When was your hair 'epiphany'?

[Mutinous]

Hey all, as a rookie to the ways of treating your hair well, I thought it might help to hear how everyone else came to look after it properly!

I've just come back from Egypt, and the combination of sun, sea, pool, hairdryers and straighteners (*facepalm*) pretty much murdered my hair. I cut an inch or so off, but I think I am going to have to lose more which sucks majorly.

I was just wondering if anyone else had a similar experience? (researching ways to bring my hair back to life is what brought me here in the first place!)

:)

[11eleven]

My hair started breaking at the drop of a hat and looking frazzled. I too, started doing research on hair care and landed here. I have been finding that coconut oil is my secret weapon.

[heatherdazy]

Well, after I shaved my head about 2 1/2 years ago, I figured if I was starting over, I might as well take good care of it. I did a good job choosing quality products and not shampooing too often, but in that awkward stage between ears and shoulder, I was heat styling fairly regularly to get it to look decent.

Now that' I'm finally past shoulder length (yes!) I'm remembering that I'm supposed to be taking care of this hair, so the heat styling has been cut back dramatically from daily to 1-2x/month.

[Bellona]

I got a bad haircut about a month ago, and now I appreciate my long hair much more and have vowed to grow it and take care of it.

[ChrissieM]

My hair was waist length for a while, but always got very tangled. I had terrible tangles in the underlayer of my hair that were near impossible to get out. I had dry hair from underconditioning and chemical dye damage. I finally cut my hair back to just below APL with layers to get rid of some damage and control the tangling. And it just felt wrong....that's when I knew I wanted/needed to have longer hair and that I needed to learn to take care of it better. So I found LHC and lurked for some time, and finally joined. My hair is growing again and is much better with henna instead of chemical dyes and the other tips and tricks I've learned here.

[Shiva]

My hair epiphany came when we realized it was my hard water destroying my hair... took about a year to figure it out.

[Mutinous]

Cheers for the responses guys! I have been tempted to cut all my dye out (which would leave me with 3 inches of hair) but I think I can inject some life into it yet!

@11eleven - I shall try coconut oil, thanks!

[JamieLeigh]

For me, it was pretty much a case of trial-and-error. I felt a bit overwhelmed at the amount of info on this site for hair care, and at how many people said, "this doesn't work for me," "that works better"....etc. I just gave some of the stuff a try, and by the time I'd been here about 6 months, I'd found what worked for me. :)

Just be careful not to try everything all at once, and try to give each thing you try a good period of time before you switch again. We like to quote the "two week rule". ;)

Good luck and Welcome to LHC! :flower:

[InTheCity]

When I realized "my hair doesn't grow" meant "my ends are so damaged they break" and applying simple math to hair growth and salon trims.
Heat free since January and the longest hair I've ever had :D

[Maddy25]

I was looking for tips on how to grow my hair faster and I came accross those super magnified photos in this artlce ---> http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79 of what the hair strand looks like after heat, and after backcombing and seeing it like that grossed me out so much! I just stopped heat and styling products and cones and became obsessed with making it healthy and long!.

[RancheroTheBee]

Well, I started to really appreciate hair when I was bald. :p It wasn't a buzz; I had to grow it to a buzz cut. I was seriously bald. I would like to go to the other extreme.

[Maddy25]

Well, I started to really appreciate hair when I was bald. :p It wasn't a buzz; I had to grow it to a buzz cut. I was seriously bald. I would like to go to the other extreme.

wow bald? Your brave! I wanted to shave my head a long time ago, just to prove a point that you dont need long hair to be beautiful in highschool. But I chickened out. It would be an interesting thing to do though, if I went bald Id know who my true friends are :) If they love me when Im bald they'll love me forever!

[indigonight]

the worse ever was when I had lice and I had to use all those chemical shampoos plus those nasty metal lice combs just rip hair right out and I had to comb it everyday when wet!!! which my hair hates! I lost so much hair and got soo many split ends from those damn lice I hate em, I hate lice combs, lice shampoos. I think headlice are one the enemies of all long hair community visitors!!

[Xandergrammy]

I guess my epiphany was when I found this website 3-1/2 years ago. My hair was already long but I was very mean to it. I found out here that I shouldn't tear the knots out of my hair with a brush and that squeaky clean wasn't necessarily a good thing. :gabigrin:

[ZenBird07]

My hair epiphany came shortly after my son arrived... After the first "oh I'm treating myself to a coloring" turned into an "oh my gosh I can't believe I did it again"... It was probably at bsl I quickly grew it out to butt, chopped it to shoulder and now I have my hair back... Thanks to LHC I got a clue about hair...:)

[claram89]

I had mine when I chopped off all my hair. I got really depressed, and though "maybe if I cut it shorter, I will like my hair again" so I cut it shorter, then cried. Now I'm growing it out. It's about 3.5 inches now.

[Anje]

Mine was pretty simple. A year or three after I chopped my hair for LOL (friend with hair a bit longer than mine at the time organized a drive, and I knew she would keep bugging me til I gave in), I came across this site, the now-defunct TLHS, and a few others. I learned about henna. Eventually a completely hair-unrelated search led me to LHC, and I ended up looking around a bit more. My hair was finally getting back to about BSL because I was lazy about getting it trimmed, and looking at the long hair sites finally got the idea through my head that there was really no reason I had to keep it BSL or shorter, even though I always had. My hair has always been the most-complimented thing in my appearance, and I realized that my perfectly good ends didn't need to be whacked off.

So I didn't cut it.

[RuthieAnne]

Mine was when I realize the reason my hair was so poofy and unmanageable was because of the paddle brush I was using. Now I only finger comb and my hair clumps together better than ever before and you can actually see the waves.

The other was when I realize that I could use my natural abundance of sebum to fix the dryness of my length. I've been WO for almost a month and it is like I have completely different hair.

God bless,

~Ruthie

[Mutinous]

Cheers for all the stories guys, it's been an interesting read!

It's driving me crazy just leaving my hair alone, butit needs some really tender loving care at the moment. I have an unhealthy addiction to straighteners and hair dye. The latter I've pretty much cut out now (I did semi-permanent dyes for a while, but the last of those was two months ago). My hair looks awful with its natural wave, so I have no idea how I am supposed to lean off straighteners!

Seeing all this gorgeous, healthy hair is definately a motivation though!

[Anje]

My hair looks awful with its natural wave, so I have no idea how I am supposed to lean off straighteners!
Sometimes you just need to get used to how your hair looks naturally, and take good care of it for a while. My wave's similar to yours (by hairtype), and I can tell you it doesn't look awful, but it's not straight and it's not really wavy. That takes some practice to accept.

Hang in there and stay strong in avoiding the straightener. Pull it back if the texture's bothering you, and you'll be rewarded with bun waves. As your hair gets healthier, it'll frizz less, too.

[akurah]

I think I had two epiphanies. First one was that my hair prefers cones over no cones, and the whole anti-cone cult stuff is silly--either your hair likes cones or it doesn't (and based on my incredibly unscientific observations, the majority of hair does fine either with OR without cones, so in many instances, it just boils down to preference). Do what your hair likes, not what others insist upon.

My second epiphany was that I disliked henna. The color was okay enough, and I don't necessarily hate or want rid of it, but the hassle of the mud (and believe me, it's a hassle) wasn't worth it since I wasn't getting my absolute perfect shade (which, frankly, you probably will never get, even if you like what you do get). Effort wasn't worth the payoff, to be concise about it.

I plan to switch to elumen at some point, but as of now I'm rocking two toned hair. And thanking my lucky stars that my hair is dark brown as opposed to blonde. Granted, it's dark ASH brown, and as such, the new growth looked greyish at first with the contrast of the superred henna, but I've grown out enough that it's mellowed out now.

[heatherdazy]

My hair looks awful with its natural wave, so I have no idea how I am supposed to lean off straighteners
My natural wave sucks, too. It's way too little to be an actual wave but just enough to ruin a straight style. Have you tried braid waves? They've been a god send for me. You can easily make tighter or looser waves based on number and tightness of braids and you save SO much time in the morning not having to straighten your hair! I just rub a cone-heavy cream (afterparty) on my hands when I take the braids out and I have these amazing shiny frizz free waves...

Also you can wear braided hair to the gym then just take them out in the locker room and it makes it so much easier to go straight to work afterward...

Plus braiding my hair when it's wet makes having wet hair less annoying and I don't feel like I have to reach for the blowdryer or I'm going to go crazy.

Did I mention I love braid waves...? :o

[Speckla]

Sitting in a chair having my hair flatironed and 1) listening to my hair sizzle 2) watching steam rise from my hair 3) having pieces of hair burn off and land on my arm 4) realizing that I'm paying someone to ruin my hair. My epiphany was "I don't to do this anymore" and I stopped straightening cold turkey.

[Gingevere]

I got a bad perm a few years ago... lost a lot of nice hairs to severe chemical damage... nay, trauma. It was very traumatic for my poor hairs. :no:

It's been a long, slow recovery, but I know my hairs and I in a better place now! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? :D

[Honestwitness]

Last week. I took photos of my underlayers, and while they are longer than the previous time I took pics of them (4 mos ago), they're not getting any thicker. In fact the uneven thinness has moved from the left side to the right side! Go figure!

I started thinking about all the things that happen to my hairs and I realized I'm breaking a lot of them off by rough treatment. Like my backpack strap that traps a few hairs under itself as I hike it onto my shoulder several tikes a day. My habit has been to pull the hairs out from underneath the strap. You can really see the effects of that now.

Also, the hair on my right side above my ear is about half as thin as on my right side and I figured out it's because of the earphone I wear on my right ear for work. Every time I take it off, there's another broken hair stuck in it.

So, I decided that what I thought was gentle treatment really isn't and my hair is much more fragile than I ever dreamed. It reminds me of spider silk.

So, I started using Monistat on my lower scalp a few days ago and decided to wear updos every day until the damage has grown out.

[tangocurl]

Yes, the article Maddy linked is a good place to start. You'll get some hope and information that may enable you to avoid cutting off all your hair.

My hair epiphany was early summer 2007 when a friend of mine introduced me to the "curly girl" stuff about conditioner-only washing. From the naturally curly boards I found this forum, and discovered a whole new world of hair care advice. I had always previously believed that I had "bad" hair, bad because it was curly, fine, and "wouldn't grow." Hogwash! First I quit shampoo. Then I quit the blowdryer. Then I greatly curtailed my use of the curling iron. I started wearing my hair up a lot more. I did a henna gloss, which restored strength in my ends, without changing the color much. I got to BSL and maintained there for a while, cutting off some straggly layers now and then.

I recently had another hair epiphany, which I feel was a "calling" to sort of take me to the next level. I used to believe that hair at BSL was pretty darn long. Well now I'm past that and I want to reach the next level, well, because I just will love finally having super-pretty hair. Isn't that what every girl wants? So I'm even more committed now to keeping my hair up, and have added some additional things to my routine.

Sorry to ramble, but once you've had your hair epiphany, I guess you can't go back!

[Mutinous]

Thanks for the advice guys :) I'm somewhat limited when it comes to fighting/accepting the wave my hair has as being a guy means it would look pretty odd walking around with braids/buns and various other styles. I could do a ponytail, but to be be honest, wearing it down is kind of the only style I can get away with, at least I think.

I have cut down my straightener addiction, but if I go on a night out I don't feel confident having it in its natural state!

I'm glad I'm not alone in not liking my god given hair type though :D Though I have no idea why some of you guys don't like your natural wave! Looking at some of your signatures, your hair looks amazing!

[flyfaraway]

Not very long ago.
It was when I realized how much I missed having long hair, how I didn't feel like a girl anymore...
I made my way to LHC, and saw all the heads of beautiful, healthy locks...
it inspired me. :D

[sunnydayalways]

I have curly hair can't to much with curly hair. Stop hot ironing, just made the ends dried and crunchy. Try egg conditoner my hairs looks and feels healther. Also, letting my hair grow long.

[Rivanariko]

I stumbled upon this site a few months ago, read a few threads and articles and was appalled when I realized how horrible I had been to my hair. I thought I treated it pretty well, no heat, no chemicals, etc. But my fine and fragile hair had hit a false-terminal just above waist because of my ripping through it with a brush every day, leaving it down all the time and getting it caught on stuff, and constant shampooing. Once I realized that it wouldn't be that hard for me to reform and take better care of it, I became so much happier with it, and I'm now happily growing. :)

And I think there are a couple guys on here that will argue about you not being able to wear your hair up. I've got a few guy friends with long hair that can almost pull off an english braid better than I can!

[Belledandy]

My epiphany came shortly after I got here and realized that I didn't really "know" my hair (and scalp) at all. It always just hung there, quietly taking abuse ;). Now I understand the value of observing what works and doesn't instead of just beating it into submission with a brush, hair dryer or harsher shampoo.

[pepperminttea]

I had a bob cut, which I hated, but it did remove all my frazzled ends (I had experimented with perms and hair dye; never a good combo for happy hair). I had been at BSL before the cut, so it was no small sacrifice, but it really made me realise how much I like having the length, and it's actually less work to have longer hair, IMHO. That, and reading things on various long hair-based communities helped me actually look after it properly, too! :)