Hair growth with Castor oil: Update

I have been trying to grow my hair out for sometimes now. I do get my end trimmed every 6 months or so but my last hair cut was atleast 14-15 months ago. My Hair has grown from not even shoulder lenght to almost waist lenght in this time period. Mind you, my hair doesn't normally grow in this rate. I credit it all to atleast once a week application of castor oil (wrote a detailed post on it back a while here) 

  So I have had this picture taken on a friend's holud on 5th June 2012 and the other picture is from 2nd July 2013, perfect to compare how much my hair has grown.

Also I noticed a change on the texture. The curls are more loose, there are less frizz and a whole lot more shine. This transformation is making my "being-natural" transition easier.
Because, being natural is so hard!!!! I had been coloring & highlighting my rebonded hair since 2004 so playing with my hair is all I knew. Now, I have been laying off all kind of processing for 6-7 months, no chemical, no blow dry forget curling iron or straighteners. That, along with once a week hot treatment ( with the aforementioned castor oil), once a week deep conditioning treatment, sealing and lots of leave-in made all the difference in the world. 
Honestly, I never really had long hair all my life, my styles reverted from chin/neck length to barely shoulder length. This is the longest I have ever had. And I am never cutting it off :D