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View Full Version : How did you decide when to cut back?



njrb
April 12th, 2018, 06:29 PM
I am curious what made you decide to cut your hair. Not short, but some decrease in length more than just a trim of an inch. I've been growing longer and longer for 5+ years and I have had trims to help my ends and get a better hemline, but never for the intent of going shorter. Lately I have started to think about it. It's hard to always do what I'd like style wise due to convenience and a little less length would be less work as well. But its not always a problem and you can't undo a cut so I have been hesitant to go through with anything.

How have you all decided to go through with a cut and what factors motivated your decision? Any advice?

spidermom
April 12th, 2018, 06:40 PM
I agonized over this for about 2 years. I grew my hair to classic length, and it looked great in photos, but it was a pain my toosh. It took hours to air dry while hanging all over me, which felt terrible in cold weather. There were so many split ends and other kinds of damage that the ends stuck together like Velcro. I kept cutting back to hip to get rid of the split ends, but by the time it grew back to tailbone length, the split ends and other damage were back in spite of the fact that I was as careful with my hair as I could be. I decided to be more drastic, so at first I cut back to about waist, then to BSL, and finally to something between shoulder and collarbone length. There I found my happy place. I still had styling options, yet it was quick to wash and dry, and looked equally good whether blow dried or air dried.

Now I'm planning to grow out to waist, which I've been able to do in the past while maintaining good condition. Wish me luck!

prairie lark
April 12th, 2018, 07:09 PM
I haven't cut since 2009 so no help that way, but I would say your hair is awesome now and will still be awesome if you take an inch or two off and see if you're more comfortable with it there. If it's still a bother go up another increment.

For me, long hair is way less work than the shorter styles (up and down between my mid-back and supershort many times) I wore for years.



Wish me luck!

Luck!

nycelle
April 12th, 2018, 07:16 PM
I had enough of my horrible hemline.
Was at waist when I cut it back to just above BSL last December.

I agonized over it for about a year. Then last December, just before New Years I did it.
Woke up one day, took a good look at my hair without the usual bias, and realized it just didn't look good - had it cut a few days later.

No regrets.

Glitch
April 12th, 2018, 08:20 PM
I've cut off over 8 inches at once in the past when I was sick of the unhealthy, fried looking messy length. I've rarely cut my hair just because, it's pretty much always been due to heat/bleach damage. After deciding to seriously grow out my hair and get it healthy, I've cut off up to 2-3 inches a few times, for a stronger and more even hemline.

Da wei
April 12th, 2018, 10:05 PM
I cut from SL to very short like an inch long.Changes came in life over some years so i changed and i cut hair :pegasus:

diddiedaisy
April 13th, 2018, 12:21 AM
I’m now in between alp and bsl, it was just past waist. I did it in two chops. For me it was thin ends, I didn’t feel I could get it looking nice if I wanted to wear it down. I mean there’s no point in having long hair if you have to wear it up all the time because you don’t like it.

I still wear it up most of the time, but if I want it down I can have it down. My hemlines good at the minute.

I still want it longer, but not not for the sake of it. My hemline needs to be on board now. :)

Joules
April 13th, 2018, 01:17 AM
I chopped 25 cm off in March 216, which took me from waist+ to armpit length. I just got sick of dryness after cold season and taper, I felt like nothing could make it look nice, it was getting to an uncomfortable length (I have the same length now and it's ok, so I think this discomfort was more due to the overall annoyance with the state of my hair), I thought "screw it" and cut it all off in the bathroom. It felt amazing. I absolutely adored the thick hemline and how bouncy my ponytail was. My profile pic is from June 2016, I did Hollywood waves on my hair for a party and it looked gorgeous with that length. But I still wanted it super long... :D

Lumienkeli
April 13th, 2018, 01:30 AM
I cut my hair drastically many times in the last 15 years. The reasons were different:
- damaged ends (dye and beign too long neglect about my hair)
- thin ends after layered cut. The layers was mistake, but to chop from BSL to past shoulder was too.
- I felt my hair is not worth to grow long. My sister have gorgeaus thick wavy hair and everyone give compliments on her hair but never on mine. I was frustrated that my hair is ugly and chopped the half of the length.
- postpartum shed. I hoped it help. It didn't. Time helped and when I was able to stop losing weigth.
- when the style I used daily not worked anymore. It would be better to try some new bun instead of chop it, but i chopped again.
- get rid of dyed ends after I switched to henna.
- When somebody always laid on my hair. I have two co-sleeper kids and my housband and someone always pulled my braid tassel and I couldn't sleep then got frustrated and chopped just past chin length. That was the last time. I can't wait now to grow myagain hair enough ong for athis leeping braid because someone always sleeping on my collarbone length hair.

I really didn't need half of these big chops reagarding the condition of my hair but those made me satisfied for a while. Than I just started to miss the weigth of my hair, the feel on my back, my hairtoys and braids. But it is just hair. It grows. Now I want to go long again, surly to BSL, perharps to waist. Perharps I will want it short again in the future. If so I will cut gradually, step by step, not more than two inches a time and I will give time to see how i like it. Two inches is just 4 month of grow, noticable but not too much to grow back if I don't like it shorter.

valkyrie90
April 13th, 2018, 03:55 AM
I cut my hair so many times in the past just because my mom said so. Not in the past over 2 years, though. I decided to grow my hair as long and healthy as possible. I don't know when I will cut back , maybe after I reach classic length but sure not to chin length. Maybe I will cut back to TBL if I can't handle classic length. Who knows ?

lapushka
April 13th, 2018, 05:00 AM
I am curious what made you decide to cut your hair. Not short, but some decrease in length more than just a trim of an inch. I've been growing longer and longer for 5+ years and I have had trims to help my ends and get a better hemline, but never for the intent of going shorter. Lately I have started to think about it. It's hard to always do what I'd like style wise due to convenience and a little less length would be less work as well. But its not always a problem and you can't undo a cut so I have been hesitant to go through with anything.

How have you all decided to go through with a cut and what factors motivated your decision? Any advice?

When I went from classic to hip it was more on impulse than anything else. I was tired of my hair growing beyond classic for a few inches and then cutting back about 3 to 4 times a year - it got severely on my nerves. My mom wanted to take a few inches off, and I told her to cut a *bunch* of it off. Then I told her, "more", and she refused, that's how I ended up with hip. Which, I not long after that regretted.

Whatever you do, do it one tiny milestone at a time, so classic to TBL, then to hip maybe is what I should have done.

Arciela
April 14th, 2018, 09:13 AM
I've only ever cut my hair after dye/bleach. Can't stand the tangles and the "dyed" feeling it has. Beyond that I don't trim or cut, I S&D but that's about it. If it's healthy and in good condition I won't touch it.

Capybara
April 14th, 2018, 09:43 AM
Unpopular opinion maybe, but I enjoy the impulse and have chopped it drastically on a whim at several occasions. It’s a safe area of my life that I can impulsively change with little/no fallout. I chop when I’m in the mood for a change. I’ve donated my hair 4 times in this manner, though I do not recommend donating hair unless you want to or are chopping anyways.

njrb
April 17th, 2018, 04:41 PM
Thanks for the advice and perspectives. I'm definitely going to cut some point in the near future for some of the reasons I listed in the original post. I am still trying to decide how much to cut. I have been thinking about a cut that would be a bit drastic, but based on advice here might go about it by bits, but am still deciding.

yahirwaO.o
April 18th, 2018, 01:19 AM
Well I've been involved in two major chops. I had Classic Leght hair but I was in a very depressed-anxiety moment, only wore in two braids, hadnt cut in years so my ends were extremely thin sparse and never brushed it (I started on that habit like 2 years ago) so it looked extremely crappy and unkept /We all have seen sad looking long hair, yeah that was me) Also I had a scalp wound because of a car accident too.. :( So I decided to chop it about BSL and keep it nicely and thick until...

My second chop happened, it was because of an assault thing and again my head had wounds so I cut it all and went for a short 60's type cut. And now im regrowing, it still pretty full and such even though there is less than before!

Don´t be afraid of chops. Hair grows and usually it looks ten times better when it is taken with care and lots of enjoy! :D

MidnightMoon
April 18th, 2018, 02:00 AM
I was bored with my hair, and my reasoning was that there's no point in having long hair if I will always wear it up, I thought (still think so) that loose hair looks better on me, and also wanted to dye it and style it, and that's just impossible with my hair type and length. With fine fragile hair, I don't see how I could keep it copper, straightened, and wear it loose, and still grow to knee, or even past hip or something...
So I had it cut from tailbone to BSL, maybe a tad shorter. I did regret it, though.

M.McDonough
April 18th, 2018, 02:49 AM
I haven't really decided to cut my hair yet. It's waist hip length. If I'm going to cut it, it's only because i eant volume and definition. Plus i miss wesring my hair down. It's really long so I have to keep it tied back almost all the time!:(The funny thing is I don't know exactly why I'm still growing it out

lucid
April 18th, 2018, 03:02 AM
Whatever you do, do it one tiny milestone at a time, so classic to TBL, then to hip maybe is what I should have done.

Your advice (and a couple of other who said the same) is the reason I didn't chop my hair to hip a couple of months back, when I was super frustrated about my hair. I'm so thankful!! Instead I started wearing my hair like I wanted, not caring that much about the damage. And frankly, I haven't noticed any increase in damage either, the bleached parts will break of no matter what I do it semes, so why not enjoy it instead if worrying. :)

Now I get to enjoy the first part of summer with one of my first true hair goals - TBL length braid :D
I'm cutting back one milestone in a couple of months. TBL to BCL, possibly a bit shorter. Hip for me would be a huge step from TBL, as I consider TBL to be around the middle of the butt :p

The reason I'm cutting back is bleach damage. I have also decided to wear my hair down as much as I want to. If that eventually means that I can't grow my hair as long as I potentially could have, that's fine. I'd rather have it a length where I can enjoy it at it's fullest :)