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View Full Version : Losing length to breakage... What should I do?



Kiraela
June 26th, 2008, 08:18 PM
I measured my hair a few days early... and I've actually LOST length. :(! I'm only at a bare 34 1/2" now (the longest 15 hairs or so), when last month's measurement put me firmly at 35 (a good 50-100 hairs touched the 35" mark on the tape measure). I think it's due to this blasted bleach damage. I had been planning on maintaining once I reached 36", trying to trim out at least SOME of the damage... but now it seems as if I may never get there! My hair's virgin to right around the top of my shoulders, where it changes into bleached, weird colored... stuff. It still feels nice, except for the very ends of each strand... but it's broken off everywhere and I could spend three days straight doing nothing but guzzling coffee and S&Ding, and still not get everything.
I'm not sure if I should keep trying to reach 36" (where I'd feel happy and comfortable about my length) or trim 2-3" and try again to reach 36" before maintaining, or just cut back to hip length, get rid of a large portion of the damage, and be set back a year, but have healthier hair... Any advice?

Nat242
June 26th, 2008, 08:22 PM
First of all, remember that a lot of us have found measuring to be unreliable - you may not have really "lost" that length - it could just be good ol' human error.

Otherwise, if you really are losing length to breakage, you're not going to reach 36" in a hurry. It might be faster to trim a little of the worst ends off so you don't lose more hair, if you know what I mean. If you do decide to trim, take off less than you think is necessary - you might be surprised at the difference a 1/4 inch can make!

HTH :flowers:

-- Natalie

ItalianFlower
June 26th, 2008, 08:24 PM
I'd say trim a little and try to get to 36 inches again. :) If you find this same problem though next time, you might have to cut more. :(

Curlsgirl
June 26th, 2008, 08:34 PM
I absolutely gave up on measuring myself. I do have curls and all but even so when it's wet and stretched I STILL get different measurements. I think you are going to drive yourself crazy with this. You KNOW that you will be good when you reach your virgin hair so maybe you would want to consider taking a little more off just to have more health. Some say it won't grow with very damaged and split ends even. (Spidermom had this experience!). If you do trim, then just try to put it up for a while and think about other things. Life is too short :D Just have patience. Believe me we all know how HARD it can be but hair just does not grow overnight! :hug:

Darkhorse1
June 26th, 2008, 08:46 PM
I stopped measuring years ago. I found it stressed me out too much. Besides, all tape measures are different.

Your hair is AMAZING! Thick and long. I think you could get a teeeny trim, and you wouldn't notice it at all! It will take awhile for the color to grow out of your hair, so a little trim every month or so should help. When I was growing out the damage done from Sun-In, I went a bit shorter and it did grow out, but then I got a horrid cut....THAt traumatized me more than the sun-in.

Good luck with your decision! :)

Kiraela
June 26th, 2008, 09:57 PM
Thanks :) I've been using the same tape measure (it even has 36" marked out, in a thick black line, to show how far I am from my first real goal... 3 ft of hair, LOL) in the same manner for 5 months now, but I'm going to measure again on the 1st... I'm hoping it's just user error, but I tried four times and got the same result. If not... I guess I get to aquire first hand practical experience in self-trimming... *sigh* I think I'll go back to 34 and go from there. Hopefully that'll be enough.

spidermom
June 26th, 2008, 10:29 PM
I say cut it off and be done with it. Hair gains length much faster when it's not breaking off at the ends. It probably won't take a whole year to re-grow what you cut. I still measured regularly back in 2005 when I had 5 inches cut off. I regained that length plus 1/4 inch extra in only 9 months.

cheekytweety
June 27th, 2008, 12:24 AM
I agree cut it off.

willowcandra
June 27th, 2008, 12:54 AM
I agree that a trim will be the needed thing. Sometimes my hair will stop growing longer and then I have a trim and gain an inch. Breakage is a pita. I know it's annoying to go a couple inches shorter but sometimes it's a necissary evil.

Katze
June 27th, 2008, 01:19 AM
Ah, the eternal dilemma.

Your post sounds like one of mine from a year or more ago. I stopped bleach in '05, did another corrective dye in '06, and have suffered with similar problems ever since.

And, as a result of my similar experiences, I'd say cut. Even if that's just a trim of an inch or so, you will feel better once those ends are gone. I'm letting mine grow out and more or less microtrimming, also getting rid of layers, so my hair hasn't grown much in length but LOTS in quality, including thickness.

It will take time to grow out all that damage, but having healthy hair is really worth it.

ChloeDharma
June 27th, 2008, 01:48 AM
You've had some great advice so far....

I can relate because this is exactly the position i am in. I've been growing out chemical damage since i joined this site and i still have some left. A week ago i cut my hiplength hair back to waist because my ends were just tangling so much that everytime i tried fingercombing, brushing or doing anything at all the longer lengths were just snapping and my hair hadn't gained any length for months.
I decided to maintain here for a while and then see how it goes once more of the damage has gone.
I know it's frustrating but sometimes these things just have to be done.
You could of course try what Nightshade did while growing out damage and trim half the growth gained each month after you have cut your hair? That way you do still gain length and feel you are getting somewhere.....but by trimming that little bit you minimise the tangling issue that causes breakage.

Good luck xx

jel
June 27th, 2008, 01:52 AM
You seem to be so near your goal! It would be a pity to cut now, IMO.

If I were you, I'd baby the ends - keep them protected, oil daily, do regular protein and moisture treatments, S&D occasionally - until I reach the goal. From there, I'd keep trimming (half an inch at a time) until all the damage is gone.

Remember, even people who trim regularly get split ends.

So, after disagreeing with everybody here about trimming :D, I have to agree about the measuring error. It's so easy to 'lose' half an inch - maybe your hair was wavier than usual this time?

jojo
June 27th, 2008, 03:36 AM
Id say cut the damage off, it will grow back a lot quicker if theres no damage.

Nightshade
June 27th, 2008, 08:48 AM
You could of course try what Nightshade did while growing out damage and trim half the growth gained each month after you have cut your hair? That way you do still gain length and feel you are getting somewhere.....but by trimming that little bit you minimise the tangling issue that causes breakage.



heh, I obviously came in here just to say that :) I found with my once-very damaged hair (now only slightly damaged) that very small frequent trims did a lot more for me than occasional larger trims. The crappy thing about damaged hair is that it's going to split again because the cortex is so weak. So skimming off the splts keeps the ends nice without losing too much length.

I managed to grow from BSL to tailbone in about 2.5 years, even with cutting half my growth off a month. The nice thing was, once I got to tailbone, my hair overall was a whole lot nicer than when I started.

LadyMoon11
June 27th, 2008, 08:57 AM
I say cut it off and be done with it. Hair gains length much faster when it's not breaking off at the ends. It probably won't take a whole year to re-grow what you cut. I still measured regularly back in 2005 when I had 5 inches cut off. I regained that length plus 1/4 inch extra in only 9 months.
I agree.
I had to cut last year due to the same experience. Old hair that had previously been chemically colored, and it had just lost its integrity totally. I tried. I wore it up, and babied and I did S&D. No matter what I did, I could not keep those last inched from breaking off, and it was creeping up toward the healthy part of my hair, and I was afraid the splitting would continue and begin damaging the hair up the length.
I cut off way more than it sounds like you will need to (I sacrificed 8" to get back to all virgin henna'd only hair..:(.!) but if you are noticing breakage it MAY be a good option to consider taking of the damaged ends. my :twocents:.
I had a lot of advice last year from the people here- some advised different ways to keep my ends, others advocated cutting. I was happy with my decision, and I have gained almost all of that length back now (7 months ago) and it appears much longer now with the healthy ends, it is not breaking, and it feels nice.
Good luck... you hair is GORGEOUS!!!

lora410
June 27th, 2008, 09:01 AM
I would just do a small maybe 1" trim right now. and once you get some more growth maybe another 1" trim. I would try to do as much moisture treatments as you can. This has drastically improved all the breakage I was getting.

soprano
June 27th, 2008, 09:33 AM
I cut off my old, fried, long-ago permed ends plus some a few days ago. They were always tangling, it was hard to brush, etc... my hair was becoming less and less fun and more of a maintenance challenge. I decided to go back up to hip length from classic, and I'm so much happier with it. It feels so *healthy* and I'm back to playing with new updos and wanting to try new products.

Now, I didn't really have a growth goal (although I would like to find out where terminal is for me). My overreaching goal is to be happy with my hair. It should be fun. It shouldn't be something that I fret about. If the ends are bugging you, get rid of them and get it over with. If, however, your goal is really important, then maybe you should wait a month or two, measure again, and then decide. The ends aren't going to get too much worse in that amount of time.

berr
July 6th, 2008, 12:47 PM
Oh dear. These kinds of threads scare me. I'm having some of the same issues but I won't ask for fear someone would tell me to cut off a large portion of my hair. I know I should probably cut off about 5 inches. My hair has stopped growing at the tailbone and I think it's from damage. I only do microtrims or nothing more than an inch because I'm afraid my goals will go down the drain. The reason it frightens me is I've done this before and once I started cutting.. going a littler shorter the next time didn't seem so bad.

Long story short: Ask yourself a series of questions before a cut. Will you be happy with it? Will it help achieve your goals? Will it make you feel better after having done it? (if the answer to this one is no, then don't do it) Have you exhausted all the options? (such as seach and destroy, extra conditioning treatments for the ends, etc.)

I noticed your post is a few days old, Kiraela. What are your plans?

Kiraela
July 6th, 2008, 02:16 PM
I found that it was mostly user error, although I only gained 1/8 of an inch this month, so within the next few days, I'm going to do a tiny trim (maybe 1/2 inch) to get rid of some of the ends. Once I reach 36", I'm maintaining there until I either get rid of the damage, or go nuts wanting it longer, whichever comes first!

berr
July 6th, 2008, 02:34 PM
I gave up on tape measures. I really am a klutz.

I wish you the very best luck at reaching your goal. I'm struggling with my goal so I know how frustrating it can be. Hang in there.

Kiraela
July 6th, 2008, 02:50 PM
Same to you! :)

Flaxen
July 6th, 2008, 03:30 PM
Dear Confirmed Conehead ;)
What 'cones are you using? If you use cyclopentasiloxane, I strongly urge you to eliminate those products from your routine. Otherwise, you may never get ahead of the breakage. That 'cone, which can act like a drying alcohol, is what I believe caused my breakage and subsequent lack of overall growth, for the better part of twelve years, and my hair was highlighted, at most, twice a year.

If your hair will accept oil (I've found natural methods work best on natural hair, but you never know...), give coconut oil a try. It has an affinity for keratin, and it will help your ends stay as strong as possible.

Kiraela
July 6th, 2008, 04:00 PM
Bah! On every pantene conditioner I've got (two, at the moment) that's fairly high on the list! Unfortunately, pantene's the only thing my hair LIKES. :(!! Right now I can't afford to spend money on anything but food(and that's iffy some days, LOL) so I have to use what I've got. Once I can, though, I'll be buying some coconut oil (and hoping that I don't have the same allergy to coconuts that my mother does... I've never really had any, because of her allergy, and DBF just doesn't like them, so I have no clue). EVOO in limited amounts is okay, but only every once in a while or else it goes wonky. *sigh* I've got a long way to go before I can oil my natural hair... as it is, it's barely past the shoulders.

Now, to work up the courage to snip...

Riot Crrl
July 6th, 2008, 04:53 PM
Bah! On every pantene conditioner I've got (two, at the moment) that's fairly high on the list! Unfortunately, pantene's the only thing my hair LIKES. :(!! Right now I can't afford to spend money on anything but food(and that's iffy some days, LOL) so I have to use what I've got. Once I can, though, I'll be buying some coconut oil (and hoping that I don't have the same allergy to coconuts that my mother does... I've never really had any, because of her allergy, and DBF just doesn't like them, so I have no clue). EVOO in limited amounts is okay, but only every once in a while or else it goes wonky. *sigh* I've got a long way to go before I can oil my natural hair... as it is, it's barely past the shoulders.

Now, to work up the courage to snip...

I understand not being able to replace things right away, but apart from that... I am not sure that breakage is a sign of your hair liking the products.

When I used to use Pantene, I would put in on in the shower and think that my hair felt awesome. This is a major selling point of silicone conditioners. Then my hair dried and looked just as fried as ever.

It does have the practical benefit of easier detangling. But if you like cones for that reason, there are ones that are more benevolent than the cyclopentasiloxane. A lot of people seem to like the Dove dark blue bottle which has dimethicone and amodimethicone. It is roughly the price of Pantene.

Kiraela
July 6th, 2008, 07:35 PM
I'm pretty sure the breakage is from some massive bleaching two years ago, but drying-cones probably don't help. After I finish this bottle of Pantene always smooth, I'll see what I can do about finding the dove dark blue, but... I'm pretty well limited to whatever they sell at Dollar General (DBF despises walmart, and I can't drive, so I must go where he is willing to go)...

Kirin
July 6th, 2008, 08:13 PM
Just a thought, V05 shampoos and conditioners are around 99 cents a bottle, and just about all of them are silicone free.

tiny_teesha
July 6th, 2008, 08:28 PM
I would try henna before anything. That would repair the hair somewhat and give you a better chance. I had hair that had been bleached and then dyed multiple times and dyed back to my natural colour (turned out black) then i hennad only the non virgin hair, which has hard, but i managed. It made the ends coarser, less wavey and smoother, but the very killed bleached ends on the canopy still feel aweful. The splits are returning and i have a feeling i over hennad, if that is possible.
I tried everything, and all i am going at the moment is cutting out my growth every month. Perhaps you can try that out for a while and spend 10 minutes every day S&Ding? Every little bit helps! :)
Try with some more moisture treatments and stuff :S I dunno! :( Its sad to have to cut it off.
-eta- if you were to cut it off i would suggest a 2inch cut maximum! :)

Riot Crrl
July 6th, 2008, 08:39 PM
I would try henna before anything. That would repair the hair somewhat and give you a better chance. I had hair that had been bleached and then dyed multiple times and dyed back to my natural colour (turned out black) then i hennad only the non virgin hair, which has hard, but i managed. It made the ends coarser, less wavey and smoother, but the very killed bleached ends on the canopy still feel aweful. The splits are returning and i have a feeling i over hennad, if that is possible.
I tried everything, and all i am going at the moment is cutting out my growth every month. Perhaps you can try that out for a while and spend 10 minutes every day S&Ding? Every little bit helps! :)
Try with some more moisture treatments and stuff :S I dunno! :( Its sad to have to cut it off.
-eta- if you were to cut it off i would suggest a 2inch cut maximum! :)

My first thought was literally, "OMG!"

Then I considered it. The hair is already two tone, and dye is already being grown out. There is enough regrowth that it should be easy enough to only henna the dyed hair. That might actually be worth consideration.

Kiraela
July 6th, 2008, 10:34 PM
Actually, when I get any sort of money, I am planning on doing just that (henna)! I figure if I'm growing out hair color, I might as well grow out something I love... and the transition from darkdark brown to red would be much nicer than dark to... bronzey.

I just literally cannot afford to do that, at the moment. DBF's ironwork is pretty well dead in the water, and he's looking for a job at the moment. I'd do the same, but I can't drive, and we only have one working vehicle... and there's NOTHING nearby. :(!!!


ETA: when I trim, I'm going to attempt about 1/2 to an inch.... I'm going to make darn sure not to cut more than 2", for sure! the shortest I'd be willing to go is back to 33"... That's my comfort level for the moment.

sipnsun
July 7th, 2008, 07:02 AM
Hey kiraela, I agree that a trim is probably what you need. Also, do you measure your hair yourself? I found that I can never get an accurate measurement when I do it myself. I wouldn't do a major chop, just trim and then see how you feel. I got a few inches cut off in April and as slow as I grow it was a major setback. But well worth it.

Kiraela
July 7th, 2008, 12:13 PM
I do measure myself, DBF already whines about my 'hair obsession' as it is, without me trying to include him in it.