is it better to....

[cdonald2]

Cut if you have a style you hate? or better to let it grow out? Will it eventually look better if you leave it alone or would you rather just chop off a good amount to get a style that doesnt look that bad?

Im just curious here how everyone feels about length over a style.

I know personally i have a cut that im not crazy about with layers that is shoulder length and now i pin it back most of the time. The front is cheek length and the back is shoulder length and i worry it looks awkward and hideous... however, my theory is that if i let it grow long enough then it will look fine...

Whats your weigh in on this for all of you personally?

[ExpectoPatronum]

I had layers I hated. They made my braid taper to nothing. Not only that, but the last few inches of my hair were damaged. I ended up cutting from BSL to APL and honestly? That was the best decision I've made for my hair. Though it (was) shorter, it looked and felt like the hair I wanted. It didn't take me long to regain the length since I didn't have to keep trimming off damaged, velcroed ends and keep trimming to get rid of layers. I still have a couple shorter pieces in the front, but they're only an inch or two shorter and don't look bad at all. Four months after the trim, I've already gained back most of the length I cut off and I'm excited to just focus on keeping my hair in good condition and growing it as long as I can. It's really nice to not have to worry about trimming to even out layers and to remember to microtrim my ends. Fourth months without a trim and still going strong!

Then again, I wasn't cutting from SL to cheek length.

[kganihanova]

I would definitely get rid of the style you hate. Its no fun growing out a style you hate! And growing hair should be fun. I'm a health/look over length kinda girl though...........

[Anje]

Most of what I hate is that some parts of my hair are too short (growing out bangs, anyone?). Obviously, cutting shorter isn't going to help me toward my goal.

On the other hand, a lot of people growing out from pixies or buzz cuts find that they want to trim the back a couple times to keep their hair from getting too "mullety". Obviously, everyone has their own path, but I think one of the more popular ones is to grow to the point where you can wear hair up (maybe a little past shoulder?), and then maintain the longest parts there while the shorter stuff catches up enough to suit your taste.

[arr]

I have layers im trying to grow out and ive been so tempted to cut, but since i have thick hair, updos are almost impossible if my hair is any shorter than it is. So for me, ive decided to hang on to the length since i wear it up most of the time anyway.

[cdonald2]

awesome answers everyone @anje i think thats the route im going to end up doing is take off the bottom and let layers catch up from time to time. I never get split ends because i baby my hair, so i dont need frequent trims.

I find its easier to ignore if its pinned up too. Maybe about 4 inches from now i can level it off. and i agree @expectopatronum i hate my tapering braids XD ive only ever had layers and its horrible!

[ErinLeigh]

awesome answers everyone @anje i think thats the route im going to end up doing is take off the bottom and let layers catch up from time to time. I never get split ends because i baby my hair, so i dont need frequent trims.

I find its easier to ignore if its pinned up too. Maybe about 4 inches from now i can level it off. and i agree @expectopatronum i hate my tapering braids XD ive only ever had layers and its horrible!

I have a very similar cut to OP. I find at this length and style best thing to do is get to APL :)
as long as you can wear it up the problem should be gone this year. I have been trimming the bottom to let the layers catch up and I am finding that is the slow route to getting what I want as it does get better as it grows. I am thinking I will leave it alone til APL then decide now.

[blue_eyes]

I've been having this conflict for a while now. my "hair cut" looks awful because a lot of my hair broke...like in half. Half of my thickness had about 6 inches break off, in large sections. Its mostly on the underside around the nape of my neck, so the canopy of my hair looks long...but the ends are very thin. Anyway it's kind of like having terrible layers, and I didn't know whether to cut all my hair to the same length as the broken pieces, or to keep growing it all, or to maintain the long pieces and let the short chunks catch up...

I decided that I'm going to keep growing it for the rest of this year. By then the longest parts of my hair will be at waist length and the short ones will be at BSL. Once I reach that point I'm going to cut it all to BSL. I think this way I won't feel like it's super short once I cut it, and being WL again won't be too far away. That's as close as I can get to a win-win situation. :P

[Tini'sNewHair]

I may sometimes say that i would wait to "grow it out" but in reality i always cut - Last time i cut my hair from just above shoulder length. -- no matter how horrible my hair looked when down i still preffered it to be healthy and up than damaged and up :) I kept my hair up for a whole year every single day because I simply didnt look good with a shorter style but once i hit APL to BSL i started letting it down on certain days, now im very close to waist and i wear it up most of the time again because i wish to protect my ends but when i let it down i feel great - love my hair now :)

[spidermom]

It kind of depends, doesn't it? If you hate your pixie, for example, there isn't much to cut to.

I used to get my growing-out pixie trimmed a little about every 9 weeks - grew to BSL doing that. I just hate that shaggy, shapeless look that growing-out hair gets if not trimmed (on me, not on you).

[MissHoney]

My hair grows in a layers/shape I hate but after trimming it obsessively I found out that getting over it and letting it grow and grow was the only way to finally get it all to a point where I can keep length and the layers stop looking ugly.

[clioariane]

I think both are good options. If your hair is very damaged I would prioritize cutting over growing, but if it's just bangs/layers you're concerned with I would grow it out for a few months before getting a new style.

[0xalis]

When growing out my pixie I trimmed the "mullet" often because I wanted to have a bob before starting to really gain length again.
I wanted layer-free hair and a blunt hemline, but wound up with a U instead (thanks mom... lol). So I never really got the bob that I wanted but it grew out really well and I actually like the U now.
But really, I think it depends on your situation. If you're wearing your hair up all the time and hate how your hair looks down, then it really doesn't matter how your hair looks down because it's up all the time! Most of the time I think style > length, though.

[restless]

Personally I wouldnt cut as that´d only put me even further away from my goal of long hair. Also, remember that hair is always growing and a few extra centimeters of growth can change the whole appearance of the hairstyle when youre at the short(ish) stages.

When I started growing my hair it was cut in this awful modern MacGuyver-hairstyle with lots and lots of layers. Some of them were only maybe 5 centimeters long while the longest parts in my nape reached to my shoulders. And yes- looking back at pictures it was as bad as it sounds. However, after my hair had grown a couple of centimeters the MacGuyver ´do turned into something quite pretty-looking if I get to say it myself. From there on I have slowly been microtrimming my hair to thicken up my hemline and even everything out.

Of course should you do what makes you happy- cut or not, but Im just saying that this too shall pass (in a few months) and meanwhile you could experiment with pretty hair toys, headbands, pig tails, braids, etc.

[Johannah]

I got layers a couple of years ago and I just let everything grow out. I wear it up anyway. I couldn't handle to cut it all at once :p