So, how long have you been natural? Usually when people ask this question it’s to gauge how long it took you to grow your hair out, but their assumption of whether your hair grew fast or slow is totally inaccurate without subsequent questions, and especially if they are not familiar with shrinkage. Everyone’s hair grows at a different rate and you don’t know how many times she’s gotten a haircut or how often she get trims. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Length checks have a tendency to become obsessive. Everyone went (or returned”> natural for different reasons and everyone’s goals do not include length retention.
There is nothing wrong with striving for length retention. It’s actually a great means of detecting your hair’s strength and ability to retain moisture, but for many naturals it is not how they define the success on their journey. Health, volume, and style are only a few of the many reasons why women decided to accept their natural hair. What is the danger in obsessing over length retention? There is a possibility that your hair has a very short terminal length and is fragile by nature, making it very difficult to retain length. I am not undermining the reality that many women have achieved great length retention primarily through effective maintenance, but there is the possibility that the retention that you aspire for is extremely difficult to attain. Everyone seeks happiness in different places but no one’s happiness should be contingent on the length of their hair, or anything fleeting for that matter. Check out pRoy’s Length Check on Natural Hair…For What video and share your thoughts!
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How important is length retention on your natural hair journey? Does the potential reality of not reaching your goal bother you?
