Massive tapering, 3 years of regret (slight ranting)

[Dreams_in_Pink]

When you make a hair mistake, it stays with you.

Don't get me wrong; my hair feels very good right now. It's silky (as silky as coarse wavy hair can get) and shiny, and i'm having a good hair day. Ponytail circumference is 10 cm (approx. 4 inches) which is not bad.

But that's where the praise ends.

You see, when you go to a salon to get extensions, you need to have your own hair thinned. I had shoulder length hair when i got my microrings. My hemline was thick as my wrist. This means, when they were done installing the extensions (they had to use 280 grams of TBL hair!) my own hair looked like a helmet. They had to thin the canopy so much that i had like 5-cm-long strands on top of my head. Especially the front part of my hair was slaughtered the most.

I had them taken out after a month because it's not possible to live with what felt like a thousand knives stabbing your scalp. When they were finished, my ponytail circumference (once wrist- thick) was then only finger-thick :(

And now, after, like, 3 years from the incident, i still suffer from thinned ends:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11282&d=1401821624

Have i not gotten extensions, my hair would've been full-thickness at tailbone now. I got many trims so far to minimize the tapering and tapering still starts way up the length at around shoulder-APL.

I'm cursed with that missing chunk of hair you see in the photo for at least another 2 years before another trim. Because when i trim, i only trim the perfectly healthy long under layers.

Meh.

I'm not really asking what i can do because i cannot do much then to chop back to APL (which is not happening). I can use some sympathy and support though :(

[Othala]

Sorry to hear about this. No advice to give, but thank you for warning others.

[ARG]

If you hadn't pointed out to the thinner area, I would not have noticed. Your hair is beautiful.

[Dreams_in_Pink]

@Othala: It is a warning indeed. I never thought the chop was necessary when going for the extensions :(

@ARG: Aw thank you :) Maybe i'm sensitive to that area, i always point out the thin sides :(

[blue_eyes]

I have a similar problem thanks to massive breakage (bleach disaster) that happened about a year ago. It does indeed stay with you. My longest little sections of hair hang down to BSL and look very thin, the rest of my hair (the sections that broke) are now around APL. It certainly does take years to recover :( I know how hard this is, but your hair does look beautiful and I don't think your thin section is very obvious. :) I wish I had some good advice, but you definitely aren't alone.

[lapushka]

Yikes those extensions really did a number on you! :( Thanks for the warning (not that I was even contemplating extensions). You'll have a thick hemline at TBL in no time. Why not join the TBL challenge for 2014?

[momschicklets]

I really, *really* think your hair is lovely...and if you hadn't drawn a big red circle around it I know I wouldn't have noticed the thinner area. I had no idea that your hair needs to be thinned to get extensions! That's horrifying to me. But now, to me, it looks shiny, wavy, and yes...even thick. :blossom: So sorry you had to go through that, though, and are still suffering some effects today. But from an outsider's POV, your hair is gorgeous :flower:

[sumidha]

*Hugs*

I so completely sympathize with the frustration of trimming off healthy ends and not actually getting the problem hairs. I have breakage and splits all through my length, and since last summer I've completely stopped trimming the ends, and switched to S&D only. It's kind of frustrating to know I'm loosing thickness, but I tell myself that it's better to have healthy shorter hairs throughout the length than random splits everywhere. Plus, now that I've stopped trimming off my new growth every six months in a loosing battle against taper, I'm gaining length! :D

[Dreams_in_Pink]

Thanks everyone, i feel better already :)

@blue_eyes: It doesn't look obvious because i've been trimming it a lot :( If i hadn't, i'd have 2-5 strands at tailbone length :D
@lapushka: It wasn't the extensions that did me wrong, it was the thinning shears. :scissors: Oh and the challenge, i'll consider myself lucky if i could get to hip by the end of this year let alone TBL :(
@momschicklets: Awww thanks! :grouphug:
@sumidha: I just let my ends go. I'm constantly babying them and keeping them in updos and hope they won't split :( I don't have the patience to do a full head S&D :(

[spidermom]

I haven't had my hair thinned in a few decades now because I absolutely hated it. All those shorter hairs stuck out through my longer hair and made my hair look coarse and even more frizzy than it is already. You have my sympathy. As you know, time and trims should thicken the ends nicely.

[divinedobbie]

I went through the exact same thing. My hair was razored when I got extensions a year ago, the same as you - microring. I have the exact same "problem area" except mostly on the right side haha. My length photos show this really well. You're lucky you have 4 inches though to work with. It's a hororr thinning out already thin hair!

http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/divinedobbie/e76edfdf-04d8-4de6-888d-431d423a90ec_zps52248c3c.jpg (http://s847.photobucket.com/user/divinedobbie/media/e76edfdf-04d8-4de6-888d-431d423a90ec_zps52248c3c.jpg.html)

See! And this is after I try to fix it so it doesn't show as much :rolleyes:

[fiðrildi]

Aaah, I feel your pain, since my ends are thinned as well (but for different reasons). It's very frustrating. I'm not chopping to APL either, but I'm trimming at least 2 inches off... is your length your priority? Have you thought about layers? You have beautiful hair, and you are not alone! :grouphug:

[ooglipoo]

The thing is, with thick-ish, coarse-ish hair, also I have to taper the ends to a certain degree. It makes my curls behave better (like your beautiful curls in your avatar!) because they aren't as weighed down. Also, it makes a wider range of updo's possible. If I didn't have tapered ends, I couldn't tuck them away easily.

So, those are two of the up-sides to having tapered ends. I cut my hair with the compact cut method for long layers, and it looks quite a bit like that.

[fairylover46]

I think your hair is beautiful, and I wouldn't have noticed the "thin" spot either. I have alot of tapering, so much that the last foot of my hair is a bit see-through. I wear updo's alot due to my job, protecting the ends, and so forth. If the thin spot bothers you or you are self conscious about it you could try braids, updos, (and braided updos!) while you are growing it out to whatever length you want and it won't be noticeable. Then just maintain with microtrims til everything evens up. Nobody will ever know but you, and you will have fun trying different styles while working towards your goal. Good luck on growing your already beautiful hair to longer lengths.

[HintOfMint]

Your ends actually look quite lovely, but I empathize with your frustration. A year ago, I had my hair thinned and over-layered and my ends looked so horrible and wispy after 6 months. I finally had to chop to waist from tailbone, which was pretty annoying as I had just decided to grow my hair even longer. It's about an inch or so from BCL now, but I do wish I hadn't had that setback.

[PixxieStix]

:grouphug: It sucks, and there won't be any changing of that, but at least it WILL grow. :) And, for the record, taper or no, your hair is gorgeous.

[Dreams_in_Pink]

Thanks everyone!

@spidermom: I stopped microtrims recently to gain some length :( I'm tired of waist length!

@divinedobbie: You're like my soul sister :) Your hemline looks very similar to mine. I guess that's the hemline pattern for microring survivors :(

@fiðrildi: No way, no layers for me. I also have some grown out bangs around shoulder length *facepalm* I'm dreaming of one-length hair, without any layers at all..

@ooglipoo: Actually, i cannot do some updos because of the taper that i have. Like figure 8 and cinnabun. Figure 8 looks imbalanced, with one side thicker than the other.

@fairylover46: Well, i always wet-set my hair into a curly style (as in my avatar) when i wear my hair down so it doesn't look too obvious. I'm investing on fancy hairtoys to wear my hair up more.

@HintOfMint: Talk to me about setbacks! :( I could've had TBL hair right now! :rant:

@PixxieStix: Thank you! Here's hoping :pray:

[MINAKO]

Duh, your hair looks great. Don't ever regret a learning curve. After all it's fun to expiriment with styles and finally find out whats right for you. Tailbone legth is a sure thing, just takes a bit longer than without the thinning, but hey, at least there is some thick and healthy hair growing to get youthere. ;)