new thread
in a previous post, switching from a brush to a pick with widely spaced teeth was said to cause hair to grow longer.
"I switched to a pick which has widely spaced teeth. Hair loss dropped dramatically and I was finally able to grow my hair well past my waist." --Absalom
if this is true, this could be serious news to me, as i currently believe that i am at terminal length. i'm not challenging Absalom since he obviously is more experienced than i am at this, but i have some thoughts which might "challenge" what he said . . .
--had your hair seemingly reached terminal length before you switched? if not, your hair could have reached this long length even while using a brush, and the seemingly less hairs could have been a misjudgement.
--i am not hard on my hair when i brush it; i try to be very gentle, so that the only hairs that come out are hairs that are ready to come out, and have reached the end of their cycle. is it therefore possible that their growth cycle is longer than the approximate three years which i know suspect them to have, and i am ripping them out prematurely? it doesn't hurt very much when i brush. i think a pick with widely spaced teeth would hurt just as much, maybe not . . .
--would using that type of comb be somehow healthier for the hairs' roots, allowing their current growth cycle to be longer?
--what about split ends? i din't know how much longer my hair would get around last year because of the split ends, but now that my hair has been this way for a while, there are much fewer splits, i believe because when my hair was shorter i was not as careful with it, and did some things which were bad for it, so i think now most of those hairs have fallen out, and the longest ones now started this growth cycle at a time when i took good care of my hair, so they don't have nearly as much damage.
--does your hair appear thinner at the bottom? i know people who's hair is thick at the top, but then as it gets lower, there are fewer and fewer hairs, and it gets thinner. this is not as noticable with my hair, and i never knew why. maybe it is because i have pulled them out by time they can get long, so they only grow up to a certain length, giving my hair a more even cut off. if i got my hair to go longer, would it be super thin at the bottom?
i know of people with really long hair who use brushes, but then again, that could be despite use of the brush, not because of it. maybe their hair could be even longer if they didn't use a brush.
please, anyone, write your thoughts.
thanks. :)
paddy
Hi Paddy, I read your post. I could e-mail this to you but I would prefer to share it with all. Your first question asks did my hair seem to be at or near terminal length when I switched to a pick. It seemed to grow little or not at all when it reached mid to lower back. I think I was still using the brush at this time but it is hard to remember. I should have kept some kind of hair growth journal. My experience seems to indicate that brushing can break hair. If you break off a 6 inch segment it takes about a year to grow back. The bristles are so close together that they tend to cause too much friction on the hair. You say you are gentle when brushing. Do most of the hairs in the brush appear to be full length strands or broken pieces? If most of the hairs in the brush are short broken pieces then you would definitely have something to gain by using a pick. A pick glides through hair with less resistance than a brush but probably takes more strokes to get out all the tangles. As for split ends, yes I have them too but they have not caused me too much trouble. As for hair getting thinner at the ends, mine defititely does this. If you look at my photo you will see that my hair tapers down more or less to a point well below my waist. This is true for all people with very long hair. Not all hairs on your head have the same terminal length. My terminal length varies quite a bit, from about 2 feet to much longer. Another thing to consider is how you wash and dry your hair. You should not comb or brush it when it is wet. It is best to keep your hair in one position for washing and drying rather rinsing in the back then pulling it around to the front to dry it. Before washing it I part it down the middle, bring it to the front while still dry, drape it down my chest on both sides and wash and dry it in this same position. This technique cut my hair loss due to washing by at least 60 percent. Give this stuff a try and see if you can add a few inches to your hair length. In closing, I must say again your hair looks really good even though it may not be as long as you would like it to be. Absalom
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