Pic: to trim or not to trim?

[Britok]

https://imgur.com/a/oLtw3I need advice. After nearly two years of not coloring my hair (with the exception of an ill-conceived experiment with a drug store spray that melted my strands this past fall), it's been many months of stopping any heat styling, and switching to sulfate free shampoos, not wetting every day, wearing my hair in a braid, oiling at night, etc. I decided to stop going for trims. My last was a very small one January 1. I don't typically even blow dry but today I had to shampoo and did a mending mask. Just to really see the damage (my hair is usually wavy/curly), I did blow it out on a low setting today with a primer beforehand. This pic is after that and after adding a small bit of oil. I'm at a loss. I feel like a trim wouldn't even save it right now. There is breakage all the way up the hair shaft. I have pieces all over that stop at my ears and the ends are stringy and see-through.

should I get it trimmed/cut? I feel like it will just keep breaking rather than grow, and there isn't much to it. I'm also not sure a simple trim would even help it, the damage is so far up.https://i.imgur.com/XUJKSPO.jpg

[Kake]

Do you know what caused the damage?

I've seen threads like this when the poster is encouraged to clarify, SMT, try protein etc, so those are options. I've just cut off my own heat damage, and I'm happy I did. So maybe I'm a bit biased right now, but I think I would trim it.

[truepeacenik]

Are those splits or variant lengths?
Splits...well...are splits.

New growth/breakage can have some maintaining to let it catch up.

I'd actually try a coney treatment to see if they will blend in more, as well. Personally, I like my cones separate from conditioner, so I can choose when to use them. Having one coney and one cone free conditioner in the shower would do similar.

I think oil might be a tad too heavy on the back of the head.

[Rebel Rebel]

Britok
I can really truly sympathize with your current hair condition and the breakage. It's been about 2 years for me since I did some terrible color damage and quit using a flat iron. I still have damage but it's not nearly how it was. Just this year I felt like I could see improvement but it will probably be another year or 2 before the rest of the damage gets gets cut off. I have never liked myself with short hair at all, so chopping wasn't an option.

I had to baby it daily and although I did a lot of mini trims/treatments, it's true that much of it simply broke off. I have shorter pieces at my crown which I can't stand, but they are slowly getting better. Much of my length is now healthy/shiny but the ends are still pretty damaged. I still do deep conditions and oil my hair. My hair is babyfine and breaks/damages easily even at its healthiest, so I'm going to always have to be extra gentle with it.

If you do decide to cut it at least you'll be able to start fresh with all healthy hair. I have often thought of how nice that would feel and how healthy the hair would look in its grow out stage.

[PillowForts17]

For me, it would be too annoying to deal with having to baby it so carefully all the time. So I would want to cut it. But I also know that some people would rather baby their hair than to chop it off. I'd say it's really up to you in terms of what you can deal with every day.

[lapushka]

I'd microtrim, and join the microtrimming thread. It's so worth it to take the damage out slowly. I did that at one point, only to have a bigger chop once I grew most of the damage out to longer lengths (in order to save length). I would have had to go to a pixie cut hadn't I done this, and now I ended up with BSL hair (from having grown the damage all the way to hip).

[Reyesuela]

I would trim an inch every 3 months straight across the bottom.

1). You will even out the curve slowly.

2). The damage will slowly be cut.

3). You'll still get 2" of growth of the longest part out of the year, so it won't be depressing.

The ends of my hair are stupidly thing because of my massive hair loss. I will be slowly cutting them off every time they get over the thinness tipping point for me. Meanwhile, I have 3"!of thick new growth that will eventually reach everywhere. :). And I can feel like I'm making a lot more progress than if I cut it back.

[Rebeccalaurenxx]

I saw great improvement from micro trimming every month. Usually about 1/4"-1/2", and then less and less until all damage is cut out or at least most layers are grown.
Yes, you're cutting off all the length you're gaining. However you're still not chopping. You're maintaining, which to me is much better than chopping.

[MidnightMoon]

I'd trim a few inches, and keep the no colouring+no styling routine. It will take time before all the damaged hair is gone, so you'll have to be patient, but it's easier to grow long hair if you start with fresh, virgin hair. I am still growing out like 15 inches of dyed hair, so I know the struggle :/
I don't mind for trimming too little at a time, because it's hard for me to keep it even, and I need to notice any improvement when I'm cutting, and 1cm doesn't do it for me.

[Kellylee]

I'd go for a nice trim and restart with healthy ends.

[draysmir]

If your hair is breaking off from the damage, I would suggest maybe cutting the last couple inches of your hair to get rid of a big chunk of the damage, then maybe microtrim the rest out, like a couple other people have mentioned. :)

[Deborah]

I think two or three inches trimmed off might make a lovely difference.

[Rhoward]

If it were me (and it was not so long ago so I know how much it sucks!) I'd cut as much as I could handle off (like 2 inches, 3 absolute max because I'm a wimp lol) and then microtrim the rest out. :blossom:

[spidermom]

If it were my hair, I'd get it cut. I hate fighting with damaged hair every day.

[Faustine]

My suggestion is that if you feel your hair is not growing because of the damage, and that your hair still keeps on breaking, then cut it, and start from fresh. But if your hair while damaged are not breaking much any more, and is growing consistently, then in my opinion there is no need to cut, just take care of them as you do usually.

[*Wednesday*]

I agree with the microtrimming. I did this to maintain length with damaged ends years ago but I had breakage from coloring. Did the microtrim monthly. I brushed my hair and ends (1/4) would break off in the sink. Treatments didn't help much.
Difficult to allow hair to grow when the ends are wild.

[dansyl]

Having been able to come back from damage myself... I would try other things before getting a chop. The reason I say this... is because when my hair is bleached/damaged... When I trim, the ends just split again. They don't move up the hair but they do split again and then it's just a vicious cycle of cutting. What all have you tried? There may be a product that is right for your hair you haven't tried yet. I had to try a lot of things before I found what helped. I actually found I can't have too much moisture. I need a fine line of protein and moisture. I love the joico kpak reconstructor and the dove moisture conditioner. You may in the end need a good trim... but my experience is that damaged hair is damaged much farther up than the split ends and it will just split again. can you braid it to help protect it and keep it up?