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View Full Version : Coping with Slow Growth Rate and very damaged hair.



katienoonan
February 27th, 2011, 04:11 PM
Hi there, i'm curious to see if anyone else is in the same situation. After a very awful year of no eating, constant dying and trimming and overall sadness... I'm not left with limp, thin, discoloured and relatively short hair.

Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with a slow growth rate and poor hair condition? I have already started a fantastic supplement regimen (Thankyou everyone on here for the advice! :crush: ) And I have started coconut oil conditioning treatments as well as Henna in the hope of strengthening it all..

I know it's a long process, but i'm getting increasingly upset when i look at the small amount of growth and improvement I see...

What would you guys reccommend? Is anyone else in a similar position?
:confused:

lapushka
February 27th, 2011, 04:24 PM
After a very awful year of no eating, constant dying and trimming and overall sadness... I'm not left with limp, thin, discoloured and relatively short hair.

Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with a slow growth rate and poor hair condition? I have already started a fantastic supplement regimen (Thankyou everyone on here for the advice! :crush: ) And I have started coconut oil conditioning treatments as well as Henna in the hope of strengthening it all..

I know it's a long process, but i'm getting increasingly upset when i look at the small amount of growth and improvement I see...

It's going to sound awful because you're expecting something rather immediate, but the best advice, I think, is patience. This isn't just going to magically get better overnight or in a few weeks or months. Your thin hair isn't going to thicken up just like that. Hair takes a while to grow (back). I'd say give it a year. Meanwhile, eating well is probably the best you can do for your hair, and if your diet is still lacking, then supplement, but nothing can substitute for healthy eating habits.

katienoonan
February 27th, 2011, 04:28 PM
It's going to sound awful because you're expecting something rather immediate, but the best advice, I think, is patience. This isn't just going to magically get better overnight or in a few weeks or months. Your thin hair isn't going to thicken up just like that. Hair takes a while to grow (back). I'd say give it a year. Meanwhile, eating well is probably the best you can do for your hair, and if your diet is still lacking, then supplement, but nothing can substitute for healthy eating habits.



:o Thankyou... I guess i'm getting a little impatient because my last trim was )ctober 2010 and so far i have had an inch of hairgrowth...

I'me very happy to say that my eating is GREATLY improved... Plenty of meat, eggs, cheese and vegetables... :flower:

ole gray mare
February 27th, 2011, 04:44 PM
I feel your pain. My hair grows slowly too. Just continue to baby the hair you have and take good care of your body. :thumbsup:

skydancer7
February 27th, 2011, 04:50 PM
I am a huge fan of "benign neglect". You put your hair up in a simple style daily, and FORGET ABOUT IT. Get busy with knitting, exercise, work, chores, whatever. Forget about it for a good few months, say until June or July. THEN take a look at your growth :)

katienoonan
February 27th, 2011, 05:11 PM
I am a huge fan of "benign neglect". You put your hair up in a simple style daily, and FORGET ABOUT IT. Get busy with knitting, exercise, work, chores, whatever. Forget about it for a good few months, say until June or July. THEN take a look at your growth :)

This sounds perfect... I have so much University work to complete until then and I live away from my family and boyfriend... I can afford to leave it alone for a while! :cheer:

Your hair is so shiny and thick!

Mesmerise
February 27th, 2011, 05:17 PM
I feel your pain! After growing my hair for awhile, last year I went through massive shedding and I had quite a bit cut off (so didn't really get any length change) and now it's quite stringy...

I know benign neglect is a good idea, and I mostly try it... but spending too much time on the forum makes me long for beautiful long hair and I obsess a wee bit!

pixiedust
February 27th, 2011, 05:34 PM
i'm in your exact same position. like, EXACTLY. :o My hair was so sad looking that I had to cut it ALLL off. everything, almost. I get fidgety and I want to do 100 treatments and henna it and comb it and straighten it and find better products but seriously every time I mess with my routine too much my hair gets very angry. Especially when I colour it. I'm trying to just ignore it and it's just starting to thicken up :)

This might sound weird, but one thing that helps me is painting/manicuring my nails. before I made the big 'chop' and got rid of the damage, I was a compulsive nail biter, but I've been doing really good as far as growing them/taking care of my cuticles and keeping them healthy. I honestly don't care about them usually, so I won't be THAT heartbroken if I file one too short; AND you can change your nail polish color every day. ;)

Like I said, it sounds weird but it's helped me a lot. Next time you want to do something to your hair that might be uneccessary, possibly damaging or when it's just bothering you, try telling yourself "I'm not going to do anything else to my hair today/look at it because I have to do my nails."

hahaha, whatever works, right ? :D good luck !

Panth
February 28th, 2011, 02:07 AM
*hugs* The best way is to look after yourself. Eat well, exercise. If you take supplements, do so sensibly - mega-dosing is unlikely to give you better results than sensible sized doses and may cause you harm, even if the supplement in question is water-soluble. Keep busy - I bet the uni work will do that! But also remember to take time out to socialise (see people!) and also to chill out or pamper yourself (a lazy evening with a long bath and book, maybe?).

As far as hair goes, benign neglect is probably your best option. Depending on the damage you have, you may want to microtrim the damage away by fractions of an inch per month - this may be the better option if the damage is so bad that you would lose at least that much length by breakage anyway. Also, if you do benign neglect, chose 2, 3, maybe 4 easy, protective styles and cycle them instead of just wearing one constantly. It will give you variety and will also prevent any damage from constantly clipping the hair in the same spot or having the weight of the bun held by the same section of hair.

Then, in a month or more, put your hair down and you can even shock yourself with your growth. ^_^

(You also may want to take some hope in the fact that many people get different growth rates with the seasons and you may have just been through your slow season (be that winter or summer - it varies for different people) ... although I do agree that the main reason you are having slow growth is the damage causing you to lose length almost as fast as you are gaining it.)

yellowflower
February 28th, 2011, 03:34 AM
Me, I am in same position and I check my hair constantly, which does not help, so I have decided to only measure once a month, I wear my hair up alot pulled back so all i can see is my roots, this helps me alot as you can not see the hair,mine is incredibly damdged i have NEVER seen it so bad before, mine to is slow I am averaging about a cm a month so at the moment I have 2cm, I love those 2cm. Its hard and understand your postition, I am just trimming every 6-8weeks, as I had it cut about 6 weeks ago now and already splits are back, and knots at the end I can even blow dry it as that makes it REALLY dry, and to top it off i have psarisis which has falred up....grrrrrrrrrrr

katienoonan
February 28th, 2011, 08:54 AM
i'm in your exact same position. like, EXACTLY. :o My hair was so sad looking that I had to cut it ALLL off. everything, almost. I get fidgety and I want to do 100 treatments and henna it and comb it and straighten it and find better products but seriously every time I mess with my routine too much my hair gets very angry. Especially when I colour it. I'm trying to just ignore it and it's just starting to thicken up :)

This might sound weird, but one thing that helps me is painting/manicuring my nails. before I made the big 'chop' and got rid of the damage, I was a compulsive nail biter, but I've been doing really good as far as growing them/taking care of my cuticles and keeping them healthy. I honestly don't care about them usually, so I won't be THAT heartbroken if I file one too short; AND you can change your nail polish color every day. ;)

Like I said, it sounds weird but it's helped me a lot. Next time you want to do something to your hair that might be uneccessary, possibly damaging or when it's just bothering you, try telling yourself "I'm not going to do anything else to my hair today/look at it because I have to do my nails."



This is EXACTLY me... I'm always playing and tweking, hoping that the NEXT mix of slop, the next kicthen mix treatment or drying method, is going to be some god-given miracle and i will unveil my new glimmering sheet of long beautiful, thick, perfectly coloured hair!

I went through a 'ignore the scales, eat lots of oily cheesy goodness' phase a few years ago... My hair grew like crazy and my nails were SO long... after years of biting just like you! At the moment my nails are long again, thanks to biotin! I might start playing with my nails... do you remember NAIL piercings in the late 90's? Mega!

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/2506_75481786554_505191554_2158926_7224972_n.jpg


Mesmerise.. I'm trying to forget my hair but i've started visiting this website everyday.. which makes it a bit more difficult! ;) Everyone on here makes me jealous AND inspired!

PheonyxRose
February 28th, 2011, 09:30 AM
My hair is also growing very slowly. It currently is about bra length, and I want it to be about waist length by the middle of the summer, but I think that may be in my dreams. I am supplementing my diet w/ Biotin. Does anyone know if that will help? Thank You.

Safira
March 1st, 2011, 08:50 AM
Oiling your hair, protein and moisture treatments, thatīll do it, trust me. If you want to speed little your growing, try biotin, multi-vitamins, E-vitamin. sleep a lot, eat well and enjoy your life. Good luck to you in your growing.

jayde9
March 7th, 2011, 12:15 PM
I went through some serious post pregnancy shedding, lost tons of hair. I was so sad about it but gave it some time and now it is a year later and it looks alot better. Time is our friend. Please be patinet and remember that no matter how bad our hair may look, or how bad we feel about our hair, there is always someone out there who is going through the same thing

jojo
March 7th, 2011, 12:25 PM
My hair grows pitifully slow, but ive found a huge improvement in protein treatments, only every 8 weeks or so. My hair is just past waist and baby fine but the protein treatments have really helped my hair. I use aphogee 2 step its a strong one but brilliant. Also snip those split ends off as you find them; I hate doing this as its soooooo boring but it does help!

As the others have said make sure your eating the correct foods and keep it up and forget about it!

x0h_bother
March 7th, 2011, 01:08 PM
Same here. I've upped my nutrition but I don't see a difference yet. Just trying to be patient, its all I can do. Waiting with you :blossom:

McFearless
March 7th, 2011, 05:18 PM
I'm in your boat. My hair is waist, shoulder and everything between length but its all damaged. Its going to take many years to get rid of all the damage and have long hair. I'm keeping my sanity by not looking at it in the mirror. I shampoo, condition and detangle in the shower. Add a little oil and put it in a bun. I'm hoping my the end of the year I'll have a couple of inches of virgin roots.