Freshman year of high school, I decided to grow out my hair. At that point, it reached my shoulders, and I wanted it to reach the small of my back. To grow it out, I began using growing shampoos and conditioners. I did conditioning treatments and read article after article on growing out my hair. It took a long time but here I am, soon to be a freshman in college and my hair reaches the small of my back just like I wanted. Finally, I understand what it's like to have long hair, so I thought I would write something for all the girls out there that have also devoted time to growing out their hair.

1. Shedding

If you have hair like mine, past the elbows, then you understand this. Brushing through your hair is like brushing a shedding cat. By the end of the affair, there’s a pile of hair on the floor and tangled into the bristles of the hairbrush. When showering, your hands pull out clump after clump as you run your fingers through your hair, ultimately leaving a hairball on the wall and a clogged drain.

2) Overheating

This especially pertains in the summer. Those long locks of hair surround you. In the humid summer heat, its difficult to breathe and cool down because your hair is a like a heated blanket. The only answer is to put your hair up, but even then its weight cannot be rid of unless chopped off. Though, it’s not all bad. In the winter you can go ice-skating without a hat because your hair has got your back.

3. Putting it up

When your hair reaches a certain length, especially if its thick and heavy, putting it up becomes a difficulty. A pony tale only results in bruises on the top of your head. Putting it in a braid causes those little strands to pull at your skin and braiding your own hair results in an arm ache. Don't even get me started on buns; those end up looking like some bird’s nest or some misshapen structure. Overall, its difficult, painful, and it seems your only options are to leave it down or put it in that half up bun, which, as discussed, is no good in the summer.

4. Air Drying

With so much hair, blow-drying can take upwards of an hour to get a complete dry. And with the heat damage, it’s just not worth it. So air-drying seems to be the way to go, right? Except that this takes far longer. Showering before bed results in a soaked pillow and wet hair in the morning. Showering in the morning results in wet hair all day that only gets frizzier as the day goes on. And when its time to shower the next day, your hair is still wet from the day before.

5. Getting it Caught in Things

Long hair gets difficult to keep track of. Those with long hair understand the struggle of trying to go about the day without getting their hair tugged on its next obstacle. Chairs, doors, zippers, crevices, and other people: they’re all dangerous. Your strands get caught on literally anything. All you can hope it that it’s easy to get out and that it doesn't hurt too badly.

6. Brushing

Long hair girls go through the daily event of brushing their hair, well, those who brush it every day. For some, this task is just too much to be completed daily. Brushing those locks is no easy task. It requires patience, commitment and a high pain tolerance for all those knots. Its not like a brush can just flow through the length of that hair, it must be brushed one section at a time, getting out the damages of wind, humidity and the events of the day. And the longer time between brushes, the worse that mess gets.

7. Going Out

Getting ready to go out for the night means makeup, dressing up and doing that long hair. Altogether, this takes several hours. Shorthaired girls have it easy; a couple strokes of that straightener and they're set to go. But straightening long hair must be done layer by layer, repeating each section several times. And curling, well personally I don't even bother. This can take hours, and by the time it's done the night could be nearly over. But in the end it looks good, even though the night out messes it all up anyway.

8. Waiting for it to Grow

All longhaired girls look in the mirror at least once a day and think, why isn't it growing. Getting it to this length took forever, but every once in a while we look at it and think it's not even that long. So they decide it needs to be longer, but the next day it's not any longer. Of course it wont grow in a day, but will it ever grow again? It drives us crazy. The waiting game is difficult.

9. The Daily Thought

We all have that thought, "I need to cut it off." Not just at times like the beginning of the school year, but nearly everyday. Whenever we face one of those struggles I've listed above, the only solution seems to be shaving off the hair. Although the thought occurs everyday, rarely do we actually follow through because we know deep down that's not what we really want… until it is.

10) "Wow your hair is so long!"

Though we long haired girls go through struggle after struggle, at the end of the day its worth it. When you pull the hair out of it's braid and our friends stare in wonder and repeat the line above, we remember why we keep our hair the way we do. We do it because no matter how annoying our hair is, were attached to it. We had the patience to grow it out to that length and the strength to take care of it. Possibly what longhaired girls understand the most is the satisfaction of having long hair.