Hair dysmorphia has to be a thing, right?

[hototogisu]

You ever get the feeling that you'll just never feel comfortable with your hair?

I'm going through a rough patch, hair-wise. I've got about a month's worth of blonde regrowth (I've been colouring copper red for about four years now), and two boxes of Colour B4 Extra on the way. A week of honey treatments left my hair feeling like straw, so I'm trying to stretch washes. I'm avoiding silicones, because I want to use the Colour B4 as soon as it arrives and I don't want a silicone coating to interfere.

I. Look. Awful.

I was just brushing my hair out to put it in a Dutch braid before going for a jog and my hair looks TERRIBLE. Fluffy, 'stiff' fairy floss ends. Greasy roots. Regrowth. My old colour looks orange and dreadful. And I feel like I don't know how to make it look better. I'm sick of braids and pinning my hair into buns, but I feel self conscious whenever my hair is loose, always wondering if it's flat, frizzy, weird-looking. Last week I caught up with a friend and she saw me with my hair loose, and she was surprised that my hair was so long, and then asked me why I grew it long if I kept it up all the time.

Sigh.

I find myself longing to just bust out the curling iron and hairspray and deal with my hair the way everyone else does.

But then I know if I do that my hair will be damaged and... sigh. The cycle continues. But it would be nice just to feel presentable for a change, you know?

[Bagginslover]

I'm still pretty new here, so I'll probably get blasted for this, but if you need to do something, just oncve to make yourself feel better about your hair, then do it. One session of ironing won't damage your hair so much that you'll have to chop it off and start again, but it'll make you feel so much better about it.

I am definitely in the 'do what it takes to enjoy your hair' camp ;)

[Sunny_side_up]

I agree with the above poster, do what makes you feel good about yourself and your hair, i rarely blow dry my hair, typically just after ive done it i feel that it didnt do my hair any favours (i washed in the a.m because it looks too oily and lank because i didnt bother wash it the night before!)

so i'll treat it gently and moisturise it better after the frazzling that blow drying does to my hair. Every now and then doing things that you want can give you a positive feeling and can be quite refreshing. Im on the regular trim route so i just think i'll freshen up my ends soon so damage is kept minimal in my hair routine.

[Dragon Faery]

Gotta hate those rough patches. :(

Treat yourself to a luxurious moisture deep treatment, and keep it up until your Colour B4 appears. If your ends are too brittle and you're not against trims, try just a faint dusting. (1/4" or less) Sometimes just the act of doing a little something can help you get through these rough few weeks/months.

You will get there! It's tough and it takes time, and it's so tempting to take the easy way out. (And there's nothing wrong with doing that if you really want to.)

Hang in there, and good luck! :hug:

[Chetanlaiho]

My hair has been thinning since last early summer and I feel horrible about it nearly every day =( now that it's gotten quite bad I get a little bit depressed everytime I look at or feel my bun or whatever hairstyle I'm currently sporting.

I find myself constantly looking at other peoples thickness and comparing myself to them. I mean to the effect that if someone is wearing a ponytail, I'll look at the circumference before anything else, so yes, hair dysmorphia has to be a thing, somewhere somehow xD

[DarkAlice]

i had a horrible bleach disaster and my hair looked like hay no matter what i did...this might be to drastic for you but i went chin length and kept getting 1/2 inch trims every month for about 6 months and my hair changed dramatically in texture and manageability...i also stopped using all heat and oiled my ends, it works but takes a lot of time...

[hototogisu]

Thanks for the support, everyone! I caved and washed my hair today, and as soon as I got out of the shower my Colour B4 arrived! I immediately did a strand test using the shed hair i'd been saving. I'm at a local cafe now finishing up some work, but when I get home I'll get down to business. There will be pictures, of course.

Chetanlaiho - I also suffer from hair loss. It's why I'm stripping out my beloved red - I'm concerned all the dyeing is making my hair fall out. I still get major sheds, but if it helps my thickness did increase after I stopped using hormonal contraception.

[SpinDance]

Best of luck with your project!

[melusine963]

I agree with Bagginslover above. I'm not happy at all with the texture/lack of manageability of my hair either. Even though I take good care of it, I know that if a truly special occasion came up my LHC routine would go out the window for one day, and I'd use straighteners/mousse/hairspray, or whatever it took to look nice just briefly.

[swearnsue]

Your hair probably looks tons better than you think it does! We are always most critical of our own selves. Be sure to post pics!