Hello all! (My, I miss these old-school forums! I'm not so interested in the flashy new stuff like FB, pardon to anyone who is...)

I have refrained from posting for awhile because I really didn't know what to say. I think it could be helpful for those who do look here to share some of what I can think of how my hair has been over the years so I could find people with similar hair (hopefully) at some point. I can't remember how much info's in my profile; I guess because of not posting 25 posts yet, I can't access my own, so I don't remember if my hair info is in it.

I'm working on figuring out what's wrong with my hair. My hair's fine (ish), straight (as far as I know), and not super thick at the nape of the neck. I'm very low maintenance and have been since birth (my parents didn't bathe us more than once a week, and I never stopped being about that low maintenance). I've had 'long hair' by today's standards since I was 9 or perhaps even younger, but it's been thinning and shortening since I was 16 or so (13 years since). I've dabbled in various more natural-y haircare methods since 14 or 15 (starting with no-poo), but haven't had money to throw at what I'd prefer to do (natural herbal-y things). I got married two years ago, which means I can spend on myself now (lol), and I ran into Katherine Sewing and her haircare videos, so since earlier this year I've been adding things in (a bit too quickly) from literally water-washing my hair only every 3-4 weeks to washing weekly with things like rhassoul clay. Eventually I decided that trying to join this forum once I convinced myself it wasn't dead yet.

I wish to lengthen and thicken my hair, which more specifically means fixing scalp issues (slight itchiness and dandruff; it's not really that oily that I know of), strengthening hairs, and retaining length. I am reading up on NightBlooming's information because I've found it is covering the bases of what I could not find the info on years ago.

The thing that's frustrating me is that I have been quite gentle on my hair almost my whole life, arguably, and it never got super thick or long and then it just went on vacation on me. It's like one big existential WHY. I have a few more answers lately (NightBlooming, yay!), but still am having to piece things together. Oh- stress could be a factor.

I can go into greater depth on what I'm doing if people ask; I'm just ending up writing way too long an intro post so I think I should stop it right now.