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View Full Version : Hair breakage prediciment...



LuciousLox
September 20th, 2011, 12:50 AM
It's been years since I have had long hair, and I have always wanted it back. I had a few bad hair cuts through out the years which has really held me back in the process... And here is my new predicament...

You can't tell by looking at it, by my hair has A LOT of breakage.
Basically, I got bored and experimented with hair dye this past year. :(

... I went from black to brown.
... Back to black.
... Added bright red streaks.
... Then I had it bleached out to blonde.
... Now I'm back to my natural brown color. And keeping it this way! Lesson learned!

Needless to say, every piece of my hair has some breakage. It could be a lot worse though, for all it's been through. I'm lucky it didn't melt off! But now, the only healthy hair I have left, is the top 3 inches of re-growth. I have been getting regular trims, (every 6 - 8 weeks,) to deal with the damage. And therefore, I have gained absolutely no length this year.


Now, I realize this is the consequence for trashing your hair... And I do really regret all my color experiments. But I guess I'm just hoping for a miracle story from someone, or some hope...

Has anyone been able to "ignore," their hair breakage, skip their regular trims, and reach their long hair goals? Or is this just not possible?:shrug: :shrug: :shrug:


PS. Cutting my hair all off would be a bad option for me, because I've never had short hair before and I would be very upset. So would my husband :p Plus, as a mother of a toddler, I have no time to fuss with short hair or deal with the awkward lengths etc.

PPS. Thank you in advance, for your input. You all have beautiful hair and it inspires me. I'm glad I found this forum because I think it will keep me focused and on track to reaching my goals.

`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`' ~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~

Hotrox
September 20th, 2011, 01:03 AM
Take a look at this article but Nightshade

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79

It has helped many members to continue to grow long hair and cope with the damage at he same time. Hope it helps you too.

xoxophelia
September 20th, 2011, 01:15 AM
Hmm... I would say you can ignore it to an extent but it is a balance. My hair was not as bad off when I joined here because I hadn't done as much but it was definitely damaged. I have grown my hair when it was not giving me too many problems and then trimmed for periods when the ends were more trouble than they were worth.

You could come up with a plan so you gain 2" this next year if you really want some extra length but still trim off 4". Or do 3" grown and 3" trimmed.

The best thing is to stop all of the damaging things so that your hair doesn't wear down faster (no heat styling, no rough brushing, no dying, try to do updos and just put it up and out of the way). It makes it much easier to space out your trims if you start being gentle with it now.

alwayssmiling
September 20th, 2011, 02:23 AM
Well I was the same about 2 years ago. All hairdressers were urging me to cut my hair short because it was in such bad condition, breaking from lots of bleach, dyes and heat straightening. I really look horrible with short hair and a short bob is the limit for me.

I took advice from here and quit all the bad stuff, started looking after it and slowly, slowly, a few millimetres at a time trimmed off the damage. It actually still grew but it was just a lot slower than if I had healthy hair. It took about a year of trimming for the breakage to stop pretty much completely and for me to relax with the trimming. So now I get a good 1/2 growth per month.

I guess I would rather slowly trim. But some others would prefer to have a fresh start.

Have you tried coconut oil to reduce breakage?

archel
September 20th, 2011, 06:45 AM
My hair was very similar to this before I lopped it off (out of boredom, not because I had to!). It was to waist and had been through MANY colors. I found the advice here indispensable. I used SLS free shampoo, no cones, and lots of oils, which my hair just sucked up. I also wore it in protective styles quite a lot. I was able to keep it long and keep growing because of that, otherwise I would have been a total mess. In the end I wound up with a "breakup hair cut" but I could have kept growing if I had wanted to. I just had to be very careful with it and be the "moisture police."

spidermom
September 20th, 2011, 06:58 AM
Maybe your hair stylist can cut less when you get those trims. The first 5 years of growing out my hair, I went from 5 inches long to 24 inches long while having a trim every 6 to 8 weeks. That isn't screaming-fast growth, of course, but it was growth nonetheless.

Madora
September 20th, 2011, 08:42 AM
Ignorning the problem isn't addressing the problem of breakage.

Damaged hair will continue to split unless the damage is removed.

It's better to remove the damage, if at all possible. If you can't bear to do a major chop, then trim off at least 2 inches.

Personally, it would be rather disheartening to try and grow out damaged hair..and reach a certain length, only to find that the hair is still in poor (and possibly worse) condition because those spits weren't removed.

Mesmerise
September 20th, 2011, 04:28 PM
For me it depends on how I'm feeling about my hair at the time, and whether the length or damage bothers me more!

What I would do, if I wanted length despite damage, is I'd self trim my hair and cut off a really small amount each month (just a dusting which would be far less than the month's growth) and apart from that I'd wear my hair up and baby it a lot!

However, admittedly in the past I've grown so annoyed with damaged hair that I've cut it all off really short, despite hating the result!!

kdaniels8811
September 20th, 2011, 04:53 PM
I am not sure why everyone recommends trimming. I was able to go from BSL and tons of breakage to waist in a year by doing several things that did not involve scissors.

stop blowdrying and coloring with chemicals
stop washing so often - I went to once a week and used indian herbs instead of shampoo
Catnip tea soaks saved my ends, along with regular oilings with coconut oil. A tiny amount, not dousing it in oil.
Wore hair up to protect it all the time, preferably with oil on the length that was tucked into a bun.
Hendigo really helped keep the color bright and strengthen the length.

What I did not do is cut at all, not even a trim. My ends were thin, as you can see in the photo but I achieved my goal of waist. Good luck, whatever route you choose to take.