Discouraged About Length/The Breakdown

In this day and age where many women are letting go of the perm and going natural, more and more are documenting their journeys via blogs and YT. The days that we go natural are coveted and we tend to keep count of the days and seconds since we did so. It's not unlikely that you meet a Natural with the same or similar BC/Natural Bday and it's easy to see their length and become discouraged at yours.

Let me explain it a little more...

I went natural on October 4, 2009. My hair is now 1 1/2 years natural... or 18 months; whatever floats your boat. People always comment and say my hair has grown sooooo much, but then I look at other ladies on YT or blogs who BCed one month prior to me and their hair is wayyy longer. Makes me mad *inserts kicking of rock*

My sister recently BCed and now that she's looking at blogs and YT, she'll often tell me that other people's hair seems to be growing faster than hers.

Nothing's wrong with this, and I know we're not the only ones who compare length. However, there are key things to think about before you get discouraged!!

1. BC or Transitioned- There's A Difference! Everyone "goes natural" in different ways. My October 4, 2009 is my BC after a 1 month transition. So even though I am 18 months post-BC, I had 1 month of new growth (lol okay I'm not a good example). Some people are 1 year post-BC, but they may have transitioned for 6 months, so their growth is going to be more than yours may, even thought you're both 1 year post-BC. Does that make sense? If not, leave a comment below and I'll go back and re-explain.

2. Hair Grows... But Are You Retaining It? There's more to this hair thing than mere growth. Hair will grow 1/2 inch each month, regardless. It looks like it's not growing most likely because of your hair practices. I'm 18 months post-BC, however, when I first went natural, I trimmed my ends every other month unnecessarily, so a lot of my length went in the trash lol. Add on the times I've straightened the mess out of my head, manipulated it too often, etc. and you have a recipe for not retaining my length. Therefore, I may come across someone who's hair is the same "age" as mine in theory, but because of my hair practices, our length isn't exactly the same.

The moral of the story really is, don't be discouraged when your hair length is different than others with the same hair birthday. You'll never know exactly what someone else does to the hair, so though they may have BCed the same day as you, no hair of head is the same!

If you want to evaluate whether or not you're retaining length, calculate the "age" of your hair in months, divide it in half (since hair grows 1/2 inch each month). Measure your hair length and see if it matches.

Example:
Jameka's hair age= 18 months

• 18 months divided by 2= 9 Thus my hair, theoretically, should be 9 inches.

Jameka's hair length when stretched= 4.5 inches

It's okay if there's only an inch or so difference, but if it's drastically different, re-evaluate your hair practices (like I did)!