If you don't trim your hair-what will happen?

[Dreamkitty]

At the moment, I don't have any split ends and my mum always helped me trim them, but the last time she trimmed away 2 inches of hair :(.

I keep thinking that if I keep trimming my hair, I will never let it grow long. Whereas If I don't trim at all, my hair can grow longer.

Is not trimming bad for your hair?

[CrisDee]

Well, define "bad." It's bad if you want long hair - the quickest way to get long hair is simply to not cut it - at all. That being said, however, sometimes a trim is the best idea, such as when growing out a super-short pixie and you need to de-mulletize to preserve your sanity, or when growing out damage and the ends look just awful. But if you have a healthy head of un-dyed, un-heat-styled, carefully treated hair, there's really no reason to trim, IMO. :)

[Dreamkitty]

I just kept hearing that trimming your hair makes it healthier and grow faster, so I thought maybe I should trim. Ive never dyed my hair, used any products. So I would be happy if I don't trim and my hair still stays healthy and thick, I just want to get every inch I can get as I am close to APL.:D

[CrisDee]

Ooh, I'm envious of your length - I've been growing out a super short pixie for over a year now, still can't get it all in a ponytail.

If you really think about it, that old wive's tale of "trim to make it grow faster" has absolutely no basis in reality. Once hair leaves the folicle on your scalp, it is dead. There is no physical way that trimming hair that's several inches (or feet!) from your head can have any ability to make the folicle produce hair more quickly. Again, that being said, many people's hair grows unevenly, quicker in some spots, a bit slower in others. So your hemline can get a bit ragged looking after a while. Some people prefer a thicker, more blunt hemline, so occasional micro-trimming can give that effect. But I saw a video the other day where a stylist recommended trimming 2 inches off hair every 8 weeks! Considering that on average, hair grows half an inch per month, that's trimming off all the new growth plus an inch! At that rate, you'll eventually be bald! :D

[luxepiggy]

As long as you don't have splits or velcro ends, you probably don't need to trim. The issue is that if you do develop splits, and you don't trim, they could cause excess breakage which will then slow your progress towards your target length, or give you lots of taper.

[RachelRain]

I'm seconding (thirding?) the no real need to trim if you've got healthy hair without splits.

I'm one of the lazy ones who just doesn't think to trim (and even if I did, I'd probably forget why I walked into the bathroom for scissors...) but even when my hair was trimmed regularly by my aunt when I was in school still, I didn't notice a real difference growth wise.

Also, it depends on what kind of hemline you like - do you like the blunt ends, where they're straight across and even, or do you like the slightly raggedy, piece-y look that the untrimmed ends can get? After a week or two, the pretty blunt look seems to start getting piece-y again.

*Note: "Raggedy" is in reference to my own hair (and coined by my mom because if I don't brush it right away when I wash it I look like a drowned street urchin.) Just figured I'd mention that so no one gets offended needlessly.

[Nae]

A lot of people around here trim twice a year, or once a year. Some people don't trim at all. Part of it depends on whether you want a blunt, full, beautiful hemline or if you like the beautiful taper and romanticism of fairy tale ends. That is a personal preference. (I hope I put both of those options in equally postive lights because all hemlines choices are equally valid and wonderful.)

If you can go longer between trims it would definately help how fast you increase length. If you like fresh ends you could do microtrims. Just a bare minimum snip. There are as many methods of trimming as there are LHC members, you just have to work out what feels right to you! Best of luck!

[jel]

If you don't trim your hair, after a while you will develop fairy tale ends.

There are some people who don't allow scissors to touch their hair; there are those who don't trim, but do snip off individual split ends ("search & destroy"); and there are people who prefer to trim regularly and keep their ends blunt.

Check out the No Trimming Club in my siggy for more info! :D

[FrannyG]

I think a lot of it has to do with hair type. Some people can go a very, very long time between trims. I have to trim regularly, albeit tiny trims, or my hair gets very raggedy. Being so straight and fine, my hair shows every little bit of unevenness, which I personally don't like for my hair. I don't have any splits either, by the way. It's the unevenness that gets to me, and if I don't trim, my ends sort of trail away.

Other people with medium or coarse hair, or with some wave or curl, may not feel the need to trim at all for a year or more.

We're all different, and I think you can just let your hair grow until it "tells you" that you could do with a trim.

Also, if and when you feel the need for a trim you could always try Feye's Self-Trimming Method (http://community.livejournal.com/feyeselftrim). I can trim as little as a quarter of an inch with that method.

I might add that it would be helpful if you filled out your hair type in your profile, so we could give you advice that's more on target for you specifically.

[Vermelha]

Nothing will happen. Your hair will just grow longer if you don't have any damaged ends.

And, like FrannyG said, hair type is also a factor. Some with coarser hair can go longer without trims, while finer hair may not be able to, but this is ALL conditional upon how you care for your hair, regardless of hair texture.

Curl also is a factor. Hair with lots of curl and kink latches onto itself sometimes and causes peppercorn and fairy knots. I know if I don't trim and fail to detangle my hair, my stray lengths will wind itself around other hairs and cause knots I otherwise have to cut off. I trim regularly, but I try to hold out as long as I can between them.

[Loreley]

I went 5 years without trimming (till 2008). I didn't do S&D and after 5 years my ends were terribly demaged and thin. It didn't seem to grow more than 7-8" in that period which was because of the breakage (it was before LHC, when I had no idea how to treat my hair gently).
If you try to prevent breakage, do S&D and keep it healthy, you can go for a long time without trimming but your ends will be thinner after a while. Probably it won't effect your growth rate.

[kittensoupnrice]

There's nothing wrong with going long times without trimming, providing you are caring properly for your ends.
I have not trimmed my ends in over 2 years, but I do once a week or so sit down with a small pair of hair sheers to snip away any feathery broken ends that I get. My hemline, I think, still looks pretty good all considering.

My DH didn't trim during that same period of time, but he also didn't S&D or check for splits during that time, either. I started checking for him, and the splits were so bad that I eventually had to trim a small amount from his entire length just to make the ends meet up.

So, YMMV. If your being gentle and caring with your ends and length, you can go very very long times without any issues to the overall health of your hair. If you're more prone to damaging hair practices, like rough brushing, flat ironing, bleaching, teasing, etc, or your hair is more delicate and fragile either from previous damage or from having fine hair to begin with, you might be better off getting regular trims.

[Angeletti]

It just depends on what you want your hemline to look like. As the others were saying if you go without trimming eventually you will have fairytale ends (the photos in my hair album will show you an example of what three years and no trimming look like) but if you want a more blunt hemline then maybe you could trim every couple months a small amount, that way you won't feel like your loosing all the new length but will still be maintaining your ends.

[spidermom]

I agree with others - hair that isn't trimmed tends to get thin and wispy at the bottom. I think this is because some hairs grow faster than others.

I used to get my hair trimmed every 6-8 weeks, and I averaged 5.5 inches of length increase a year. The year that I did not trim, I gained 7 inches in that year. That's not a lot of difference. In fact, my ends were in bad enough shape that over the next year I had that entire 7 inches cut off because of split, Velcro ends. So in the end, my year of no-trimming set me back.

[HintOfMint]

Very few people have hair that is completely free from damage though, even with a very gentle routine. I'm a fan of S&D (methodically snipping away individual damaged ends) instead of full-blown trims, which I will only do if my hemline has grown unevenly.

[trolleypup]

If you don't trim your hair-what will happen?
At the moment, I don't have any split ends and my mum always helped me trim them, but the last time she trimmed away 2 inches of hair :(.

I keep thinking that if I keep trimming my hair, I will never let it grow long. Whereas If I don't trim at all, my hair can grow longer.

Is not trimming bad for your hair?
The short form answer is: "It will get longer!"

The long form answer is: "It will get longer, although...." and as others have said, the although is dependent on your hairtype and conditions. For me, with coarse, slightly wavy hair, "It will get longer, but the ends at terminal will get tangly if I don't keep up with S&D, but it is still manageable and looks good."

[mira-chan]

I didn't trim for a couple of years, so my ends fairytaled. I have uneven growth in a V shape. So I had that grow in. No split issues.

[lesbia]

I stop cutting my hair a year and a half ago: I had a blunt hemline at bsl, now I have fairytales end at waist lenght.
I decided to don't cut no more because it is the faster way to have long hair. But I will change my pourpose if my ends will be too damaged. So far, I keep let my hair growing!

[Starr]

I generally do one big trim a year (about an inch), with a few S&D sessions through the rest of the year- hasn't hurt my progress one bit.

[Sunny_side_up]

After monthly trims from June-Sept i want to start gaining length, so near the end of Nov will be two months no trim and thats a good feeling, i want to see length reults, givin my hair a chance to progress. If i feel my ends need a little TLC, then it's a little coconut oil on the ends:D Want to go six months then a mini trim which my mum can do to even up the length :)

[lhangel9]

It just depends on what you want your hemline to look like. As the others were saying if you go without trimming eventually you will have fairytale ends (the photos in my hair album will show you an example of what three years and no trimming look like) but if you want a more blunt hemline then maybe you could trim every couple months a small amount, that way you won't feel like your loosing all the new length but will still be maintaining your ends.

From my experience, if I don't trim my hair, it continues to grow. However my new growth always comes in much thicker than the hair with splits. My hair continues to grow at its regular pace w/ or w/out trims, s&d's, etc. It really depends on your goals. It just looks much better to be even all the way around that's all.