Reasons Why Your Hair Has Only Gotten To Apl And You've Been Here 3,4,5,6+ Years?

[Misseyl]

I wish it had grown to APL, I've only gotten my hair to grow to collarbone length. Now that I'm natural, I expect to get at least APL, time will tell.

 

[LdyKamz]

Rereading this thread has made me serious about growing out my hair. I already was but I really need to do better. I'm subbing so every time I get hair lazy it will remind me.

 

[CurlyMommie]

I never found my routine. Even when I found what worked for me, I kept trying out different products and regimens, not understanding why my hair wasn't thriving.

 

[bajandoc86]

I made it to grazing APL but then:

My lifestyle/schedule changed,my available time to do all the extras was eliminated and I have struggled to find a routine to fit my hectic schedule.
I love to trim/cut.
Inconsistency with M&S and DCing.
Laziness.

Now I have the drive to figure it all out and a bomb hairdresser so we'll see.

 

[faithVA]

I made it to grazing APL but then:

My lifestyle/schedule changed,my available time to do all the extras was eliminated and I have struggled to find a routine to fit my hectic schedule.
I love to trim/cut.
Inconsistency with M&S and DCing.
Laziness.

Now I have the drive to figure it all out and a bomb hairdresser so we'll see.

I miss seeing your hair. It was always so beautiful. Hope you share soon.

 

[bajandoc86]

I miss seeing your hair. It was always so beautiful. Hope you share soon.

Thank you so much!

 

[abioni]

I did Keratin treatment several times. Tried several brands thinking my hair broke because of a brand. Turns out Keratin is just bad for my hair. It has been almost two years since I had a treatment. I'm APL with some Keratin treated hair left. The Keratin parts keep breaking off so it feels like I'm not retaining length. The texture also didn't revert back to the original so I plan to cut that part off at my 3rd year anniversary.

 

[Fotchygirl]

My question should be reasons why you haven't reached APL and my answer would be, setbacks to to unnecessary stretching, not trimming, not combing during the week and not properly detangling.

 

[L.Brown1114]

I'm bra strap length now. I have heat damage AND bleach damage and for some odd reason I'm retaining length, healthy ends, and my hair, when straight, is silky and soft. No idea how, my hair is a trooper. I plan on dusting every 2 months. Like barely any off. My hair grows 1 inch a month luckily and I plan on staying in box braids and twists I get the most growth from those 2 protective styles.

I first went natural like 4 or 5 years ago but kept going back and forth from relaxed to natural and texlaxed. I plan on staying natural and doing smoothing treatments since I prefer my hair straight but I don't like how grainy relaxers make my hair look. And because my strands are thin relaxers make my hair so greasy due to my sebum and I don't do greasy straight hair so I wound up using more heat ultimately from having to wash my hair more

I do get that regret that if I would have stayed natural and stick with it my hair would be to my butt

 

[mzteaze]

After I reached APL, I got lazy. Extremely lazy. I didn't want to keep up with all the vitamins, the cowashing every couple of days, constant deep conditioning and moisturizing and sealing, etc. It became too much. I just decided that I want to get back to growing my hair, but I'm gonna have to take baby steps.

This!

 

[lana]

I took a good look at my hair journey and I realized that what worked for me whether natural, relaxed, or texlaxed was one product in particular. When I stopped taking my liquid vitamins (so gross to drink, but it works) and stopped using that one product, my hair growth and retention slowed.

The product is a cheapie, but for my hair it works. Mane & Tail Conditioner. It's back in my regimen now and my hair is healthier and growing like a weed. I'm sticking by it and although I'm taking chewable vitamins now...I will be buying my yucky bottle of liquid vitamins.

 

[Daughter]

INCONSISTENCY!!!

^^^Inconsistency is also my problem... I'm stuck at BSL at the back, APL-ish at the front.

I've been rough with detangling my hair, then I didn't detangle enough and that caused problems. I rarely deep conditioned and was haphazard with moisturising and shampooing. I've been more consistent since August, but it's only recently I've got my act together with detangling and today I've given my hair a trim to get rid of those pesky SSKs. I have been pretty good with protective styling since September, and only use heat to dry my hair once a year. I think my hair might benefit from being stretched more often though, so I'm considering having a steam treatment/blow dry once a month... I want the back of my hair to be WL and the front at least BSL *sigh*

 

[JJamiah]

Happy to hear you are in remission!

@naturalmanenyc thank you sis. I am happy to be back and happier that I am taking control of me again.

 

[Shelew]

At first I was going to salons trims and excessive heat appeared to be the reason. Then I started doing my own hair but I have not come up with a regime and stuck with it. I never stick with the same products always changing up because I am a product junky. I think that may be contributing to my stalled state. I use great products but never stick with any trying to see how the next one works. I have looked back at pic and I am always the same length in every picture. Sort of sad considering how much I am constantly doing my hair...

 

[Blessed&higlyflavoured]

Doing tew much.

 

[julzinha]

Besides inconsistency!

I would definitely say not using protein. As a natural, it was always preached that we don't really need protein, which is so wrong. Once I started doing hard protein treatments, my hair was transformed.

Also, being afraid to cut. I used to hold on to damaged ends because I didn't want to lose length, but in the end you end up cutting more. So now I search and destroy all the time.