Length Retention Challenge

[tua05612]

The other one got closed so I figured I'd start a new one.

GalacticalFro, I can't believe you cut it off!! I've been plenty tired of my roots growing out, but I've been sticking it out after that cut last year!! Then again, it's only hair, it grows back regardless... :)


I originally logged on to give a small update:

I can finally get a teeny little bunny tail!!!! It doesn't really stay yet, but I'm only another inch away!! I'll be there by the middle of next month or so!! I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere!! I'm still doing my two braids, with an occasional puff here or there. It's obviously working. I'm just glad I got back to this length cuz this was one of my staple styles when I was relaxed. I think I have to henna again though, my strands are feeling a little fragile lately. I think I had planned on it but now I can't remember when I said I'd do it. I may do that tonight before I twist my hair. I twisted my hair while it was dry and stretched and they looked gorgeous!! That will be my new way to go from now on.

How's everyone else's growth coming???

[Yellowtearhose]

Hello everyone! I think I've grown about 1/2 inch of hair this summer. I can especially see growth in the back of my hair and I'm so proud because that part is extremely shorter than the rest! Yay me!

[GalaxyGirl2012]

i'll post a pic today in my fotki as soon as my camera batteries recharge :)

at first i was going to cut a little at a time, then i got tired of my hair feeling like the bottom of the potato chip bag :lol:

maybe i'll give henna a try in a few months when it's longer.

[B_Phlyy]

EEEEE. It's been a minute since I last updated, but I'm all good. Have some braids in right now and already have major growth (my hair always grows faster in summer). I might take them down on Friday, if not, it will be on September 1st.

[missCONGENIALity]

Well, summer is/was killing my hair. It seems that my hair just can't get enough moisture. I am switching to wearing my hair in PS one week and WNG the other.

[mwedzi]

Galaxy, you cut it all off! Ah well. summer's the time to do that anyway. Are you doing WnG's?

Beautiii, congrats!

C.K.N., do you have braids with extensions or just your own hair?

It's turning out to be a lot harder than I thought, keeping hair on my head. Due to some bad Aphogeeing and a wash and go, I had super knots and tangles. It was taking me too long to detangle. I just said 'screw it' and went at it the way I used to before the hair boards. I ripped through and I heard so much breakage, it hurt my scalp, hair was all over the floor, sink, etc. but I was just too tired of this hair to care anymore. After losing so much and figuring this retention game was a loss for the moment (the battle, not the war!), I went ahead and trimmed, too. Now my hair is in twists so maybe I'll just stick to small twists and their twist outs for at least a month or so. At least that's my plan.

[BrownSugababe]

Congrats to you ladies keeping up that retention. Stay away from those shears! You grow girls.

[msdimpled1]

what are the rules of the length retention challenge?

[Alastri]

my hair looks really cute (microtwists) and i decided not to cut it, but to dust the ends rather. unfortunately no one gets to see it because some @$%#@#$%$# stole my macbook :(

maybe i'll figure out how to make it work on a different operatign system. le %#@# sigh.

[B_Phlyy]

Galaxy, you cut it all off! Ah well. summer's the time to do that anyway. Are you doing WnG's?

Beautiii, congrats!

C.K.N., do you have braids with extensions or just your own hair?

It's turning out to be a lot harder than I thought, keeping hair on my head. Due to some bad Aphogeeing and a wash and go, I had super knots and tangles. It was taking me too long to detangle. I just said 'screw it' and went at it the way I used to before the hair boards. I ripped through and I heard so much breakage, it hurt my scalp, hair was all over the floor, sink, etc. but I was just too tired of this hair to care anymore. After losing so much and figuring this retention game was a loss for the moment (the battle, not the war!), I went ahead and trimmed, too. Now my hair is in twists so maybe I'll just stick to small twists and their twist outs for at least a month or so. At least that's my plan.
[/b]

I have extensions, but I hate them, so this will be my last set. When I take them down, I'll probably be doing twists.

[runrunrunner]

if i'm being honest
i got real lazy this summer
and also found out
that doing wash/shake and goes every darn day
just aint for me.

protective styling is where it's at for me
ALL YEAR ROUND
not just in the winter months.

i lost a lot of moisture
along with some length
because i wore my hair out so much

but i'm back in the game, though
i put twists in my hair
they look good
and it's 'bout to get serious again.

i'll be keeping these in for a good while
before i re-do

[GalaxyGirl2012]

what are the rules of the length retention challenge?
[/b]
the main reason why i started it was to figure out why my 6-8 inches of growth/year was not what i was seeing length wise and to do that i was doing all the "right" stuff for my hair like no combing, protecting the ends, protective styles, etc. if i wasn't trimming my hair and my hair grew 6 inches but was only 3 inches longer then that means i was losing 3 inches from breakage

but i think in general the rule is to try and keep your hair healthy as possible (whatever that means for you) so that the length that you gain from growth translates to length at the ends.

[msdimpled1]

the main reason why i started it was to figure out why my 6-8 inches of growth/year was not what i was seeing length wise and to do that i was doing all the "right" stuff for my hair like no combing, protecting the ends, protective styles, etc. if i wasn't trimming my hair and my hair grew 6 inches but was only 3 inches longer then that means i was losing 3 inches from breakage

but i think in general the rule is to try and keep your hair healthy as possible (whatever that means for you) so that the length that you gain from growth translates to length at the ends.
[/b]



thank you

[NewlyNappyNelle]

Yeah... about length retention... I really do need to get back on my protective styles. I should invest in some tams in order to just have big braids and baggie underneath.

Hair, I promise I'll take good care of you again! :wub

[iscott555]

Can I join? I am retaining great length in the front but the back is not retaining any it seems like....it's just getting thicker and thicker! so yeah I need to up my retention

[natural06]

I have box braids now. I will measure soon, I guess as long as I see results the actual length number really hasn't mattered to me but I will measure just to start keeping up with the number growth.

[amberdcox]

i learned my lesson this summer. tryna be cute and wear my hair out for extended periods of time just ain't for the kid. my hair gets too tangled and I'm not patient enough.

i think i should only wear my hair out for a week out of a month.

right now I'm in microtwists. i will probably do another set next weekend.

i need a serious trim and deep condition. I may try to trim it myself if I can get some new shears.

Well at least I know better now.

[tua05612]

I dusted where needed this past weekend while I twisted my hair. I definitely didn't get everything, but I did okay. I am wearing the twist out now, but I'll be back to my 2 braids by nex week...

[tua05612]

Update: I may need to do an actual trim, I don't want to, but it's what's best. In other news, I'm almost at arm pit length when my longest layer is stretched. The whole back is at least shoulder length stretched. I'm still doing two braids for the most part. But I have noticed that my edges look a little thin which leads me further from the headband addiction I was caught up in. I'm trying to find new styles to stay away from pulling my hair back too tight. I also want to get some tea tree and rosemary oils to rub in my edges and grow them in fuller. I'll be trimming this weekend and posting some pics of the before and after.

[Alastri]

twists for me

[britni]

well my twa is growing pretty quickly. i volunteer with kids up to grade 5 and i usually wear my shrunken twa. how about yesterday i decided to wear it in a puff (pretty pathetic looking, if you ask me, but pretty impressive since i cut my hair 2 months ago and i can already do this) and some of the kids told me that they KNEW i was wearing a weave! i thought it was hilarious. :lol: i can't wait for it to grow out even more, because i'm not feeling this twa look on me at all.

but regarding the challenge, i am gonna start being more careful when i wash my hair. i just get my condish, rub it in my hands and just swirl my hands all over my head. now i'm gonna try to smooth my condish through my hair and be more gentle. i'm not sure if this will do anything, but it couldn't hurt.
i'm also gonna deep condish at least once a week, and try other treatments more often to avoid spilt ends--which is why i cut my hair off in the first place.

i want to put some kinky twists in my hair to protect it. this will be to keep my hands out of it (picking it out) to avoid high manipulation, which i think promotes breakage. *sigh*

[runrunrunner]

not only will i be be in twists
i've decided to put myself on a "hide your ends" challenge

the only time my ends will be exposed is when i'm washing my hair.


i'm hoping this will help me retain even more length
((crosses fingers))

[tua05612]

How's everyone doing? I am currently wearing twists, but feeling the ends, I need to dust my ends. It seems that I am getting more knots as it gets longer. Plus, I was looking at the ends of my twists and most of them have a curl to them, but the ones that don't curl obviously need to be trimmed.

[amberdcox]

i'm wearing flat twists in the front and in the back, two strand twists. they are long enough for me to pull into a tiny little pony/bun at the bottom. the people at work seem to like it.

i keep getting knots/shed hairs, no matter what i do. i'm not even going to trim it. i remember this being an issue when i had a p.erm. i trimmed not too long ago and i havent seen a change in the amount of knots, so eff it.

taking my vitamin, keeping it moisturized, all that good stuff!

[journey_continues]

still on it..my hair is mega long(at least for me)now..it's crazy...it makes afros harder to manage. and i'm noticing more shedding because the longer my hair is, the more it wraps around each other...after i detangle in the morning, at hte end of the day, strands are already together.

[missCONGENIALity]

My hair feels super thick. Not to sure about the length. I've been getting a lot of tangles and knots on my ends. I think it maybe time for a trim.

[runrunrunner]

so,

i've found a new protective style for myself
that works better for me

today while rinsing my DC
i decided to make 2 flat twist things
one on each side of my head
i did it under the running water
to help keep my hair stretched out enough to do it

then i pinned the ends up in the back

since i'll be DC'ing 3 times a week
this is best for me

[gilroygal]

Hi guys!

Well, I wasn't originally part of this challenge, but now that my hair is growing back from the BIG cut, I am working on taking better care of it. It is actually growing fairly quickly, and the regimen that I am on always me to manage it pretty well without a lot of breakage. I just hope that I can keep this up as it grows longer.

[lil twa]

I want to join this challenge ... I have had my braid extensions in for almost 2 months now... I am definetly looking to retain some serious length

[tua05612]

How's everyone else doing? I had to trim the beginning of October, but the length I trimmed is back already. I'm just waiting to get to arm pit length in the back. I think I only have 3 or 3 1/2" to go!!! I'm hoping I can get there by March 2009...

[Ms_Yoruba]

Yeah, I guess I should try a lot harder to retain length... my hair grows well enough, but it breaks too quickly too!

I have to learn to use protective styles more! Usually I leave my twists in for a while - but then once I've taken them down, I don't make time to re-do em so I end up having a 'fro or something for about a month!

[mwedzi]

Well, between my last post and this I cut my hair. Different amounts depending on the place, but at least 2" in all places. But I shaped it up better (to my tastes) than before. Thanks to changing my method of twisting and coating my ends in castor oil before and after washing, my twists should now last 3 weeks instead of 1. That should help some with retention. It also helps with stress.

[journey_continues]

i haven't trimmed in awhile.

right now i went through a week of wearing my hair out. partly because i bought my first headband in my picture, partly because i wanted to be cheap and be a 'hippie' for halloween day and wear my hair out and put on a tie died shirt.

i've really been lacking on that DC.

how do you guys keep up with it? i also haven't been feeling the whole put some sort of oil in my hair. can you DC with butters? i haven't heard of that before, also i do the diy thing so i don't have conditioner around.

i've been keeping up on the acv rinses though.

so now i'll be on np looking for protective hairstyles that i can try out...i've been uncreative with my parting lately and feel stuck in a it's either two strand, three strand, braid and that's it sort of thing.

[lil twa]

My hair grew soo much Im so happy!! I now have yarn braids in and will be applying a mix of coconut oil and rosemary to my scalp nightly for added stimulation and using ubh products...

[missCONGENIALity]

How is everyone fighting the winter dryness? The products that I normally use have gone up in price and not in the budget.

[journey_continues]

by living in texas where it's 39 degrees in the morning and 50 degrees one day and 77/80 this weekend.lol!!!

[MzBNS2010]

I am in this length retention challenge! I have had my hair in box braids since Oct 2. I just rebraid them one by one when they need it to prevent matting. I plan on keeping these in until the new year! Wish me luck b/c I already miss my hair!!! I think my hair is about 8-8.5" and 9" in some places. My goal is to be at 9" all over by mid Dec :D

[Monqiue]

I am in this length retention challenge! I have had my hair in box braids since Oct 2. I just rebraid them one by one when they need it to prevent matting. I plan on keeping these in until the new year! Wish me luck b/c I already miss my hair!!! I think my hair is about 8-8.5" and 9" in some places. My goal is to be at 9" all over by mid Dec :D
[/b]


I am using the same method as you. But I plan to take my braids down all at once next weekend. I had to stop myself from doing it this weekend. I am not use to going more that three weeks without redoing my hair. But I promised myself that I would keep this box braids in for at least 4 weeks. I was trying to go for 6 but they are looking really fuzzy right now. Hopefully, I will see some growth by the end of the year.