'Growing' hair vs 'Retaining Length'

A lot of people go on hair journeys to 'grow' their hair. When actually, your hair is always growing. About 1/2 inch a month on average. What these people mean to say is that they want their hair to retain length.

Explanation:
Your hair is always growing. Its inevitable. But, if your ends are constantly breaking off, you won't see any added length. So if your hair is growing at a rate of 1/2 inch a month, but is also breaking off 1/2 inch a month, it'll always look the same length.
Think about it: you relax your new growth right? If you have new growth, then your hair grew, right? But your hair isn't looking any longer b/c it keeps breaking off.

So what you actually want to happen is to retain length. Meaning you want to keep the ends healthy. So when you M&S your hair, pay extra attention to your ends. Also, when you notice split ends, CUT THEM! you don't want to hold on to dead hair. If your hair is growing 1/2 inch a month, and splitting 1/2 a month, you'll notice growth, but it'll look gross. and split hair is weak hair that breaks off. Eventually that weak hair is going to break off any ways so you want to cut your hair doesn't look choppy.