Better to trim or just keep growing?

**Henrietta** · February 10th, 2018, 05:09 AM

When I had old damage on my ends, I trimmed every 3 months to get rid of it. Sadly, it went up as fast as I trimmed so small trims took me nowhere after a few years of hope and patience. I had to cut all the damage off at once and when I had healthy ends I only trimmed when needed. Once I went with no trims for a year because I waited till a trim was absolutely necessary, wanting to grow the length back as fast as possible. At other times, it was 9 months or so. So basically I trimmed whenever it was necessary (either as soon as I noticed a change in how my ends look ed or behaved, or a few months later, but really just a few).
Now I trim all the excess growth but that's a different story, I've reached my goal

**MusicalSpoons** · February 11th, 2018, 05:40 AM

I voted 'Only trim when needed' for growing long hair - i.e. when your hair needs it.

My ends are a little thin but the actual hairs there seem quite healthy. I'm currently just trying to get on top of splits that appear throughout my hair but not going crazy or worrying too much. For me the damage doesn't appear to travel up the hair shaft, but for others it does. So you can see, from the range of answers already here, it really does depend on what your hair needs and what your goals are

**nycelle** · February 11th, 2018, 08:58 AM

Still undecided about this.

I like a thick hemline, and I know with my hair, that requires trims. What I don't know yet is how often.

Guess it also depends on how fast your want to grow. I'm ok with waiting a bit as my goal is WL, and I'm about 5" away.

**lapushka** · February 11th, 2018, 09:10 AM

Originally Posted by nycelle

Still undecided about this.

I like a thick hemline, and I know with my hair, that requires trims. What I don't know yet is how often.

Guess it also depends on how fast your want to grow. I'm ok with waiting a bit as my goal is WL, and I'm about 5" away.

nycelle, have you trimmed this year yet? Otherwise, you're welcome in the no-trimming thread. You shouldn't have trimmed past Jan. 1st 2018 to be able to join. But there's half challenges too, so you can still join the second half of the year, if you've already trimmed past the 1st this year.

**carlimeow** · February 11th, 2018, 09:21 AM

Only when needed in my opinion. I remember during the time when my hair was at it's peak health and integrity, I almost never needed trims, and even at its peak lengths (BCL-TBL) the hemline was still thick thanks to natural dyes like Henna as well as my low maintenance style (I just wore it loose every day with no styling and kept it in a bun while sleeping). I'm sure this is the case for a lot of dedicated longhairs. I'm glad I was knowledgeable enough to not get tricked into the whole "you need to trim every however many weeks no matter what" idea or else I would have been cutting off so much healthy hair! That being said, I understand that damaged hair is much different in this respect and what I had (along with what others in this community have) is not exactly typical. So yeah, only when needed and thus it varies quite a bit depending on ones unique situation with their hair.

Right now my hair is suffering a lot more than I am comfortable with (I have rather high standards when it comes to damage and thus any noticeable breakage at all makes me squirm and want to cry and apologize to my hair) due to two mistakes I made in the last couple of years now catching up, so I'm trying to give it a lot of TLC and hold onto the length the best I can before I inevitably feel the need to trim.

**nycelle** · February 11th, 2018, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by lapushka

nycelle, have you trimmed this year yet? Otherwise, you're welcome in the no-trimming thread. You shouldn't have trimmed past Jan. 1st 2018 to be able to join. But there's half challenges too, so you can still join the second half of the year, if you've already trimmed past the 1st this year.

Last cut it (at least 7") December 30th 2017, nothing since so I qualify. Gonna think about it as I'm not yet sure I can last.. lol

**TatsuOni** · February 11th, 2018, 01:21 PM

I trim two times a year, not only to keep my hair healthy, but to keep a blunt and straight hemline.

**Natalina** · February 21st, 2018, 12:31 AM

I don't trim regularly, I can't be bothered. I'm not fussy with hemlines, and as I'm now growing to Terminal, I plan to only stick with S&Ding. But I'm also growing out hair dye, so I might need to trim that off in the future (but hopefully not), so I voted for "Only trim when needed" and "I'm trying to trim as little as possible!".

**chomsky** · February 21st, 2018, 02:11 AM

If you've got something to grow out, like dye, chemicals or heat damage, then it's got to go in my opinion. Grow it to a length you're comfy with then slowly get rid.

If you just mean normal trims, I don't think they're needed if you don't do anything excessively damaging to your hair. I trim 2 a year maximum; my hair just isn't subject to a lot of damage.

Unless your hair is prone to splitting whatever you do, I think that needs more frequent trims to stop it travelling up.

**ipickee** · February 21st, 2018, 01:11 PM

Originally Posted by pandabarrier

I voted “I’m trying to trim as little as possible”. I was micro-trimming last year to grow out layers, a deep v-cut. My trim was November last year, and the hemline had a deep U shape.
This year I thought to myself, why not join the no-trim challenge?? I gained so much length this year, but the hemline is getting thinner. So for me, to trim or not to trim is a question of “do I wanna gain more length or thicken the hemline?”

THIS!! ^ I figure I'll trim it & maintain when I reach goal. Probably not for another couple of years.