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dollface
April 16th, 2011, 10:57 PM
i have been thinking about cutting my hair due to chemical damage and would like to hear some stories where cutting off damage was the best choice for growing (i know it isn't wise to keep damaged hair but i'd like to hear some input). thanks in advance.

pepperminttea
April 16th, 2011, 11:44 PM
Pre-LHC I went from BSL+ to chin length to cut off chemical and perming damage. It gave me a reasonably blunt cut to start from, and my constant annoyance at not being able to do anything with the chin length cut made me wish it was longer everyday. It was much easier to look after the undamaged hair though, and what was cut off really was beyond the help of any treatments, but going so short that I couldn't tie it back was incredibly frustrating. If given the choice again, I think I would've gone to APL and maintained for a while instead.

Incidentally, you might find this article (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79) interesting, even if you do decide to chop. :flower:

Jimothea
April 16th, 2011, 11:53 PM
I suppose I'll chime in here!

I don't know if you're looking for a pep-talk so you won't be scared (I had to give myself one...lol...picture me looking in the mirror, brandishing scizzors, whispering 'You can do this. It's just a little trim. You can do this!' lol) or just general advice, but trimming off damage is ideal for mine. I should get rid of all of it before the healthy part gets worse, I know, but I'm too big of a wimp, ha ha. Baby steps.

I have about five-ish inches of healthy, virgin, babied hair, and then the remainder is chemically treated and mechanically fried. I've been on the grow out for about...oh, ten inches or so now (only four-to-five of those inches post LHC, eek!), and have terribly bleached ends. Just recently realized/admitted I can't save it all with babying. Sooo...I chopped approximately two inches about two weeks ago. Surprisingly, it not only looked healthier, but also longer (enough that I got comments, when before the trim, I wasn't...) Go figure.

I was very happy with my results, but then again I was really distraught over the state of my ends, lol, so ANYTHING would have gotten me over the moon. I hope this helps!

Fufu
April 17th, 2011, 08:14 AM
My hair was about BSL last year.... I did ceramic permed, chemical hair dyes and rebonding (Straightening) and I felt my hair was getting dry and not pleasant to touch, so I chopped my hair to collar bone on 30 April 2010 to grow my hair long again.

Firefox7275
April 17th, 2011, 09:22 AM
My hair is a similar length to yours and a similar colour; the bottom half is not in great shape primarily through mechanical damage but obviously the chemicals have not helped! :o If you are not sure about a major cut, just lose an inch or two and then another inch or two a few weeks later. Unless your hair is snapping off you don't have to lose a lot of length all at once.

I made the decision at the start not to try to baby the last few inches, and I don't regret it. Removing the worst of the damage (>2 inches) has meant I can more easily see what products or techniques are working for my hair type. It also means I don't have to constantly deep treat and wash - you know how easily red bleeds. :p It means when I am colouring or detangling I don't have velcro ends grabbing onto the salvageable hair. Most importantly I know I would hate my hair if it were super-short or long but super-damaged.

Maelyssa
April 17th, 2011, 09:27 AM
I went to the salon for just a trim on my waist length hair Aug 2009. I knew that probably half of my length had severe damage from heat styling but I wanted to try trims & growing out damage. The girl at the salon could barely get the knots out of my severely dry, damaged hair. She had long hair herself & told me the best thing to do would be cut off all the damage then take care of it & grow it back out.
I was very very hesitant but after a few minutes I closed my eyes & told her to cut off everything damaged. When she was done I had healthy, beautiful shoulder length hair. I was shocked by loosing so much length but in being honest with myself I really did need it. My hair felt & looked fantastic & I enjoyed having a different look for a while.
My hair hit bra strap length this past Aug 2010 & it's healthy.
For me, the cut did miracles & I'd do it all over again.

Hope this helps!

baaaad_kitty
April 17th, 2011, 12:02 PM
I had my last salon haircut March 2010. I grew about 7 or so inches, had it dyed, heat styled, and all the bad things. My goal was to have hair down to my waist, but when it did get there last month, I started getting comments that my hair was looking scraggly and unkempt. I don't like to S&D since I see a lot of feathered splits, but when I did take a long hard look at my hair in the mirror, I realized the ends were just yucky and looking fairytale-ish and super thin at the hem. So I broke my no trimming rule. I only cut off around 1.5 inches. I basically just cut off the "tail" I had growing. But since then I've never been happier! My ends feel so thick and healthy! I loooove running my hands down the length of my hair and feel the suddenly thicker ends. I do miss the extra 1.5 inch, but hey, healthy hair should beat out damaged ends

spidermom
April 17th, 2011, 12:56 PM
When I joined LHC, I had BSL hair and didn't want to lose any length even though I had at least 6 inches of badly damaged hair from heat styling. I had 1 inch trimmed off and then I let it grow all summer. It grew a grand total of 3/4 inch over 4 months. Then one day I was fighting with damaged, Velcro ends and snapped. I went immediately to the nearest hair salon and had the 5 worst inches cut off.

My hair grew 1.25 inches in the following three weeks. By holding onto those bad ends, I was limiting my growth rate a lot.

CurlyCreature
April 17th, 2011, 01:02 PM
Depends on what your most comfortable with... I really wasn't a fan of my curls, so I went for it and did a BIG cut... once all the damage was out and I could feel my healthy vergin hair, I fell in love with it. and now I can't wait to grow it out! Others find big cuts to be discouraging though, as you lose a lot of length. For me in was motivation because it helped me realize that my hair (when healthy) is manageable.

Cleopatra18
April 17th, 2011, 01:19 PM
2 months ago I had spent around an entire year in LHC,where I went from waist to see-through tailbone.Then I went to a salon and she chopped off eight whole inches (I asked for 2 inches) of my hair taking me from tailbone to around BSL.
It was a shock and I made a thread about it called salon disater.But since then,I've begun to enjoy my hair so much.It was alot easier to deal with and responded well to almost everything I apply to it.I also could finally identify my hair problems,such as shedding due to sulfate shampoo.Also as my hair was damage free I found it much less likely to tangle and split (it still does just not as bad as before)
The loss of length is horrifying but I really think it's worth it.

Kathie
April 17th, 2011, 01:24 PM
I’ve been trimming away my bleached hair slowly. Last year I trimmed away 3 inches, with the biggest trim being 1.5 inches. I have around 8 inches left. But at this point I wouldn’t say that my hair is damaged. The bleached portion that is left is a little brassy but otherwise not so bad. So I’m just going to leave it to grow for a while. So getting rid of the worst of the damage worked well for me.

jojo
April 17th, 2011, 01:45 PM
My story is very similar to spidermoms. I hit waist last November and even went on the no trim challenge. For my type hair which is very fine, it gets damaged eaisly on the ends and my hair grew zilch from November to April this year, when I say my hair didn't grow it did but was breaking off as quick as it grew. Some months I did see growth especially over winter but it all broke off.

I bit the bullet as I am an all or nothing girl and trimmed back from 30" to 29" in less than 3 weeks I am back to 30". Therefore of course trimming doesnt speed up growth BUT it will help retain the length as healthy hair won't break!

The only things I am doing is daktarin (maybe this helped too) and I have started using a BBB to stimulate my scalp, either way I intend to trim 3-4 monthly and keep my ends happy!

dollface
April 17th, 2011, 02:06 PM
i appreciate all the stories and advice, i'm going to think about my options for a week or so and then make a decision. anybody have success with henna helping the condition of their damaged hair? i like to keep my hair colored red and would like to do it without bleaching so i'm curious. thank you everybody so far ^^

Dark Queen
April 17th, 2011, 02:51 PM
I had to trim back to classic from almost knee length because of damage. I didn't like losing the length either, but at lease the ends are now thicker and much healthier. I'm probably going to pause at this length for a while until the rest catches up. It was a good thing in my case.