Is Hair Length Your Biggest Goal And Should It Be?

The great thing about being a blogger is that I get to reach a lot of people with my opinions, as unguided as they sometimes are, and I also get to hear a lot of peoples opinions on the same subjects too.

As a result, even though my opinions remain firm in most cases, I have developed a more rounded view of hair care and even when someone disagrees with me, I am still able to see and understand their point of view.

A comment on a post in another black hair blogger’s website caught my attention recently. The commenter took offense to the fact that length was even being mentioned on the blog.

The commenter made the claim that there was a parallel between how long your hair was as a child and how long it could ultimately become as an adult. The thinking was that if your hair was long as a child then length is guaranteed as an adult and if your hair was never long then it never will be and you should just concentrate on health and ultimately that’s all we should talk about on hair blogs.

Really? Forgive me but it makes me so sad to hear such defeatist attitudes especially in the light of all the other black women with different textures, all over hair blogs and YouTube finally getting long hair that they’ve never achieved before.

Some people are just determined to explain away other people’s positive results when a technique does not work for them. For instance, I’ve heard the idea that hair type dictates your length potential.

While this may be the case to some degree for type 1, type 2 and some type 3 hair textures, one could certainly argue that these textures are perhaps easier to care for so they default to longer lengths. Yet there there are hair forums full of Caucasian women with type 1 hair who struggle to grow it past their shoulders.

Ladies with type 4 hair as rule tend to need a specific hair regimen in place in order to reach longer lengths and wonderful results are regularly achieved by women ranging from curly 4a to the kinkiest of 4c hair textures.

I will also admit I was defeatist myself in the past and I was always quick to dismiss something it didn’t work for me. I dismissed the value of hair growth aids and pills because they had never worked for me and actually gave me significant problems, but I’ve seen that these products actually do work for many people who have used them for years without problems.

My own hair had always been between neck and shoulder length from childhood to adulthood while both natural and relaxed.

It wasn’t until I concentrated my energy on my own hair with all it’s quirks and adopted length retention techniques that I finally broke through my life long length plateau.

I understood the importance of and developed my own hair care regimen and came to see the importance of protein in my hair after which it finally grew past my shoulders and eventually down to waist length.

I have 4a/b hair and I share some of the same struggles as any other 4a/b/c but yes for me hair length has always been my biggest goal.

Having said that, I knew from the beginning that length was never going to be achieved if my hair wasn’t healthy so for week after week, year after year, I pampered my hair to deep conditioning* sessions, protective styling and regular moisturizing.

In the beginning I can’t say that I saw much difference in my length but I was sure that it would come later so I carried on doing what I knew worked. And when I realized that something wasn’t working (weekly braid outs for instance), I stopped doing them and changed to something else.

The problem is that a lot of ladies don’t realize that a ‘good regimen’ alone won’t get them the long hair they want. This is simply because what is a good regimen for my hair considering it’s strength, moisture levels and texture may not necessarily be a good regimen for you.

Yes, unfortunately a lot of this DIY hair care is trial and error and if you find that a regimen is great at keeping your hair healthy but not at retaining length, then you simply have to switch it up until you get the results you desire. It’s not hard, keep changing it until it works!

Now I understand completely that length is not a priority or a desire for everyone and some ladies prefer to wear their hair shorter. But if length has been a goal for you in the past, giving up on your goal without actually giving yourself the chance to see if a different hair regimen could work is just sad.

For the naysayers, I say keep your hair in protective styles like braids or a weave* for whole year and then you will see that it is your regimen and nothing else that is affecting your length retention.

But to answer the questions, length should only be a secondary goal to the health of your hair and regardless of how you slice it, hair that breaks easily is simply not healthy.

Once you have got your hair to a state where it is healthy with good elasticity and moisture retention, length retention becomes a pleasant side effect of your hair regimen in which case if you enjoy the length, keep it and if you don’t trim it back.

With health comes length ladies!