honeydrop, please don't use other people's photos as a gauge for your own hair. what you should do is develop a system to track your own progress. for instance, if you occasionally get your hair flatironed, take pics right after that. some people do it after they blow dry. whatever you decide, do the exact same thing prior to taking pics.
always have the camera at the same distance, and take the pics in the same spot. doing it this way makes it very simple to track your progress.