What's your hairstory?

[growwithme]

There are so many nonbelievers out there that think that one can't grow hair past the longest length of their childhood. This was discussed on BHM before and there are a lot of people that say that our hair has a terminal length just like our other hairs on our body and once it reaches this length, it stops growing. I believe this to be true but I think that most of us haven't reached our terminal lengths because of breakage or cutting. Some people think that it is just not possible and unrealistic for some us to even try to grow our hair past a certain length.

When I here stories or see pictures of women with hair longer than they've had in their entire lives, it inspires me. My goal is mid-back length and I have never had this before. Sometimes, I feel like giving up and just chopping it off. I am in need of inspiration...so please share your hair stories.

 

[growwithme]

Hellooo...anyone???

 

[JazzyDez]

Well I am still a work in progress....From what I see on this board the possibilities are endless...or maybe waistlength . You just have to learn the proper hair maintenance for your hair and show it some TLC. It will reward you.....

 

[devilish1]

Ok, here is my hairstory. Grab a snack, this may take a while. When I was 4, my mom decided that I should get a jheri curl because my hair was (nappy) and unmanageable, unlike my younger sis who has 3b hair. Anyhoo, I got jheri curls from 4 to about 14years old. In between those years, my mother attempted to relax my hair. Needless to say, I was left with a TWA. She did this 3 times in that ten year span, always leaving me bald. So I never had hair past my ears for the first 14 years of my life. When I made 15, after not getting a jheri curl for a year, my grandma took me to a salon and had it relaxed. The results were wonderful. Then, being a hardheaded teen, I started to experiment with bleach, and permanent dyes. Needless to say I was breaking my hair off again. Can u believe that I used to think it was amusing to soak my hair with Pump it Up super strength spritz and then curl it with the curling iron just to hear the sizzling and see how my hair stuck to the iron. . Fast forward to 6 years ago, the breakage was so bad from my "experiments" that I decided to get microbraids. Those things matted my hair so bad because I left them in sooooooooo long, back to a TWA. I continued to get micros until my hair was decent length. In 2003, I got serious about my hair. I did a search and ran across Cathy Howse. I followed her methods for about a year and had amazing results. I somehow stumbled upon this forum doing a google search and have picked up amazing tips. Here it is 2006 and I have healthy bsl 3c/4a relaxed hair and I could not be happier

WHEW, I need a nap

 

[brownhaired_bonanza]

I don't think this will be too long, lol. Up until i was about 9 years old, my mother pressed my hair straight. It was always pretty thick and healthy. At 9 I got my first relaxer from a friend of mom. I don't recall her name but she obviously knew what she was doing because my hair always stayed strong and looked good. From that point on I would get a relaxer several times a year (versus every 8 weeks like I do now) because my mother would often wash my hair and blowdry (yes blowdry) it straight until it became so thick that she would take me to go get it done again. From the age of 13 till now (i'm 28) I got my hair done by a professional stylist every 2 to 3 weeks. I had several stylists who used different methods and different relaxers, none of which negatively impacted my hair. I've been fortunate to never have had a hairdresser take my hair out or cut it all off. Yup, pretty lucky, no?

 

[PinkGyrl]

Ok, here is my hairstory. Grab a snack, this may take a while. When I was 4, my mom decided that I should get a jheri curl because my hair was (nappy) and unmanageable, unlike my younger sis who has 3b hair. Anyhoo, I got jheri curls from 4 to about 14years old. In between those years, my mother attempted to relax my hair. Needless to say, I was left with a TWA. She did this 3 times in that ten year span, always leaving me bald. So I never had hair past my ears for the first 14 years of my life. When I made 15, after not getting a jheri curl for a year, my grandma took me to a salon and had it relaxed. The results were wonderful. Then, being a hardheaded teen, I started to experiment with bleach, and permanent dyes. Needless to say I was breaking my hair off again. Can u believe that I used to think it was amusing to soak my hair with Pump it Up super strength spritz and then curl it with the curling iron just to hear the sizzling and see how my hair stuck to the iron. . Fast forward to 6 years ago, the breakage was so bad from my "experiments" that I decided to get microbraids. Those things matted my hair so bad because I left them in sooooooooo long, back to a TWA. I continued to get micros until my hair was decent length. In 2003, I got serious about my hair. I did a search and ran across Cathy Howse. I followed her methods for about a year and had amazing results. I somehow stumbled upon this forum doing a google search and have picked up amazing tips. Here it is 2006 and I have healthy bsl 3c/4a relaxed hair and I could not be happier

WHEW, I need a nap

LMAO...

The same thing happened to me.

I use wash my hair every 3 weeks. Sometimes with soap
I would even wet my hair sometimes to use the curling iron.
Then I found Cathy Howse UBH products. I searched for reviews on google and found LHCF.
I couldn't have done it without yall

 

[BroadstreetBully]

okay, this is loooong, so it's only for the bored...

I love threads like this. It gives us an opportunity to pour our heart out and find a common bond.


My mother never took care of my hair. I guess she never found a reason to. She gave me a relaxer when I was really young. All she ever did to my hair was put it in 3-4 ponytails with those dangblasted barrettes on the ends. I hated those things and when I turned around too quick I'd end up with a black eye. I went to an all white school until 2nd grade so I always felt like an outsider because of my hair. I always wanted to wear it down like “Shelley” and “Rebecca” but my mother would always tell me "no." Eventually those million ponytails became one short broken off ponytail. Like I said before, my mother did very little to my hair. She would slap a touchup on it, and use some Pink Oil Moisturizer to slick it back into that same ole lame ponytail. My hair was pretty much short and broken off throughout Elementary school. Thinking about it now depresses me because I think it is important to teach children about having pride in themselves. No matter what their race or hair texture, every little girl needs to feel like they are special enough for their mother to spend a few extra minutes to make them look nice. Now my mother always had her hair looking good. She had some bouncy hair a bit past shoulder length.

In 8th grade I became obsessed with natural hair. So, I cut off all my hair. My mother just laughed. She took me to the barber shop to have it trimmed. When I look back on that day, I admire my attitude about it because I didn't shed a tear over it. I hated how unhealthy my hair was and this transition gave me hope. To be honest, I was happy that at the time that I was attending a small mostly white middle school because no one said anything negative about the cut. I received some compliments from older women who swooned over my shiny, short and sassy coils. They would ask "Wow, how do you get it to do that??"

I started wearing braids in hopes that it would help me grow my hair. The braider braided them so tight that my hairline looked like I had aged 70 years! I also started doing something real stupid. I colored it a very light brown. Because I began to have very negative reactions to my short, natural hair by the black community I thought that if I colored it somehow I would be accepted. The color did help and reduced the negative reactions. It's weird how color can do that. I damaged my hair so much that I am surprised most of it stayed on my head!!! I would apply new color over previously colored hair the day before I would have it braided.(YIKES!!). One day this guy asked me why I always wore weave and if I hated my hair. That got me to thinking, still I did nothing about it. After I removed the braids I would color the same night and have some more put in the next day. I did this up until 10th grade. By then my hair had reached my shoulders which I still can't believe!!! However it was still natural and there was no way I was going to wear my natural texture to THAT high school, I’d be taunted like nobody’s business. So I started pressing it with a hot comb……..EVERY MORNING!!! It was so dry and nasty looking that I simply wore it in a clamp. By 10th grade I decided to get a relaxer since constantly hot combing my hair was doing too much harm. Now imagine this…colored hair that has been processed to the end of its life …with a relaxer. Yes, I had the nerve to go to a beauty salon and have my already breaking hair processed with a relaxer. And this lady did it!! And there was a handful of hair in the sink afterwards. After that, my hair was neck/chin length, but it would swing and shine like nobody’s business. My friends played in my hair because of how silky it felt. Weird. I think this is what over processing is. It was so straight that it felt silky but it would fall out in clumps every time I washed it. It eventually grew back to right above shoulder.

I started experimenting with weaves in the middle of 10th grade. First with sew-ins, then with glue ins. I know a lot of people here shun off glue ins…but glue ins grew my hair like nobody’s business! My hair went from grazing shoulder to an amazing, thick looking shoulder length. Classmates asked me if it was really my hair! However, I still neglected to take care of my hair and it generally stayed the same length for a long time. I do remember my hairline still looking like crap. This one white girl asked me if I pull my hair out when she saw how much hair was missing on my forehead.

My 12th grade year I got stupid again and dyed my hair. Of course it started breaking and the like. I didn’t care, I was convinced that my hair would always look like crap because I never had nice hair, so why bother? I did come across growafrohairlong.com and was astonished by Robin’s hair story. I, too, wanted long hair but didn’t have the discipline for it.
While I grew the color out I kept abusing my hair. One day I went to get a relaxer and a wrap. I was in a private room with the stylist and another client who was waiting. While the stylist was doing my hair I felt a bit of uneasiness for a second. She snickered a bit as did the other client. I didn’t know what happened, however a few months later when I went for a touchup at a different salon, the beautician parted my hair in the back and gasped. I had a spot of 1 inch long hair the size of a half dollar in the back of my head and going down a line in the back!! What the hell did the last stylist do??? The funny thing is that I didn’t care. I knew my hair would grow back, it would just look like crap. Oh well. Just like when I was younger and throughout Junior High and High School I rarely did anything with my hair. The one thing I did do right was stretch my relaxers and that was out of laziness and lack of money. Also I always wore my hair up a week after I got a touchup cause I hated my hair. I just didn’t want to look at it. So I continued with my hair loathing up until a few months ago. Something in me made me want long hair. I was so depressed about my hair. I would see all these cute styles yet I could never wear them. I thought about getting another weave yet it just didn't feel right. I didn't want to worry about hiding my tracks. I told myself I had to choose between coloring it and growing it long. If my hair had to stay short at least a coloring would give it some style. I almost chose color . However, one day, our of curiosity, I went back to growafrohairlong and saw the before and after pics. I started paying more attention to the information on there. Then I went to Google and typed in “black women with long hair”. I came across Cathy Howse’s site. Yet another non-mixed black woman with long hair! I thought it was rarely possible. I did see plenty of black women with long hair, however in high school they were always saying they had some “Indian in them” so I gave up. Today I know most of them were lying just to seem cool. Most likely their hair was long because their mothers took good care of it when they were children. I learned so much from Cathy Howse. I learned that there was nothing wrong with me stretching my relaxer. I had heard from so many beauticians that I was damaging my hair by not filling their pockets with money every 4-6 weeks. I learned that my problem was that I wasn’t moisturizing my hair and still washing it every three weeks. With that information my hair grew like crazy. By just washing my hair more often it grew 1/4 of an inch within a week! I then found BBBH and this board and have never been happier!! I’ve always been someone who gave up on new endeavors because I felt like I would never succeed. However, this is something I feel so passionate about. Whenever I want to give up I think about the inspirational ladies on this board. I also think about my lifetime of bad hair. The only type of bad hair is hair that looks chewed up and won’t grow. I know my story is long and that is only the surface. But I always feel the need to place my feelings out there. I know there are many ladies on here who have similar hair pasts. I want it to be different this time. I’ve always been the girl with the short hair and low self esteem. Now I want to be the girl who cares more about herself. One day it will show.

 

[KeraKrazy]

Thats a great post redriot very touching and inspiring, may all your hair ambitions be fulfilled.

 

[growwithme]

Thank you ladies for responding. I really enjoyed reading those, they were very interesting, inspirational and familiar to me. I guess since I asked the question, I should tell my hairstory so here it is:

As a child, my hair was pretty much a dry mess. My mother has naturally bone straight hair and had no idea what do do with mine so it was usually in two loose afro puffs until I was about six when she took me to get a relaxer at the suggestion of one of her friends or someone. I remember being happy because my hair actually had body and bounce. It wasn't long before I had the broken off edges and stiff over-processed look. People were constantly telling my mother where to take me, what to do and what products to use in my hair. She tried sometimes but was never consistent with anything. I spent most of my childhood going to different stylists and sometimes not going at all for long periods of time. My hair was usually somewhere around shoulder length and reached armpit once or twice but was usually trimmed back to my shoulders by a stylist who said it was too damaged. My hair suffered for the most part although there were times when it was really healthy but since nothing was ever consistent, I had no idea why.

From the time I was in 5th grade until, I graduated from high school, I went to predominately white schools and like some others, I suffered from insecurities and felt self-concious about my hair. During seventh and eight grade, I constantly curled my hair with a curling iron and tried sun-in in an attempt to get highlites. In the ninth grade, I went to a stylist for a touch-up and ended up getting about four inches cut off because she said I had a lot of damage. I cried and then a couple of months later, I decided to get a short cut and cut it up to my ears in an even bob. I learned how to take care of it without using a lot of heat at this point and it stayed healthy. I decided to keep it short throught most of high school until my senior year. By the time I went to college it was pretty healthy and between shoulder and armpit. When I went to college, I was constantly blow drying and curling, once again. My hair always appeared healthy and thick but stayed the same length but it didn't bother me. I ended up cutting it into a short bob once again during my sophomore year in college. It grew back super-fast after I got it braided a couple of times.

When I got pregnant with my first child, my hair thickened and grew past the length that it was for so long and even after I had him, the texture stayed the same and it did not shed. It kept growing but I decided that I wanted highlites once again and the stylist went on and did it. My hair broke off where the highlites were almost all the way to my scalp. Once again, I got frustrated and chopped it off again right before my son's second birthday (he's almost 10 now). This was back in 1998 and my hair hasn't been in good shape ever since. It has started to get long and then short again. A couple of years ago during a time when I was blow-drying, flat ironing and curling once a week, I noticed that my hair was shorter than it was the year before when I was looking at the picture on my costco card and I got a little depressed. I decided that I was going to have to do better and that I was not going to chop it off again. I got online and did a search on Black haircare and I found this site and some others. I still didn't get serious until recently and I'm still in the process of nursing my hair back to health. Not using heat so much and low-manipulation is working wonders for my hair.

This site (and the others on Black hair care and growth) has truely been an inspiration to me and I hope to one day be an inspiration to others. The ladies here have made me see that through persistence, discipline and good hair care, I can have long hair. I can't wait to show all the people out there who are still constantly telling me that my hair won't grow past a certain length that they're wrong.

 

[hopeful]

Thats a great post redriot very touching and inspiring, may all your hair ambitions be fulfilled.

ITA. That was beautiful.

 

[hopeful]

...
I can't wait to show all the people out there who are still constantly telling me that my hair won't grow past a certain length that they're wrong.

I feel you growwithme...

 

[KhandiB]

Well Here is mine..

My mother pressed my hair until I was 10 and decided I wanted a Jheri Curl, my hair was what would be considered "brastrap" and the lady who did my JC said she needed to cut my hair , so she cut it to nape length and for about 3 years I wore a Jheri Curl.. Got my first Relaxer at 13, but wore my hair in a ponytial for no lie appox 2 years, wash, part bangs in the front, part bangs in the back, use my Gold N Hot curling iron on high with some Rave Hairspray and curl my bangs and tons of Sun In Im lucky my hair hasnt fallen out

Around 15 I started wearing my hair out, still curling the hell out of it, and using tons of Pro Styl gel I cut my hair when I was 16 and kept it short until I started trying to grow it out in 2001 when I was 26... I have cut it a few times between then and now but my progress it pretty cool. Because of this board I have a better knowledge of taking care of my hair and it has paid off..

2001

2006

 

[BroadstreetBully]

Thank you ladies for responding. I really enjoyed reading those, they were very interesting, inspirational and familiar to me. I guess since I asked the question, I should tell my hairstory so here it is:

As a child, my hair was pretty much a dry mess. My mother has naturally bone straight hair and had no idea what do do with mine so it was usually in two loose afro puffs until I was about six when she took me to get a relaxer at the suggestion of one of her friends or someone. I remember being happy because my hair actually had body and bounce. It wasn't long before I had the broken off edges and stiff over-processed look. People were constantly telling my mother where to take me, what to do and what products to use in my hair. She tried sometimes but was never consistent with anything. I spent most of my childhood going to different stylists and sometimes not going at all for long periods of time. My hair was usually somewhere around shoulder length and reached armpit once or twice but was usually trimmed back to my shoulders by a stylist who said it was too damaged. My hair suffered for the most part although there were times when it was really healthy but since nothing was ever consistent, I had no idea why.

From the time I was in 5th grade until, I graduated from high school, I went to predominately white schools and like some others, I suffered from insecurities and felt self-concious about my hair. During seventh and eight grade, I constantly curled my hair with a curling iron and tried sun-in in an attempt to get highlites. In the ninth grade, I went to a stylist for a touch-up and ended up getting about four inches cut off because she said I had a lot of damage. I cried and then a couple of months later, I decided to get a short cut and cut it up to my ears in an even bob. I learned how to take care of it without using a lot of heat at this point and it stayed healthy. I decided to keep it short throught most of high school until my senior year. By the time I went to college it was pretty healthy and between shoulder and armpit. When I went to college, I was constantly blow drying and curling, once again. My hair always appeared healthy and thick but stayed the same length but it didn't bother me. I ended up cutting it into a short bob once again during my sophomore year in college. It grew back super-fast after I got it braided a couple of times.

When I got pregnant with my first child, my hair thickened and grew past the length that it was for so long and even after I had him, the texture stayed the same and it did not shed. It kept growing but I decided that I wanted highlites once again and the stylist went on and did it. My hair broke off where the highlites were almost all the way to my scalp. Once again, I got frustrated and chopped it off again right before my son's second birthday (he's almost 10 now). This was back in 1998 and my hair hasn't been in good shape ever since. It has started to get long and then short again. A couple of years ago during a time when I was blow-drying, flat ironing and curling once a week, I noticed that my hair was shorter than it was the year before when I was looking at the picture on my costco card and I got a little depressed. I decided that I was going to have to do better and that I was not going to chop it off again. I got online and did a search on Black haircare and I found this site and some others. I still didn't get serious until recently and I'm still in the process of nursing my hair back to health. Not using heat so much and low-manipulation is working wonders for my hair.

This site (and the others on Black hair care and growth) has truely been an inspiration to me and I hope to one day be an inspiration to others. The ladies here have made me see that through persistence, discipline and good hair care, I can have long hair. I can't wait to show all the people out there who are still constantly telling me that my hair won't grow past a certain length that they're wrong.

Wonderful story. Sounds like mine! Why do we keep screwing up our hair when it starts growing? As soon as my hair started making progress I would go and get it colored. Oh NO MORE!!

 

[BroadstreetBully]

Thats a great post redriot very touching and inspiring, may all your hair ambitions be fulfilled.

Thank you! Hopefully they will be in a few years!!

 

[BroadstreetBully]

Well Here is mine..

My mother pressed my hair until I was 10 and decided I wanted a Jheri Curl, my hair was what would be considered "brastrap" and the lady who did my JC said she needed to cut my hair , so she cut it to nape length and for about 3 years I wore a Jheri Curl.. Got my first Relaxer at 13, but wore my hair in a ponytial for no lie appox 2 years, wash, part bangs in the front, part bangs in the back, use my Gold N Hot curling iron on high with some Rave Hairspray and curl my bangs and tons of Sun In Im lucky my hair hasnt fallen out

Around 15 I started wearing my hair out, still curling the hell out of it, and using tons of Pro Styl gel I cut my hair when I was 16 and kept it short until I started trying to grow it out in 2001 when I was 26... I have cut it a few times between then and now but my progress it pretty cool. Because of this board I have a better knowledge of taking care of my hair and it has paid off..

OMG, you are sooo pretty! With a face like that I'm sure you'd be stunning bald!

 

[growwithme]

Wonderful story. Sounds like mine! Why do we keep screwing up our hair when it starts growing? As soon as my hair started making progress I would go and get it colored. Oh NO MORE!!

It was a hard lesson to learn but, I've learned my lesson. No more color or highlites for me. My hair can't take it. I'm getting some grey hairs anyway so the I guess I'll get the effect of highlites by putting a semi-permanent rinse over it. I'm just always tempted to cut it now. I am really struggling with that. I want long hair but I get impatient at times.

 

[WaterMoccasin]

Well, let's see:
I was the weirdo in the family with short, "nappy" hair. I didn't learn until my teens (when my mom told me) that my mom had tried all kinds of styles/processes on my hair throughout my childhood; I just didn't remember it. All I remember was that I had finger-length hair until I was about 9.
Then at about that age, my hair hung around shoulder-length to armpit length for years to come.
I got my first relaxer (as far as I could remember) when I was 10 and started doing my own hair which was always in too-tight styles- so much so that I ended up with one side of my hair permanently thinned out. But it was still always shoulder-APL.
In seventh grade I started roller-setting my hair all the time so it was always bouncy, curly, felt fine and healthy. In ninth grade, I wanted a new style, and a chance to start my hair all over again (and try to grow the thin side back) so my mother allowed me to get it cut down to about an inch all around. It grew back to shoulder-length in about 10 to 11 months and once again, hung around APL for years to come.
In twelfth grade I cut it to a bob for the prom so it was ear to chin-length and I kept that style for about six months. Then I let it grow out.
At 19, it was getting longer- I got braids, then went to a salon for a relaxer after taking them out, but the hairdresser cut it to my shoulders due to 'damage'. I got mad, decided what the hell, and one month later, went to a different hair salon for a pixie cut with the intention of going natural. I didn't stop relaxing it until 4 months later though. So for the next 2 years, I let it grow back out in its natural state.
But I pressed and pressed that bugger all the time (hot comb). I think I lost hair due to the constant excessive heat and dry state I would leave it in. So this time, it took about 2 years for my hair to get to shoulder-length again.
Then I found LHCF. I was still shoulder-length.
I finally saw some progress in 2004, in fact, grew a lot of hair that year. Reached BSL for the first time ever! (as far as I can remember) And I was still doing well through 2005 (where I definitely reached my longest ever) until I got my hair "trimmed" by Dominicans in mid-2005. They took off about 3 inches, but it grew back pretty quickly- at least to the point where I was 6 months before the trim. However, it hasn't returned to the length/thickness it was right before it was trimmed yet.
My downfall came with the relaxers I had started to put through my hair again (and all the way through to get it to the right level of 'texturized').
So my hair is currently sickly, especially after the near-micro braids I had in recently that wreaked havoc on my hair when they were being put in, and when they were taken out. But it's still longer than it ever was pre-2004! And I'm hoping to repair, thicken, and grow some more!