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How do you know when you've reached terminal length?
I used to think the ends were getting damaged but
now i'm wondering if it's more that i've reached terminal
length. In earlier years i've had hair that was waist length,
now it is a few inches shorter than waist length and
I can't seem to get back to waist length. Could I be
at terminal length? Can terminal length get shorter over
the years? I'm 57 years old and have a good bit of grey hair
now.
Honestly, terminal is different for everyone and that is why there is no average on a certain length of when people reach terminal. One of my friend thought she reached terminal because her hair hasn't been growing for five years, but it started to grow again because she changed her diet. My sister a long time ago had classic length hair, and it seemed like it stopped growing until she did scalp massages before bed and sure enough her hair grew up to her ankles before she cut it back to waist.
There are many factors to consider if your hair has reached terminal. In my personal opinion if your hair stays the same at some length for over twenty years, then maybe it can be safe to say you are at terminal for the time being, because there are other factors to consider that might help the follicles to grow... Personally, I don't like the concept of terminal length because I feel like just because someone might think that they reached "terminal length" doesn't mean that if they cut their hair short that their hair wouldn't grow again. To me, as long as you have hair on your scalp it will always go through the three cycles that it is biologically programmed to do, and thus logically hairs are constantly always growing and then falling out, and then new hairs have to grow to compensate fall outs. I think I can safely say that if your goal is to grow hair to the floor, then that will all depend on how you treat and care for your hair, as well as the "genes" factor.
Unfortunately, although my goalh when I was 14 was to grow to fingertip length, my terminal length is only APL, so I can only envy others with super lengths.
However, there is something very satisfying in growing to terminal and staying there for as many years as possible.
A few comments on trimming and ends. I don't trim - I don't have enough hair for that luxury! If you don't trim you will develop fairytail ends, if you do, then up to a point you will regain the length, but not entirely. If you trim an inch off a hair which is 34" long, and which would have grown to 36", then it will only grow to 35". You will, in fact, make the longest lengths thinner by reducing the number of hairs which will reach that length.
anyway, whatever kind of terminal length you go for, enjoy the journey!