I would think that if your hair was at its max thickness upon reaching terminal it would stay the same. EX. if you had never cut your hair and it never suffered unusual shedding and once it became a certain length you began to blunt cut it til terminal it is prabably what you would have. Since our hair does not grow exactly the same time and rate and you never cut it it would probably take a few growth cycles upon reaching terminal to thicken. (if you never suffered any unusual shedding) I had five years of severe shedding my hair stopped gaining length even with little to no splits. It has stopped the shed and is gaining length again. I calculate that it will take a few full growth cycles for my thickness to return and even if I reach terminal now that new few cycles have to now reach terminal.(I could not even tell you what or how long my growth cycle is)
So it could take years of growth for yo to see your full potential at terminal. Over at LHC there are women that after 10 -14 years of growing are reporting the thickness reaching their ends. Growing our hair takes patients.
google cinnamonhair.com She has a excellent photo record of how she grew her hair to her knees but than also shows how it was several years more of growing and the thicknesss traveled down.
So happy to see you chimed in!
I saw this post last night, copy and pasted some links I've kept stored away and created a post then changed my mind and figured it was not only probably TMI but a bit boring at the very least and worthy of skepticism at the most.
Some information you ladies may find helpful (hopefully) on dealing with..........thin ends or damaged ends, terminal length, lead hair, fairytale ends, what to do with them if you hate them and how to create them if that's the look you're going for.
http://www.naturalhairgrows.com/interview-chicoro.html
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=40313
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=98942
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=78024
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=97349
and finally, my own experiences and stages of growing my hair to hip length.
http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=628523
And I'm absolutely certain, that if you ladies search LHCF, you'll find many more!!
It's a fine line you'll be walking. You have to know whether you're dealing with potential damage, damage or healthy hair cycles. Many women in general have no idea what their terminal lengths actually are due to styling, bad hair care practices or just plain ignorance. Many black women in general but especially those with a kinky 3c, 4a, 4b hair are even more skeptical at our abilities to grow their hair longer than what is considered average. As a people with a kinkier hair type, we're at an even more of a disadvantage in knowledge of how to grow our hair long since we don't really have many past examples available to us as do our straighter textured sisters.
The good news is that this is all changing. Slowly but definitely changing not only on internet messageboards but IRL.
It's not all about GOOD hair, it's about good hair CARE!
You'll really need to know what works for your hair and what does not and how to correct a problem once you've identified it.
Fine, kinky hair requires even more TLC but it is definitely not a reason why someone's hair can not grow out to its terminal length.
It's going to take some time - more than 2 years perhaps more than 4, 5 or 6.
It's not extremely difficult once you get your regimen down but can be a bit time consuming and you may have to be willing to live with some months (perhaps many months or years) of uneven(but healthy) hair and yea that patience thing is really, really important. You may have to sacrifice having that fly cut that caught your eye or be willing to protective style more often and save the cute stuff for special occasions! For some, it may be going natural, for others it may be not relaxing bone straight.
I've only been at this thing since my BC in 2007, well there are women who've been at it much, much longer than that and they are still seeing progress. Just go to LHC and read through their posts!
I trimmed for evenness near the end of 2012 and some of the hair I trimmed were a full 2 inches longer than what I have now and even though I am not growing to reach certain lengths like in the past, I'm still curious as to how long it can grow (terminal). It seems just when I thought it couldn't grow any longer, it manages to do so - it's just more difficult to notice the difference except to see that the hair looks fuller at a new longer length checkpoint and those pioneer longer ends start reaching new lengths.
Geez, I really hope my input was not TMI but a successful attempt to post some hopeful, positive, perhaps thought provoking information.
As always, HHG!
. Congrats to those that have seen those results!
erplexed
