Growing pains - closer I get to goal, more hair looks like it's in transition stage

[school of fish]

I just need to vent a little

A bit of backstory: I've pretty much reached my goal length of tailbone (I'm there when my hair's wet) and while I'm very pleased about that, my real goal is restoring my hemline thickness after some non-benign neglect incured a lot of damage, breakage and a drastically thinned-out hemline. That damaged state had crept up over a long period of time, and it had gotten pretty bad before I noticed what had happened.

Over the last 2+ years as I've learned my hair and developed a stellar routine the improvement has been astronomical. Monthly microtrimming has been one of the keys to the success - I've been doing it faithfully for almost 2-1/2 years now. My hair health has visibly improved, my hem thickness is steadily moving downward, my ends are becoming more even and blunt (which I like) with each trim.

Here's the thing - when it was tapered out from damage, it may not have looked the way I wanted but it *did* look like intentional layers, I'll give it that But now that the bulk of the thickness has traveled down to about mid-back, by contrast that density is making the ends *look* thinner... and because the hemline is now very visually blunt the taper no longer looks either natural or styled - it just rather looks like damaged ends, haha!

It feels rather ironic to me that my very healthy hair is appearing to the non-LHC eye that I've got a lot of damage going on. It feels strange to me that as I get closer to my end goal I feel like my hair is looking worse, not better. I can see that this effect is only going to increase as I get closer to my hem goal - it's the contrast in thickness between the upper and lower sections that's highlighting the effect.

I have days where I'm tempted to chop it to mid-back where the fullness is, but I won't I'll stay the course and practice the same patience that has granted me the gains I've seen thus far... I just needed to vent

It really is a long game, isn't it?

[Horrorpops]

Firstly, your hair in your signature looks AMAZING! Not a thin end in sight

But yes that's it, sometimes you have to play the long game! It's tricky, because I got to this stage with my bleached ends and I cut them all off. This was hard that I went from nearly waist to BSL (lost about 6") but it was worth it for me.

However given a year or so with microtrimming your layers will all be to TBL and that isn't so far away. Especially when your hair looks so fabulous now!

[school of fish]

Firstly, your hair in your signature looks AMAZING! Not a thin end in sight

But yes that's it, sometimes you have to play the long game! It's tricky, because I got to this stage with my bleached ends and I cut them all off. This was hard that I went from nearly waist to BSL (lost about 6") but it was worth it for me.

However given a year or so with microtrimming your layers will all be to TBL and that isn't so far away. Especially when your hair looks so fabulous now!

Aw, thanks Horrorpops! That's my first thud, haha! Thank you so much for that

My siggy pic shows my hair on its best behaviour It's from about November last year, and I had TangleTeezed it into submission On a day-to-day basis though the look is, shall we say, more realistic. As the ends move about and clump up a bit and the flyaways fly away, the whole thing looks more beachy and messy and like it really wants for more TangleTeezing...

I guess I'm just feeling greedy - the more improvement you see the more you want, right? Thanks for the chin up!

[Stepo_NiNha]

It's already said but yeah from your pic I can't see any thin end... Amazing hair only!

You know, I'm dealing with the same problem! But I'm still WL and I still have a long way because my goal is TBL.

I know my hair is healthier and healthier but the more I see thickness traveling downwards the more "damaged" ends I notice. And I know it is not damage, I have almost no splits by now but I see the huge contrast between the taper and thick part.

Don't CHOP!! You have awesome hair!

Just keep your hair up for some more months until the thickness is almost "complete" so that you can keep the eye out of your hair. And yes, You've made an effort to have the hair you have now, so don't lose the patience

Hugs to you

[school of fish]

It's already said but yeah from your pic I can't see any thin end... Amazing hair only!

You know, I'm dealing with the same problem! But I'm still WL and I still have a long way because my goal is TBL.

I know my hair is healthier and healthier but the more I see thickness traveling downwards the more "damaged" ends I notice. And I know it is not damage, I have almost no splits by now but I see the huge contrast between the taper and thick part.

Don't CHOP!! You have awesome hair!

Just keep your hair up for some more months until the thickness is almost "complete" so that you can keep the eye out of your hair. And yes, You've made an effort to have the hair you have now, so don't lose the patience

Hugs to you

Exactly! It's the disparity between the thicker and thinner sections that seems to amplify the further along the journey you go! You know whereof I speak, hahaha!!

I'm probably feeling it all the more because I'm one of those ones who wears her hair down most of the time Don't worry, I won't chop! I may take a bit of a larger amount off of one my scheduled trims this year, like say an inch or inch and a half, but I won't go more than that. I'm too jealous of my own length to cut any more than that

Thanks for the support, I'm right there with you! We'll both get there

[lapushka]

Maybe it's getting a little too long for your liking? Maybe it's the new length, and the fact that you reached your goal. In any case, when you feel like you want to chop a whole lot off, start with an inch. An inch, you'd be surprised, is a lot!

I also don't see anything wrong with your hem.

Oh, and congrats on TBL!

[Stepo_NiNha]

Exactly! It's the disparity between the thicker and thinner sections that seems to amplify the further along the journey you go! You know whereof I speak, hahaha!!

I'm probably feeling it all the more because I'm one of those ones who wears her hair down most of the time Don't worry, I won't chop! I may take a bit of a larger amount off of one my scheduled trims this year, like say an inch or inch and a half, but I won't go more than that. I'm too jealous of my own length to cut any more than that

Thanks for the support, I'm right there with you! We'll both get there

Yes, we'll both get there!

[school of fish]

Maybe it's getting a little too long for your liking? Maybe it's the new length, and the fact that you reached your goal. In any case, when you feel like you want to chop a whole lot off, start with an inch. An inch, you'd be surprised, is a lot!

I also don't see anything wrong with your hem.

Oh, and congrats on TBL!

Thanks lapushka!!

I think you're right about perspective changing once you've reached a length goal. And I definitely know that TBL is my maximum - I won't be growing any further than that... so I guess that leaves me obsessing about the hem goal

I do believe in the power of the occasional mini-chop amidst microtrims, and the last one I did was 1-1/2" last Aug. That did wonders for my hemline back then, so yes I think I'm due for another, just trying to decide whether to do it in June or in Dec... perhaps my feeling this way is the sign that it should be June

In the meantime I've found a good way for me to satisfy the scissor-happy urge - microtrimming my bangs every 2 weeks. That keeps them at the length they need to be, and helps me hold my patience throughout the month as I await my trim day

[lapushka]

I do believe in the power of the occasional mini-chop amidst microtrims, and the last one I did was 1-1/2" last Aug. That did wonders for my hemline back then, so yes I think I'm due for another, just trying to decide whether to do it in June or in Dec... perhaps my feeling this way is the sign that it should be June

In the meantime I've found a good way for me to satisfy the scissor-happy urge - microtrimming my bangs every 2 weeks. That keeps them at the length they need to be, and helps me hold my patience throughout the month as I await my trim day

Oh, I'm due for a trim as well. I think I'm about 1.5 inches over classic again, and that's where it gets more and more uncomfortable for me. So... yeah. We'll see. I can still cope for the time being, but it's nice not to have to worry over tiny trims and to have a bigger one to focus on.

[Nimia]

I hear and second your vent! I'm dealing with the same thing right now, glaring at the bottom 12" of my hair and wondering how much I can bear to cut off. It's both the thickness, and the texture: the healthy hair has a lot of natural wave, but the damaged hair is so thrashed that it's perfectly straight. There's an obvious texture demarkation line where I stopped the dyeing/bleach and found the LHC. When wearing my hair down, if I want it to look sane I either have to blow dry it all straight (which happens maybe 3 times a year) or use curlers on the ends.

So, argh! I feel your pain.