new thread
I noticed that Long Hair In Albany mentioned he started growing his hair long in 1964 and elektros started growing his in 1973 (http://www.mlhh.org/messages/290856.html). I only started in 2009 - so I'm waaaay behind! I wondered how long other members have had long hair.
Although my hair sometimes covered the top of my ears and reached just over my collar as a kid, my hair was usually much shorter than that and has been basically short all my life.
I never really considered growing my hair long. My hair is very fine, boring dark brown and dead straight - so I thought it wouldn't look good long anyway and didn't bother. But then I finally thought I'd give it a go and find out.
My last haircut was in December 2009 - just over two years ago. And since I started from short, my hair still wasn't really noticeably long until several months after that, say Autumn 2010.
My assumptions were wrong! Although my hair is fine, it has plenty of body if I look after it. It is NOT just boring dark brown; now it's long I can see tiny blond and red streaks in it. And I've now found out it is NOT dead straight at all - it is actually quite wavy - but I never knew that before. I now realise that you have no idea what your hair is really like if you keep chopping it off all the time! :)
Since I didn't decide to start letting my hair grow seriously long (shoulder-length or more) until fairly recently, the whole thing is really still an exciting novelty for me. I know some people here have had long hair MUCH longer than I have and I guess the novelty wears off after a while. But feeling my hair tickling my back is still amazing for me!
Damon
I also started growing my hair long in early 1964, I was 12. My hair, even at the times I had trimmed it has always been longer than the "norm" Today ,at mid back length it is similar to the length I had in the late 60s and through the 70s.
I tried to grow my hair long but I didn't have a good understanding of hair care so I eventually had it cut, even though the girls loved it.
The next time was the winner. I decided to grow it out in jail a month before I was released. I was obsessed and had a lot to learn and It grew to waist length, I cut it in July of 2011.
This is my next hair growing cycle, and It has been growing for 8 months from a complete shave. So far it is looking good. In another 8 months I will be able to tie it back.
In early 2009, I got one of the worst haircuts I ever got. They cut it where it was about one inch long all over my head. That's the last time anybody has even come close to me with scissors, clippers, etc. Now, it's mid-back length and I'm lovin' it.
Steve
20 years ago! But it's been short most of the time since, until I started growing it again about 5 years ago. Mid life crisis?
Here's a montage from early 90s
Regards Andy
Nice pics, Andy! Long curly hair suits you.
Thanks! Here's the latest.
Regards, Andy
I first grew mine long in '91, but cut it all off in '95 when I started looking for a new job.
My last haircut was in May/June '05, and I now have hair I can sit on.
First time was in 1963 when I was 8, but more seriously in 1969 when I was 14. Last trim ever was in 1994 when I was 39.
My first "serious" grow out was like 15yr old. I made it to belt line length before i got it cut. Kinda been toggling between long/short since then depending on my mood (I'm 26 now btw)
I've had long hair all my life (well, longer than the typical guy, anyway). My dad had long hair until I was 5, and my favorite band was KISS by the time I was 3. I even saw then live, when I was 4 & 6 (psycho circus and farewell tours, respectively).
I grew up from as far back as I can remember until about 8 years old with a mullet down past my shoulders (it was the 90s and I listened to metal, so, it was ok lol). This turned into about 4-5 inches all around until 8th grade ('06-'07).
Before the school year, I got a cut and they butchered my hair. I ALWAYS hated haircuts but this one was worse. A little over halfway through the year, on february 15, I got another. The same thing happened. From that day on, I decided that I wasn't going to get another hair cut.
I'm not 5 years, 1 month, and 10 days strong on that commitment and have no intentions on altering it.
Happy growing,
Jarvis
I started keeping it longer around 1980 because it pissed my mom off...it has never been shorter than shoulder since then. I quickly found out that I liked long hair and it gradually got longer (to about mid-back). My last significant haircut, which included bangs, was in the late 80s. I decided to grow it out after that. The last ten years or so the only trimming has been S&D of individual split ends.
It started out as a joke, to see who can get around the rules the most. School only allows for collar length, so we wanted to see who could grow their hair out the longest from collar length.
My friend, who I was competed with, was called up to the office to get asked out to a dance. Needless to say, he was called out for hair length and forced to get a haircut.
By that time, I started to take a liking to longer hair and decided against cutting it.
This is SO true:
you have no idea what your hair is really like if you keep chopping it off all the time!
Anyway, I started 2 years ago, in March 2010, but it wasn't short to begin with -already falling down to my eyes- so I'm guessing we're at about the same length then. I'm now at "clavicle length" if that makes sense :)
Yeah, we're roughly the same length. Mine is about 3 inches below clavicle now. The extra length must be due to all those multi-vitamin tablets I take every now and then 'cause I can't be bothered to eat properly. They ain't doing much to my body (I'm built like a stick) so they must be going straight to my hair!
My hair was about 1" when I started growing - but I never realised it was so greedy. It grabs all the goodness before the rest of my body has a chance. No wonder it grows so fast: it's a vitamin-grabbing monster! :)
Damon
-----------------------------------
I started growing my hair in 2006, when I was 13 years old. I'd grown it earlier, from 2004 or so, and gotten it to around my shoulders by the fall of 8th grade. My parents convinced me to cut it really short at the start of 8th grade, which I hated, so I started growing it out and have been going since then.
It's like halfway down my back now.
My first serious attempt at growing long hair was in 1985 when I was 15 years old and in year 9 at a government high school in Australia. At the time there were only 3 boys out of 300 including myself in the whole school that had hair past the collar/shoulders. Funnily enough there was NO mandatory haircut policy in Australian government schools so both boys and girls were free to grow their hair long if they wanted to other then parents/private school systems being the exception.
Half the girls wore the trendy 80's short hair bobs with horrible perms. Yep growing up in the 1980's sucked where I lived as a lot of kids adopted the camp retro peppie look which included having short hair. My hair growing lasted until early 1988 when I cut it into a mullet (cringing here!) I kept it semi-long until the mid 1990's.
Second time around it's been growing long since Feb. 2008.
Duncan
Hi Damon,
I've had "long-ISH" hair all of my adult life (ever since I left my dad's house when I was 18 y/o); but it wasn't until my 40th birthday (July, 1993) that I finally achieved growing it out long enough to be able to tie all back into a tail.
Other than making the disastrous mistake of cutting my then waist-length hair short in Y2K, I've re-grown / kept my mane looooong ever since.
- Ken
There seems to be quite a mix on this board: true longhair veterans - right there at the very beginning of the longhair revolution - and virtual newbies like me.
I almost wish I'd been around in the early days just to see the reactions from the majority of people then. I get a perverse pleasure from upsetting the status quo. ;)
Damon
-------------------------------------------------