No more heated appliances. What can I do about the damage?

[mermaid lullaby]

What if I don't want to cut my hair, Can I trim it out as it grows out?

[meteor]

Of course you don't have to cut! It's really up to you. (And not everybody has badly damaged hair from bad practices - it really depends on how coarse your hair is, how exactly and how often you used heat, if you damaged hair with other practices, and many, many other things.)

Cutting hair is arguably important to do only if you have split ends or white dots. Just do an Search & Destroy (S&D) with sharp scissors that were never used on anything other than hair and cut strictly perpendicular in clean, straight lines. But even then, many people report that splits don't really "travel up", so it's up to you and to your preferences. :)

[Johannah]

Of course you don't have to cut! It's really up to you. (And not everybody has badly damaged hair from bad practices - it really depends on how coarse your hair is, how exactly and how often you used heat, if you damaged hair with other practices, and many, many other things.)

Cutting hair is arguably important to do only if you have split ends or white dots. Just do an Search & Destroy (S&D) with sharp scissors that were never used on anything other than hair and cut strictly perpendicular in clean, straight lines. But even then, many people report that splits don't really "travel up", so it's up to you and to your preferences. :)

Exactly this. And figure out some deep treatments that work for your hair (like heavy oiling at night).

[LauraLongLocks]

Yup, as the others have said, feel free to trim or not, it's up to you. Deep conditioning treatments, whether overnight oilings or post-shampoo deep moisture conditionings (or both), can really help you preserve your hair. Keep it up to protect it from mechanical damage and tangling. I'm fond of putting myself on a trimming schedule so that I know when my next trim will be and how much I'm taking off. This keeps me from trimming when not necessary and from taking more than I'm growing and gradually getting shorter hair.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

Using cones can improve the look of damaged hair too. You can just gradually micro trim to remove the damage. Damaged hair can never be "repaired" but you can improve the look and feel of it until it is trimmed off.

[mermaid lullaby]

There are some split ends here and there, but its pretty minimal and it's just the medium strands I noticed.
I did blow dry and occasionally curl my hair but it was on the holidays. I don't color my hair.

Thank you for your help!

[Sarahlabyrinth]

Well if you only have a few split ends you can just trim each individual hair just above the split, using hair cutting scissors (which are NEVER used to cut anything else but hair). Many folks here do this, it is called S and D (search and destroy).

[meteor]

Forgot to add that damaged hair likes to be conditioned more intensely than virgin hair. You might need to find a more intense conditioner/mask if your hair feels damaged, look for marketing claims like "for dry/damaged/porous/chemically processed hair".
Try to particularly include hydrolyzed proteins (keratin, silk, wheat, etc) and penetrating oils (coconut, palm, olive, avocado, etc). Pre-poo and leave-in oils are great.
Other beneficial ingredients for damaged hair are ceramides, 18-mea, panthenol (pro-B5), silicones...
If your hair feels gummy, stretchy, then more hydrolyzed protein is in order, but if it's dry and snaps easily, then use more moisture (a combination of emollients, occlusives and humectants, for example in SMT).

[allierat]

If your splits ends are minimal then you can S&D them (basically search for and cut just the split hairs).

[allierat]

Well if you only have a few split ends you can just trim each individual hair just above the split, using hair cutting scissors (which are NEVER used to cut anything else but hair). Many folks here do this, it is called S and D (search and destroy).

Ooops, X posted! :)

[mermaid lullaby]

Oh! Sorry, I didn't know others posted while I was typing!

Feel free to keep the thread going :)

[mermaid lullaby]

Plus... I'm a slow at typing.

Thank you for all your advice! I greatly appreciate it :)