Hair horror stories & growing them out

[blue_eyes]

Hi, I'm new here! This type of thread has probably been done before, but I'm just starting it as a place to hear other hair disasters and how you've coped with growing them out.

I've been growing out my hair from a bob for probably about 4 years; I'm naturally blonde and had been dying it dark brown (almost black). I'd attempted to go back to blonde a few times (both by bleaching or highlighting) but it always looked awful and I'd dye it dark again. Anyway I finally learned my lesson. After the last session at the salon, which turned my hair patches of brown and orange, my long hair broke off in certain areas. If my hair was 24 inches, in those areas it's now 12 (at the most, some parts are only 4 inches long). So I had to get my long hair cut to hide the areas of breakage. They are mostly on the underside, around the nape of my neck, so they are easy to hide thankfully, but it was still horrifying. So now my long hair is generally only just past my shoulders :(. My hair is very thin and fine to begin with, so all that breakage really made my hair look even thinner.
I just need some support while trying to patiently grow it back out.

[biogirl87]

blue_eyes, I just wanted to say that I sympathesize with your pain. I know it can be difficult to grow your hair out from short lengths if you've had long hair before, but with enough time you'll have long hair again. I haven't tried them myself with much consistency, but I know members here have had success with scalp massages.

[sandigrl117]

Welcome blue_eyes! Like biogirl87 said, you'll have long hair again with time. I also recommend a good multivitamin with folic acid and biotin to keep the hair that's growing in healthy and less prone to breakage in the future.

[RedNymph]

I can relate to this so very well. I'm currently growing out from a big chop due to perm damage. (Never get a perm if you want your hair to live).

[MaryO]

I have also had to cut my hair because of dye damage. This was before discovering LHC so maybe it wasn't totally necessary but now I'm growing out virgin hair and it feels great! :-)

[plwaite16]

Hello, I never really had long hair and didn't really think of damage until I started to grow it out. Now, I see the ends that are "fly away" and stick up at funny angles are damage and break off. So, I'm now trying to learn all I can from LHC for conditioning, no heat to not aggravate the damage and start growth. I feel a bit overwhelmed, but will give it a go.

[Gothchiq]

Bleach and perm damage. TERRIBLE. Complete hair destruction. Had to cut it off and start over. Only when all the damaged hair had been removed could I start to regrow. So now I am only to APL. Had I not done those things I would be at waist by now. boooo.

[blue_eyes]

I know exactly what you mean. After all that bleaching I still ended up with the same colour I started with, but much shorter hair with a lot more damage. I regret it so much :(

[Liz_park]

Hey blue_eyes! I'm here for moral support!


I have never had long hair, but I was growing out my hair to be long and all one length, when I had a truly terrible haircut in April of this year. I explicitly asked for no layers, and instead she cut choppy suckie layers everywhere! My hair looked (it still looks, in a couple areas) super damaged because of the scissors she used.


I was so distressed that I decided I was never going to the hair salon again and I was going to join LHC and follow all their advice!


I think the thing that has helped me the most is when I do things for my hair every day. The act of consciously doing something to help it has given me peace of mind. I have started eating more protein, I take hair vitamins (biotin, MSM, and a good prenatal multivitamin), I invested in some coconut oil and sulphate-free shampoo. The conditioner only most days and minimizing my use of heat has healed my hair. I do self-trims using Fayes method.


After about 5 months, I am really starting to see a positive difference in my hair! So hang in there! We can grow together :)

[prettyinpink]

I bleached highlights in my hair. they broke right off at the root. for years i had short curly dingly hairs sticking up everywhere /:

[Lillybelle]

Hi, I'm new here! This type of thread has probably been done before, but I'm just starting it as a place to hear other hair disasters and how you've coped with growing them out.

I've been growing out my hair from a bob for probably about 4 years; I'm naturally blonde and had been dying it dark brown (almost black). I'd attempted to go back to blonde a few times (both by bleaching or highlighting) but it always looked awful and I'd dye it dark again. Anyway I finally learned my lesson. After the last session at the salon, which turned my hair patches of brown and orange, my long hair broke off in certain areas. If my hair was 24 inches, in those areas it's now 12 (at the most, some parts are only 4 inches long). So I had to get my long hair cut to hide the areas of breakage. They are mostly on the underside, around the nape of my neck, so they are easy to hide thankfully, but it was still horrifying. So now my long hair is generally only just past my shoulders :(. My hair is very thin and fine to begin with, so all that breakage really made my hair look even thinner.
I just need some support while trying to patiently grow it back out.

i know exactly how you feel. I have very deep brown hair that I bleached platinum for nine months. It held up for a long time and then began to shrivel and chem cut so I tried to dye it black. It turned blue but I loved and maintained that color for four months. After a while I realized that the dryness was traveling further up the healthy parts so I had it cut very short. Not even a bob, I'm talking emo punk short.
The loss hurts more than one an explain and growing it out takes a lot of patience. But I've found that this experience has encouraged me to become more knowledgable about proper hair care and helped me to embrace my hair for what it is. As a result, it's longer and more beautiful than its ever been.
Good luck with your own hair journey, blue eyes :)

[AmyBeth]

Hi, Blue_eyes, and welcome. I wirked as a salon receptionist for about 7 years, and was good sport enough to everyone's guinea pig. Oh, the haircuts I received because someone was bored or just learned a new cutting technique. The worst was an asymmetric with one side above my ears with the other side sort of stair step layers down to my shoulder. I wore barrettes and headbands for months to camo that one!. The coloring was pretty bad too. I had the black underlayers with the platinum canopy, the oh so obvious striped highlights, yuck! When I finally quit the salon it was so nice to have my own hair back to myself again. I chose my own hairstylist and had him do what I wanted! Then I decided I wanted my hair long, longer, longest like when I was a teen, and found LHC and learned to do my own trims and to use hendigo in my greying hair. I love having my hair- destiny in my own hands completely. I found monistat and daily scalp massages help to supercharge my growth rate and microtrims are helping me grow out the last vestiges of the layering. Taking good care of your hair makes it look so much better than all that processing- if that is what you want. I think up to date salon styled hair is nice too, if that's what you like. I just really think long natural hair is so much more to my taste.

[blue_eyes]

Hey blue_eyes! I'm here for moral support!


I have never had long hair, but I was growing out my hair to be long and all one length, when I had a truly terrible haircut in April of this year. I explicitly asked for no layers, and instead she cut choppy suckie layers everywhere! My hair looked (it still looks, in a couple areas) super damaged because of the scissors she used.


I was so distressed that I decided I was never going to the hair salon again and I was going to join LHC and follow all their advice!


I think the thing that has helped me the most is when I do things for my hair every day. The act of consciously doing something to help it has given me peace of mind. I have started eating more protein, I take hair vitamins (biotin, MSM, and a good prenatal multivitamin), I invested in some coconut oil and sulphate-free shampoo. The conditioner only most days and minimizing my use of heat has healed my hair. I do self-trims using Fayes method.


After about 5 months, I am really starting to see a positive difference in my hair! So hang in there! We can grow together :)

I've started doing similar things! After freaking out about all the breakage I ran out and bought biotin and MSM, I just started taking prenatal vitamins too. Has anyone had increased growth while taking all/any of these?

You guys are all so wonderful. I feel so much better after reading your stories :)

[AmyBeth]

Whenever you get discouraged, a helpful mantra is, "My hair is better and longer today than it was yesterday, and tomorrow it will be even better." In my case, I've decided that I will never, ever cut my hair again (willingly), and so I know that today my hair is shorter than it will ever be again. I may as well enjoy this length if I can, because I'll never see it again!

[Liz_park]

I've started doing similar things! After freaking out about all the breakage I ran out and bought biotin and MSM, I just started taking prenatal vitamins too. Has anyone had increased growth while taking all/any of these?

Lately I've been thinking, it's kind of lucky that I had such a bad experience with damage/bad hair. I think previously I hadn't thought much about damage or how I could improve my hair. I certainly wasn't motivated to change anything in my routine. My hair was sort of meh, and it certainly wasn't great!

Because of my terrible haircut, I joined LHC, found hair vitamins, and my hair is actually healthier than ever! And now I have good hair habits that will potentially set me up for beautiful hair for the rest of my life. So there's a silver lining here :)

Plus everyone here is so nice! I love seeing other people learn and grow

AmyBeth, that is a great mantra! So true!

[Casey50]

I had my long time hair stylist leave my salon. I decided to have one of the other stylists cut my hair. I told her no layers, just a few long layers around my face. I thought "how bad could it be?" I almost left and she convinced me it would be fine. Well she chopped so many layers into my hair and they aren't even done properly, more like layers for short hair. That was 6 months ago. I waited 3 months, and then went to a well trained stylist who despaired at my layers and fixed what she could. She told me do not cut your hair for at least 3 months! I also had found the LHC and stopped chemical color. I do henna- indigo glosses and have stopped all that damage and dryness. I use Chagrin Valley shampoo bars. One is a henna strawberry bar with henna, coconut oil, castor oil, and other wonderful ingredients. I take vitamins and CWC.

Well, my hair looks healthier than it has looked in 10 years. :) It will take a year before I have the length I want, as its barely APL, but I feel like I'm on the right path now. :) Casey

[blue_eyes]

I totally agree with your mantra AmyBeth. I know that once my hair is all back to normal it will be gorgeous and healthy. Waiting is definitely the hardest part.

I sympathize with anyone who has had bad layers. Although my hair wasn't layered, the areas that broke look like awful, very short layers. I feel so self-conscious whenever I leave the house.

[jacqueline101]

I'm here too for moral support.? I use Monistat to grow from my perm.

[blue_eyes]

I've never heard of using monistat to grow hair! What do you do with it? What does it do?

[muddblood21]

I am growing out some serious bleach damage. I was an occasional highlighter for 10 years with very little damage and mid back length, healthy hair. Then I colored it dark auburn for 4 months. Big mistake. The girl doing my hair said she would heavy foil me back to blonde. It looked weird when I left so I waited two weeks and did some more highlights myself. Bigger mistake. It was orange. My solution? Wait 3 weeks and highlight yet again. Worst mistake ever. It turned neon orange. Seriously, carrot orange. Now? Just sporting a color correction (a brassy gold/blonde that I am still not happy with) on the bottom few inches and on the top few inches...my natural, virgin hair. It is actually a pretty color. The stupid angled and stacked bob I got after the color correction SUCKS. I hate the layers. I hate the whole angled thing. I especially hate the fact that it is stacked. Good luck to all my fellows growing back their hair from a disaster like this! Sending growth spurt vibes your way! ;)

[Ambystoma]

I really sympathise with you Blue_eyes, I was in much the same situation about 4 years ago, I destroyed a gorgeous headful of MBL dyed dark hair with bleach and ended up with a very short bob that was so fried my hair felt like gummy, overcooked noodles when wet and had little short broken bits all over, some only an inch long shudder:. Growing out my virgin hair to chin length while trimming away pretty much all my growth so that I could start growing the length back was no fun at all, but on the plus side, I discovered that I really like my natural colour, which I hadn't seen more than an inch of since I was 13! I grew all my length back and then kept going, thanks to the awesome advice I found on this site - good luck to you and and everyone who is growing back from a nightmare!

[Liz_park]

I had my long time hair stylist leave my salon. I decided to have one of the other stylists cut my hair. I told her no layers, just a few long layers around my face. I thought "how bad could it be?" I almost left and she convinced me it would be fine. Well she chopped so many layers into my hair and they aren't even done properly, more like layers for short hair. That was 6 months ago. I waited 3 months, and then went to a well trained stylist who despaired at my layers and fixed what she could. She told me do not cut your hair for at least 3 months! I also had found the LHC and stopped chemical color. I do henna- indigo glosses and have stopped all that damage and dryness. I use Chagrin Valley shampoo bars. One is a henna strawberry bar with henna, coconut oil, castor oil, and other wonderful ingredients. I take vitamins and CWC.

Well, my hair looks healthier than it has looked in 10 years. :) It will take a year before I have the length I want, as its barely APL, but I feel like I'm on the right path now. :) Casey

Casey, congrats, it sounds like you're on a really awesome path, now! This is so inspiring :) It's good to hear other people's stories.

[blue_eyes]

I really sympathise with you Blue_eyes, I was in much the same situation about 4 years ago, I destroyed a gorgeous headful of MBL dyed dark hair with bleach and ended up with a very short bob that was so fried my hair felt like gummy, overcooked noodles when wet and had little short broken bits all over, some only an inch long shudder:. Growing out my virgin hair to chin length while trimming away pretty much all my growth so that I could start growing the length back was no fun at all, but on the plus side, I discovered that I really like my natural colour, which I hadn't seen more than an inch of since I was 13! I grew all my length back and then kept going, thanks to the awesome advice I found on this site - good luck to you and and everyone who is growing back from a nightmare!

I feel your pain! It's such a terrible feeling to see your long hair get completely annihilated. I will never go near bleach again. I feel so lucky to still have the majority of my hair at APL! I can imagine that you're glad that's 4 years behind you now :p

[goldenlady]

I feel your pain.. I bleached and then permed my hair and then went on holiday! The combo just wrecked it and I lost loads of hair.. Had to cut it to just past shoulders but 2 years later and my hair is mid-back... Just give it some TLC.. Oils are your friends, get a BB brush to minimise brushing damage and sleep with conditioning treatments on. My hair is back shiny and looks the thickest it has ever looked! It's doable :)

[blue_eyes]

Thanks for all your stories & support! :D

My hair is feeling much better. A lot of TLC & using good products has made it soft and shiny again. The varying lengths from breakage still look pretty bad BUT they are sort of hidden and nobody has noticed which I guess is the most important thing! I hope the next year passes by quickly, by then I think I'll be at my goal length and then I'll let the broken sections grow in while I trim the rest of it. On the plus side, it feels wonderful to see such gorgeous roots coming in! :) Since I've started taking prenatal vitamins & biotin my roots have never looked & felt so amazing! I can't wait until all my hair is like that!!

[renia22]

I'm in the same boat as all of you guys. After using a tangle teezer for over 6 months, and trying to convince myself it's been working (I really wanted it to work!), I realized the other day, looking at my hair on a humid day, how badly it has been shredding my hair. Now it's back to trying to grow out all of the broken hair. Damn it all.....

[blue_eyes]

I'm in the same boat as all of you guys. After using a tangle teezer for over 6 months, and trying to convince myself it's been working (I really wanted it to work!), I realized the other day, looking at my hair on a humid day, how badly it has been shredding my hair. Now it's back to trying to grow out all of the broken hair. Damn it all.....

I really sympathize! :( It's such a terrible feeling to have been trying to take care of your hair and let it grow, only to realize it's been damaged and you have to start over.

[Ashflower89]

This story is all too familiar for me :( I feel your pain. I tried black on a whim two years ago, and I have naturally medium ash blonde hair. Needless to say, my eyebrows looked nonexistent. I went to the salon twice in a month and had it stripped and bleached out, and by the time I was done, my hair was the texture of spaghetti. It stretched and snapped like I had a million tiny rubberbands hanging off my head. I cried over it, and after two months of trying to baby it, I knew I had to start over. I cut it into a pixie, and kept it trimmed until no bleached hair was left. It was an awful experience, and makes me sad thinking how much longer I'd be if I'd never cut it.

[blue_eyes]

It was an awful experience, and makes me sad thinking how much longer I'd be if I'd never cut it.

I know how you feel :( My hair was nearly at my waist before this whole ordeal, now it's at APL, but I wish I'd never touched it. I'm very grateful that I didn't have to get a pixie cut.

[Ashflower89]

Wow blue_eyes, I've never made it to waist length before, having even more length makes it even harder to handle I bet :( I'm growing out my third pixie after another dying screwup, and I'm trying to use this forum as support to keep me from EVER dying it again. If I don't dye it, I won't cut it. It goes hand in hand.

[renia22]

I really sympathize! :( It's such a terrible feeling to have been trying to take care of your hair and let it grow, only to realize it's been damaged and you have to start over.

You too, blue eyes, sorry to hear you had to cut to shoulder length!

[blue_eyes]

Wow blue_eyes, I've never made it to waist length before, having even more length makes it even harder to handle I bet :( I'm growing out my third pixie after another dying screwup, and I'm trying to use this forum as support to keep me from EVER dying it again. If I don't dye it, I won't cut it. It goes hand in hand.

I joined LHC for the same reason! I kept going through this cycle of 'dye hair dark, want it blonde, starting bleaching/highlighting/whatever it takes, hate it, dye it dark to cover up the mess, want it blonde, etc.' and after this disaster I'm finished with bleach & dye. If I ever get the urge to go blonde again I'm going to re-read all these posts! :P

[BlazingHeart]

While I've never had a processing fiasco, I've had some really dreadful cuts. I think the worst one was cutting layers into my then hip-length hair. It was the late '90s, and 'the Rachel' was all the rage. My stylist told me 'it won't look like that on you', but I blithely insisted we proceed. What resulted was what I call the '80s country singer look - huge voluminous layers, like having triangle head allllll the way down. I was so embarrassed, and there was really no way to hide it - it looked terrible in a ponytail, and if I braided it, it looked like badly braided straw because there were so many ends poking out because of the layers. I ended up having to cut it even with the shortest layer, which was not much below my chin, if I recall correctly. That terrible haircut was preserved for posterity, though - the father-daughter dance at my school was just a couple days later, so there I am in my long black dress with that awful cut. My stylist was wonderful and got me back in to re-cut it a week after the original cut, but I had to walk around with it at school for a week. I swear, it got in EVERYTHING because there were ends at every length and no matter what I did, it was wrapping itself around things and catching on things and...ugh.

I also had a terrible pixie I guess right around 5 years after that. It was SUPPOSED to be a cute little pixie, but apparently the stylist I saw didn't know how to cut really thick hair into that kind of style. You know the infamous almost bowl cut that the Beatles had on their first American tour? That's what I looked like. I was so miserable - there was no fixing it because there was no more hair to cut, unless I wanted a buzz cut! And I've got the kind of rounded face that just doesn't work with that style - I think you need a really feminine, strong-boned face to carry that look off well, and I just don't have that. I ended up using a lot of product to kind of side-part it, and while it was very masculine, it was...survivable. I think if I wasn't 5'2 and curvier than a mountain road, I could have easily been mistaken for a man for a while. I know androgyny is some people's cup of tea, but it isn't mine. It took months for the cut to grow out enough to be cute. I did, however, discover that a cheekbone length cut is actually really cute on me because of that fiasco - I don't think I would have ever cut it that short on my own, and it's now my favorite short length. I've had my hair cut to cheekbone length two or three times since then, because it's a really easy, cute style for me. In fact, my last cut was one of those. I'm now at classic length...I guess it's 4 years later? Give or take. It would have been 3, but I've had thyroid problems (and auto-immune issues) that caused MAJOR growth stalls and slow-downs. My hair grows pretty fast when I'm healthy.

[blue_eyes]

I also had a terrible pixie I guess right around 5 years after that. It was SUPPOSED to be a cute little pixie, but apparently the stylist I saw didn't know how to cut really thick hair into that kind of style. You know the infamous almost bowl cut that the Beatles had on their first American tour? That's what I looked like. I was so miserable - there was no fixing it because there was no more hair to cut, unless I wanted a buzz cut!

Oh my gosh I can't even imagine being in that position! I'd be in tears. I'm lucky to have come away with most of my hair at APL. Congrats on reaching classic! It must feel amazing to be at that length! :) I can't wait for the next year or 2 to be over, I should have my hair back to normal by then.

[BlazingHeart]

I think if I hadn't been in the middle of having my heart broken in a long-distance engagement, having my friendship with my best friend evolve into something much more distant, competing in state-wide research competitions, and trying to finish my senior thesis, I probably would've been more devastated than I was. I just had bigger things to be worried about in that moment. Not to say that hair isn't a big thing, but for me, in that time, it was just one more thing to be unhappy about rather than something that really did me in. I think it helped that I did actually WANT short hair, albeit certainly not the cut I got. I definitely had that bad moment every morning where you're getting ready and you see yourself in the mirror and sigh and think 'Why did I do that?', but the rest of the time, I was too busy to focus on my hair. My hair grows fast, so it was only a few months later that I had the cheekbone length that looked so cute. You'll get through this, too!

Thanks for the congrats. My ends are not in the shape I'd like them to be, because I've been having hand, neck, and shoulder problems that mean I can't keep it up as much as I'd like. They need to be trimmed back several inches so at least I'm not sitting on them anymore. What can you do, you know?

[blue_eyes]

I think if I hadn't been in the middle of having my heart broken in a long-distance engagement, having my friendship with my best friend evolve into something much more distant, competing in state-wide research competitions, and trying to finish my senior thesis, I probably would've been more devastated than I was. I just had bigger things to be worried about in that moment. Not to say that hair isn't a big thing, but for me, in that time, it was just one more thing to be unhappy about rather than something that really did me in. I think it helped that I did actually WANT short hair, albeit certainly not the cut I got. I definitely had that bad moment every morning where you're getting ready and you see yourself in the mirror and sigh and think 'Why did I do that?', but the rest of the time, I was too busy to focus on my hair. My hair grows fast, so it was only a few months later that I had the cheekbone length that looked so cute. You'll get through this, too!

Thanks for the congrats. My ends are not in the shape I'd like them to be, because I've been having hand, neck, and shoulder problems that mean I can't keep it up as much as I'd like. They need to be trimmed back several inches so at least I'm not sitting on them anymore. What can you do, you know?

I'm so sorry that you had to go through all that :( I can see why your hair wasn't the main thing bothering you at that point. I hope everything has improved since then.

[TearsInRain]

I decided I was going to grow my hair long a few years ago, and snooping around lurking on this forum I picked up a bunch of tips and went from a bob to waist (I'm 5'11" but never measured actual length of my hair in inches). I got bored one day and chopped it to shoulder length.

From there I dyed it (I've always had fun dyeing my hair from dark brown to all sorts of reds), then decided to be crazy and bleached it, and colored it orange. The orange washed out, and I was left blond. So I dyed it to a brown close to my natural color and let it grow.

I ended up at BSL. Then one day decided - hey, let's do that again! Cut it back to shoulder length, bleached it again, and back to orange!

Well the orange washed out. And again, bleached blonde.

THEN... Radically short. Like pixie in the back with long sweeping front bangs. Then dyed it green. And when that faded out, I bleached my roots AGAIN, and went with pink.

When that faded out and started growing, I tried to dye it brown again so I could grow it out. But it wouldn't hold the brown dye.

So now I'm stuck with this length of awful bleached hair with two inches of a mismatched brown against four inches of new virgin hair.

The blond is growing out, as are the layers, but it's so frustrating. Growing out these pixie layers makes the hair in the back of my head all five inches long. From the top of my head to my neck. All about five inches. The last layer is just above my shoulders.

I hate my hair so much. I want it to just grow out so I can give it a one-layer blunt cut and just LET IT GROW.

I'm wishing I could go back in time and just stop myself from cutting my waist length hair. IT COULD BE DOWN TO MY KNEES BY NOW :(

[DweamGoiL]

OK, I have 2 that really stand out for me:

1) I was about 14 and perms were all the rage then. My mom wouldn't pay for a perm for me so I decided to do one at home. My cousin worked at a beauty parlor and brought some solution, the rollers, and paper home. By the way, she was not a hairdresser...she just washed hair. So far, in my teen mind this sounded like a GREAT idea. So she rolled up all of my BSL hair and poured the solution. Long story short; she left the solution on way too long. By the time my hair dried, I had a giant afro. She tried to calm me down by saying with some deep conditioning it would be fine. I tied it into a pony tail and the diameter must have been well over 6 inches. My hair was sooooo fried.

Next day, I went to an actual beauty parlor and they said the only way that they could get it to relax was to perm it again, but this time, without the rollers. It did work somewhat, but the texture was so super coarse and when I tried combing it, some of the sections would just fall off because they were so brittle. I ended up getting my most dreaded hair cut at the time, a pixie. It's one of those cuts that looks terrible on me and it took me forever to grow out.

2) This was years later - I had the brain child to closely shear my hair and leave the bangs long. It was in back then so hey! So it took me like 2 years to grow that out to about 2 inches past shoulder. I needed to even it out a bit so I went to a place my mom had raved about. Long story short, they gave me a bee hive. No lie; and actual bee hive. I was mortified, but it was done and again, I found myself growing it out.

[AnqeIicDemise]

I finally got my tuft grown out to a manageable length.. but now I hate that I got these pieces that about as long as my bangs while the rest of my hair's down to my tail bone. Thankfully I cut my bangs in to hide the hair singe incident a year ago but still... by the end of the night, the frazzled look makes the un even nature of my tufts more obvious. (I singled the hairline from my widows peak to behind my ear a year ago. Lost most of my brow and half my lashes in the process.) Most people don't notice, though. I do and it drives me bonkers. I try not to think about it.

[Addy]

This story is all too familiar for me :( I feel your pain. I tried black on a whim two years ago, and I have naturally medium ash blonde hair. Needless to say, my eyebrows looked nonexistent. I went to the salon twice in a month and had it stripped and bleached out, and by the time I was done, my hair was the texture of spaghetti. It stretched and snapped like I had a million tiny rubberbands hanging off my head. I cried over it, and after two months of trying to baby it, I knew I had to start over. I cut it into a pixie, and kept it trimmed until no bleached hair was left. It was an awful experience, and makes me sad thinking how much longer I'd be if I'd never cut it.

This is exactly what I did. I'm a natural ash brown. I was coloring darkest brown for 2 years and wanted to lighten up for this summer. Oh... I lightened it. I freaking fried my waist length hair! OMG... I babied it for a couple months and waved the white flag of defeat. Went into a salon and said, It's got to go! Told her what I did and she wanted to cry with me. She gave me this slightly stacked bob and it would have been ok but I had to do it everyday which required a round brush and a blow dryer to look presentable... Ahummmm NO! It was breaking my hair OFF even more! So, I did the next best thing... I stood in the bathroom and gave myself a pixie from April-June, I cut all the dye off. Now, every month or so, I trim my neckline and wait for it to grow out. The hair is now covering my ears and it's all virgin and silvering AND SO THICK! I feel like some days I have a helmet on my head! lol

[blue_eyes]

This is exactly what I did. I'm a natural ash brown. I was coloring darkest brown for 2 years and wanted to lighten up for this summer. Oh... I lightened it. I freaking fried my waist length hair! OMG... I babied it for a couple months and waved the white flag of defeat. Went into a salon and said, It's got to go! Told her what I did and she wanted to cry with me. She gave me this slightly stacked bob and it would have been ok but I had to do it everyday which required a round brush and a blow dryer to look presentable... Ahummmm NO! It was breaking my hair OFF even more! So, I did the next best thing... I stood in the bathroom and gave myself a pixie from April-June, I cut all the dye off. Now, every month or so, I trim my neckline and wait for it to grow out. The hair is now covering my ears and it's all virgin and silvering AND SO THICK! I feel like some days I have a helmet on my head! lol

Omg, having to go from waist length hair to a pixie, when you didn't WANT a pixie, just breaks my heart. I keep kicking myself over ever bleaching my hair, I wish I'd never touched it.

[Ashflower89]

This is exactly what I did. I'm a natural ash brown. I was coloring darkest brown for 2 years and wanted to lighten up for this summer. Oh... I lightened it. I freaking fried my waist length hair! OMG... I babied it for a couple months and waved the white flag of defeat. Went into a salon and said, It's got to go! Told her what I did and she wanted to cry with me. She gave me this slightly stacked bob and it would have been ok but I had to do it everyday which required a round brush and a blow dryer to look presentable... Ahummmm NO! It was breaking my hair OFF even more! So, I did the next best thing... I stood in the bathroom and gave myself a pixie from April-June, I cut all the dye off. Now, every month or so, I trim my neckline and wait for it to grow out. The hair is now covering my ears and it's all virgin and silvering AND SO THICK! I feel like some days I have a helmet on my head! lol

Ugh that sucks big time. But at the same time, when that natural undamaged hair starts creeping its way down, you end up feeling so accomplished. I just wish it would creep a little... faster lol.

[renia22]

I keep kicking myself over ever bleaching my hair, I wish I'd never touched it.

I totally feel for you, and can relate to wanting to give myself "das boot" upside the head for the long term consequences of hair mistakes!

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m118/flower_101_p/kittydog.jpg (http://media.photobucket.com/user/flower_101_p/media/kittydog.jpg.html)

[Addy]

Omg, having to go from waist length hair to a pixie, when you didn't WANT a pixie, just breaks my heart. I keep kicking myself over ever bleaching my hair, I wish I'd never touched it.


Ugh that sucks big time. But at the same time, when that natural undamaged hair starts creeping its way down, you end up feeling so accomplished. I just wish it would creep a little... faster lol.

I cried and cried and cried! It's growing in nicely with more silvers and the thickness is CRAZY! lol

I'll never color it again! In fact, I was talking with an older gentleman today outside my work and he started peering over my head and I asked him, You looking at my gray hairs?! He said, It's so beautiful! You have such nice facial features, it suites you so well! You should never color it! It was nice to hear because I so don't feel I look pretty at all with this hair! I'm hoping by April I'm at a solid shoulder, completely natural and heading to classic length!

I'm a long hair. Always was, Always will be.

[Addy]

I went from this:

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/7780/dzat.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/189/dzat.jpg/)

To this:

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/411/3jz1.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/593/3jz1.jpg/)

To this:

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7655/xeyv.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/208/xeyv.jpg/)

How's that for 3 different colors in less than 6 months? :D

ETA I got HUGE comps on that pixie! Even more when I told every girl that asked who cut it that I did it myself. I've even had them beg me to cut theirs because they said no stylist ever does it right. lol

[blue_eyes]

Thanks for sharing your pics! I'm not surprised you got compliments on your pixie cut! It looks great!!! :)

[magfish]

Not so much a specific horror story, but the first time my hair got totally truly "long" (MBL?) I just stopped cutting it and let it grow. I was using all sorts of sulphates & silicones & working at a summer camp so it got totally destroyed, of course, which was pretty horrific. Split ends all the way up the shaft, totally dead, you name it. Led to me cutting it to shoulder length (which made me cry) and then chin because hey why not and I'm just now growing back from that- now with all the tools to make it as gorgeously healthy as possible!

[Valkyriejae]

My long hair journey began with a horror story. I had medium length length hair when I was a kid, but my mom didn't really understand hair and would just shampoo and then rip a fine-tooth comb through it. She finally got sick of me crying and leaving my hair tangled rather than let her comb it, so when I was about 8 she put a bowl over my hair and cut around the edges.
I've never had a real "cut" since - just trims (though my longest trim was almsot 10", but that was another horror story in and of itself.)

[Katrine]

I used to have thick TB length hair but I ended up having to cut back to chin length because of damage (it was breaking all the way up the hair shaft) and a heavy hair shed. I was devastated but determined and I have grown it back out to hip although it did take a while. Partly because my hair was still not in good shape so the hair stylist was trimming off some of my new growth. But I have since started trimming on my own and enjoying my progress. Hang in there :)

[Curly_jas]

I am in a similar situation as the rest of you guys. I have tried on a few occasions to embark on a healthy hair journey, and although my hair grows at a fair rate I always end up with somewhat damaged hair due to heat styling or at home dyes. More recently my hair was longer than ever but I had half head of highlights put in at a salon (the lady had no clue what she was doing, she bleached my dyed black hair 3 times!!) it came out orange, when I got home I was devastated as it looked ruined and was breaking off in my hands/when I combed plus my curls were completely gone. It was damaged worse than than ever. Add to this that I have had two Brazilian keratin treatments (this year) which were fantastic at the time but I just want my curly hair back. The top layer of highlighted hair will not curl no matter what i do, but the more i wash my hair, the underneath the curlier it is getting as the BKT washes out. I had to redye my hair with semi permanent black dye (no ammonia) and chop it from past APL to chin, and still there is damage to be cut.

It has been a huge wake up call (finally) to truly embrace my natural curls and stop trying to go against them, the difference regarding my other attempts being i cannot understand why I ever wanted to hide my curls and straighten them, or dye my jet black glossy hair. I have already started to rid myself of all heat tools and have been braiding my hair everyday and am excited about this journey. I honestly am not sure what my completely virgin hair will look like, it's going to be a long road but I've definitely learned my lesson. Good Luck growing everyone!

[blue_eyes]

Since this whole horrible experience began I've been struggling with what to do about coloring my hair. I had bought some dye to use on my roots but I'm too terrified to touch it, fearing that even more hair will break off.

So, I think I'm going to give growing the dye out a try and returning to completely virgin hair, though I expect to have to fight myself from picking up the dye once my roots really start to show (blonde roots against dark brown length? ugh, I shudder at the thought!) lol. I'm just so fed up with the whole coloring process and the damage it does. My hair always seems to be patchy, or older colours of dye are creating different tones in different areas, or I've missed a spot when coloring...there's ALWAYS something that isn't perfect, which means I have to dye again, which leads to even more damage. So forget it! I can't wait to not be stressing about this anymore.

Did anyone else give up hair coloring after experiencing a disaster? :P

[mscm]

I can also relate. I have gone from black to blonde, then blonde to red, red to purple, purple to black and black to blonde - again! Most people are shocked I still have hair on my head, and now, allthough I dont fancy my current blonde color, will not do anything to my hair besides washing and oiling it! Also I am taking MSM:)

[blue_eyes]

I can also relate. I have gone from black to blonde, then blonde to red, red to purple, purple to black and black to blonde - again! Most people are shocked I still have hair on my head, and now, allthough I dont fancy my current blonde color, will not do anything to my hair besides washing and oiling it! Also I am taking MSM:)

I relate to this so well. It is a miracle my hair held out for as long as it did, considering all that I've done to it. But I'm too terrified to do anything further and am resolved to just let it grow. I'm taking MSM too, along with biotin. I've been taking them about 4 months now and am getting about an inch of growth a month :) It's very encouraging.

[Addy]

I've given up all chemical dyes for long virgin hair. No more!!! I'm tired of losing length to damage! It takes way too long to grow out!