Opinions on whether I should cut back before I continue growing again?

[ZeppHead]

Hello everyone! I took about a 2 yr hiatus from lhc. When I was active back then I was about hip at the longest and had pretty, shiny and healthy hair. I had quit coloring and heat. I am back to square one after a few years of trying different styles and colors and my hair is now just a tad past apl, very thin and see through. The amount of hair on my head is very little I will attempt to post a picture. I do naturally have thin hair but the dye has made it severely thin. It's been about a month since I made the decision to stop color and heat and I have been dedicated to gentle care, and oiling which now I'm thinking may be too much for my hair right now. (The oiling) My hair has been growing fine, I have about 1" of growth but I'm thinking I may need to cut back even more before I continue this journey because health is very important. I don't just want long hair I want it's health back and a little more thickness. I actually trimmed alot of bad ends off and the ends actually look fine. I haven't been able to find a split end. It's just very thin and fine. To the point it's embarrassing to let people see. I think I may need to cut another 4" 😣
Opinions on this strategy? Start over from shoulder or continue growing and trimming to let layers catch up and maybe get some thickness back? I'm thinking just doing the chop head on and getting it over with and letting it grow may be less agonizing for me...i just need help deciding, what would you do?

[lapushka]

If I were you I'd join the microtrimming thread. This way you can keep at a standstill (maintain) and cut all your growth off, or you can cut half the growth off and still have some of it grow. It's very rewarding to cut damage out gradually (I did that one time, and it beat the 2 chops back to chin that I had during my journey).

[lithostoic]

It's all a matter of personal preference. If you'd rather chop, do that. If you'd rather microtrim, go right ahead. Neither is inherently better than the other.

[Rebeccalaurenxx]

My hair was exactly the same way after years of bleaching and such, it took a year for my hair to regain thickness and I had to do 3 different chops to bob-pixie.
I did chops because it felt better to have short, thicker, healthier feeling hair to run my hands through, then sort of long-ish thin brittle feeling hair.
I didnt hold onto it, yes it kind of sucked because I hated short hair on myself (though most people thought i looked younger and cute) but it took forever to get to a very pathetic chin/CBL.

It depends on what your preferences are. Personally I wish I had just done micro trimming because even after all those chops, my ends still were never 100%.
I have hardly any bleach or color left if at all... and my ends still have breakage.
No matter how much you cut off those ends will still be thinner and they will still have breakage because of aging. So I will say I agree with lapushka, micro trim 1/4" every month, youll see results gradually without having to cut all your hair off - especially if you dont like super short hair on yourself.

[Arctic]

It's all a matter of personal preference. If you'd rather chop, do that. If you'd rather microtrim, go right ahead. Neither is inherently better than the other.

This ^. My personal prefence would be doing as big cut as it takes for me to feel good about my hair, but others chooce a different route that makes sense for them.

[Aredhel]

I second what the others have said about it being a personal preference. :)

The bottom 12" of my hair is crazy thin because a few years ago I went and had it bleached while my body was also going through l way too many changes all at once (I started and stopped birth control, I was eating poorly so had anaemia and a few minor vitamin deficiencies), all in the span of one year. Instead of doing a huge chop, I've opted to grow my hair closer to my goal length first (I trim 1" every 6 months though), then I'll be maintaining for a while to thicken up my hem before continuing to grow to a longer length. :)

[MotherofJames]

I do think it depends on your hair right now and how you feel about it. If you feel embarrassed everyday, that is no way to live. Perhaps you could try what Lapuska mentioned. The microtrimming thread might be the way to go. You could always try it .. and if that still doesnt work, then at least you know you tried everything before having to cut it off again.

[spidermom]

I'd cut back to shoulder, but that's just me. I recently went from tailbone to shoulder, and I think this is a great length. I can wear it down as often as I want but still have options for putting it up. The ends are thick and feel silky; bonus!

[Darian Moone]

Cutting to shoulder length as Spidermom suggests may be a good solution. It's still "long" by society standards, and you may regain enough thickness in that cut to help you feel good about your hair again. Microtrimming will achieve the same result, but will obviously take longer before you see a real noticeable change. It's up to you, really. I've done both over the years and both worked out just fine. Currently I'm micro trimming until I can get rid of these layers. But I've done the "chop" in the past too. Do what makes you feel best.

[Kellylee]

I would cut it and make it healthy. A couple mouths back I got a big cut to rid my hair of old layers and dry ends. some days I wish I would have held on to that bit of length, but my hair looks so much prettier. I think healthy hair always looks good no matter what length. Plus damage and split ends climb up the hair so you are risking having to cut even more length off down the road.

[ZeppHead]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I may start with a good 2" then microtrim because I just measured and I have 7" of hair past shoulder right now and almost had a heart attack knowing that would be about a year til I got it back. I'd rather start small and try to microtrim and i can always decide to cut more later but I can't decide to change my mind after I cut too much. So, I am going to give it some time and see how stopping the dye goes for me and my hair and slowly trim. Sometimes hearing from others talks some sense into you! I think it's these darn layers that's contributing to the thin looks it's become lately so I am going to give them some time to catch up.

[Aredhel]

If you have layers then yeah, definitely a factor. My hair looks ridiculously thin with layers. Found that out the hard way...

Glad you decided to take it slower by microtrimming! You might be surprised at the difference it can make after a few months. :)