i had a friend recently compliment my hair by saying "it's a lot longer than when i saw you last and it looks so healthy and shiny." i replied that it's because it's now all virgin hair-no processing. she agreed that it looked good like that and then five minutes later said "you should really get highlights since its so long." what? i think the reason my hair looks nice is because it isn't processed. funny.

You know I used to have a friend that cut my hair for the longest time and she worked in a really nice salon. Her hair was long (I think mid-backish?) and she never put color on it, no highlights, nothing! Her hair looked soo much healthier than anyone elses in that salon, and the others that worked there kept telling her that she was making the salon look bad by not coloring her hair! I miss her, she always tried to get me to grow out my hair, and knew exactly how I liked it.

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i had a friend recently compliment my hair by saying "it's a lot longer than when i saw you last and it looks so healthy and shiny." i replied that it's because it's now all virgin hair-no processing. she agreed that it looked good like that and then five minutes later said "you should really get highlights since its so long." what? i think the reason my hair looks nice is because it isn't processed. funny.

I'd chalk that statement up to conditioned response.  They have to suggest SOMETHING, highlights are the most common process.

The strangest comment I've received from a stylist was when I went in for a trim when I was growing out a pixie cut.  My hair was almost shoulder length and just needed to be evened up from the layers.  I told the gal that my objective was to grow my hair long again.  She complimented me on the condition of my hair and thought it was "cool" that I was growing it out.  She then suggested that I come in and have 1/2 - 3/4" of an inch removed EVERY MONTH so that it would grow long.   Hmmmmm - my hair grows less than 1/2" a month - how is it going to grow long if I cut off more than it grows in a month???!!!!

roomtogrow wrote on Aug 12^th, 2008 at 11:16am:

she agreed that it looked good like that and then five minutes later said "you should really get highlights since its so long."

Then imagine the mess if you didn't like them and had to grow them out.   :o   Good thing you already knew your hair looked just fine, roomtogrow.  

Bikerbraid- a suggestion of up to 3/4 inch trims monthly?   ;D  That is some really poor math on the part of the stylist!  


So both of you got hair compliments which means you are already doing something right and it was followed up by "helpful" advice that would have undone your work.  People really don't think with a long hair mindset, which makes sense if that isn't how they look at hair.  Trims are great and so are highlights when your style is two or three inches long and you want to keep that length and change the look regularly.  But for growing?  That sure isn't the best way to go about it.

Some people are under the impression that you have to cut or trim your hair in order for it to grow.  I've heard that lot's of times. ::)

I have bermuda grass in my yard and if you cut it really low, it goes into "distress mode" and grows really fast to compensate for being cut.  I think some people believe that hair works in the same manner.

Even some experts think hair behaves as if it knows how long it is.  I remember hearing George Michael has a theory that hair has to be all one length to grow best.  No layers or bangs because hair wants to equalize itself and the long parts will slow down waiting for the shorter hairs to catch up.   :-?  

wrote on Aug 16^th, 2008 at 2:04am:

No layers or bangs because hair wants to equalize itself and the long parts will slow down waiting for the shorter hairs to catch up.   :-?

Funny, I've heard many gals talk about how fast their bangs grow until they catchup to the length, and then slow down.  Who are we to believe? ;)

Well, that's always been my issue with "terminal length".  If there is a such thing as a terminal length, wouldn't the hair have to know how long it is? :-/

I cut bangs in my hair a while back.  I've since been letting them grow out but I don't think that they're growing any faster than the rest of my hair.

It always seemed to me that shorter hair seemed to grow faster than longer hair, but I think that's just because you notice the difference faster.

For example, my brother's fiance shaved her head recently.  It can't have grown more than half an inch by now, but she looks entirely different.  A half inch from now, she'll look entirely different again, because her hair is twice as long.

But an inch when your hair is already 24 inches long isn't going to change your look that drastically.

Though I know I'd celebrate an inch of healthy growth no matter how long my hair was!

The problem with my hair is I'm never sure how fast it's actually growing.  ;D.  Since I cut it, it has visually gone (how it looks to everyone) from above shoulder length to midback length.  The actually length of the strands of hair (how long it would be if I straightened it) has gone from a couple inches below shoulder to tailbone.

I do have a friend who has kept her hair in a boy cut for years, and her hair grows really fast.  This is kind of strange, because she has really weird eating habits and I don't know how it gets all the nutrients it needs.  She basically lives off peanut butter crackers.

callisto wrote on Aug 21^st, 2008 at 3:50pm:

She basically lives off peanut butter crackers.

peanut butter is the perfect food!!   ;)


I lived off peanut butter sandwiches for 3 years in college.

It seems like my hair grew faster than it is now, but that is probbably cause I pay so much attention to it now, than I ever have!
Stylists always used to suggest highlights to me, there reasoning behind that was that I could tell it was growing! Of course I had short hair at the time and it wasn't as healthy as it is now.

Yeah, I thought about the short hair seeming to grow faster because it's more noticable idea.  When my hair was really short, I never measured so I can't compare.

I wonder what it is about peanut butter?  When I had my first real summer job in highschool, I lived off of a diet of peanut butter sandwiches and Doritos. ;D  I have no idea if it did anything for my hair. :P

I don't know... But the thing about my friend is that this isn't just a short-term thing.  She's even pickier than I am (and I am a very picky vegetarian, not STRICT, per say, just picky) which is why she eats like that.  It was really weird though because we went to Mexico on a school trip and they had all this amazing food- pan dulce, and fresh fruit at every meal, and homemade mexican rice, and amazing juices.  I loved it-- the food was great, and there was always something I could eat!  But she still only ate plain rice and the bagels, crackers and peanut butter she'd brought with her.

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She basically lives off peanut butter crackers.

Nasty! I have packages of those bloody things at work and they're pretty awful.  :P  Plus, talk about calories!  :o

If your friend doesn't start eating a more balanced diet, she is likely to end up in the hospital and/or have serious health problems later on. Granted, none of that is your problem, really, but I wouldn't want to see that happen to any of my friends.  :-/