Hair length

As most of you already know i'm transitioning , im obsess with healthy hair and length , my hair has never reached past my shoulders in my life , i also never really took care of it properly natural or relaxed
So the other day i was talking to my mom who a little bit under her shoulders length hair that she cuts into a bob and is relaxed so i was telling her how exited i was about my transition how i cut the relax end in the very back and also in the bang area to check length and experiment on products , and how that part is growing great my hair was almost collar shoulder collar bone length in the sections i had cut she proceed to laugh and tell me it doesn't matter what i do if my hair was meant to be short and was always short it will stay that way and being that i'm natural and that shrinks my hair will never reach shoulder or below length i was mortified she was saying this things ...
Bu that made me think Do you think that our hair is a predetermine length and even if we care for it to retain maximum length it will stop growing once it reaches a certain length determine by our DNA ?
What's ya'll take on that any of you ladies always had short hair that grew longer after you became natural and cared for your hair the right way ?
By the way i'm snowed in , hungry and bored TALK TO ME please lol

I think your hair could grow past your shoulders. Since ur going natural, you may be taking better care of your hair which could help it grow. I know I take better care of my hair now that I'm transitioning

Girl, yes. I'm sorry such news came from your mommy:-( I think that its a combination of both: hereditary & hair health. Out hair is always growing. It's retention that's key. I know that you will reach whatever hair goal u have as long as you concentrate on your hair health , youare sure to see the results u want. Don't be discouraged !

@ creolebeauty1

i believe that hair is hair and if it wants to grow it will grow....never heard of hair having to do w/ dna as far as growth...just take care of ur hair and hopefully it will grow longer, but sometimes hair does pick a certain length and stop...idk why, sometimes that's just how it is.

Aww man i really hope not i hope at least it doesn't stop at my chin or something ... I'm not discouraged the way i see it at least my hair will be full this time around because when i was relaxed i had some thin hair at the ends

I do not believe that anyone's length is predetermined. Everyone's hair grows at different rates, some people are slow growers and others' hair grow at a very fast rate. Hair is always growing and the key is always retention. As long as you are taking care of your hair and keeping it healthy to make sure that you retain the hair that is growing you should be able to grow your hair past shoulder length.

krazy coils wrote:I do not believe that anyone's length is predetermined. Hair is always growing and the key is always retention. As long as you are taking care of your hair and keeping it healthy to make sure that you retain the hair that is growing you should be able to grow your hair past shoulder length.

Yes! What she said! lol

I hate it when people say what your mom told you. I always hear women with natural hair saying "this is the longest my hair has ever been" so apparently and contrary to belief, healthy natural hair retains length more than relaxed. As long as you aren't damaging it.

I want to a transitioning stylist who told me the same thing that your mom told you. I think she called it a terminal hair length. I've only been transitioning a few months, so I can't speak from experience. I guess time will tell ....

Terminal length is real, but what no one is telling you ladies is that it is usually at least BSL stretched. Basically, not everyone can grow hair to their knees, but almost everyone can at least grow to the middle of their back. Like someone else said, retention is important.

Ok maybe this is what she meant which is right:

The shinkage will always make it look above shoulder length and due to our hair properties which tries to protect us from sun and cool us off she is right. Until many years (depending on hair type 3a/3b or 4a/4b) then even with shinkage your hair can hang a bit past your shoulders.

But if we are talking about you straightening or locking then your hair will always be stretched to it's full length and you will get past shoulder length in no time (that is after long breaks from heat). So it's up to how you have your hair you see.

Great question...there is such a thing as terminal hair length...that is why our eyebrows, eyelashes, arm hair and so forth only grows to a certain length. To my understanding, the hair on our heads has the same type of growth cycle. Hair that sheds and has the white bulb at the end is a hair that has reached its potiental. Different parts of our head is in different stages of its growth cycle. Genitic code does have something to do with maximum length just like it has something to do with how fast hair grows. With that being said, I agree with naturalesque...your hair may not grow to your knees, but I am sure you will be able to retain hair well past your shoulders and armpit...

I agree with Indigo. While hair might have a terminal length, it would be hard to say what that terminal length is. Because we trim our hair, there are environmental, physical, emotional, and a host of other things that could make a hair shed. We also can't tell how long a shed hair was growing before it reached its terminal growth. Your maximum length might be longer than you or your mother thinks.
We are learning to take better care of our curly hair, protect the ends, combat the effects of the environments. Most of the new naturals I see marvel at how healthy their hair feels after a few months of pampering.

I think we should look at how long our hair was before getting a relaxer.
In my case- I do not remember i t being very long.
But somehow, in 15 months, i think i achieved that length...granted..i got a relaxer when i was 8.

So going back to the main point..i am not sure we have a pre-determined length but only time will tell if i'm wrong...

That's so true the sad part i wish i had a reference point i really have not started caring for my hair until my transition i had no idea what or how to care for it i use to perm it myself and perm my ends each time to the point perm ends is now brown , than i use to glue in weaves to the point when i had to remove them it came out with my hair and i use to get sew ins and go months without moisturizing my scalp or even washing underneath my weave , it's a miracle i still had some hair on my head when i started to transition , length is some how important but i also want to achieve health i want my hair to be at it's healthiest so when i go up to New york to see my mom this summer she gets jealous and goes natural too lol
By the way thank you so much ladies , you are all the best really idk what i would do without ya'll everytime i feel low i can always count on you ladies for encouragement , tips , and beyond
Thank you so much

This is a great question because I have been told the same thing your mother told you and I've always wondered this myself. My hair right now is like I guess what you call collar bone length stretched and this is the longest my hair has ever been. I've been wearing my hair natural for 11 years now and it's not grown longer than this since I BC'd. However, I must be honest I actually did not take very good care of my hair. When I first started going natural there wasn't as many resources and great products are there are now. I had no idea how to take care of my hair and I've been pressing it and adding heat to it a lot. Thus, I think that may be the reason why it hasn't grown to its true potential. I believe that if I were to take better care of it it will start to grow longer, I've actually seen some progress already. We'll see.

fanmnatirel wrote:I think we should look at how long our hair was before getting a relaxer.
In my case- I do not remember i t being very long.
But somehow, in 15 months, i think i achieved that length...granted..i got a relaxer when i was 8.

So going back to the main point..i am not sure we have a pre-determined length but only time will tell if i'm wrong...

I agree with this. I think length is predetermined. There are some people whose hair will grow like a weed once they went natural, and it never grew relaxed. That may be because their hair didn't handle relaxers well or maybe they weren't taking care of it. There are others whose hair grew long with a relaxer and it'll grow long without. My sister has been natural for 5 years and her hair is about the same length it was when she was relaxed (fairly short).

Sometimes I think people's expectations are entirely too high when it comes to hair growth.