A few years ago my stylist actually gave me great advice on growing out a short short short haircut as fast, painless, and easy as possible.  She recommended not blowing it dry but just towel drying it and applying gel..yep the dries hard type....and finger scrunching it and styling it and letting it air dry.  Great in summer.  I tried it this morning and it looks acceptable....nice warm weather look.  Since I have some wave/curl in my hair naturally, it accented that.  Also I am going to follow the advice in a previous post and just cut the back bottom until the side are grown out and can be blended in and go with the bob look before going with length.  Oh...another tip she gave me for growing out the sides is.....to avoid the flying wings dumbo look while they are growing out.....style them straight down and them "tuck" behind your ears...if you push the sides back they will stick out and you will look like the flying nun!  Ha Ha  Hope I explained that well. 

Here's to success to all of us wanna be long locks!

Thick wavy hair is hell to grow out! Mine took a year to grow from a 2 inch crop to the length it is below which I guess is a long time. Even though it's a bit damaging in excess, straighteners are a good investment for growing out. If you use protective products damage isn't much of a problem and the "flying nun" can be tamed!