Short Hair All of Your Life???

[mallysmommy]

I have had short hair (EL to NL) all of my life. I started my HHJ back in 2006 and faced many setbacks and failures as i tried to learn and understand what it took to keep my hair healthy and growing. and i have given up countless times since as well.
It wasn't until November of last year that i finally buckled down and extremely examine my hair and give it what it needed. I never thought that i'd see the day when i stretch my hair down and it hover just a few inches above my arm pit. today i did and I cried yall i really cried. I'm so thankful for everything that ive learned since coming to this site and the people who have contributed in the learning process.

anyways, i wanted to hear from the ladies who have also expirienced the same journeys. I just need a little extra inspiration and motivation to convicnce myself that this is not a mirage and i too can grow and maintain healthy and long hair.

ETA: I am not talking about those who have had long hair before starting (imo greater than SL or longer) i am talking about those who have had significantly short/damaged hair have applied healthy hair techniques and are now flourishing to APL and beyond.

Thanks

 

[claud-uk]

Well done on your progress, you deserved every last damn cm of growth.

What a wonderful post - let the thought of that "lifelong EL/NL hair" be your motivation - surely you are now your own inspiration?

 

[Guinan]

Very Nice Post! Sometimes I feel like I'll never get to my goal length but then I look at old pics of my hair and realize how far I've come. And when I reach WL I will sob like a baby.

 

[mallysmommy]

yes i am. but i guess i dealing with that "can't believe my eyes" emotion. apl has always been my ultimate goal... but who knows maybe i could go further. thanks!

 

[Austro-Afrikana]

I always had short hair. My hair was ear length in the front and neck length in the back. My little sister has 3b hair and hers was always APL, which I saw as really long; I wished I had her hair. I remember when I started wearing quick weaves and phony ponies and an Indian friend of mine asked why i didn't just grow my own hair. My response was "my type of hair doesn't grow", he looked at me like I was stupid but I truly believed that. Everyone I knew with afro textured hair had short hair. The only black or mixed girls with long hair had curly type 3 hair.

I got really upset one day when watching a programme where there was a mixed girl with super long tightly curled hair so I just searched in vain 'how to grow afro hair long'. I was shocked that there were so many results! I clicked on growafrohairlong.com and was so excited, I bought some braiding hair the next day and got braiding. I showed all my black friends the site and they were like oh they probably mixed. I was like "hello I am mixed I haven't got long hair" they simply thought it was understandable for me to have short hair as my mum is black. I was so confused as to why they weren't as excited as I was. I was certain that I would finally get my long hair.

Four years later I am natural after believing my hair was too 'picky' to go natural and am MBL after dreaming of APL. Waist length here I come! :-D

 

[Bublin]

Austro-Afrikana I see you are also in London so we'd have access to the same products. Do you mind sharing your regime and the products you use.

 

[Austro-Afrikana]

@Austro-Afrikana I see you are also in London so we'd have access to the same products. Do you mind sharing your regime and the products you use.

@Bublin Sure. I still occasionally head to braids when I've had enough of my hair and use African Pride braid spray. Out of braids I pre poo, wash and DC with steam once a week or two. I also use a protein treatment every two weeks as I have fine hair. My hair is nearly always in a bun; if not it is in a braid out. I wear my hair in the same bun until wash day so I don't detangle at all in between. I will spray my hair with aloe vera everyday for moisture and also a watered down solution of leave in and glycerine for extra moisture.

I have used HairVeda, Darcy's Botanicals and Komaza Care. My current products are:
HairVeda Sitrinillah Deep Conditioner
HairVeda Vatika Frosting
HairVeda Shikakai Swirl bar
Komaza Care Protein Strengthener
Komaza Care Califa Leave-in
Komaza Care Califa Cream
Fantasia IC Gel

All (except gel) are available on www.britishcurlies.co.uk/store

 

[SummerSolstice]

@Bublin Sure. I still occasionally head to braids when I've had enough of my hair and use African Pride braid spray. Out of braids I pre poo, wash and DC with steam once a week or two. I also use a protein treatment every two weeks as I have fine hair. My hair is nearly always in a bun; if not it is in a braid out. I wear my hair in the same bun until wash day so I don't detangle at all in between.

I have used HairVeda, Darcy's Botanicals and Komaza Care. My current products are:
HairVeda Sitrinillah Deep Conditioner
HairVeda Vatika Frosting
HairVeda Shikakai Swirl bar
Komaza Care Protein Strengthener
Komaza Care Califa Leave-in
Komaza Care Califa Cream

All are available on www.britishcurlies.co.uk/store

I want to try some tasty products. UGGGHHH my pockets

 

[belletropjolie]

I always had short hair. My hair was ear length in the front and neck length in the back. My little sister has 3b hair and hers was always APL, which I saw as really long; I wished I had her hair. I remember when I started wearing quick weaves and phony ponies and an Indian friend of mine asked why i didn't just grow my own hair. My response was "my type of hair doesn't grow", he looked at me like I was stupid but I truly believed that. Everyone I knew with afro textured hair had short hair. The only black or mixed girls with long hair had curly type 3 hair.

I got really upset one day when watching a programme where there was a mixed girl with super long tightly curled hair so I just searched in vain 'how to grow afro hair long'. I was shocked that there were so many results! I clicked on growafrohairlong.com and was so excited, I bought some braiding hair the next day and got braiding. I showed all my black friends the site and they were like oh they probably mixed. I was like "hello I am mixed I haven't got long hair" they simply thought it was understandable for me to have short hair as my mum is black. I was so confused as to why they weren't as excited as I was. I was certain that I would finally get my long hair.

Four years later I am natural after believing my hair was too 'picky' to go natural and am MBL after dreaming of APL. Waist length here I come! :-D

What an amazing difference!

 

[Bublin]

^^^ Thank you Austro-Afrikana
I pretty much do the same thing but I NEED to up my DC game. It's just that it takes a whole day for my hair to dry so DCing more than once a week means me walking around in some kind of 'set'.
Having said that I have re-visited twists and these dry much quicker than braids.

I'll look into those products.
I can't do the extension braids though as my hair is so thin the fake hair cuts into mine.

 

[Meritamen]

I thought it was going to have short hair all my life and had grown to accept that fact. I never thought black hair couldn't grow, I just thought MY hair couldn't grow. Boy, all the terrible things I did to my hair over the years... giving in to peer pressure and begging my mother to press my hair and when that wasn't permanent enough to get a relaxer so I could be like the other girls.
My hair doesn't take chemicals very well and is highly resistant so the burns and scabs always ensured afterward but I suffered through it. :burning: This coupled with lack of proper care always lead to my "annual" trim. Every year like clockwork I would have to go to the salon to get it all cut off because it was so damaged and breaking off like dust everywhere. This usually happened when my hair would start to graze my shoulders. So yeah, I had never been SL before LHCF.
So in my teen years I completely gave up on obtaining long hair and cut it all off to wear trending short cuts of the time. I kept the relaxer into high school and went natural for a bit. If only the hair boards, blogs, and Youtube were around then I would have never gone back to the creamy crack! I had no idea what to do with relaxed hair and was equally as clueless when it came to the texture that sprouted out of my head. I wear my hair in a fro day in and day out. Boring. And detangling?! Oh the pain and headaches I would get trying to “detangle” (more like rip out my hair) while dry. Every time it would grow out I would chop it off because I couldn't manage it. That lead me to texturize and I rocked the gelled spiky look popular among my white peers at the time.
At some point after graduating I went back to the relaxer and when I got my first real job I figured that regular salon visits would be a go idea. So I would go every two months for a fresh relaxer and trim. My hair was stuck at ear to neck length and pitiful. My mom would say I looked good “from the neck down” because my hair always look a hot mess from me giving up on styling it. Then I discovered cowashing out of pure laziness after being tired of the painful detangling sessions dealing with my new growth. The comb would go through my hair like butta baby after that. My hair started to retain length to the point where even my stylist noticed. There were still breakage problems from the relaxer and lack of a regimen but I was going in the right direction.
Then I found the beauty section of Youtube by accident followed by LHCF and the rest is history. At first I was going to grow my hair out with a relaxer which I do think I would have been able to achieve with some effort but I later decided to transition since there was so much enough on how to care for my natural texture among other reasons. I gave up the relaxer and chopped off my hair for the last time back in Nov. 2010. Since then I made SL for the first time ever and am now grazing APL!

Whoa, didn't mean to write that much. Anyway, onto the pictures!!
1) Dec '09 - This was the state of my hair for far too long. Took this back when I first found LHCF.
2) May '10 - The annual cut. *sigh* It was a cute haircut though.
3) Nov '10 - Chop chop! Got rid of the relaxed ends and went to wigs as I grew my hair out.
4) Jan '12 - A braidout. I cornrow the front and leave the rest out.
5) May '12 - My latest length check. APL is so close! Even with a few setbacks along the way I was able to retain some length.

 

[mallysmommy]

I thought it was going to have short hair all my life and had grown to accept that fact. I never thought black hair couldn't grow, I just thought MY hair couldn't grow. Boy, all the terrible things I did to my hair over the years... giving in to peer pressure and begging my mother to press my hair and when that wasn't permanent enough to get a relaxer so I could be like the other girls.
My hair doesn't take chemicals very well and is highly resistant so the burns and scabs always ensured afterward but I suffered through it. :burning: This coupled with lack of proper care always lead to my "annual" trim. Every year like clockwork I would have to go to the salon to get it all cut off because it was so damaged and breaking off like dust everywhere. This usually happened when my hair would start to graze my shoulders. So yeah, I had never been SL before LHCF.
So in my teen years I completely gave up on obtaining long hair and cut it all off to wear trending short cuts of the time. I kept the relaxer into high school and went natural for a bit. If only the hair boards, blogs, and Youtube were around then I would have never gone back to the creamy crack! I had no idea what to do with relaxed hair and was equally as clueless when it came to the texture that sprouted out of my head. I wear my hair in a fro day in and day out. Boring. And detangling?! Oh the pain and headaches I would get trying to “detangle” (more like rip out my hair) while dry. Every time it would grow out I would chop it off because I couldn't manage it. That lead me to texturize and I rocked the gelled spiky look popular among my white peers at the time.
At some point after graduating I went back to the relaxer and when I got my first real job I figured that regular salon visits would be a go idea. So I would go every two months for a fresh relaxer and trim. My hair was stuck at ear to neck length and pitiful. My mom would say I looked good “from the neck down” because my hair always look a hot mess from me giving up on styling it. Then I discovered cowashing out of pure laziness after being tired of the painful detangling sessions dealing with my new growth. The comb would go through my hair like butta baby after that. My hair started to retain length to the point where even my stylist noticed. There were still breakage problems from the relaxer and lack of a regimen but I was going in the right direction.
Then I found the beauty section of Youtube by accident followed by LHCF and the rest is history. At first I was going to grow my hair out with a relaxer which I do think I would have been able to achieve with some effort but I later decided to transition since there was so much enough on how to care for my natural texture among other reasons. I gave up the relaxer and chopped off my hair for the last time back in Nov. 2010. Since then I made SL for the first time ever and am now grazing APL!

Whoa, didn't mean to write that much. Anyway, onto the pictures!!
1) Dec '09 - This was the state of my hair for far too long. Took this back when I first found LHCF.
2) May '10 - The annual cut. *sigh* It was a cute haircut though.
3) Nov '10 - Chop chop! Got rid of the relaxed ends and went to wigs as I grew my hair out.
4) Jan '12 - A braidout. I cornrow the front and leave the rest out.
5) May '12 - My latest length check. APL is so close! Even with a few setbacks along the way I was able to retain some length.

thank you so much for sharing your story. i swear i could copy and paste some of it into my story because i went through the same things. congrats on retaining your length. your hair is beautiful apl in no time!

 

[Nonie]

Congrats OP and to all the success stories in this thread. OP you will find more such stories here: http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=415434

 

[Anavrin]

Very Nice Post! Sometimes I feel like I'll never get to my goal length but then I look at old pics of my hair and realize how far I've come. And when I reach WL I will sob like a baby.

Actually I will too...