Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster! I have 2a-2b hair that I have been religiously straightening (from ~15-26 years) and more recently bleaching. My hair used to grow extremely quickly with very little breakage, but in the last few years it breaks pretty severely before it reaches mid-back. I have also had a lot of pretty terrible stress in my life in the last few years, so this has likely exacerbated the hair loss.
Currently my hair is a bit longer than armpit length.

Two weeks ago I threw out my straightener, blow-drier, and cancelled all of my hair bleaching appointments. At first hair looked pretty wild and a matted frizz bomb but in just two weeks of only using L'occitane shampoo, conditioner, + a bit of oil as leave-in, it is so much smoother and shiny. The ends are still dry but I will keep doing regular trims.

What is annoying is I've noticed that my hair is only a bit wavy...it really didn't need to be fried by heat three times a week but oh well...

I am going to start using rosemary + castor oil from my roots to ends in the day before my shower. Hopefully my hair will grow to my waist in the next two years! If you have any suggestions for how to grow fine, fragile, heat AND chemically damaged hair please let me know!