Hair length

I measured my hair at 2 1/2 inches for the most part. There are a couple of places in the back (where it seems to grow fastest) where it is almost three inches long. I think the front is the slowest growing area overall. I am in the TWA grow out challenge on Nappturality. I originally thought the goal was to have 5 inches of hair at the end of 2009, which I thought would be easy. However, I think the goal is to have inches of growth in a year. I THINK I can do it, but it took about 6 months for me to get to this point, so I might get 4 inches in a year. I really think that my growth rate (assuming that I can retain all of the length) is 4 inches per year, which is slower than the average rate of 6 inches per year. So, if I'm lucky, I'll have a total of 6 inches at the end of 2009. We'll see. I don't think I've been there in a while. The first year that I was natural, I grew my hair out pretty well. Of course, after I started combing, etc, I lost a lot of length. Now that I am being gentle with my hair and dampen it prior to picking, I may actually get lucky. My overall gal is 8-10 inches of hair. I don't think have EVER had that much hair! I want a 2 inch shrunken fro so that I can wear cute scarves. Plus, 2 inches bulk is all that I can wear in uniform. If my hair got longer, I would actually be able to pull to back. That is something that I haven't been able to do since going natural. I think I need 10-12 inches for that. My head is pretty big, so in order for the bangs to stretch all the way to the back, it has to be pretty long. I'm trying not to get too hung up on length, but I would like to pull my hair back.

My daughter's hair looks awesome since I redid her cornrows. I LOVE it. I think I'll achieve my goals for her hair. I would like for her thin patches to be three inches long (and full) by the summer. I don't know why the same patches get thinned out. I have to look at my styling methods. No more rubber bands these days. I did a really good trim in October, I think. I cut quite a bit off to even it up. As her hair grows out, I plan to keep it trimmed to a certain length so that it can fill in. We'll see how it goes.