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school of fish
March 25th, 2016, 11:32 AM
Feeling mighty satisfied with my hair's progress of late and just wanted to share :D

I've been diligently working at caring my hair out of a state of accumulated damage for over 2 years now. 2 years ago my entire underlayer was ravaged by broken off ends - white dots where strands had snapped off and splits invading those snapped strands. There was no demarcation line on where the damage started or stopped, it was throughout. Imagine if someone dragged a razor over the entire underlayer from about collarbone to hip, and every one of the hairs that the razor touched became damaged or split - that's pretty much what I had going on.

But over 2 years of dedication and patience are finally paying off on those ends in a way that I can see!!! Of course things have been getting better all along, but improvement is so incremental it can be really hard to see it on yourself... Recently, however, I noticed a big difference in the number of white dots and splits I see when I pick up my length to look at it - it used to be that every hair seemed to end in a white dot, thousands upon thousands of them... now I have to look to find them :D I still have plenty, but they're no longer the first thing I see, so that marks a pretty big shift for me.

I don't think it's any one thing about my routine that has made the difference, I think it's the combined result of the right practices for my hair and enough time put in to see them bear fruit :) The combination of monthly micro-trimming, daily washing on a modified CO routine, weekly SMTs, the strategic creation of a blunt undercut layer to assist grow-out, oil-rinsing on shampoo days, using a TangleTeezer, and regular short S&D sessions have really come together to rehab my hair out of the damage spiral and into a stronger and healthier state.

I still have a long way to go - about 10" or so of sparser, more fragile ends left to microtrim away - but I really feel as though I'm past the uphill climb portion of the journey and am now on the descent :) It's enormously gratifying to see so much absence of damage rather than so much presence of it!!!

Mavi
March 25th, 2016, 12:55 PM
That's so exciting, congratulations on your positive journey! :flower:
I love hearing the stores about tender recoveries from damage, gives me great hope in LHC as the ultimate encyclopedia for nursing hair back to health :)

lapushka
March 25th, 2016, 01:17 PM
I know what it feels like. When I had perm/heat damage a few years ago, my hair was riddled with white dots as well, at least half of it. When I hit hip, my mom finally got the last of the dots out, and I had lost half my thickness due to it. So I had it cut back up to where the thickness was still okay, which was BSL. That meant the perm was gone in one go. Big big change for me, and I had to grow it back out, but at least it was healthy.

If I were to do it again, I would go slower with the S&D. I truly went overboard, which is why I never tell people to just do it in one go, because it can thin out your hair significantly if you have a lot of white dots in there.

Wusel
March 25th, 2016, 01:43 PM
CONGRATULATIONS!!! :) Good job! :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

school of fish
March 25th, 2016, 02:04 PM
Thank you all!

Mavi I love your term 'tender recoveries from damage' - that's just what this process has felt like :)

lapushka that's a good reminder! I'm trying to stay mindful of not overdoing the S&D and as much as possible targeting the damaged ends that are rough and more prone to create tangles.

Wusel thank you for the cheering squad! ;)

Arctic
March 25th, 2016, 02:09 PM
Good to hear you're seeing progress, you deserve it!

parkmikii
March 25th, 2016, 02:29 PM
Congrats, your hair looks gorgeous in your signature pic! :crush:

yogagirl
March 25th, 2016, 02:29 PM
Yay, so exciting!! Nice job! Happy for you :)

Moonfall
March 25th, 2016, 03:24 PM
I know what it's like! I'm happy for you, school of fish :D

school of fish
March 25th, 2016, 03:33 PM
Arctic, parkmikii, yogagirl, Moonfall, thank you all!

It's been a good lesson to me in the rewards of patience, and of enjoying the journey as much as the destination :D A much deeper kind of satisfaction than instant gratification...

Cg
March 25th, 2016, 03:39 PM
What a great, positive thread. Thanks, everyone. It's sometimes difficult not to focus on what needs to be improved. It's great to be reminded that patience and care will result in healthier hair.

Maybe it depends on the person, but my hair reponded really well to what you might call overzealous trims. No, it isn't getting long fast, but it certainly is getting healthy fast. And that's really more important than some arbitrary length milestone.

lithostoic
March 25th, 2016, 04:36 PM
Very cool! It's kinda worrisome because I can't identify any split ends or dots in my hair and I'm afraid I have them but can't distinguish them.

Llama
March 25th, 2016, 06:11 PM
I would never have guessed that you struggled with white dots so much since your hair looks so healthy and amazing in your signature pic! I have always struggled with them but I think it's gotten better over the last year or so.
Congrats!

school of fish
March 26th, 2016, 06:55 AM
What a great, positive thread. Thanks, everyone. It's sometimes difficult not to focus on what needs to be improved. It's great to be reminded that patience and care will result in healthier hair.

Maybe it depends on the person, but my hair reponded really well to what you might call overzealous trims. No, it isn't getting long fast, but it certainly is getting healthy fast. And that's really more important than some arbitrary length milestone.

That's wonderful to hear Cg! Frequent trimming is a best practice for me too - understanding that about my hair was a major watershed moment for me in really learning my hair and what it likes best :) Accepting my hair for what it is instead of yearning for something it couldn't be was another one - and probably the biggest factor for me in making this process a pleasureable one :D

Vanilla
March 26th, 2016, 07:04 AM
Congrats School of fish, that's great to hear. Your story gives me hope that I will also win the war against split ends and white dots.

school of fish
March 26th, 2016, 07:07 AM
Very cool! It's kinda worrisome because I can't identify any split ends or dots in my hair and I'm afraid I have them but can't distinguish them.

If you're not seeing them then things are probably going quite nicely ;) Splits are (I find) relatively easy to spot - it looks like the very end of a strand splits off like a fork in the road or sometimes in a few directions like a tree branch (that's the classic form - there are other types as well but initial splits will tend to show up like what I just described). If you don't see any strands ending in that 'V' or feathery kind of structure, sounds like you don't have them :D

White dots I find can be a little harder to spot depending upon hair colour - lighter hair will tend to camouflage them more. But if you're giving your hair good care and finding you're not loosing length to breakage, you're in good shape!

school of fish
March 26th, 2016, 07:22 AM
I would never have guessed that you struggled with white dots so much since your hair looks so healthy and amazing in your signature pic! I have always struggled with them but I think it's gotten better over the last year or so.
Congrats!

Awww, thanks Llama! My hair is such that my damage even at its worst didn't show up particularly to the outside eye - in fact that's precisely how I let it get so far out of hand... it didn't make itself obvious so it took a very long time for me to recognize what was happening.

Every so often I remind myself that the damage took years to set in, and it'll take years to grow out. That helps me keep perspective and encourages me to savour the process :)

lithostoic
March 26th, 2016, 09:11 AM
school of fish Thank you!

school of fish
March 26th, 2016, 10:32 AM
Congrats School of fish, that's great to hear. Your story gives me hope that I will also win the war against split ends and white dots.

Thanks Vanilla! Many others here have successfully grown out damage and restored hair health over the course of years - lapushka and Nightshade are two that leap immediately to mind although there are so many more too... if they did it then we can do it too! :D

meteor
March 26th, 2016, 11:48 AM
School of fish, congratulations! :cheer: This is a *great* sign that you are giving your hair exactly what it needs! Awesome! :joy:


Very cool! It's kinda worrisome because I can't identify any split ends or dots in my hair and I'm afraid I have them but can't distinguish them.

Don't worry - you probably simply don't have them! :thumbsup: If you look at your hair against contrasting background in good light and don't see them, that's a great sign!

Eastbound&Down
March 26th, 2016, 02:26 PM
:beerchug:Yay! Progress is always so satisfying. Your hair looks fantastic and happy with your routine. I find that being happy with the condition of your hair makes growing less tedious, gives you something else to focus on and they go hand in hand. Here's to healthier, longer lengths! :beerchug:

school of fish
March 26th, 2016, 08:32 PM
meteor & Eastbound&Down, thank you both :D My routine is uncomplicated so I don't feel any struggle to maintain it. It does feel good to know that if I just keep on keeping on, with enough time the damage will take care of itself :)