Aeon F.
July 25th, 2009, 11:47 AM
I don't know what to do anymore. I've been trying to grow my hair to waist length forever! But it seems like everything I've tried- nothing! Ahhh! Hair, stop fighting me :slap: on this issue! Get out of your BSL comfort zone dangnit!! heh. (It's never been any longer than the bottom of my bra strap in BSL my entire life).
I had found TLHC well over 2 (almost 3!) years ago poking around online looking to find ways to grow hair longer. I was just lurking mainly for awhile here when I went through a very stressful period concerning work, relationships, etc - and I lost massive amounts of hair, literally like overnight! I had 3 or 4 very large bald patches- I had to wear my hair pulled up and parted a particular way just to hide them...it was awful!! :wail: Turns out the same thing had happened to my mother when she got divorced (I never knew- I was only a wee little one at the time..) yae genetics.
My mother sent me to go to the dermatologist's for cortisone injections (in the bald areas), which is what she had done... and yeah that did the trick, I had stubbly regrowth all over immediately after the shots. But I also drastically changed my entire hair care routine, thanks to the wonderful posts and articles here. I started taking lots more vitamins- biotin, MSM, GNC nourishair, etc, used special hair regrowth oils from recipes here, I discovered the amazing properties of coconut oil (stopped my massive shedding COLD), and I even made myself stop dying my hair during my repair phase for my hair. I switched to a CO routine, and went cone-free. Life is good. During all that time, my hair never budged from BSL. Of course, I told myself it was important to only focus on regrowing the loss. Length would naturally come later.
Flash forward to the present. Hair still stuck at BSL (well, actually right now it's between APL and BSL, but closer to BSL due to a trim... hairdresser is working with me to trim only tiny amounts of split ends tho). I did do S&D for a long time, but never felt comfortable with it. Anyway, I had always told myself that obviously it takes hair a long time to bounce back from a hair trauma, but my bald patches had grown back quickly, many thanks due to the combo of TLHC help & cortisone shots, but it's been almost 3 years?!! How long does it take to get past a trauma?
Right now, I'm doing basically "benign neglect " just because I'm tired - everything I do, and nothing to show for it. I've slacked off on my vitamin routine and coconut oiling... but still doing most of my repair phase routine- CO once or twice a week, use my BBB to distribute oil & stretch out washes, no cones, air drying (threw my hair dryer away 3 yrs ago! LOL), and try to avoid using a curling iron as much as possible (I wear my hair up or in a bun every day for work anyway....always have. Long hair down in a lab can be dangerous!) Don't get me wrong- today my hair looks and feels great! It's super shiny (& without any stupid coney shine serums! Ha! to my friends who insist that's the only way to get shine), it feels like silk, but it just never seems to get past the BSL stage. I can't even do a lot of the cool hairstyles I find here because it's just not long enough. arrrghhh!
While I was in "repair mode", I had stopped dying my hair.. I had tried the natural dye methods- tea, herbs, etc in rinses, glosses, etc from here- but everything left my hair dry and straw-like. :( So I just gave up for the time being..after my hair had grown back, I used only (at home) organic hair dyes- I used tints of nature (a friend in the UK would send it to me). I did not want to give up my lovely dark color, but didn't want to go back to using l'oreal, or whatever drugstore brand at home or going to a salon either (don't want to damage my hair any more than necessary). The tints of nature (http://www.tintsofnature.com.au/ ) is a very nice organic dye, it's just messy and time-consuming like any at-home hair dye is. I'd only do it every 6 months or more..just because I'm lazy! ;) (Hid the roots growing out with headbands! Haha!) Not too long ago, I stumbled across a salon that uses organic dye! Called Organics, it has no ammonia, very low peroxide (like tints of nature), and with rose hips & oil in it. oohhhh fabulous stuff! :inlove: It's just so freaking nice to not have to dye hair myself! I'm doing that every 6 months or so, and I make sure she (hairdresser) only trims off the smallest amount of split ends then. Def. not gonna lose any of the length I do have.
Oh, sorry that ended up being a looooong post! I've just not been on LHC for a long time and trying to catch up. I'm just frustrated and not sure what to do anymore- do I go back to the complicated vitamin routine, even though it didn't seem to get me anywhere? Do I just keep chugging along and hope that maybe I'll budge past BSL years down the road? Do I change everything and try different methods? (though not sure what else I could try..). Aiiieeeee! I feel confused.
I had found TLHC well over 2 (almost 3!) years ago poking around online looking to find ways to grow hair longer. I was just lurking mainly for awhile here when I went through a very stressful period concerning work, relationships, etc - and I lost massive amounts of hair, literally like overnight! I had 3 or 4 very large bald patches- I had to wear my hair pulled up and parted a particular way just to hide them...it was awful!! :wail: Turns out the same thing had happened to my mother when she got divorced (I never knew- I was only a wee little one at the time..) yae genetics.
My mother sent me to go to the dermatologist's for cortisone injections (in the bald areas), which is what she had done... and yeah that did the trick, I had stubbly regrowth all over immediately after the shots. But I also drastically changed my entire hair care routine, thanks to the wonderful posts and articles here. I started taking lots more vitamins- biotin, MSM, GNC nourishair, etc, used special hair regrowth oils from recipes here, I discovered the amazing properties of coconut oil (stopped my massive shedding COLD), and I even made myself stop dying my hair during my repair phase for my hair. I switched to a CO routine, and went cone-free. Life is good. During all that time, my hair never budged from BSL. Of course, I told myself it was important to only focus on regrowing the loss. Length would naturally come later.
Flash forward to the present. Hair still stuck at BSL (well, actually right now it's between APL and BSL, but closer to BSL due to a trim... hairdresser is working with me to trim only tiny amounts of split ends tho). I did do S&D for a long time, but never felt comfortable with it. Anyway, I had always told myself that obviously it takes hair a long time to bounce back from a hair trauma, but my bald patches had grown back quickly, many thanks due to the combo of TLHC help & cortisone shots, but it's been almost 3 years?!! How long does it take to get past a trauma?
Right now, I'm doing basically "benign neglect " just because I'm tired - everything I do, and nothing to show for it. I've slacked off on my vitamin routine and coconut oiling... but still doing most of my repair phase routine- CO once or twice a week, use my BBB to distribute oil & stretch out washes, no cones, air drying (threw my hair dryer away 3 yrs ago! LOL), and try to avoid using a curling iron as much as possible (I wear my hair up or in a bun every day for work anyway....always have. Long hair down in a lab can be dangerous!) Don't get me wrong- today my hair looks and feels great! It's super shiny (& without any stupid coney shine serums! Ha! to my friends who insist that's the only way to get shine), it feels like silk, but it just never seems to get past the BSL stage. I can't even do a lot of the cool hairstyles I find here because it's just not long enough. arrrghhh!
While I was in "repair mode", I had stopped dying my hair.. I had tried the natural dye methods- tea, herbs, etc in rinses, glosses, etc from here- but everything left my hair dry and straw-like. :( So I just gave up for the time being..after my hair had grown back, I used only (at home) organic hair dyes- I used tints of nature (a friend in the UK would send it to me). I did not want to give up my lovely dark color, but didn't want to go back to using l'oreal, or whatever drugstore brand at home or going to a salon either (don't want to damage my hair any more than necessary). The tints of nature (http://www.tintsofnature.com.au/ ) is a very nice organic dye, it's just messy and time-consuming like any at-home hair dye is. I'd only do it every 6 months or more..just because I'm lazy! ;) (Hid the roots growing out with headbands! Haha!) Not too long ago, I stumbled across a salon that uses organic dye! Called Organics, it has no ammonia, very low peroxide (like tints of nature), and with rose hips & oil in it. oohhhh fabulous stuff! :inlove: It's just so freaking nice to not have to dye hair myself! I'm doing that every 6 months or so, and I make sure she (hairdresser) only trims off the smallest amount of split ends then. Def. not gonna lose any of the length I do have.
Oh, sorry that ended up being a looooong post! I've just not been on LHC for a long time and trying to catch up. I'm just frustrated and not sure what to do anymore- do I go back to the complicated vitamin routine, even though it didn't seem to get me anywhere? Do I just keep chugging along and hope that maybe I'll budge past BSL years down the road? Do I change everything and try different methods? (though not sure what else I could try..). Aiiieeeee! I feel confused.