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.

Hair Progress in 2005

The hair on the top of my head was not touched for the remainder of 2004.  I did, however, keep cutting the back to allow the top and front to catch up.  I did this to avoid any kind of 'mulletlike' appearance.  It was also a logical step towards my goal of achieving all one length hair.

Here is my hair in January 2005, one year after the butchering in January 2004:

It felt great to finally have regained this amount of length.  Of course, my journey was really just beginning.  I enjoyed steady growth and here was my hair six months later in July 2005:

I continued with my routine of getting the back trimmed every six months or so.  Hair grows fastest in summer and by the end of August my hair had lengthened to:

From about the summer of 2004 I had entered the period of growing known as the awkward stage.  This is the time when one's hair is long enough to look 'messy' but too short to reach a tie in the back in which all the hair will fit.  There are various ways of dealing with this stage.  Some wear hats or bandannas but these aren't always acceptable in certain settings.  I relied on gel to slick my hair straight back.  Although this tended to create a hair helmet look, it kept things comparatively neat and it worked well for me.  Here is what my hair typically looked like as shown in this October 2004 photo:

I also would wear halftails which became possible long before a full tail:

Then came the moment of transition that every longhair awaits eagerly, the time when all of one's hair will reach a tie in the back.  By September 2005, I pretty much had achieved this:

By the end of 2005, I felt like I truly was a longhair and was very happy with my progress.  This was my hair in December 2005:

Why Long Hair?

This essay on the subject explains probably better than any other document the reasons some choose to have long hair:

http://www.choisser.com/longhair/

Indeed, the term ‘longhair’ is taken proudly by some men and women who have long hair as part of their identity.  I relate very much to what the article says about those who felt they should have long hair from early in childhood.  I was probably no more than seven years old when I first felt this way.  While it’s true that many parents will not allow their children to wear their hair the way they want to, my restrictions went past my graduation into adulthood due to being a member of a high control group that doesn’t permit its male members to wear their hair long.

My last short haircut was in January of 2004:

I had had longish hair before this cut but I faced a tumultuous time in my life that basically forced me to cut.  After that unfortunate delay, however, there has been no turning back.  My next posts will contain an overview of my journey since then.

First Post

This is my hair as of May 11, 2011:

This blog will be about mainly my hair but will probably cover other topics at times as well.  My long term goal has been to achieve classic length hair.  Classic length means hair length just past one's butt.  I realize that may not be possible as it appears that my terminal length is short of that.  However, it seems that my hair continues to gradually get a bit longer and it's possible that I'm losing length due to breakage.  This blog will be about my attempts to take better care of my hair and will track my progress.