Someone Help Me!

[Rinnirikku]

Here's my problem, I bleached my hair from a Dark Red color to a Light Blonde about a month ago which made a lot of it start breaking off (BADLY). Every time I would comb it I would get hands full of hair. I went to a salon to see what they could do for it and they told me that the only thing they could do was cut it really short (shorter than chin). I was really stressed out by having my hair seem like it was 'falling out' so I got it cut. I cried at how short it was and I still can't stand having it short. The stylist told me when I left that since there 'is' still some more damage further up that I would have to come back every month for a trim. I'm not sure if I trust her though because this girl is the same girl that tried to get me to get a deep condition to which another girl working there who I really like convinced me not to because it wasn't going to help (I trust her because she is friends with my friends mom and she's never lead me wrong). The only thing that has me wondering if I have to trim it is that I have spotted some splits that I've been slowly trimming off myself in my bangs but the stylist didn't mess with my bangs because they were already really short. Also, I've been reading on here that if you go to a very well lighted area you can spot splits in the light as little white tips and if I walk in a really well lighted area I see some scattered in the rest of my hair. To me my hair feels the softest its ever been and it looks pretty shiney. I've been only washing it every 4 days using the CWC method and using coconut oil the night before washes as well as a leave in conditioner of some sort pretty often when I'm not washing it. What should I do? It gets me really down to think that I might have to get it trimmed because I'm just now starting to see some growth and I really don't want to lose it:(. .. Is it safe to not trim?

[ChloeDharma]

If you don't think your hair needs a trim then i see no reason to get it cut. What you are doing sounds good at the moment.
Another thing you might want to try is a yogurt treatment, that did wonders to my hair when i still had chemical damage left.

[Janka]

I think it's not possible to give an ultimate answer neither to trim nor not to trim. As you are taking care of your hair doing CWC and oiling and S&D, it might be that you won't need to trim often or much. It depends on how your hair recovers... You might want to try micro-trimming or dusting.
It won't help if your hair keeps braking badly (but of course I wish for you that this will not happen!) and you have lots of damaged hair at different lengths... in this case you will have to go and get a larger trim to get rid of the heavily damaged hair.
If you feel like your hair ist responding to the good care you're giving it, you probably won't need to trim often. If you feel like your hair does not look good because of all the broken hair, you will have to be strong and get a trim.
Just continue babying your hair and try not to do anything that could damage it more/again and you'll see. You might try taking supplements for growth to speed up the process. Your already damaged hair should also profit from it.
Good luck to you!
J.

[gallows_gallery]

You poor thing :(

Maybe trimming off less than you grow - i.e. if you grow 1cm cut 2mm - that way you will still steadily be growing, and dusting off the split ends?

Also - I reccommend Redken Extreme Anti Snap - awesome product that worked wonders for me after I had my black stripped out, I've had almost no breakage.

[Rinnirikku]

If you don't think your hair needs a trim then i see no reason to get it cut. What you are doing sounds good at the moment.
Another thing you might want to try is a yogurt treatment, that did wonders to my hair when i still had chemical damage left.


How do you do a yogurt treatment?

[Rinnirikku]

I think it's not possible to give an ultimate answer neither to trim nor not to trim. As you are taking care of your hair doing CWC and oiling and S&D, it might be that you won't need to trim often or much. It depends on how your hair recovers... You might want to try micro-trimming or dusting.
It won't help if your hair keeps braking badly (but of course I wish for you that this will not happen!) and you have lots of damaged hair at different lengths... in this case you will have to go and get a larger trim to get rid of the heavily damaged hair.
If you feel like your hair ist responding to the good care you're giving it, you probably won't need to trim often. If you feel like your hair does not look good because of all the broken hair, you will have to be strong and get a trim.
Just continue babying your hair and try not to do anything that could damage it more/again and you'll see. You might try taking supplements for growth to speed up the process. Your already damaged hair should also profit from it.
Good luck to you!
J.

I have been taking lots of vitamins including Hair, Skin, and Nails. It looks fine to me but every time I walk by that mirror with the really good lighting I wonder if its really ok:confused:.

[Rinnirikku]

You poor thing :(

Maybe trimming off less than you grow - i.e. if you grow 1cm cut 2mm - that way you will still steadily be growing, and dusting off the split ends?

Also - I reccommend Redken Extreme Anti Snap - awesome product that worked wonders for me after I had my black stripped out, I've had almost no breakage.

True. I've just always been so used to having long hair and now its so short. Its mainly in all the short layers they cut.. Do you think a S&D every once in a while would work alright? By the way, I'll try that Anti snap stuff :p Thank you.

[Islandgrrl]

I've never had hair badly damaged enough to just break off like yours has, but I know others here have.

I'd suggest reading Nightshades article (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79) about damaged hair and how she grew out her own badly damaged hair without chopping it all off. You'll get very good info there.

As far as what I can offer, it echoes what Nightshade has said: NO heat styling at all, be very, very gentle with your hair. Also, figure out what your hair needs - moisture, protein, maybe both, and give it some good deep treatments. You can't repair the damage, but you can get some improvement in the condition of the damage over time (does that make sense?).

Good luck!

[ChloeDharma]

How do you do a yogurt treatment?

I like to mix it with some herbs. But really you can just smother your hair with it leave on for about an hour then rinse off. Or you can mix it with some conditioner, maybe add some honey and/or aloe gel....really there are lots of possibilities.
One i'm going to try soon is i brought some banana and yogurt baby food, Jojo started a thread on it over on the recipes board and it seems to be giving good results. That might be a nice easy option for you to try.

[Ohio Sky]

I just wanted to toss in that the girl you say you trusted about the moisture treatment may have been wrong. It's possible that this could have helped a lot. Salons offer treatments that contain protein pretty often, and damaged hair has a problem with protein loss. Don't toss the idea out of the window because someone told you it wouldn't work.