Should I chop to CHIN? :-(

[katienoonan]

I have dyed my hair for several years... My natural colour is brown but I have had it box-dyed red since I was 16... I have dyed it brown in the hope of blending virgin roots with old ends.

It is currently past APL and close to BSL... but it is a sever V-hemline from chemical breakage and there is a lot of uneven layers all over. I want my hair to be long... but I also want it to be healthy. A recent S&D revealed that almost every hair on my head is split... I trimmed half an inch from each length but it is still split...
Would it be best for me to bite the bullet and chop off the majority of damage? This would give me a blunt hemline and less breakage in the future...


Has anyone done this before? What were your experiences of this?

:confused:

[celebriangel]

Hmm. Well, it's a tough one.

I wouldn't chop to chin. What I would do is chop half an inch, then look at it, then another half-inch, until you can live with the condition of it. I would make sure you have enough hair to put into an updo, as updos are protective, keep hair out of the way even when it doesn't want to behave, and from my own experience and others I've spoken to it seems that the growth journey gets much easier as soon as you are able to put your hair up.

Thus, if you are considering a big chop, I would chop no further than shoulder.

A picture would really help us out here.

It's perfectly possible to grow out hair that has damaged ends by growing and chopping off the ends a little bit at a time. There's an excellent article about it here: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79 which should help you decide what to do.

I understand the impulse to have healthy hair. But it may be possible to obtain hair you are okay with that will be easier to grow out. Unless you're the kind of person that goes for big chops and fresh starts, of course; I am. For me, even though it set my growth journey back 6 months, the decision to chop from BSL to APL to remove layers and ends that were a bit damaged was a good one.

Definitely, here, YMMV. But the choice to cut to, say, APL, or collarbone length, is one where you get to avoid the most irritating stage of growth, and I imagine that's what I'd do in your circumstances.

[Madora]

I'd say do a blunt cut just below your shoulders then maintain it with minor trims every 3 months. That way, you've removed the damage and can start afresh with trim ends.

Good luck! It's hard to give up length, but I never could see letting it grow, only to have to cut again because the untrimmed damage only became worse as the hair grew longer.

[Alex Lou]

I'm sorry that you're having trouble :( I just chose to chop mine and I'm really happy with the texture.

But I'm gonna recommend moderation. Chop a few inches, wait a few days or a week, and then chop a few more if you feel you need to. The hair higher up won't be as damaged as the ends because it has received less chemical treatments.

You might also consider something to coat the strands and disguise your damage, such as a cone treatment or cassia. Here's a thread about cones and cassia:
http://www.longhaircommunity.com/archive/showthread.php?t=53097

[archel]

Well, I'm probably not the person to ask. I chopped my color corrected, fried hair to chin and kept cutting it to chin until all the dye was out. It was a LONG couple of years. Sigh! However, my hair now feels like silk and it's only APL after all this time, but it is healthy, so I guess I did the right thing. I can't imagine how ratty my hair would look if I hadn't chopped, it would be to my rear but it would be a right mess.