August 20, 2013

Is shoulder length long? What is long hair to you?

So I was browsing the hairlista forum and I found an interesting discussion going on. There was a question posed asking ladies what hair length they considered to be "long". They were also asked what hair length was considered "too long\undesirable". I don't know, I feel like the perception of "long" in the black hair community is all out of whack.

Let me back track a little bit for those of you who do not know what this hair lingo is. Alright so during my hair journey and frequenting blogs/youtube I learned that there was secret world online. Like a little cult (that's how I tried to explain it to my boyfriend lol). This hair community has its own lingo, location, and hair journey veterans (those who've mastered growing hair).

So what are the hair length names and what do they mean? Well here it goes:
EL- Ear length
SL- Shoulder length
APL- Arm pit length
BSL-  Bra Strap length
MBL- Mid back length
WL- Waist length
Tailbone length
HL- Hip length

Now a majority of the woman shunned shoulder length hair...maybe one person said shoulder length hair was long. Mostly all the women believed that APL-BSL hair was where you joined the long hair club. Then you had the handful of women who thought BSL was where long hair could be claimed. On the subject of "too long" most agreed that anything past hips or the butt was too long.
As for myself I think APL hair is long, anything past HL is scissors time lol. I think the perception of long hair is out of whack especially in the online hair community because we know that black hair has potential to grow past certain lengths. We know and have witnessed hair possibilities. How can I explain that better?


Before I learned about the online hair community the longest hair that I'd seen on a person (African American) in real life was MBL. I grew up in a predominantly minority neighborhood and I'd seen long natural hair with my younger classmates, but as we all grew and applied chemicals to our tresses our length went bye bye. Now that I'm older to be honest with you I probably know 3  people in my neighborhood/job/highschool with REAL BSL hair or longer. I believe that standards are higher if you know what hair journeys are about, but If you asked me what the beginning point of long hair is "pre hair community" it'd be APL because in my area that length is not common.
What do you guys think? What length marks long hair for you? What hair length is too damn long? I'm curious to hear your opinions, drop a comment down below. Ohhh in this last picture down below I was APL, in the one above I'd consider myself shoulder length just so you guys could have an idea.

4 comments:

Tomes Edition said...

Most people think SL is long hair. I thought APL was long hair (pre-hair journey) until now that I'm grazing it and now I think BSL is the land of long Hair.

maggiepegg said...

I think for me I would prefer to have APL and that is Long enough for me. I like long hair but anything past that is a bit too much for me. But I might change my mind, you never know. I hope my natural hair journey turns out great.

maggiepegg said...

And forgot to say you got really great hair :) Looks healthy

S Jones Aka Shirley said...

Lol @ Tomes. Yes the average person sans hair journeys/internet would drool over healthy shoulder length hair. I agree with you though, it's like once you get to the length (like how we are APL) it seems like nothing.

@Margaret I agree with you on APL hair or longer being work. When your hair gets thicker, longer, and healthier you have to be dedicated to put the work in to keep it that way (sometimes our busy lives don't allow that). Thanks for the hair compliment, and I must say I love your new hair cut. I haven't been on blogger in a while but I love to keep up with your posts when I do. I was shocked to see you BC but it looks great! HHJ!!!!