Having grown my hair down to my belly button over the last years…
The “hair dips into your toast” phase is annoying af.

Hair ties, hair clips, bobby pins, hats, etc.
A nice hat when you’re going outside on a windy day helps a lot imho.
Honestly, there’s a period when your hair is long enough to be annoying but not long enough to tie back and it’s, well, annoying.
Good news is when it reaches just about your chin, you’ll be able to tie it back when it annoys you and it’s much less fuss from that point on.
Once it’s even longer than that it will end on your chest and it’s not in the way as much.

Pre-emptively cut the forked ends now and then.
It seems counter productive to progress, but that’s still faster than breaking knots of tangled hair.

Patience.

A random dude with long hair.
Edit: Oh and if you get yourself some hair ties, get those without the metal bit otherwise they break so much hair.