damaged hair...what to do??

[totie]

I've realised just how badly damaged my layered midlengths & ends are from doing repeated highlights over the years (stupid me), but the ends of my underneath layer which is mostly virgin hair is extremely soft and healthy.

Im wondering if you also have damage from colouring/perming etc where is it the worst...midlengths or ends? And what are you doing about the damage?
Do you have a plan for growing/cutting it out, or just nurturing it?

[justgreen]

I had 2" of damaged ends when I first joined here. I figured out , finally, it was due to using Infusium 23 so religiously. I was never able to get it below BSL because I kept getting haircuts. Once I clarified my hair, got the 2" trimmed off (I still had damages after that), and did my first SMT, I started on the road to what I am today. One hair dusting every October and past hip length hair.

[totie]

justgreen wrote:

and past hip length hair.

that's so encouraging!
Im glad for you that it was a simple process of getting the damage under control.

[Shanarana]

I know I have damage in my hair because of using boxed dye and am now going to be switching to henna and see how that goes.

I just baby my hair and feed it coconut oil and do AVC rinses and that helps. I trim myself when I feel my hair needs it.

[LaurelSpring]

I have lots of old damage also from an old perm and coloring. Most of it is close to gone now, but I still had alot of damge from heat styling. I have been babying and oiling my ends and using the advice I got on LHC about good hair care (SMTs are great). I wear my hair up now and protect it and I am very slowly dusting/microtrimming the damage off.

[sipnsun]

I have a lot of damage on the bottom 10" of my hair. It's layered, permed, colored and then straightened. I was cutting 1" every 3-4 months but my ends were looking so bad between cuts I've decided to start dusting every 6 weeks. It will slow down my progress, but I feel I need to get this damage off! I also want to grow out my layers to one length so I would probably be doing frequent trims even if it wasn't so damaged. Between trims, I do lots of heavy oiling and deep conditioning treatments and that really helps too.

[Silver & Gold]

Most people would never guess at my damage because I'm good at babying my hair but I have some pretty bad damage, mostly from a bad job of highlights. So I'm babying the hair and doing fairly frequent light trims when my hair feels like it really needs it. I probably trim about 1/8" every 2-4 months.

I'm also growing out layers so unfortunately I end up trimming a lot of the healthy hair away as the damaged crown area continues to grow and while I would like to leave top layers alone to catch up, I do have to dust them because they are the damaged parts. It's frustrating because I can't have the long, thick hair I want quite as fast because I have to trim the length until the layers and bangs catch up and to make matters worse, the parts that I wish I could cut away are very parts I need to let grow. GRRRRRR!

One thing I have discovered that helps me is that while my healthy, virgin hair likes many of the more gentle and natural washing and conditioning methods, my damaged hair is better with cones. So I still tend to wash and condition the bulk of my hair using CO, WO and occasional CV shampoo bars, I still use a cone conditioner and/or leave-in on the parts of my hair that are damaged. I don't have a specific routine because I go by the feel of my hair and give it what it seems to want each day and each day my hair seems to want something different. Oh, and since I do use cones on the ends I keep an eye out for build-up so that I can clarify when/if it becomes necessary.

I'm years away from long and healthy hair. I've chosen to stride between letting my hair grow and trimming it just enough to keep the splits at bay. But I long for the time when my hair is long and the damaged parts are all shed or trimmed away.

[Kyannah]

I have quite badly damaged hair on top, also from highlights. My underneath hair is nice and soft except for the last 3 inches which still have some bleach in.

I have recently been putting coconut oil on my hair. I put quite a lot on in the morning and then put it up in a french twist for the day as it is very hot here at the moment. When I take my hair down at the end of the day it has all soaked into my hair.

It is feeling much better for doing this and the top of my hair which I could not even get a comb through now feels quite soft. I know that I need to get this hair cut off at some point but maybe not all at once.

[yogachic]

I have damaged hair from a perm,and then straightening on top of that.
Where I had one section of my hair repermed 1 week after the perm, from curl not taking, that hair was damaged in the midlength and ends. I have recently cut that off, and now have chin length bangs, and the virgin hair is very nice and healthy!

[Meli]

I don't have any chemical or heat damage, only damage from rough handling. I thought I would be able to get rid of it with S&D only, but the last inches were so dry and breakage-prone that they just got more and more scraggly-looking and unhealthy - not the natural tapering fairytale ends look I wanted. So, I cut about one inch recently, and I'm going to trim half of my monthly growth until the end of the year, then I'll see if I need to cut more or if I can stretch my trims and cut less. I'm going to trim more or less frequently until enough damage is gone, then I'm going for healthy fairytale ends.

I also recommend reading this (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79) excellent new article that Nightshade has written.

[dorothea-brooke]

You're in luck! Brand-spanking-new article by Nightshade (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79) about this very topic.

Tons of useful info, plus some pretty scary pictures of magnified hairs! shudder:

[Nightshade]

I also recommend reading this (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79) excellent new article that Nightshade has written.


You're in luck! Brand-spanking-new article by Nightshade (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79) about this very topic.

Tons of useful info, plus some pretty scary pictures of magnified hairs! shudder:

Wow! You guys found that fast :D


My story and recommendations are, obviously, in the linked article :D Hang in there, it's a long road but there's hope :)

[spidermom]

Because of old heat-styling damage, I got my hair to nearly waist length with gentle care and lots of deep treatments, then snapped from having to fight with Velcro ends every day, and cut back to APL. That was 2.75 years ago, and it's been happy growing with a small trim every 3 months ever since then. Although the loss of length was a shock at first, I've been very happy with my decision and the current result.

[totie]

What a fantastic article Nigthshade. I'm grateful that you posted that for our benefit, sure it's a long road but at least we know that others have made it and are there for us, teaching and encouraging us to continue with our own journey towards long healthy hair....no matter how painful and slow that might be.
thank you!!

[manderly]

My canopy has pretty frizzled ends from highlights and such.

I try to ignore them and give them a little snip when I can't stand it. They're probably terribly uneven now, but I can't see back there so I will eventually cut them all off, little by little.

[Celebrian]

The last few inches of my hair are still complaining from dyes/bleaches, you name it. I cut as much as half an inch off about every 4-6 weeks - so I'm more or less running on the spot with regard to gaining length!

I don't want to get rid of about 4-5 inches in one fell swoop, so I'd rather do it this way.

It's a pain though - and like others, I find that I have to treat the newer growth one way and the older stuff another ('cones are sometimes the only answer for these!).

I'm really looking forward to the day when the maltreated lengths give way to the healthier ones (probably a good year off yet) so until then, my length will probably have to remain at around 24 inches. :rolleyes:

[EvaSimone]

I have pretty badly damaged hair, pretty much the last 12" has been fried and dyed pretty badly. It's been highlighted and dyed repeatedly. I also used to straighten it every day with wax and hairspray and it would sizzle!

I am pretty lucky that my hair is resilient and looks as decent as it does but due to my style choices my hair will break with very little handling. I have a pretty decent taper past BSL which is noticeable when braided but not really otherwise.

My routine is to S&C every two-three days with Giovanni.

I don't use Sulphates and Silicones because I prefer how my hair acts and looks without them.

I wear my hair up nearly every day and I braid it when I sleep. This is mostly because I get aggravated when it gets into everything or when it starts feeling tangled and it hurts when I roll on it! A benefit from wearing it up is that I don't mechanically damage it on accident.

I deep condition at least once a week with Loreal pearl protein deep conditioner or some Burt's Bees deep conditioner.

I also always use a leave in with some oil. Lately I like Goth Rosary conditioner with a drop of olive oil on top. I'll also use FOTE aloe or a Burt's Bees Conditioner every so often or Jojoba oil.

I finger comb occasionally but otherwise I let it tangle or do whatever it wants with little interference.

I grew it for an entire year without a trim but the ends looked really beat. I trimmed off an inch in June and might trim a half inch off in the next few months...

Personally I think it's easier to just grow your hair and deal with the damage than to keep chopping. It's very hard to grow hair out when you are chopping off all of your new growth or close to it.
I am willing to deal with damaged hair in order to have longer hair and would rather maintain with damaged, long hair that gets small trims.

[Nightshade]

You're so very welcome! :flowers:

[podo]

I think EvaSimone has it right - I'd prefer to deal with long, damaged hair than to cut a bunch off every X months to cut out the damage. You're never going to get out ALL the damage, because the hair at your ends is several years old and all that sun, pollution, water, diet, and dog slobber is going to take its toll. Having said that, I think there's a difference between "natural" damage and chemical damage (including heat damage). But still.. if you aggressively S&D then you'll slowly cut out the damage but keep growing longer hair. :)