One year since my big chop!

[luckyshot]

Hey guys,

I'm still a relative newbie here, but I've learned a lot, and I wanted to share my progress. Last December I cut my hair from BSL to just above shoulder. I had been bleaching my hair for years, and my ends were very damaged, so I wanted a fresh start. Since then I have been trying new methods of caring for my hair, and just treating it right in general. I always thought I had slow growing hair, but it turns out that I don't, I was just damaging it so badly with heat and bleach that it couldn't grow to its full potential! I have now been bleach free for about 14 months, and I am loving my natural color (doesn't hurt that the ombre look is still pretty trendy, no one even knows I'm growing out bleach, lol). I still use heat, but only about once a week. I've realized that rather than having straight hair that I can't seem to tame, I actually have wavy hair that looks great when allowed to dry on its own without brushing. And I've also learned that CWC works great for my hair. I still wash daily, I've tried stretching my washes, but the greasiness never seems to get any better, so I've come to accept it. CWC doesn't seem to be damaging my ends so I think it's fine.

Anyway, without further ado, here's some pictures.

This was before my BC, unfortunatley I don't have any true length shots, so this will have to do.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee304/jilliansarah/IMAG0398-1.jpg

And this was after the BC.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee304/jilliansarah/IMAG0409-1.jpg

And this is a front view from today.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee304/jilliansarah/001-1.jpg

And finally, a true length shot!
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee304/jilliansarah/132.jpg

I'm going to continue taking length shots so that I can actually track my progress. My eventual goal is to get to waist and maintain there. I think I've had pretty good growth, my Mom trimmed about 1" off back in August, and I trimmed another 1/2" again not too long ago. I'm trying to slowly trim off the bleach damage, I don't think I could handle chopping back to shoulder again!

[iluvlovelylocks]

Fabulous progress!! :D my hair took almost a year and a half to grow from shoulder to APL!

[jojo]

Congrats, id say your a solid apl ( your head is slightly tilted in photo) but wonderfully healthy hair and your natural colour os gorgeous!

[luckyshot]

Thank you guys.

And jojo you're right my head is tilted in that picture, I guess I will have to practice some more with the length shots :). I am a solid APL, maybe a little bit past at this point.

[jacqueline101]

Your hair looks nice its made lovely progress.

[Micayla47]

wow! that's a lot of growth in one year. it looks really healthy too :)

[DancingQueen]

:agape: how did you grow all that hair in just one year!? That is amaizing growth - and it still looks so healthy on the ends! It took me 3 years to go from chin to APL+ (a bit shorter than yours)

[luckyshot]

Thanks guys. Aside from cutting down on heat and giving up the bleach I didn't do anything special for growth. I guess I'm just lucky in the growth department. I think we all get lucky in certain areas though. For example, even when I am at BSL I can't do any buns. My hair is too thin and fine, so it just makes tiny little buns, and they don't hold very well.

And my ends look healthy right now because I just trimmed them, they were getting pretty ragged looking before the trim!

[Tota]

Beautiful! Congrats on your progress. I love love love your colour and texture, so angelic.

[lunardaydreamer]

Wow such amazing growth in a year, congratulations :) it looks so, so healthy and beautiful. Your color is lovely!

[oktobergoud]

Great progress :D