new thread
Well.
I was always wanting to grow my hair out like Dumbledore (sounds silly, I know).
Then I came across something called a terminal length and now I can't get my mind off of it. I'm very frightened I wont get the length I wont.
How many of you all believe terminal length exists? Do you believe you can eventually reach terminal length even with trims once every 4 months but that it would just tae longer than without trimmings?
Also, I asked this question at LHC but was bashed down at the ignorance that came there.
Does anyone know any studies done to prove this hypothesis/theory exists? If so, who conducted them and can you link me to an educational article on it with correct citings and what not.
Another side question. Do you think I've reached terminal?
I've been growing my hair for approx 6-7 years and it is only 22 inches now. Just at my elbows. It has still been growing from what I can tell.
I've known people to grow there hair for 10 years and it still wold continue to gain length before shedding out.
Thanks in advance!
I'm guessing you *are* trimming every 4 months? If so, how much? That would be the only way to have a rough guideline.
The only way to tell really is when you're hair hasn't grown at all for quite a long time.
At first it was an inch.
The past 2-3 years it has only been half an inch.
My hair still seems to be growing.
See, that's the thing. I haven't cut mine for five years and it was long before that, but it is still growing, and I'm not exactly young (early fifties). I strongly suspect that most people's hair continues growing for longer than the accepted amount of time that you read, but only a few people even try to do that, so a more accurate number just isn't available.
It's easy to measure growth rates, and you can get accurate results in a few months. OTOH, terminal length is much harder to measure, firstly because it takes years to do, and secondly because so few people go for that period without cutting, so that if there ever had been a serious study, then I very much doubt that it could have had enough people in it to be statistically valid.
There are also more than a few people with hair longer than floor length (albeit which I don't want and don't believe that I personally could achieve even if I did), and whilst I can't prove that they don't have a terminal length, if they do have one it doesn't have a functional value. That is, they have too long a terminal length to serve any useful purpose if it doesn't stop their hair from dragging behind them.
Wow, thank you for that very good answer!
Much appreciated. I think I will stay here just for you. =)
Terminal length is absolutely for true and everyone has a different length at which their hair will not grow past. This has always been the case. The majority of men should easily be able to grow hair to waist length. Less beyond, and to the floor a fraction of a percent. "Studies" most likely could be found in surfing the internet I would think.
?????? Is this a community or war zone?
Well, with trims so frequently what would one expect? Measure where your hair is now and let all grow WITHOUT A TRIM for a year and measure again. It should read 6" and if not means that you will at "long last" know that your hair is or is not at terminal length.
Hm, well one reason I have a hard time in believing in terminal length.
Have you seen the youtube videos of JJJlonghair4u2c?
She trims her hair to keep the split ends off and her hair, over years, finally reaches her knees. Would that mean that that is her "false" terminal length? or if you continually cut your hair every 4 months, would you eventually reach your terminal point.
AT THE VERY OUT-OF-THE-ORDINARY LENGTH SHE IS ABLE TO GROW TO, A LITTLE SNIP ON INDIVIDUAL HAIRS HERE AND THERE PREVENTS KNOTS AND TANGLES AS WELL AS THAT PARTICULAR HAIR ITSELF.
I dare say that a couple of years of beginning growth done with shampoo and conditioner without straightner or harsh chemicals as well as trims, haircuts or even-ups of any kind gibves the person the best head start. "After" this evaluate the situation.
The woman on You Tube as well as HairFreaky are most unusual exceptions to what happens to the usual person desiring long hair.
Can you imagine where they would be right now if every 4 months they had headed in for yet another trim?
It is possible to have trims and reach terminal length, but it takes an awfully long time, far longer than you have been growing yours. Hair stylists normal mode d'oeuvre is to cut all the growth off, and will only cut less than all of it off if you saying you are trying to grow it, and sometimes not even then, because they still tend to cut back to where there are no splits or damage.
Yeah that is what that one women I mentioned in one of these posts was saying.
I see how that could work. Because a trim every 4 months only cuts off a little, and eventually the hair would reach terminal but it would take longer, obviously.
I do not go to a hair cutting place anymore. Now I just let a friend trim my hair and if I see any of splits I trim them off with scissors. She does a pretty good job and understands I want to grow my hair out as long as possible so she only cuts off exactly as much I ask her to.
I believe in terminal length. Amen.
Also, I saw your subject on LHC. And I think there was a bunch of pretty good answers there.
Because the hair eventually fall, it means it's finite and not infinite. Think about that : you have a finite time, let's say 30 minutes. No matter how fast you walk, the distance you'll be able to make is finite. Can be a huge distance, but finite anyway. The same for hair : a given life (even if you can't know exactly what it is), a given growth rate. So, a maximum length.
If you got trims in these 6 years, try to stop trimming and see what happen. :-)
Vivien
Thanks for the answer.
Do you know a good way of keeping hair as healthy as possible wiithout trimming? I tend to get a lot of split ends if I dont and I'm nervous about not cutting because tons of specialists say the hair looks really bad if it isn't trimmed.
There are innumerable ways you can help keep your hair stay healthy and some of the various methods work for some hair types but not others (curly vs straight). For example curly haired people find their hair needs more conditioner and less shampoo than straight haired people.
however some basic guidelines to achieve maximum length are:
1. Keep in a ponytail or better yet keep in a segmented ponytail, this minimizes natural wear and tear on your hair from billowing about in the environment and tangling and whatnot.
2. Recommended you use a wide toothed comb (or your fingers, I honestly can't get tangles out with a wide toothed comb but its easy with my fingers) to detangle your hair from time to time, and especially before brushing as brushes easily get caught at, or simple break through tangles which causes split ends. Also recommended that you start combing at the ends of your hair (or close to it) and work your way up, this way you dont just push the tangles down until you meet resistance (one of the tangled hairs being in danger of disconnecting from your scalp if you go any further most likely)
3. Avoid using harsh chemicals on your hair (harsh shampoos or straightening chemicals and the like) and avoid heating implements such as blow dryers (or if you do use them use it on a cool setting). The best thing to do is just let your hair air dry however not everyone has that leisure, some people just sit with their backs against a fan for a few minutes while they watch tv or whatever to let the fan dry their hair faster.
4. Condition your hair, I haven't met or heard of anyone not needing conditioner UNLESS they also do not need to shampoo their hair, in other words their body is producing a good amount of oil for their hair (enough to avoid being dry but not enough to cause it to be greasy if you have washed it with water only). Some people also opt to use some of the beneficial natural oils like jojoba or even olive oil every now and then, with varied results, depends from hair type to type and what conditioner/shampoo you are currently using.
Hope that helped.
I know people who grew hair to their knees, and those who can't grow it past their mid back. I know people who's hair grows so fast they can cut it and have it all back in a year, and those who's hair grows so slow that once cut it hardly grows back. My hair doesn't get any longer, but it's not growing mainly because it splits and breaks off at the ends. I lose it at the bottom due to damage. In the past the ONLY time my hair would grow is when I trimmed off the damaged ends. By removing the splits, I would get more length. It was once I stopped trimming that it stopped growing. Maybe the timing coincided with my terminal length, or maybe I haven't reached it yet but the split ends are preventing it's growth. All I know is that my hair hasn't been gaining any length in many, many years. I trim maybe an inch twice a year, and that inch always seems to come back, but nothing more.
Being a regular frequenter of the LHC, I had a hard time believing that the kind folks there would treat you in such a way, so I checked out your thread.
Not only was there no amount of bashing going on, but people were providing countless links and information pertaining to your question. Yet you were on your high horse "demanding" answers to obvious questions and dismissing good answers as "spam".
Normally I would not get involved in such things but the fact that you treated people who were trying to help you that way really irked me. I would have thought you to be a troll.
I only bring this up to hopefully deter people from wasting their time helping you.
Oh dear!
Once again, you can't speak of which you don;t know.
I didn't respond to every answer in that thread. Those that helped me I let them know my thanks in the private message system because there isn't a need to spam up a forum with useless topics saying thank you.
Another thing, like I said before. but you may have missed. When you make an article, you cite sources. None of them had citations and almost all on .com sites.
Now, I have plenty of friends who can ask for me. So don't worry. and I can find means of going offline to find my answer from a person who understands more of what I'm trying to get at and doesn't jump to conclusions that they don't fully understand.
Thank you for your time nevertheless.
I know I'm stubborn but damn. I just read your thread, how do you not get this? I'll try to condense this into something you may understand.
1) there is no "founder" theres nothing to find. It is common knowledge from years of people noticing that their hair wasn't trailing 20 feet behind them.
2) Everyone's hair, even every individual hair, has a terminal length. this is determined by how fast your hair grows (around .5in. a month) and how long that particular hair lives (usually about 6 years) so thats about a 3 foot average
3) Even if you REALLY REALLY belive that something isn't true, you can't change it. There is a terminal length.
4) If you are trimming your hair its not gonna reach terminal because you keep cutting it. STOP CUTTING IT!!
5) If you still don't want to accept it than stop bothering everybody and go do your own studies with a ruler and #4. At some point you will realise this simple fact of life.
Gooday,
~Jarvis~
since when did something ending in .com become automatically a lie?
Did'nt say a lie.
Just .com are commcercial sites and not the best for information to be taken fully.
.edu and databases like galileo were what I was going at.
...and god forbid wikipedia!
...that isn't the point. I said I was having a hard time believing. I wanted to see a study on it that was given credit to someone with education in the area...
If I were to say I invented a flat iron that could straighten hair without damage but i had no backup to prove it...or even how that worked...it's hard to believe. especially when you just heard about it recently and you are only trying to gather a study that was done on it.
well, like EVERYONE has said. It just is. Hair sheds, and no hair lives forever. Everyone has a certain length that most of their hair can't pass.
If you still refuse to acknowledge this fact, it will still happen. Just go sit in a closet for a while, stop trimming it, and buy a ruler...
or a mirror...
you will see that your hair wont get past a certain point.
And if you STILL don't believe it, than stop wasting LHC's and our space.
You just aren't comprehending.
The -End. Adios!
If you ever figure out the fact was I was looking for the study that proved it, you would know that I was open for change and never stated I fully disbelieved...but was wanting to be proven by hard facts and not word of mouth.
I'll gladly go in the closet but you sir, need to step out of yours!
Buh-Bye!
You don't need a scientific study to prove it. Just the fact that we shed hair proves it. If there was no terminal length, our hairs would stay attached to our heads and keep growing forever.
In another post I mentioned Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. However, it is clear your mother never told you about the Hair Fairy.
The Hair Fairy comes in the middle of the night. First, he sprinkles fairy dust on you so you won't feel what happens next. Then he runs his fingers past each of your hairs and plucks out each hair he thinks is too long. He doesn't take the hairs with him. He leaves them in your mane. If you don't know why, ask your mother about the Shower Drain Fairy.
Bill
Ah,yes! That makes much more sense than terminal length! What was I thinking?
Thanks Gret I had a look at LHC and observed the same thing.
Hummmmmmm......
Kevin
Well if you want longhair I'd stop trimming so much...what you reckon eh trimmers! Mine's down to by belt and I've kept missing my 12 week standing appointment for a few years :-)
Cheers,
John.B
As for the LHC I can't comment as I don't go there very often.
well just make sure you don't trim your hair. I doubt that you have anything to worry about right now about terminal lenth. I am sure that your hair will keep growing.
Your friend Birdman
Every hair on your body has a terminal length, and what determines it is (1) where on your body it is, (2) your heredity, and (3) how old you are.
If there were no such thing as terminal length, for example, your eyelashes would by now be reaching the floor. Dude, they don't.
Bill
You know how you get those odd one or two eyebrow hairs that grow long and curl around poking you in the eye. I often wonder if you leave them how long they would get.
As well I wonder if anybody wrote a thesis on eyebrow hairs.
Kevin
----------------------------------------------------
Yes, I know about those. I have seen people (especially older people) with a few stray eyebrow hairs as long as 3 inches. I wonder what the world record is for them. I will have to research that.
Scott
Scott
Googled it, apparently the world record is 3 1/2 inches, and the guy has 2 eyebrow hairs of that length.
Look at Dennis Healy or The Archbishop of Canturbury...and those do need trimming!
It sounds like you've been trimming it. I'm not sure that everyone has a terminal length, but it should take at least six years to get there with NO trims, and with trims much longer than that.
The question of how often you can trim it and still be growing it leaves out the vital info of how much you are having taken off. Without that, nobody can give you an answer.
Hair grows about half an inch per month, and most hairs are said to grow for about six years before dropping out, according to what you may read, but YMMV.
If this were universally true, then no-one would have hair longer than 36 inches, but plenty do. IME the half inch per month 'rule' is reasonably accurate, and it's not particularly hard to verify. The other 'rule' about how long hairs grow for, and whether they all really stop growing atall, is far more suspect. There are gazillions of people on hair boards online whose hair just says otherwise, and they definitely don't all have fast-growing hair, so loads of people have hair that lasts for longer than that, and I suspect it's actually a majority.
If you have a trim every four months as you suggest, then you only have to have two inches taken off to eliminate all your growth, on average. More than that, and it will actually be getting shorter. IME, with the average scissor-happy stylist, trims more frequent than about nine months won't leave you seeing much growth.
Hair stylists will tell you to go every six weeks, but if pressed, then even they will admit that the ob ject of that is to keep your hair looking exactly the same, not getting longer, and IME if you do that it will actually be getting shorter. Six weeks may be a 'maintenance trim' in theory, but although it ticks them off to be told so, I repeat that most hair stylists are scissor happy. They may suggest a little less frequent than that if you are growing out, but if you follow their advice then any growth will be almost imperceptible, if you're lucky. This is because the more often you go, the more money they get.
6-7 years with trims every 4 months probably won't see you at terminal length, if there really is such a thing.
It might be time to stop feeding the trolls guys.
(Hey didn't you used to go by the name "Mick"?)
At mid back, I'm afraid I've reached terminal length. I've been treating my hair a little better since I've been coming here and got some good tips. It's gotten a little longer but only about 3 inches or so.
And what did you say? Hypothesis? Theory?
Have you ever noticed that horses, lions and other animals with manes don't have 30' of hair dragging behind them? Well, human hair is just that, a "mane". It grows to a certain length and that's it. There's no "theory", mere observance proves it.
Some oddities do grow very long manes, humans and animals, but the longer, the more rare it is. I've seen pics of horses with manes hanging to the ground, but like the 2 headed cow, it's rare.
Seriously though, trims every 4 months? What are you thinking Smitts?
Here's a tip; if you want it longer, don't cut it!
I can just imagine you standing there in front of the mirror, scissors in hand, crying out "Why doesn't my hair grow? Oh why? Oh God, why!" Haha.
See now, that's what bashing looks like. On the LHC you just didn't hear what you wanted to hear and you got all sniffly and stuff. Don't come over hear bad mouthing them.
Good grief,
Paul
PS. Post a pic already, "longhair"!
Rightio. I'll post a picture here in a few minutes for ya.
But, I never said I didn't believe in terminal. I was just having a hard time, I understand hair sheds and what not.
I wasn't asking a study that proved terminal...I was asking for one that proved the study of the growth cycle. I wasn't able to find one on my own so I turned to others for help but that's okay. I'll do some more digging Until I find it.
That's why I got a little annoyed because my question didn't get answered because it was misunderstood. Even after I tried explaining. But, oh well.
Hey friend
Got a puke bucket we could share? we can both puke in it
It is making me upset about people bashing you. I wish that it would stop too. all this bashing is childish
I am with you ok
your friend
Birdman
Whatever Birdman. I think you're still sore about out little religious talk a while back.
If we can't take a little bit of honest critique every once in a while then can we really call it the "MEN's Long Hair Hyperboard"?
Oh! Maybe you want to change it to "The Long Hair Wienerboard".
I trust you saw Smitts response and pic above. I think he's capable of defending himself. If me and him actually did go at it, you'd probably just get crushed in the melee. This bit of jousting was nothing, nobody cried and left the board did they?
You don't know how to take me Birdman. Your way too serious.
Paul
\
you may be right maby i took it too serriusly but I am over the religous thing ealier in fact it doses not bother me
Birdman
Paul and others
You may be right about me taking it too serously but ia m completely over the religious thing that happened erlier but here is a joke it is time to laugh. here is the site of the joke
everybody enjoy!!
Birdman