out of the air, wearing protective styles 99.9% of the time.

 

[dahllia]

Thank you all for welcoming me, I am learning so much of what I am doing right as well as what I am doing wrong. Also I find that If I spend enough time searching the board, I find that the questions I ask have been asked before, lol. I am SOOO glad a board like this exists.

 

[Nessa]

thAT IS A REALLY GOOD INSPRITATION STORY. tHANK YOU GAR9682

 

[debyjay]

Sorry for hi-jacking, but nonie you are very good at getting your point across, can you tell me exactly how you wash and condition your braids and not have them slide out? I had mine slide right down my back and into the drain only two weeks after paying $180 to put them in. I was thinking I need to have the kind that's braided to the end in order to wash it but you have the same kind I had. Thanks.