"Terminal Length" hair

[Enyo]

I read a haircare article that said most people should be able to grow their hair near their waist. But it was an article in a Hawaiian publication, so I'm taking that with a grain of salt.

 

[prophetesshope]

it all depends on what you believe i don't live off of scientific practices... and what trully goes on with our hair..... WE will never comprehend if you look at it scientifically. in a few more years they are going to say to keep you thinking about something that is not profitable.

 

[my-my]

I do believe that each person has a terminal length for their hair, however I don't think that a lot of people will know what that is due to your health & nutrition (especially if its poor), breakage, trims, and cutting.

 

[Embyra]

urgh this topic

 

[ebonylocs]

I don't believe that people have a TERMINAL LENGTH. The reason why i believe this is because if you look at people that relax, they HAVE TO KEEP ON RELAXING because they have new growth. If we all had a terminal length, then people would relax and never again need a touch up. Hair can't STOP GROWING.

I also don't believe in terminal length. If people's hair continues to grow for a lil bit while they are dead than surely the hair continues to grow when they are alive. LOL I think peoples hair growth may slow down. But I do believe peoples hair continues to grow. Maybe if you document your progress every few months you will notice the difference in length. Although my hair isn't as long as yours, I have found protective styles have helped me out alot. Good luck and stay encouraged.

I just have to say that I have never seen this proven true in real life. It could just be my own experiences but my hair grew from shaved to sl in 14 months (check siggy) and both my mother and sister have MBL and my mothers was hip length when I was growing up. She would trim it once a month and in the spring she would cut it from hip to MBL and by christmas it was back.
I get about and inch a month on the regular. My personal opinion (not at all based on fact) is that hair is dead and the follicle is the only important thing to growth. If your body is working at its best level and you're feeding it correctly, you hair should be growing

Also because people seem to wonder, my sister is 5'11" mom is 5'5" and I'm 5'5 1/2"

What do these posts have to do with terminal length?

 

[ChristmasCarol]

^^Thanks for bumping - good read

 

[BlackDiamond21]

I do feel like my hair gets TERMINAL around BSL however I do believe that I can do things to get past there, when I am ready. Right now I want to MAINTAIN APL.

 

[AwesomelyNappy]

yes, i believe in terminal length. i also think that many people accept a shorter length as terminal before its length is truely maxed out and do not let their hair live up to its true growth potential. I think a lot of peoples terminal lengths are a lot longer than they think or give their hair credit for.

I also think that the actual terminal lengths on an individual can possibly change throughout life. So a girl might be terminal at mid back length when in her 20s no matter what she does, but the same girl in her 40s might be terminal at apl no matter what she does. or maybe in her 40s she might be terminal at waist length. i think the terminal lengths on any given person, in itself, may be cyclic.

 

[LovinLocks]

Lordy, forgot I started this thread and here it is still going. If I recall correctly the thought of all the work involved with growing hair . . . this terminality got a tad depressing for me, LOL. But you know what, I've come away with the thought of me wanting to go as ayurvedic as I can afford and letting the chips fall where they may (regarding length). Last year I got between MBL and about 6" above WL before I did a BC this Spring. So, now I'm back on the bandwagon and I am enjoying the trip.

Lovin' you ladies for all the knowledge you kick and share.

LL

 

[LovinLocks]

urgh this topic

Yeah, beating a dead horse to some (then don't view/contribute); but new knowledge to others, Chica.

 

[Missjae09]

I think this is a good topic! Thanks for the thread op! I've never had long hair, so I don't know what my growth potential is much less what the max is/would be. From what I have gathered, I seems like most believe that we do have a terminal length, it's just much longer than most think it is.

Is there anyone out there who has healthy hair, no set backs, or cuts within a significant amount of time but have found that their hair has gotten to a certain length and no matter what they do, they cannot grow past a certain length?

 

[theLovelyStyle]

I used the relax example because is the best way that i can explain it. I thought my hair wasn't growing when i didn't know about hair care and i had a relaxer...while i had to get TOUCH UPS, but yet i thought my hair wasn't growing.

Yea I understand, it takes a minute to differentiate between hair growth and retaining hair length.

 

[theLovelyStyle]

There logically HAS to be such a thing as terminal length. Think about it, hair has these stages of growing, chilling, and bouncing. Each stage is a predetermined amount of time.
If hair did not have terminal length then hair would ALWAYS be in the growth phase.

Also I think the confusion comes in with the term "terminal length". Length can be affected by so many factors such as breakage. It should be "maximum time for hair to grow". The term "terminal length" can only technical be correct only if one where to have grow out there hair without any breakage AT ALL.

Makes sense now?

 

[growinghealthyhair]

Another key point though- is that all of the hairs on your head are not in the same phase at the same time. Other wise we'd go completely bald, eyebrowless, lashless, and "brazilian" when we reached the end phase.

Then we'd have to start back over every 5-7 years! This is why I partly agree/partly disagree with the idea of an overall terminal length as a collective term. The length that each strand will grow to is not *pre-set* as is kind of implied by the term "terminal". What is pre-set is the length of the growth phase. Also, some strands will not be at end phase when others are- and those strands that are not, may continue to grow well past the length that the shed hairs made it to before they fell out.

Not to mention, with proper hair care and good circulation some strands may grow to a longer length (within the same period of time) than the others which may fall out more quickly. For example lets say during the anagen phase of one strand I slacked on my regimen- and that strand only grew to a certain length. I may have at some point gotten my stuff together during the anagen of another strand. So strand b will have grown longer than strand a did- though both had the same length of anagen phases. Don't know if that made a lick of sense.

This explains how we trim our hair in blunt cuts and yet a few months later our ends are no longer even (splits aside).

So yes, I agree that there's a terminal length to a certain degree-- but I think what's more important is the length of the growth phase. Terminal length just happens to be the length the hair got to before the growth phase ended. But as is highly proven by LHCF you can maximize your growth phase- and make the most of that time- using various techniques.

I guess my point is just that the main factor is that of the length of the phase- not the hair. The former is relatively fixed, but the latter is not pre-set.

amara11

You really broke it down for me. I was confused until I read your and a few other posts (who said yes to terminal length). I can totally understand it, when you view it as each STRAND having it's own "terminal length". It didnt make sense before because like you stated we would be BALD. This totally makes sense. At first i was thinking maybe i would never reach my goal length.