Lots of things have been said and written about hair lengths. There are different preferences and opinions throughout cultures, ages, even genders.
With all this noise it can be hard to form your own opinion or even dare to consider doing so. No one wants to be judged negatively, right?
However, it is your decision eventually, so I wrote up a few key factors you can take into consideration when trying to determine if you have too much length.
Related: How to measure your hair length accurately (with hair length chart)
Hair health
It should go without saying, but your hair health is the first thing to look at. Is it in good condition? Or are split ends eating up your strands?
Obviously you can take care of that and even get rid of split ends without losing length. And if you’re getting regular trims, you probably don’t need to worry about a few split ends here and there anyways.
HOWEVER.
Maintaining healthy hair, especially keeping the ends of your hair healthy can become pretty hard work the longer your hair is. Take a look at all these things to consider if you want healthy hair growth.
If that sounds like wayyy too much work, you might simply be having a better time with a short bob.
On the other hand, if your long-term hair goals are to have super long locks, you probably don’t mind putting in the extra hair care effort to achieve that goal.
Basically, if you feel like you can’t keep up with keeping your hair healthy, it is probably too long for your preferences.
Hair type
The next factor to consider is your type of hair.
Curly hair
If you have curly hair, it’s going to be much harder for you to get really long hair, as shrinkage might hide your length gains from you.
But if you do, boy, does the need for styling products, deep conditioners and so on increase! You might even lose some of your curliness. My hair, for example, is pretty curly when short. The longer your hair grows the less it curls, simply because the weight stretches it.
If you love your curls and want to keep them, your hair is too long as soon as the curls start stretching out even when you do everything you can to reinforce your curl pattern.
Straight hair
Straight hair has a different problem when getting long. Especially if you have finer hair, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain blunt ends. On fine hair, that can start looking very wispy and fairy-like.
And even though that doesn’t mean you have to cut it or that it’s unhealthy, you’ll get lots of comments of people telling you your hair isn’t healthy.
(They don’t know better, it’s simply that the average person is strongly conditioned by advertising images.)
The good news is that they have a right to their opinion and so do you. So if you like that look, go for it and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Thick hair
Lastly, regardless of your hair texture, you might have really thick hair. And the thickness of your hair can influence how your hair follicles deal with different hairstyles.
A lot of people with thick hair struggle a lot with the long hair headache, and prefer to go for shorter haircuts to avoid it.
So if your hair follicles hurt constantly because you cannot find a hairstyle you like that doesn’t give you the urgent need of a scalp massage, your hair might simply be too long for you.
Face shape
One more things to consider, especially if you love wearing your hair open a lot, is your face shape.
For example, if you have a very long face, straight longer hair can make it look even longer. In that case, you’d want to create some volume at ear height for a softer look.
That doesn’t mean only short cuts or a long bob work for you. You could also learn different styles for long hair that balance out your features.
But if you’ll ask the average hair stylist while you’re sitting in the stylist’s chair, they’d probably recommend one of the medium length haircuts and the best way to style it according to your face shape.
Personal preference
As you can see, in the end, the decision comes down to personal preference. It’s not the worst thing if you decide to chop off a couple of inches simply to try out a new look.
And still, always keep in mind the amount of time it takes to grow back your long hair if you’ll miss it.
So how long is too long for hair?
Clearly, your hair is too long if it creates problems for you. No matter if they are of a more practical nature or emotional or social ones. Just make sure that it’s your decision if you go for a cut, not someone else’s.
The length of your hair doesn’t make you a better or worse person either way.
