Growing out layers

[SweetPea88]

Hi everyone!

I'm currently in the process of growing out my layers and I'm not sure what to do. I feel that my ends are looking very thin lately and it's been driving me nuts! My shortest layer is slightly longer than shoulder length while the longest layer is at about waist. The main issue that I have is the last 2-3 inches of my hair. My hair is in pretty good condition, although if my hair is frizzy the ends look much worse. I'm unsure of whether I should just trim gradually, about 1/2 inch or less a month, or just even it up by 2-3 inches all at once. I would be sad to see my length decrease by that much, but I don't want my hair to look scraggly.

Any advice? Thanks everyone!

[ETA: my avatar shows this very well! What I want to ultimately achieve is a blunt hemline (slight U maybe) at waist and then progress from there]

[Silver & Gold]

SweetPea, I just looked through your photo album and your hair doesn't look at all scraggly to me. Since you don't want to lose too much length I would go for microtrims every few months.

I'm in the same situation as you are only my hair is much shorter. I try to go about six months between trims (although in reality it's been more like 4 or 5) and when I do trim I trim 1/2 inch or less. This still leaves me with plenty of growth.

The longer my hair gets, the easier it is to wait for the trim. I love the taper of your hair right now. I wouldn't change a thing if I were you unless you really can't stand it.

[florenonite]

I'd say if you're unhappy with the thinness of your hair and want a slight U rather than the deep V you've got, then trim about half an inch a month. You don't need to do a big chop if it's just going to upset you. I really don't think it looks bad at all, but then we're always harsher on our own hair than others are, aren't we?

[Katze]

great advice. I'm in a similar boat and am trimming as little as I can, but did several large trims last year. My hair tapers anyway, and the layers really dont help - if I put all my hair in a braid, after the layers work their way out the braid is the thickness of my thumb, no joke. :(

As time goes on the layers will grow, and if you trim the rest will catch up. It is slowly happening to me - short layers now at shoulder with the longest at BSL. This difference is moving down as it grows and I am slowly trimming the wispiest ends to try to - hopefully - get a blunt hemline at waist, too.

Patience!

[Shanarana]

Your situation sounds a lot like mine, and I've decided to wear it up more often to keep my mind off the ends.

[Chamomile betty]

Your hair is very beautiful.

Take it from someone who's grown out layers many times... it's a pain.
I've cut off many inches at a time and also trimmed slowly (best bet in long run imo).

If you really want that blunt hemline you might have to trim about 1/2 every other month or so. At least figure out what your growth pattern is and start from there.

I bet your ends aren't as scraggley as you think they are. They are just growing out which is a good think :)

Just be paitent and pin those layers up.

HTH

[SweetPea88]

Thank you very much everyone! I really appreciate all of the feedback, it's really helped. I think I've decided to wait until the first of May and then start my trimming. I think my growth per month is usually about 1/2 inch, maybe slightly more (especially w/ summer coming!), so I'll just do gradual trims of about 1/2 inch every month. I guess I was just having a hard time and being a little to critical of myself (you know how that goes!). Hopefully with the warmer weather I'll be wearing my hair up and forgetting about the layers.

Thanks again! :flower: