How do you measure up?

[beyondcute]

I was just wondering... How do you measure your new growth? I read about people getting 1 inch ina month and I wonder how can they tell? How do you measure your newgrowth? I have no problem measuring mines... My last relaxer was 2 weeks before my last color job so I have a color marker.

 

[sweetcashew]

I measure how much growth I get from the length of my hair. If my hair was 29 inches 4 weeks ago and now it's 30 then I got 1 inch of growth.
Also because my hair is relaxed, my new growth is a differen texture. I usually measure the textured roots, unstretched.

 

[Mestiza]

I try to measure my new growth from my scalp to the relaxed part, but it's not always easy. My hair is wavy, but it takes awhile before an actual wave pattern develops in my NG. I hope that I explained that so that it makes sense. My SO helps me in my measurements, inlcluding, the length of my hair. I don't blowdry my hair nor use a flatiron and he tells me that my hair is really longer than I think.

 

[Je Ne Sais Quoi]

I don't measure LOL. Since my hair is so short I never thought about doing it. I'll wait until I have a little more growth.

 

[LovelyZ]

I measure new growth from the scalp by measuring from the scalp to where the new growth ends, at my relaxed part.

I measure my growth overall by the difference in the length of my hair.

Both measurements are important to me becasue I know if my new growth is growing at a rate of 1/2 inch per month but I am only seeing the length of my hair get 1 inches longer in a six month period, I know that I am having a retention problem.

 

[EMJazzy]

At first I was only noticing that it was taking longer to do my twists...(before joining this board it only took an hour to do my twists)....but because of what I've learned here and now I properly take care of my hair and diet/vitamins/concoctions etc.,..now it takes me close to 2 hours to do the same twists I've been doing all along. I can visually see that my twists are longer but since I wanted to know *exactly* how many inches I was getting I measured my twists a couple of days ago and I'll measure them again with a tape measure in about 4 weeks.

 

[beyondcute]

I was just wondering because I see alot of "I got x inches in 1 month" threads without scientific documentation and I get kinda skeptical... The only thing I can think of is measurement differences. I think measuring from the bottom would be more consistent because as someone stated you cant really tell sometimes wher new growth ends and relaxed hair starts.

Id really like to see the "befores and afters" before I go out and buy something. BUT most of the time there are no pics r regimines... Oh well... All I can do is wish

 

[EMJazzy]

I was just wondering because I see alot of "I got x inches in 1 month" threads without scientific documentation and I get kinda skeptical... The only thing I can think of is measurement differences. I think measuring from the bottom would be more consistent because as someone stated you cant really tell sometimes wher new growth ends and relaxed hair starts.

Id really like to see the "befores and afters" before I go out and buy something. BUT most of the time there are no pics r regimines... Oh well... All I can do is wish

Being a natural it's even harder to measure because the texture of the NG is the same as the rest of my hair. I did take before pics.... I will post both as soon as I have some after pics to take.

 

[Sistaslick]

I was just wondering because I see alot of "I got x inches in 1 month" threads without scientific documentation and I get kinda skeptical... The only thing I can think of is measurement differences. I think measuring from the bottom would be more consistent because as someone stated you cant really tell sometimes wher new growth ends and relaxed hair starts.

Id really like to see the "befores and afters" before I go out and buy something. BUT most of the time there are no pics r regimines... Oh well... All I can do is wish

What are you trying to buy BC?? Inquiring minds would like to know

I quit trying to measure newgrowth period. My hair is texlaxed so it can be hard at times. And since you can't really guage the success of a relaxer until at least one or two washes later, I really don't even bother. Going by that, I would be getting 2 and three inches of "newgrowth" out of nowhere.

 

[Victorian]

Being a natural it's even harder to measure because the texture of the NG is the same as the rest of my hair.

Yeah, same here. I can get a general idea of growth by looking at my pictures, but for really keeping track of progress I have to measure from scalp to ends. I always pick hair around ear height on my head and measure from roots to ends with a piece of ribbon or string, then measure the string. I guess now I don't really get a measurement of how much newgrowth I actually grew, but how much I retained, since I don't have any sort of line of demarcation anymore. It was easy when I still had relaxed ends because the two textures were so different.

 

[blackbarbie]

I try to measure my new growth from my scalp to the relaxed part, but it's not always easy. My hair is wavy, but it takes awhile before an actual wave pattern develops in my NG. I hope that I explained that so that it makes sense. My SO helps me in my measurements, inlcluding, the length of my hair. I don't blowdry my hair nor use a flatiron and he tells me that my hair is really longer than I think.

Same here. I was actually wondering the same question BC was asking for a while now and even had the nerve to try to get a tape measure to measure my NG, but because it is wavy, it is hard to say "I got X inches of new waves", or to measure where it hits my back isn't accurate b/c of the shrinkage, so I will just be patient and wait a few washes after my next T/U and not bother with trying to measure NG, although it would be great to have some uniform method to doing so!

 

[Mestiza]

Same here. I was actually wondering the same question BC was asking for a while now and even had the nerve to try to get a tape measure to measure my NG, but because it is wavy, it is hard to say "I got X inches of new waves", or to measure where it hits my back isn't accurate b/c of the shrinkage, so I will just be patient and wait a few washes after my next T/U and not bother with trying to measure NG, although it would be great to have some uniform method to doing so!

My SO has asked, "Why does the length of your hair fluctuate when I measure it, sometimes?" I told him that it has to be due to the waves and shrinkage of the NG. So, I don't focus on the the measurements too much.

 

[baglady215]

I measure my new growth, stretched, from the scalp to the line of demarcation.

 

[OneInAMillion]

I was just wondering because I see alot of "I got x inches in 1 month" threads without scientific documentation and I get kinda skeptical... The only thing I can think of is measurement differences. I think measuring from the bottom would be more consistent because as someone stated you cant really tell sometimes wher new growth ends and relaxed hair starts.

Id really like to see the "befores and afters" before I go out and buy something. BUT most of the time there are no pics r regimines... Oh well... All I can do is wish

ITA with the bolded statements, as I have no idea where my new growth starts. Throw the underprocessed hair into the mix and I couldn't say whether it's growing or not, cuz it all looks the same and just starts shrinking. When my hair was relaxed bone straight, this was obvious...not anymore.

 

[Supergirl]

I used to pluck a hair or 2 or 3 and lay it flat on a white sheet of paper. At the line of demarcation, I'd draw a little line on the paper, stretch the wavy hair to straight, and then draw another line on the paper where the hair ended.

I don't do this anymore, because after doing it for a couple of years I realized that I got the same amount of new growth each month no matter what.

 

[OneInAMillion]

So, I know this is probably a stupid question, but I never really thought about it. Should we get 1/2 an inch unstretched a month, or a 1/2 an inch stretched?

 

[baglady215]

So, I know this is probably a stupid question, but I never really thought about it. Should we get 1/2 an inch unstretched a month, or a 1/2 an inch stretched?

1/2 inch stretched.