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Anyone else having trouble deciding on a hair length? I was just curious.
Darrin
Been there, done that.
As someone who has had long hair since 1964
I'd suggest goinhg for terminal length, experience
having hair at various different lengths. Then you'll
have an idea of what length you prefer.
During the 1980s I had knee lentth hair. At the time
I felt it was too long and cut it back to waist length.
Now that i'm 60 years old I regret doing that, I wish now
that I had kept the knee length hair and figured out ways
to deal with it so that I could keep the length.
Ultimately the best way to decide on a length is to just
let it grow to terminal length and experience the joy of
letting your hair grow. Try different ways of arraning
your, i.e. wearing it loose, pony tailing it, bunning it,
braiding it, pig tailing it, etc. One of the great things
about having long hair is you can wear it in lots of
different ways.
One style I absolutely refuse to do is cutting the hair.
The hair will reamin long until the day I die.
Just be sure to enjoy the journey in growing your hair.
I started growing my hair long in 1964 and I thrived on breaking all the rules on hair length and the dress code. And now that i'm 60 years old those early years on the 1960s were the best.
I loved going to school and hearing the complaints about my hair.
The more they complained the more I was determined to grow my hair long ahd keep it long. That all started in 1964 and now
in 2015 it's still long. I won and they lost.
Thanks for the wise and kind reply Long Hair in Albany! I letting this issue cause me anxiety. I then feel guilty for having anxiety over such a trivial issue. I mean people have many more serious problems. I will take your advice and try to get over my anxiety.
Darrin
I learned a long time ago not to have anxiety over having long hair. As they say, haters are going to hate. If they don't have long hair to complain about, they'll find something else to complain about. In my case it would be things like how big my
nose is, how short I am, my weight, etc. Hair is not a tivial
issue, I would not cut my hair just like I would not cut off
my left arm, or my right leg.
Never had to fret. My hair was nearly waist length in the 70s. but my favorite length was mid back. When I decided to grow it out again 5 years ago. I was starting form just above shoulder length. Thought about going to waist length. but once again found my comfort level and best length is mid back. Enjoy the lengths as they come. Grow it as long as you can. then decide. its a personal thing, anyway.
*blinks*
Nope.
Umm. Longer?
More seriously, "longer" really was the decision...and knowing that I could always cut it if it got too long for me (for whatever reason).
The thing is...setting a goal and worrying about it for something that growing more or less inevitably months years decades...and that goal being a fairly fixed amount of time away...is a sucker bet and a great way to mess up your head.
Sure, you can consider the average growth is 6" per year, but most people will trim or shape their hair while growing so the actual gain will be (much) less.
Much better to resolve to not cut it and see what happens and let it grow until you are happy with the length.
I would be incredibly pleased if the growth at my tips was as much as the growth at my scalp, but that isn't happening, so I just don't worry about it...and every year or so I notice another inch or so of growth or that last wrap on my bun being longer and more substantial.
Couldn't agree with you more! The only way I was able to grow my hair out was to let go of any goal except longer. That way I'm not always measuring, worrying, waiting. Now I can enjoy all the stages of hair growth.
It's much more satisfying this way.
Ter-mi-nal! Ter-mi-nal! C'mon everybody, join the chant! Ter-mi-nal! Ter-mi-nal!
Great insights already seen. Grow as long as it makes ya happy.
Don
For the programmers out there, this part makes sense.
The amount of care and worry required to grow long hair is of O(n^2)
Now plug in your satisfaction formula, which is typically O(n)
The first equation will soon be bigger than the second one. Now find where they are parallel. (assuming terminal length is longer)
For the normal people (I kid, I kid) out there,
If you double the amount of hair, it takes four times as much time to brush it and care for it, but only two times as much hair length.
Now figure out where if you grow an extra cm it's worth that extra amount of time to care for that extra hair exactly the amount of satisfaction that you would get out of it, and cut it exactly there.
Or for us people who don't want to do any math, just go for terminal length.
I'll take issue with both those formulas. The time required to care for my hair peaked during the growing out stage (til midback), then declined slowly til around tailbone length...and has remain essentially constant from there to calf length (any additional time caused by length balanced by reduced care time due to better condition).
Detangling is all about the ends (even under worst conditions most of the tangling is in the ends). Washing is pretty much length independent since my washing routine is all about the scalp. Daily preparation consists of a bun that takes less than 15 seconds...that length that got me an additional wrap takes a fraction of a second. S&D takes the same amount of time, since there are the same number of hairs. If I trimmed that would also be a constant.
Satisfaction isn't linear either. If you go by a pollster's 1-7 rank (from totally unsatisfied to totally satisfied), in my growth that I can remember, I started at a 4 (neither satisfied nor unsatisfied)[1], when I started my hair growing rebellion it dropped to a 3[2], then quickly rose to a 5[3] and stayed there as it went up and down with bangs at shoulder plus. When I stopped cutting and grew out the bangs it dropped to a 3[4] until it was all long enough to stay back when it rose to a 5, and when I figured out styles and hairtoys a 6[5], where it has stayed for the last decade.
I will admit, that the satisfaction and care curves are probably quite different if you are starting from (near) 0 length and you have to learn how to deal with it from scratch. I've never had to deal with hair that is short enough to stand up or of a type that grows "out" rather than down.
[1] As a kid I didn't care about my hair, never so short at a pixie or crew cut, never so long as to be shaggy.
[2] Mom hated longer hair, so I stopped letting her grow it...it was annoying.
[3] Until it got long enough that I figured out that I liked it long
[4] Growing out sucks.
[5] So easy to take care of, AND I really do like the length.
In my case Mother Nature did the deciding. I went for 15 years
with no hair cutting and it never got past nipple length.
Short of going bald there's nothing worse for one who loves
long hair than a ridiculously short terminal length. Since
my hair is curly and frizzy I only achieved nipple length by
pulling it out straight. Some of us would love to be able
to decide on a hair length, or at least to have a wide range
of lengths to chose from.
Hey Darrin,
Deciding on a hair length is a matter of personal taste and the ability to grow your hair to that length. My preference is terminal length.
Raymond
I hope you get there someday Raymond. I want to thank you and everyone else for your wisom.
Darrin
You can also get an occasional trim at some length you really like and maintain there for awhile, and then grow some more as the desire strikes. My hair is really straight and I like the ends cut blunt straight across, so these occasional trims help maintain that kind of appearance (I'm at waist length now). But ultimately I'd like to see it get down to about my pants pockets or longer so its going to be no more trims for awhile.
Ever since I was young, I always wanted to have my hair to knee length. Now, I'm finally able to grow my hair long. I'm a bit past mid back. Even though I have a "final" objective, I set myself "next step goals"... to have some successes along the way!!! My next goal is waist length.
A.D.
Personally I've decided to go for terminal length and then decide on what is my preferred length. I'm at just below the shoulder blades now.
I think for me it will be "long". I don't think my people really have a traditional length after "long". We're from the Southeastern part of the U.S. For me, it is about connecting with my people. My hair connects me to my people, to my ancestors, to the earth, to our ways. Earth is not just the dirt under your feet. It is also the plants, the animals, the waters and the air. This is earth. Taking care of the earth means taking care of one's people. The two are inter-linked. Without the earth there in health, the people are not in health, and that means oneself and one's family. Earth care is self-care.
I was raised to take only what I needed and not more. I was always told, "You have, let there enough for the next person to have, you might be the next person.". Again, taking care of the earth and not being greedy in other ways is taking care of the people and self.
Thanks for letting me share a little Native culture :).