Hair Progress in 2006

After a long time passes while wanting very much to have something, when the time finally arrives that you see that desire being fulfilled, it's a satisfying and exciting feeling.  So it was in 2006 as my hair length continued to make steady progress.  It soon became apparent that tucking my hair behind my ears no longer held it in place very well as shown in this February 2006 photo:

I generally wore a ponytail to work but would often wear it loose in other settings.  The ponytail was becoming very secure as my bangs had more than enough length to comfortably reach the tie in back.  These photos were taken in March 2006:

It was pleasant to feel my hair move independently of my body at times and to feel its new length as part of my body.  Another photo from March:

The months rolled by and I experienced another summer growth spurt so that by September my hair had reached this length:

The late summer of 2006 marked a significant turning point for how I would most often wear my hair.  I had been practicing learning how to braid for quite some time but had never really mastered it.  By September, I had the technique down fairly well:

I switched very quickly from wearing ponytails to wearing a braid.  I liked how it looks better and also found it led to less tangles.  Although I'd wear a full braid a lot of the time, I also found that my favorite style was the halftail braid.  It worked well to keep my hair out of my face and yet gave a similar feeling to wearing my hair loose and I liked the look of it.  In October 2006:

and in December:

Although to this day I don't know how to make a French braid, a friend of mine put one in my hair that month:

When I first set out to grow my hair long, I was thinking I'd be content with a long enough length to all reach a ponytail tie.  It wasn't long though before my length goal changed and changed again!  2006 would see me reach that first goal and I set my sights on belt-length.