Growing It Out.

Let's talk hair. You may or may not have noticed that I'm growing mine out. I've tried this a few times over the last few years and it always ends within several months because I get tired of it and just cut it off again. I haven't had long hair (long to me, anyway) since Joseph and I got married. Even then it wasn't what most people considered "long". It was to me, though. I've had my hair mostly in a short bob for about 4-5 years now. I'm tired of it. I miss my hair and decided back in January or February to grow it out. This time, I'm doing it the right way.

Before when I'd try to grow it out, I just wouldn't get it cut. At all. Which is obviously not very smart. I ended up with damaged, split ends, and thick, bushy hair. This would, in turn, lead to me saying "I can't stand it anymore. Cut it off!" Smart, huh? So, I've been getting regular trims and shape ups, about every 10 weeks, and have been laying off the flat iron and hair dryer when I can. This has really made a huge difference and I've stuck with it now for 8-9 months. I've probably got at least another year or so before it's where I ultimately want it to be but I'm proud of the progress.

I also read this blog post with tips on growing it out, as well as this one. I found them via Pinterest.

Here's where it was at the beginning of the year.

This was taken middle of Feb, so I had probably already been growing it for about 4 weeks by this point. It started in a short bob.

May, about 3 months later....

3-4 weeks later, beginning of June....

End of June

End of July

Middle of August

Middle of September

(Can you tell I'm a little obsessed with the yellow bubble necklace??) ;-)

Goal...

(length/cut, not color)

I don't want it terribly long(believe me, I don't have the time or patience to style super long hair), but I've got a good 4-5 inches until I'm there. I really like the 2 above cuts. I need layers, because I have a LOT of hair. It has to be layered and thinned out every time I go. I'm already liking how it looks so far. I have naturally wavy hair, not that you'd ever know that, and it's looking MUCH better in its natural state now that it's longer. It did NOT look good shorter. A hot MESS! I've actually worn it wavy a few times the last couple weeks because it looked half decent. This is really helping me keep the heating tools off of it. I'm thankful that my hair hasn't gotten that coarse, dry texture a lot of wavy/curly hair has. I condition every time I wash(every 1-2 days) to help keep it moisturized. And I've never colored it or anything. That helps too. I didn't always have wavy hair. When I was growing up, it was straight as a board and wouldn't hold curl for anything. My dad's did the same thing. Stick straight, then shortly after high school it seems that it started getting some wave in it. Weird huh? Now it's hard to keep straight. It's very sensitive to humidity! This is why it's up a lot in the Summer.

Maybe in 6 months to a year it'll finally be at the length I'm wanting. I just hope I don't go through all this growing out just to chop it off the second it gets hot next year! ;-)

I hope you're having a great Saturday! RTR!! (I hope I can stay awake for the 8:15 game...might need an extra cup of coffee!)