For those of you who HAD damaged hair...

[Gwen]

...How did you manage it as it grew out if you didn't cut it off? Also, what did you do to try and make them healthier? I realize that once hair is damaged, it's damaged. But I keep thinking that there are still ways to nurse it back to health as it grows out.

Gwen.

[christine1989]

Mine used to be SO damaged (from heat styling) that there was no saving it. Literally every end was a split or white dot. Even so just stopping the heat styling cold turkey and an extra moisturizing conditioner helped a ton. By no means could the ends be repaired but the condition improved quite a lot just by stopping the damage. Ultimantly I had to just chop it off into a pixie though.

[Thumper]

With my damage, although it might have not been repairable, there are certainly things you can do to help make it look better. When you shampoo, avoid the shampoo going anywhere near the ends. I would also avoid conditioners that are cone based because in my experience, that made my damaged ends worse. Lots of oiling on the ends also helps as well as trying to let your hair dry naturally as much as possible.

Good luck!

[jojo]

When I had long hair before it was terribly damaged and cutting it short was all that could be done. However this was before I knew about this site! Id highly reccomend you reading this and weighing up your options. http://www.longhaircommunity.com/forums/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79 good luck

[bella77]

my canopy is a bit rough, but the underlayer is smooth as silk. I heat styled for the 2 years it took to grow out from a short cut. I am applying shampoo only to the scalp once a week, twice at the most. Shampoo bars, not an SLS poo. I condition every day. Oil often, cassia when I can. No heat. Small trims. I know it will take a few years for the damaged part to grow out, but seeing the top section of new growth since I stopped heat styling is so smooth and shiny keeps me going. I also have stopped coloring my dirty blonde hair to light blonde. I darkened it with a semi permanent color which has no ammonia or peroxide. I did this 2 weeks ago and it still looks fresh and new, probably because I do not shampoo often. I keep my hair up most of the time. Nightshade has a great article about her journey if you are interested and proof that it can be done!

[TheMechaGinger]

Well I started using more heavy duty conditioners, only washing once a week or so and trying to wear it up more often to hide it but then I just realized there was nothing to do but start trimming it away. So I cut off like 4 inches and then did little trims here and there until my hair looked okay again

[ladyfey]

I cut it off and started over. It was summer, so I quite enjoyed the short hair for awhile! Back to knee now, didn't take long.

[Ligeia_13]

^ How long ago was it that you chopped it off?

[ladylovecraft]

I really wasn't given a choice. A stylist hacked all of mine off against my will when I was nearing APL two years back and was left with a pixie cut. I HATED it, and wore wigs every time I left the house for over a year. But now it's nearing BSL and has zero split ends, so maybe it was for the best. :S

[RitaPG]

I used lots of coconut oil back in the day, both as pre-wash treatments and as a daily leave-in (it was a life savior really) and after a while I started using silicone conditioners too (although I don't use them often anymore)
Oil made it soft and brought moisture back, and conditioner made it easier to detangle without having too much breakage.

I believe that, sometimes, people mistake dry hair for damaged hair. I know I did :o leave-in conditioner (the ones that you don't rinse) makes a big difference.

Also, at some point, sooner or later, you have to cut. No need to be drastic, though. Small trims help getting rid of the scaggly look that hair gets when there's too much breakage.

[Mesmerise]

In the past I have done the "chop it all off and start again" but this time I'm just growing it and trimming it.... however, the damage isn't so bad this time. Most of the time I had really damaged hair it was bleached (I did cut it to shoulder back at the end of 2008 which got rid of most of the last blonde foils I had which had most of the damage). There were still some bad ends at the time (didn't help that the hairdresser fried the new ends with a hot hairdryer :rolleyes:) but now all that bleach damage has gone the hair isn't so bad... although it does have damage from dye and heat straightening.

So now I'm just growing with a small trim every three months (this year) and next year I'm going to maintain it to cut out more of my dyed/damaged hair and get rid of some taper.

I know it will take a long time before ALL my dye is gone though... but if I can maintain it at a long length during that time I'll be happy.

[alwayssmiling]

Mine was bleach and daily straightening. I had a little cut to get it evened up (it was so broken that it was all uneven) I henna-ed, reduced heat, conditioned like crazy - but most importantly I trimmed regularly, like every month. It took a year for it to stop breaking and start growing and looking healthy (sorry hope that doesn't depress you mine was very damaged)

[vanillabones]

Mine is extremely damaged, and breaks out into splits monthly. I don't think I'll ever have healthy hair, nevermind LONGGGG pretty hair. It's very depressing.
Coconut oil is the key. I have forgotten to use it this past week and it's REALLY starting to show @_@ Coconut oil save my velcro ends now!

[Alvrodul]

There is chemical damage on my ends, which I have decided I just have to get rid of. So I am doing monthly small trims - have done so for three months now, and I am already noting a difference - the ends are less tangle-prone. I expect I'll do this for about 3-5 more months.
There is also some mechanical damage to the length of my hair above the part I want to trim away.
I suppose my damage is not all that bad - but my solution is also quite gentle - I will gain length quite slowly when I do my trimming, but as I have mentioned, I notice the difference!

[MonaLisa]

Mine's very damaged...bleach and dye over, heat styling and tons of splits, but mostly in my longest- under layer...it doesn't look nearly as bad tho, people compliment it often...but i know the truth...
anyway, i think dedication to proper care and patience will get you where you wanna be, sooner or later..
cut is matter of choice...for us with damaged hair, trims are a must i guess...you just figure it out, how much and how often. eventually you will have healthy hair when you change your habbits..

key things are conditioning, oiling, being gentle, no heat and trims. there's no magic solution..

[Nymph]

I started growing it after bleaching it. I didn't dye chemically for a good period, I think at least 6 months, I just used henna and non-permanent hair dyes (but it wasn't the color I wanted which is why I'm back to chemicals). I always always always wore my hair up, and I would S&D whenever I got a chance. It was really daunting because everything was torn and split, but in the end I managed. I didn't chop anything off while it was that damaged, it's only after a while when the growth started to be too uneven that I went for a cut.

[oktobergoud]

I have a pixie but previously bleached my hair to death. At some layers, the ends are still damaged. I only notice it when I'm washing my hair, those ends are SO dry and tangled! However, it's already been such a long progress (had a big cut 2 months ago and my layers are already short, do not want to cut again!) so I'm not cutting it and just.. let it be. I use some leave-in with cones which always makes it feel a lot better and when it's dry it's just soft and no tangles :) I baby those parts a little bit more... but I do intend to chop them off little by little when I have reached my goal (which is a bob ;) so not THAT long)

But it does really annoy me haha!

[kitten1986]

CWC twice a week
with a deep conditioner every fortnight
Cold turkey on the heat styling!!
Little baby trims to keep the ends as healthy as possible

My hair was chin length when I started and it was sooo damaged from years and years of permanent dye and straightening/blowdrying every day. It actually didnt feel like hair... at all :S It looked completely feral and fried but I kept straightening till I hit shoulder because I thought it was the only way I could make it look good due to the damage... vicious cycle!
My hair was absolutely horrid by the time I got to shoulder so I did all of the above because I didnt want to cut out the damage (cause that would mean pixie)
So I completely stopped dying with permanent dye and grew out the black which was horrible by the way! and I went pretty well cold turkey on the straightening, and I did the other things mentioned above.
My hair is between APL and BSL now the ends still have black dye in them and are still pretty rough and damaged and get split pretty easily, but the rest of my hair feels silky and soft and lovely!! I actually NEVER Thought my hair would ever feel like hair again hahahaha
So I am now doing a microtrim every couple of months to stop travelling splits and will maintain at bsl until i get rid of ALL of the old damage

So you can wither baby it
or you can chop it all off and be gentle with it while it grows
Either way it will take time, but its totally worth it!

[Ginny Mae]

If you're planning on keeping it longer and doing small trims to get rid of the damage, I second the suggestion to use a heavy, coney conditioner. I over-highlighted my hair so much that a lot of it was actually white but by using a lot of heavy, coney styling and conditioning products I managed to at least make it look like it was in reasonable shape (to the naked eye!) It wasn't of course - it was really damaged - but because it didn't look too bad, growing out the bleach was much easier. I had a dye put on my hair that was quite close to my natural colour and that seemed to help it look more glossy and healthy as well.

[Dars]

I S&D'ed it (some people don't classify that as cutting it off), regular treatments, stopped heat styling, stopped using cone products, quit styling products all together, used more moisturising washing techniques such as CO and CWC, etc

[beccababesx]

I had really damaged hair from daily or twice daily heat styling, and years of highlights and chemical dyes, and I was far too much of a coward to cut it all off hahaha!
It does mean that my hair isn't as shiny, thick or healthy as it could be, but a layperson definitely can't tell and it's still long :)
I just STOPPED all the damage I could as soon as I found LHC and realised it was damaging my hair (I'm a slow learner okay! :p ), that being all heatstyling, started wearing it in protective styles almost all of the time, stopped using hair elastics, bought a sleep cap for bed, stretched my washes, stopped using such a harsh shampoo, stopped budging so much with damaging brushes, and most importantly for me, started oiling my hair 2-3 times a week.
Instead of chopping it all off, I bought a good pair of hairdressing scissors and starting doing daily (yes, daily!) S&Ds, which means I have maybe 5% splits instead of 60-70%!
I'm planning on growing to my goal length and maintaining there to get rid of the damaged hair, because the length is more important than the health of it, to me, but some people maintain first to get rid of the damage, or cut off half of all their growth so that theyre growing and losing the damage at the same time. It really depends on the person.
HTH, happy growing, and please post progress pictures whatever you decide to do! :D

[sweet*things]

I was able to rescuscitate about 1/3 of the length of my damaged hair. A second 1/3 I was able to make acceptable, but I could tell it was still damaged, and the last third drove me crazy until I cut it off.

Condition with oils, baby your hair as much as possible. Do micro tims or S&D's to get rid of the worst ends and see where you are in a month or two. Good luck!

[Firefly]

I had terrible damage from highlights and occasional heat use. I'm happy to say the last of that damage is cut off (at hip I trimmed back to waist) and I finally have virgin hair! What helped me while I was growing out the damage:

*no shampoo on the ends (CWC)
*lots of light oilings, especially on the ends (olive and coconut were my faves)
*micro trimming/dusting every 4-6 weeks (as long as I felt I could go between trimmings)
*no silicones- silicones seemed to mask the damage and keep the oils from penetrating. Once in a while I would use some just to give my hair a little extra slip, but in general I avoided them.
*Deep treatments/SMT
*damp bunning and wearing it up.

I also second reading Nightshade's article; it helped me a lot while I was growing out the damage.

[Heatherzilla]

I cut my almost BSL hair back to my chin.

I'd had it dyed black for 18 months and decided I was bored. The black had already damaged it and then I decided to bleach it 4 times in a day and dye it pink. Needless to say the ends felt like jelly and disintegrated when I touched them.

I ended up dying it my natural colour and cutting as much of it off as I could live with. I've trimmed it a fair bit since then and it's now nice and healthy APL again three years later.

Moral of the story, bleach is bad. I am never using chemical dye again. Ever.

[krissykins]

Giving up heat styling, CO washing and oiling with coconut/jojoba oils (now I use olive/sunflower), wearing buns EVERY DAY, and S&D saved my damaged hair.

My hair looks pretty good now. :D

[Oksana]

I am one who HAD to cut the damage out of my hair. It was heat and bleach abused beyond saving :(

But i feel i can contribute to this thread because i didn't cut all my damage off in once, i did it progressively over last year. I kept my ends oiled and my hair braided 90% of the timed, wearing it down only for special occasions. I then had an inch or two trimmed off every 2 or 3 months. My last damage trim was this month :D

It really worked because although i hated cutting off all the growth, it wasn't very noticeable compared to a 7 inch cut done on one day. Hang in there, it's all worth it!

[kidari]

I didn't know about this site, I had no idea that I was completely damaging my hair daily with heat styling and teasing. One day I realized that it was getting harder and more time consuming to get my hair to look decent. It looked horrible in a ponytail, the hair just looked so sad. Instead of stressing out about it, I just cut it all off to chin length. My hair grew so fast I had to go to the salon every 4 weeks for a cut, so I hated the maintenence and the money and I just let it grow. When it got to an awkward stage I just threw it up in an updo everyday. When my bangs grew out I just started playing with it and started trimming them myself. Before I knew it I was full on cutting my own hair and always putting it up and one day it was long. My advice would be to stop anything damaging to your hair right now cold turkey. Cut off as much as you can bear off the ends and then do regular microtrims until the damage grows out. Until then, baby it with heavy oilings and always wear it up. Before you know it it's going to be long and healthy.

[Maverick494]

I dyed my hair black and then bleached it back to blonde. So obviously I had very damaged hair when I started out (there's a pic in my album, the blonde frazzled mess one) and I had my V cut cut back to a blunt cut. That helped me get rid of a lot of damage and also put me from BSL to APL again. Anyway, I kept it blonde until somewhere in 2009 when I was tired of it and used box dye to get it back to light brown. Now at 2011 I'm at WL. I would have gotten there sooner if I hadn't dyed it into oblivion. I also had to get many trims because of damage from dyeing.

So in short, growing damaged hair long is possible, but you will have to sacrifice length for the sake of healthy looking hair.

[kdaniels8811]

My hair would not grow past APL because of damage and breakage. Found this site and started using hendigo to color instead of chemicals, catnip soaks instead of conditioner, and herbal washes instead of shampoo. Hair grew to my waist in less than a year with this routine. Also, wore it up 90% of the time, wore hats and such while out in the sun, treated my hair like antique silk - very gently! and oiled the length every other day with coconut oil or nightshades hair oils. Good luck.

[Gwen]

Thank you so much for all of the responses!!

I have a really silly question though... How do I do a micro-trim to my damaged ends without cutting off too much, or cutting them too blunt (i.e. straight across). right now, my damaged ends are at my jaw line. They blend well with my hair in the back, but the front is more noticable.

Gwen

[Mannaz]

I started growing my hair from a fairly damaged (bleach and dreads) chin-length bob. I stopped dyeing, switced to CO/soap nuts/herbs/shampoo bars, and most importantly did a lot of small trims. I couldn't have grown it without trimming, the damage would have traveled up the hair saft due to tangling, splits and so on. My hair is between BSL and waist now and there's about four inches of the "bad hair" left, I trim about once every two/three months depending how it feels.

Giving up the dye has made a huge amount of difference in the quality of my hair. Some things don't change though, my hair will always be prone to splitting and tangling and i can deal with that :)

Oh, and other than the occasional blow-drying in winter time i've never used heat styling.

It will get better but it takes time!

[Nightshade]

When I had long hair before it was terribly damaged and cutting it short was all that could be done. However this was before I knew about this site! Id highly reccomend you reading this and weighing up your options. http://www.longhaircommunity.com/forums/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79 good luck

I see someone quoted the article already :) That's how I did it, from shattered, breaking APL to now healthy, soft fingertip without any major cuts.

[RitaCeleste]

Well, it kinda depends on how bad the damaged hair is. Once I turned mine to elastic and there was no saving it. I color but I have had to change what I do to care for it. I just shampoo about once every two months, the rest of the time I co-wash. I use Aubrey organics honeysuckle rose as a deep conditioner along with coconut oil. The longer that coconut oil is in my hair before I shower the better! I had to deep condition more at first, now not as much. I use the honeysuckle rose as a second conditioner and often just use a little as a leave in. Once a week or every other week I use Aphogee Keratin 2 Minute Reconstructor. I use meadowfoam seed oil on my dry hair if its too frizzy or just plain dry. Its acting like hair again.

[kidari]

If you don't trust the stylist at the salon to trim tiny bits off of your hair, you can do it yourself by using Feye's method. I'm not allowed to post links, but you can google it. There are also a few really good youtube videos of people cutting their hair using that method. You would just the tiniest bit possible, like a cm.

[curlymarcia]

I had heat damage, and my hair was frizzy with lots of white dots. I quit the heat, started using olive oil as a hair mask (I need to wash it out), and I also use almond oil as a leave in. All these helped my hair a lot. Also I need small frequent trims.

[BrightEyes7]

Thank you so much for all of the responses!!

I have a really silly question though... How do I do a micro-trim to my damaged ends without cutting off too much, or cutting them too blunt (i.e. straight across). right now, my damaged ends are at my jaw line. They blend well with my hair in the back, but the front is more noticable.

Gwen


You can do Feye's self trim. Just trim about a cm at a time.

http://feyeselftrim.livejournal.com/



I also started with damaged hair. It was about APL when I started growing. I didn't actually intend to grow my hair long, it just kind of happened. I went from APL to almost waist in about a year simply by, not heat styling and keeping it up. That's it. That's the only thing I changed my first year. Then I found this site and started with coconut oil, deep treatments before each wash. Then I started frequent micro trims. I use Feye's method and for a while I was doing it once a month sometimes twice. I was just taking off the ends, so I wasn't gaining any length but I also wasn't losing any. I still am doing frequent trims because I'm trying to grow out my dye. Another thing that really helped was going to SLS free shampoo. I use the Loreal Everstrong Hydrate shampoo. It has cones in it, but so does my conditioner. (Aussie 3 Minute Miracle BTW... it's awesome and you should try it if you haven't already!)

So my three big things to help you would be:

1. Microtrims
2. Oils/Moisture Treatments
3. Updos!

[squiggyflop]

henna saved my hair..
i had hair that was so bleach damaged that it would catch fire really really easily.. it broke off right at the shoulders.. oh and did i mention it was neon pink?

henna let it grow past shoulder, but i did have to trim it a lot.. all my damage is gone now,,

[gthlvrmx]

You can't heal the hair, you just have to cut the damage all off and start off with good healthy hair. Even if it's regular trims to get rid of it slowly, just baby it, lots of moisture. Just bear the thought of cutting it that's what i did. It'll seem like it grew faster when it's strong and healthy, you know, without it breaking with every inch you gained.

[deko]

I do cwc washes and co washes and cut it off a bit at a time. I have about 10 cm / 4" really damaged parts left and I try to pamper them and cut them off cradually.

[SoulOfTheSea]

I didn't want to cut mine off either when it was long and damaged about a year ago. I tried oiling it, deep conditioning it, but nothing worked. I chopped it to my shoulders, and since then I have been gradually trimming off the rest of the damaged hair. It is long again now, and healthy :] But the best idea for you would be to keep growing it while gradually trimming off the damaged hair and to take good care of it :]

[feralnature]

I grew out my hair along with my damaged ends from quite short hair. I had cut off my dreadlocks when I found this forum. I wanted the length so I could pull back my hair during chores or windy days. I have thinness and some lightness of color to my ends and I will trim again soon. In 4 years I have trimmed once and that was 2 inches of damage. Like I said, I wanted the length as I want to see how long my hair will grow. I baby my hair and love it :I (My hair does not have a chunk missing on the hemline as the siggy pic implies).

[LunaMoon]

My damage was all over. I couldn't just cut off the damage because being bald was not a very good option for my work.
My damage was a result fo a long summer holidays with sun + beach + pool + dye to color the green hair after + some weird product that bleach my hair. Was really bad, breacking a lot. I cut back to shoulders, use a lot of coconut oil (got much better). I was living in china this time and was very difficult to get some protein treatment or good deep conditioners (I can't read chinese).
Damaged hair is damaged hair and you can just manage to keep it for a while but you have to trim it off soon or later.
My hair is little bit shorter them my avatar now, but all damage is gone now. :cheese:

[dulce]

When I first decided to go gray I was colouring and it was layered and just past my shoulders.My gray roots clashed with my previously dyed hair and I did not want to cut. So I went and got thin lighter foil streaks all over and continued to grow.Did streaks for the one year only[only did it twice in that year] and continued to grow.Now I have all natural colour to below my shoulders,streaks starting below that plus my faded brown dyed hair .The dyed hair is damaged so I treat it like fine old lace using long hair forum advice plus I always keep it well moisturized.It is to my waist now and all the colours have blended well over time and I will cut the dyed hair off slowly once I reach my goal length[past waist].It will take maybe another 2 years to get rid of all my dyed hair but I get to keep my length this way and I'm happy!

[spidermom]

To tell you the truth, I tried. I would do an SMT every time I washed my hair, for example, and it helped, but I finally snapped from fighting with my grabby, Velcro hair every day and had the damage cut off. What a relief!

[QueenJoey]

I used to have bad damage. I never trimmed it off, so I'm sure it's still there, but I'm taking care of my hair now, so I guess you can say the damage is hidden under all the new moisture.

[CoilyCurlyME]

I cant belive how damaged my hair was two years ago when i look at it now. :)
I started to learn to care for it, and got the damaged ends chopped of at a salon.

[LyraS]

When i had split ends i was in denial i needed a trim. I used alot of coconut oil on my ends and after a while it started to look like it was improving. It really did look alot better. But after a long while i just had a trim. I guess when you have split ends nothing makes it go away but trimming.

[Dr. Girlfriend]

I guess I'm brutal but I will cut off damage, even if it means sacrificing a bit of length. I tend to do so gradually however, when I grew out the highlight disaster only trimmed about 1/4 inch each time, until all of the damage was gone. I believe the frequent trims saved my hair from damage traveling up the shaft.