Breakage on dyed hair: to chop or not to chop?

[meliora]

Hello, lovely LHCers! I need your advice rather desperately.

I noticed that I have been shedding lately, but I realized that my shed hairs are shorter than the bulk of my hair. About half of my hair was previously chemically dyed, but it doesn't appear to be severely damaged. There are no splits, and the ends do not feel dry. I oil them with either burdock oil or coconut oil and don't use shampoo on the length. I try to take good care of them.

The problem is that the damage is probably catching up, and the dyed hair started breaking off. I looked at my hair in the mirror this morning and noticed that the virgin hair I was growing out for a year is very shiny and smooth, but the dyed parts have uneven, broken ends, especially on the canopy. I keep finding bits of hair everywhere.

I have about a year's worth (7 inches) of virgin hair, and I am contemplating a chop. I have never had a breakage problem before, but I think at this time, multiple coloring with chemicals is finally catching up. The dyed bits also feel differently to the touch.

If this is relevant, I haven't been using cones lately, in the past 3 weeks, but I usually switch between cone and cone-free, so that shouldn't be a problem. I don't think the cones are the culprit, but I am very concerned about my hair.

Would it be better to start from scratch, with a year of healthy, virgin hair? What do you think?

Here is a picture for reference:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a34/roseamour9/DSCF2148.jpg
My hair doesn't look bad there, but it is breaking :(

I am going to go to class, and I should be back in 2-3 hours :flowers:

[Nat242]

Look, it really depends on what you can stand! It's very individual.

I have damage left over from hair dye and heat styling, the last few inches of my hair have splits and breakage - not all over but more than you'd see in virgin hair.

Rather than chop it all off, which I *know* I would find very discouraging, I'm babying my ends, doing frequent S&D missions, and I'm waiting to reach a milestone length (waist or hip) before I start trimming the damage off, 1/2 and inch at a time.

Others prefer to do a big chop back to virgin, or to maintain at their current length and trim all your growth or half your growth every month until the damage is growth.

-- Natalie

[meliora]

Nat242, staying at APL and trimming is probably a good idea. Thank you.

Here are some more pictures that show the ends better:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a34/roseamour9/DSCF2283copy.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a34/roseamour9/DSCF2293copy.jpg

They are clearly uneven and not in as good of a state as virgin hair.

Alright, I am definitely off to class now :)

[Nat242]

They're a bit uneven but not bad looking, IMO!

Why not measure your growth rate, and trim half of it off each month? That way you're improving your hair's condition overall, but you're also gaining some length. Good compromise!

-- Natalie

[Shanarana]

That would be a lot of hair to chop off at one time. I would do mini trims. It really doesn't look that bad.

[meliora]

Thank you for the replies! You are right, that would be a lot of length to cut off at once, and that is why I had doubts about it. I am going to do small trims then, so the ends can even up.
It does sound like a better solution.

[Nightshade]

They're a bit uneven but not bad looking, IMO!

Why not measure your growth rate, and trim half of it off each month? That way you're improving your hair's condition overall, but you're also gaining some length. Good compromise!

-- Natalie

I did this and managed to get my hair that had snapped off from hips to BSL to actually stop breaking long enough to gain length again :) It's a long slow road, but it's what worked for me :)

[Pegasus Marsters]

Trim off a small amount at a time. Even half an inch makes all the difference to the state of your ends. You may decide that after a half inch you don't want to trim any more :flowers:

[Loviatar]

Meliora, the ends at the front of my hair look like yours. I refuse to chop, even though in the past I wondered about it. I am doing microtrims and occasional S&D. (I dont have many splits, but I have a lot of tapered hairs and I can't work out if they're damaged taper or new growth taper.) Baby your ends and try the maintaining/trimming off half growth method. Microtrimming is working for me.

HTH.

[missy60]

Nobodys hair is perfect at any length I had to learn this. Even with virgin hair their will be splits and dryness, breakage you just have to baby it and learn to over look the flaws. I think your hair looks good I would keep it, and just do small trims for now and see how it goes. If you have layers, I cant really tell but it looks like maybe you do, I would do a small dusting on those, you wouldnt believe the difference it makes.

[missy60]

Meliora, the ends at the front of my hair look like yours. I refuse to chop, even though in the past I wondered about it. I am doing microtrims and occasional S&D. (I dont have many splits, but I have a lot of tapered hairs and I can't work out if they're damaged taper or new growth taper.) Baby your ends and try the maintaining/trimming off half growth method. Microtrimming is working for me.

HTH.

Wow I really didnt know there was new growth taper Im going to have to remember that one. I am also trimming off damage. I have been trimming off damage for about a year at shoulder length. At first I was getting a trim around 6 to 8 weeks and slowly increased the time according to the look of my ends. June will be 6 months now with only a very very small even out of the bottom layer it really wasnt even a trim. I was just evening out the sraggly hairs because my hemline was not even. I say June because that my goal to make it that long. I have been trying to ignore my bottom layer and not look at it to critically. I dont have splits its just the NEW GROWTH TAPER that bugs me. Thanks Loviatar

Spring is also the normal time of year for shedding.

[meliora]

Thank you, everyone :flowers:

I trimmed fairly recently (about 2 weeks ago), but I took off only about 1/4 inch. I am going to trim again today, 1/2 inch. I really don't want to lose the length, so trimming gradually would be a better solution.

I can see where some of the hair broke off *sigh*, and the lower half of my hair is "fuzzier" because of it.

My monthly growth varies between 1/2 and 3/4 inches. From past measurings I noticed that it is not consistent, which is probably true for most people.

[Curlsgirl]

I just want to add to be careful about being too critical of your hair. It's easy to do that after spending some time here. It may be just shorter shed hairs. You'll have hair of different lengths all over your head even with a blunt cut. I think your hair looks pretty and wouldn't get carried away with trims. Just my opinion!

[HeatherAngela]

I did trims of 2-3" every 3-6 months depending on how the ends felt and finally my virgin hair got to BSL while my dyed hair was close to waist so I decided to chop it back to BSL and be done with the dye. BSL is the shortest I was willing to go after deciding to grow it out.

[brok3nwings]

i think i have my hair at the same condition as yours, with less virgin hair than you do (7 months of growth) but i think i will hang untill i can (it isnt breaking but it is diferent and damaged compared to the rest). So yes i think you should trim a bit every month or two months because the shock of being short again it would be drastic...anyway, the only thing that would make me not trim is the lenght stange we both are (yes i think my hair is the same lenght as yours right now) and i really dont like to keep it in this lenght for me is not a short hair nor a long hair...it really bothers me to death! So i dont know, good luck anyway, i understand your problem ...i really do lol

[mommy2one05]

I would agree with most anyone just do small trims and by the way your hair does not look bad...we tend to see the worst in our own hair when others dont notice what we do