The Hardest Thing

[jera]

What's the hardest thing you've had to do to make your hair healthier / grow longer? :confused:

For me, it's giving up heat appliances like blow dryers and curling irons. But the last time I did this my hair went from BSL to hip length - classic in just three years. Awesome !!! :p

[Jules diamond]

For me it's just patience. I don't seem to have much.

[AnnaMarie]

I miss wearing my hair down. I do try to keep it up or braided most of the time to keep it protected, I used to love having my hair down on a windy day and feeling it blowing about, sadly no longer lol.

[hennared]

The hardest thing for me, BY FAR, has been not getting so upset about the really bad shedding' & thinning I've had this past year ; it's been tough to resist the urge to cut it off.
Also, the texture has changed, and I've had to learn a whole new way of caring for my hair than before... that's been rough. I'm hanging in here, though I did cut off about 2" of damage, I'm keeping the rest, and learning how to care for thin, tangly, long hair vs my old thick, easily tamed hair.

[AJoifulNoise]

Cutting 6-7 inches last July. It needed to happen, I don't regret it, and my hair is better for it. But it was hard.

[BlndeInDisguise]

Being gentle with it. It sure was a lot easier and quicker just to rip a brush through it. ;)

[Coriander]

Patience is definitely the hardest thing.

Also, getting used to simply combing (I'm used to it now) but before I would just yank a nubby plastic evil brush through it and slam it into a ponytail.

[sapitacherry]

hacking off 9 inches of damaged hair that took 2 years to grow when my hair was shedding/thinning for unknown reasons. :( but i needed it and i'm back at BSL again.

[MsBubbles]

For me by far the hardest thing is not washing it every day. Today is my 2nd day after washing it and I had to walk around the office with the 'slicked back look' - not a good look on me, btw.

I believe if I go back to washing it every day I will cause enough extra damage to where I will have to trim it more, to keep the ends in the condition I want them to be in.

[Anje]

For me, it's combing it gently, and remembering to start at the bottom and work up every time (even when I take it down at the end of the day).

Cold water final rinses are hard too, especially in the winter.

[pocahonta_s]

Giving up my flat iron! I've always wanted long, sleek hair and i loved the polished look my hair had when it was straightened. Then it turned to not-so-polished and dull, fried ends. Had to let it go and embrace the frizz and volume (i.e. puffiness...) to save what was left.

Also having to wear up-dos all the time to protect my hair.

[LHGypsyRose]

Wearing my hair bunned all the time, and almost never wearing it down in public. Cold water rinses. Trying to use the best products possible. However when I finaly do let it down to brush or wash..then I know it's all worth it.

[Gumball]

The hardest things? Most stuff was easy. Giving up the brush, stop maintaining a regular guy's cut. I guess the hardest thing was the initial adjustment to people who'd react adversely. That's way in the past now.

[RancheroTheBee]

Dyeing, blow-drying, ironing, and doing that thing where I mindlessly twiddle with one section of my hair, causing it to both simultaneously split and grow faster than everything else.

[aries]

Cutting everytime it tangled even a teansy bit, blow drying, curling, hair spray, mousse, learning to comb from the bottom to the top and not using brushes.

[Yedda]

For me it's just patience. I don't seem to have much.

Same here. And I'm sure when my hair is longer and I'm learning to do updo's, that will be quite the challenge for me as well.

[LittleOrca]

Waiting is the hardest thing for me. I never really used hair dryers or other hard devices or hair products. I did use gel when I was a dancer (school) but only because it was mandatory.

[orbiting]

Not cutting it off every time it makes me angry or cry

[Nevermore]

Sleeping with it.

I'm not kidding, sleeping with my hair is the hardest thing about long hair. It looks fine and all when I wake up, it's the actual sleeping part that's hard. If I leave it loose, it tries to murder me in the night, if I braid it the braid is painful to lay on. The past few nights I've been experimenting with making a turban-type thing and that's worked decently, but sometimes no hair (heaven forbid) seems like it'd be so nice to sleep with.

edit: I didn't explain how this ties in with your question. It's the hardest thing I've had to do to maintain long hair because, frankly, if I didn't love it, I'd have shaved it in a fit of total exhaustion to just get some uninterrupted sleep.

[RancheroTheBee]

Cutting everytime it tangled even a teansy bit, blow drying, curling, hair spray, mousse, learning to comb from the bottom to the top and not using brushes.

Euf. All those, too. You can see what a hard time I'm having.

[eyesofsummer]

Not trimming when I really should...I have a lot of damage that needs to be cut out and that keeps breaking off, but I can't bear to cut it off and lose the length!

Also, I touch it too much. Like, grab a curl and then rake through the bottom 5 inches or so, repeatedly. I know the friction is really bad for it, but I find myself doing this a lot while I'm sitting in class...I need help lol!

[rapunzhell13]

The hardest thing for me has been benign neglect. I used to experiment with my hair a lot, but now I know that it's best to just leave it alone more or less. It gets easier as time goes on though.

[templeofvenus]

Giving up the flat iron but now the addiction has gone I really don't miss it anymore! also not experimenting with different products I have found what works at the moment and I am going to stick with that and not be tempted to stray down the aisles and buy more products! :) oh and having patience to grow it! I easily get bored so that is a big challenge for me :)

[shayly-fyanna]

The hardest thing for me has been a major ( 20 Inches. ) haircut in July 2008. It was almost classic length and it was hard to make the big decision to cut so my hair could be healthy and grow with an even hemline and without chemical color.

[Mishka_84]

The hardest thing for me was to stop brushing and start combing. I'd never used a comb on my hair until a few months ago, and it was so hard to put down that hairbrush! But my hair isn't as frizzy now as it was then, and I can see a definite improvement. :)

[KnightsLady]

Staying away from the scissors. I tell ya, they must have d*mn strong magnets built in to those things!!

[naturalme]

Patience is not my strong suit, either - hence still being at pixie length! I keep getting it all chopped off for a few damaged ends that (I think, in retrospect) could be babied along a bit more.

I'm also trying to work up the courage to *not* wash every day. That might be a bigger task than growing it out!

[Johanna64]

Patience is for me the hardest thing too.
And after the big haircuts(to get rid of that bleache),my hair feels so short again.

[Tap Dancer]

The hardest thing for me is staying away from the salon! :p I love getting haircuts.

[Fencai]

hmm.. for me, I guess it would be being patient, and not trying to measure it every day!!

[crystal_89]

I have trouble putting down the straightening iron. I still can't stop completely, I still straighten my hair every week... or more.

[jel]

The hardest thing for me was waiting for it to grow! Especially in the 'mid-back abyss', the no-man's land between BSL and waist, where there are no obvious growth markers...

Another thing that I sometimes miss is playing with colour, highlighting and bleaching. Luckily I love my henna, and I get to play a bit with the non-damaging, deposit-only dye over the top.

[Forever_Sophie]

Great answers so far! I'm w/ the ladies who are impatient... and not just in getting to this length, but even styling it, i.e. if putting it up when it isn't co-operating (up OR down sometimes LOL).

[JamieLeigh]

I never liked heat appliances, because I lack the patience for waiting for my hair-styling to be done. I like the simple put-it-up-and-go, or brush-it-and-go styles that you don't have to use heat to achieve. And I've never really paid attention to my hair enough to know whether I grow quickly or slowly, until this year.

So for me, at this moment, the hardest thing is NOT looking at the tape measure every day to see if it's grown. I've never been so obsessed with my hair length in my entire life, not even when it was nearly knee length. But I figure it's okay, because it keeps me from being obsessed about my body weight, which was always a MAJOR issue with me, to the point of having to seek therapy. :)

[AutumnSky]

Giving up my blow-outs.... it was so silky afterwatds, and so shiny....and soooo damaged!

All the hot tools, in fact.

Wearing it up most of the time...that's been tough.

And patience! Fighting off the "maybe just a *little* bleach" wild hairs that I get, and sticking to my guns. ;-p

[RoseRedDead]

Patience, hands down. Next to that, probably my hard water. I know that my hair would be better with softer water but at the moment I haven't thought up a convincing argument for my parents to buy a shower-head filter. Need to work on that.

[babbleball]

The hardest thing for me is staying away from the salon! :p I love getting haircuts.


I totally agree. I remember a time when I was in my hairdressers chair every two weeks. Sometimes every week. Luckily she moved away. She was the best stylist I ever had. (For short hair, I don't actually think she would be as awesome on long hair)

[Pixna]

Patience -- hands down. And reading all the posts on LHC! :smirk:

[ravenreed]

Washing every other day is very hard for me. I used to wash every day. However, I have added enough extra steps into my care routine, time-wise, I couldn't do it every day now even if I wanted to. Remembering to make the catnip rinse before each shower is not something I am great at, but getting better.

I am also not a huge fan of updos with my face, but I am wearing them more often to protect my hair. I also have been sleeping in a braid and that makes me nuts, but I notice far fewer tangles in the morning.

The absolute hardest, though? Giving up aggressive trimming. I get split ends like crazy. I always have, even on virgin hair. They make me itchy and I used to run out and trim as soon as I felt them start. I have been holding off, doing S&D's, trying to keep the over all length growing. ARGHHH!! I hates them, I does! Even so, I have hacked off about 4 inches since I joined here. I am outgrowing the trims, so over all I am getting length, but if I didn't trim so often, I would be near my goal of tb by now! However, I also have a lot of layers to grow out, so over all, I am doing fine. (I can feel them now... *itch, itch, itch*)

[Spike]

Ooooh, count me in with the impatient people.

I find myself running my fingers through my hair and thinking "Grow, grow, GROW ALREADY!!!"

And I can foresee many weekends spent with toys as I learn (or rather GOOBER) updos, buns, and braids until I'm willing to be seen in public looking like THAT.

Although, one tiny little point in my favor--last night I was getting ready to go to the gym, and rather that tying on a do-rag to keep my hair out of my face, I tried a multi-banded pony (hair in layers, shortest is lip length [mose useless length EVER], so have to put a band at leach level, yes?).

I actually took the time to try three-four variations until I got one that looked like it would hold most everything with the help of some barettes.

I have some hairstyle patience hope gleaming in the darkness! :cheese:

[jera]

For me, it's combing it gently, and remembering to start at the bottom and work up every time (even when I take it down at the end of the day).

Cold water final rinses are hard too, especially in the winter.

I'm in total agreement with you. Combing out gently has definitely been the SECOND hardest thing for me to do. ;) Cold water rinses are tough as well. I can't do them in winter at all and have only just started them again as the temps have warmed up here.:)

[kirky]

My list:
1) Giving up the blow dryer and straightening iron
2) Dealing with the knots and tangles
3) Having people tell me that I should cut my hair

[Centeredgirl1]

Not shampooing my hair in the traditional way
Waiting 3 weeks before I *wash* my hair

[Nightshade]

Learning to like wearing it up. Took some time and experimentation, and for awhile I thought I looked TERRIBLE. Now I actually like how I look with my hair up, and it's healtheir for it.
Taking my time detangling. Now it's second nature, but it took some serious reconditioning on my part to get it to that point.

[BranwenWolf]

Leaving it alone... I was (and still am) a product junkie and always want to fiddle with it when I get out of the shower, but my hair is in much better shape when I just towel it off and let it dry naturally.

[Laurenji]

Sleeping with it.

I'm not kidding, sleeping with my hair is the hardest thing about long hair. It looks fine and all when I wake up, it's the actual sleeping part that's hard. If I leave it loose, it tries to murder me in the night, if I braid it the braid is painful to lay on. The past few nights I've been experimenting with making a turban-type thing and that's worked decently, but sometimes no hair (heaven forbid) seems like it'd be so nice to sleep with.


If you're sleeping on your back, try putting it into two braids instead of one--that way you're sleeping on your part, not your braids. If it's the length of the braids that bothers you, try looping it back up and tying it at the nape so it's not as long. Also, the key for me is to braid really LOOSLY, loose enough so that I can push the braid(s) out of the way without really laying on them and so that it's not pulling tight on my scalp. I usually do some sort of loose french braid so that the top doesn't get tangly.

[jera]

My list:
1) Giving up the blow dryer and straightening iron
2) Dealing with the knots and tangles
3) Having people tell me that I should cut my hair

LOL ! I forgot about having people ask me when I'm going to cut my hair. :p That doesn't bother me though. I just tell them my hair and I have a very get along very well together and leave it at that.

[Peregrine]

Combing patience. No matter how slow I think I'm going it's not slow enough. I still hear a pop or two whenever I comb.

[Kina]

wearing it up.

hate it.

always, always have had at least bra strap length. for the past 6 years or so, it been the length that it is now, with probably 2 or 3 official trims, and some haphazard ones of my own (we won't mention when one side of it caught on fire...) but, I digress.

I don't like having my face so exposed, and having the nape of my neck so bare makes me feel very vulnerable, so it's definetly been something really hard for me.

I was very very close to cutting it all off for reasons that I won't go into, but creating a goal has been helpful in keeping it long, and putting it up is having the same effect as a drastic cut would have had.

[s_tresses]

hmmm where do i start

giving up heat styling
no trims
not having the fruity scent of shampoos
thinking about it all the time including my sleep
patience
mood swings stemming from bad hair days!

[Nevermore]

If you're sleeping on your back, try putting it into two braids instead of one--that way you're sleeping on your part, not your braids. If it's the length of the braids that bothers you, try looping it back up and tying it at the nape so it's not as long. Also, the key for me is to braid really LOOSLY, loose enough so that I can push the braid(s) out of the way without really laying on them and so that it's not pulling tight on my scalp. I usually do some sort of loose french braid so that the top doesn't get tangly.

I've tried every variation of sleep-hair known to human kind. Two braids, three braids, four braids, one braid, no braids, buns, milkmaid braids, french braids, english braids, rag curls/rag waves, turban, loose, twisted and over the pillow, loose and over the side of the bed. The only thing I haven't tried is wrapping it like people do to straighten it, mostly because I haven't found a way to do that.

I think the problem is that I sleep (poorly, with much tossing and turning) every which way. I'm an equal opportunity sleeper and manage to be uncomfortable no matter what I do. I think I just need a miracle-maybe Anne Rice style vampire hair, where you can chop it all off and it grows back between dawn and dusk while you're sleeping. That'd be great actually. Perfect for those of us who like to experiment, you could bleach it and dye it purple and it would fix itself by the next night.

[Freija]

For me? Waiting paitiently just for it to grow because so help me the length is long enough for updos now but my layers fall out of any given plait/ponytail/bun/hairstick-thing. If I could cut two inches from the longest part and glue it to my stupid layers, I would.

[Noctifer]

So far it has been being having patience whit it, Putting it up daily and tring to stop Dyeing it (still only two weeks since last dye and im pretty tempted to dye it again)

[Laurenji]

Wow, nevermore, that's crazy. I guess I'm just lucky to be a deep sleeper, and that I don't really toss and turn in my sleep. I hope you find something that works for you.

The hardest thing for me is probably giving up the blowdryer, not washing it as often, and how long it takes me to wash my hair now that I'm not just globbing on a bunch of shampoo, piling it all on my head, and then rinsing it off.

[WritingPrincess]

Accepting that I don't have 1c/2a hair, but rather 1b hair with a single wave at the bottome on a good day.

[janeytilllie]

The hardest thing for me is giving up SLS and cones. It was easier and cheaper just to go and buy regular shampoo and conditoner. But my hair hated it. I now use shampoo bars/hair soap

I have to go through a long complicated routine for them to work. I have to lather and rinse at least three times! :( But my hair is alot better for it :cheese:

[Fireweed]

when I had to cut out the old henna. They were big 6 inch cuts. It still hurts.

[xeternalsilence]

I don't like having my face so exposed, and having the nape of my neck so bare makes me feel very vulnerable, so it's definetly been something really hard for me.
The worst thing has been wearing my hair up and protected, for these same reasons. It's an awful feeling.

[annie09]

chemical hair dye, its only been a few months but my new growth feels so much better than the rest of my hair and i have learned to not give a fiddle if i have a few silvers.

[peachrose]

My previously loved Sedu flat iron was the hardest thing to give up... The first few months after I joined I still used my iron maybe once a month but soon realized that it was just not worth the damage it caused.

It's hard to wait too but it's easier to be patience now that I can see some great progress!

[Tornerose]

Sleeping with it.
I'm not kidding, sleeping with my hair is the hardest thing about long hair. It looks fine and all when I wake up, it's the actual sleeping part that's hard. If I leave it loose, it tries to murder me in the night, if I braid it the braid is painful to lay on. The past few nights I've been experimenting with making a turban-type thing and that's worked decently, but sometimes no hair (heaven forbid) seems like it'd be so nice to sleep with.


I used to have that problem too. I toss and turn alot while sleeping too. I've found that a braid right at the top of my head is what works best. Then I can toss the braid over the pillow and it stays there. But usually I find it to be too much hassle, so I just put my hair up there anyway. It's a bit of a drag, but ohwell....


The hardest thing for me is giving up SLS and cones. It was easier and cheaper just to go and buy regular shampoo and conditoner. But my hair hated it. I now use shampoo bars/hair soap

I have to go through a long complicated routine for them to work. I have to lather and rinse at least three times! :( But my hair is alot better for it :cheese:
I'm in the process of this now too, thanks to you :flower:
It's alot of work, ad the shampoo bars is a pain in the *** to get to work. But I'm taking your word for it, that's it's worth it :P

[Angharad]

It was hard to gradually get an insight, that I had to say goodbay to my (bottle) blond hair to make it grow really, really long and to appreciate my own haircolour.

Now I am used to my dishwater blond colour, but sometimes I think it is a very dull colour and then I see these gorgeus henna-red hairs on long hair forums and then I wish I too could have that colour. In the past I did henna my hair (on my bottle-blond hair) and I hated the result. Now my hair is darker and the idea to try out how henna now would react to my own hair colour still comes up from time to time.

But I have to be realistic: onfortunately, red hair also clashes with my (reddish) skintone so it is not for me............sigh!

[enfys]

The hardest thing for me is probably accepting that I am very very unlikely to ever experience short hair. Not voluntarily at least. I've always has long hair - BSL at its shortest, so I've never experienced any of the easy-care perks of short hair, and never had a salon cut as I don't trust them. It's hard to explain why that's hard, it's just that I am 94% sure it's not for me, and for 6% I don't want to spend a decade growing out a pixie cut.

Second hardest is actually growing it, and the layers and fringe out but dammit I'm not cutting to collarbone to get it to one length.

As for haircare things, I've done that all for so long now (Well 6 years or so, but that's more than my adult life) that it's second nature.

[firenze]

I think the hardest thing for me was giving up my flat iron. I'm growing out layers--oh so many layers--and they tend do to funky flippy things when I let them dry naturally. I miss perfectly straight, smooth, no-frizz hair. But I know my hair is better for it and will continue to get healthier as it grows.

Also, I have a hard time fighting the urge to just cut it because I'm so impatient. And it's difficult for me to see split ends. My hair was always short enough that I got frequent trims at the salon so I never saw splits ends before now. They really freak me out.

[Magicknthenight]

lets see...a couple years ago i blow dried it alot. but i gave that up pretty easily.combing slowely. To stop getting un-nessicary trims just because i had finially found a stylist i trusted. Being comfortable with my larger then normal ears enough to wear it up. Being pacient in general. Avoiding unaccurate measuring. Not getting frustrated when im in a hurry in the mornings and twisting it too much too tightly to get it to stay so i can just go.

[nicolezoie]

When I first started growing my hair longer than it already was (second round started around hip length), I had a massive obsession/fixation/compulsion to fiddle, brush, comb, and otherwise manipulate my hair in a trillion different ways. It was so bad that I was causing alot of damage. So, for me the hardest thing was STOPPING that compulsion. It was very very difficult.

[Alia]

Wearing a satin sleep cap is the hardest thing for me. I look like like walking--or sleeping--birth control wearing one. Sooo ugly!:uhh:

[rhosyn_du]

Giving up changing my hair color at a moment's notice. Even though I love my henna-plus-Manic-Panic red (it's the color I've always wanted, yay!), I spent over ten years changing my hair color any time I needed to cheer myself up, so I sometimes still really miss playing with dye.

[dulce-de-leche]

The hardest things for me is giving up heat and not washing my hair daily.