Another "should I cut" thread...

[Katze]

My hair has been changing a lot lately. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's hormones, but it is a lot smoother and sleeker (hooray) and straighter (hmmm) with ends that don't look good, at ALL. This new smoothness has been enabling me to try new updos (though they are still not as nice looking as most on here, due to severe scalp cleavage), but it isn't permitting me to wear my hair down anymore. Also, most of my length is flat and smooth, with the ends sort of bumpy, instead of the nice spiral waves I used to have.

This could, in part, be the result of more brushing and oiling. Apart from my ends, my hair does seem to LIKE brushing and oiling, as long as I wash very, very thoroughly (shampoo and no conditioner) the next day.

Added to this, I have a lot of baby hairs coming in - a LOT. If my hair is clean, I look like the wolf woman! So I'm a solid ii at the crown, tapering down to less than i at the ends. I love my new growth, especially the silvers, but am a bit at a loss as to what to do with my hair, as it's even more unruly now.

Since coming to LHC I've been trimming, and trimming, and trimming, and have gone from shoulder to BSL in the two plus years I've been here. I really, really want blunt ends. I'm thinking if i cut ALL the taper off, I'd be at chin-to-shoulder length - a terrible and unflattering length on me. But if I keep trimming as I have been, it will take forever before I have a blunt hemline, and - if I understand hair genetics right - I may never have blunt, thick ends.

Should I cut? Should I go buy a heavy duty sulfate shampoo (I don't have any SLS or SAS shampoos in my entire collection; I checked) and just wash the heck out of my hair so it stops being flat-then-greasy? My non SLS shampoos aren't cutting it anymore. Should I go to a salon? Just suck it up and wear pinned up braids or ponytails or French twists for the next while? I still can't manage many updos, because of hairtype, cowlick, and lack of skill.

I'm feeling a bit dumpy because of my pregnant belly and greasy hair and don't want to have even WORSE hair when I go through the inevitable (is it inevitable?) postpartum hair loss. So maybe cutting it as blunt as I can get it would mean I start from a better starting point when I try to grow my hair back? Going from the assumption here that having a baby means I will shed even more, even though I'm shedding fairly normally now.

I'm washing more but still oiling and using conditioner, and my virgin hair feels great, but the ends are really quite nasty after day 2. Tomorrow I'll go swimming again and have to wash and blowdry, so maybe I'll then have hair I am happy with and can wear down...

or should I just surrender to the scissors and cut off the worst 3-4 inches?

help?

[Angelica]

I am sorry you are feeling this way. I often feel this way about my hair. Its texture being the way it is and the lack of thickness. However I can reassure you on one thing. You know my hair did NOT change during pregnancy nor did it suffer after pregnancy. This was something I was really concerned about. I noticed no extra hair loss at all. With my hair that would be easy for me to see. So it stayed the same. No added thickness either during the pregnancy.

I might be an oddity, I don't know. But even if I am one of the exceptions, I don't feel that hair loss after pregnancy is inevitable. It may not happen.

My hair is always flat, it would be without any body or the usual styling products that it needs be anything more and it is also very straight.

I don't want to cut but I am thinking whether to switch back to all the "bad" products because I really do not like my hair just being like a sheet of silk. It is no good like this. It is difficult to build any bounce on it.

Regarding the greasy hair thing. Well, I use dry shampoo now as well and it saves me from washing it every day.

But I like washing my hair anyway so I don't mind if I have to wash every day really.

I am using a sulphate shampoo at the moment.

I just think by cutting you might regret it and it is easier to manage longer (I think). I found chin length on me so much hard work with the maintenance.

I suspect you will be told the two week rule applies here.

I hope you feel better about your hair soon. I am sure most of us go through a bad day with our hair sometimes.

[Hypnotica]

Don't cut now.

My hair seems to like to be cleansed by SLS fairly often. It's worth a shot anyway. And how does you ends feel more specific?

You can always cut later. Like when the baby is due. You will have so much on you mind for a rather long period of time and that is perfect for letting your hair grow by forgetting about it.

[plainjanegirl]

Yes I would wait to cut. You'll be amazed how little time you will have to worry about your hair when the precious baby arrives . In a year you will look back and be like wow where did the time go and when did my hair grow. But in the end do what makes you happy.

[Kuchen]

Well, if you cut it above shoulder length now, by the time you've grown it to BSL it won't be blunt again. The only way to have 100% solid blunt ends at waistlength is probably to chop from tailbone or longer, I think.
I'm in a similar boat to you - we both have straight/wavy hair, the same goal and damaged ends that drive us to distraction I often think about lopping the last of the damage off but I think I'd lose heart if I had to go through the long, slow grow from shoulder to BSL. Also, I'd get bored of babying the ends and having to wear them up.
As it is, I can trim when I get frustrated but still have the length. I can also wear it down and have it not in tip-top condition because I know I can always trim it. Hope that makes sense.

[JessTheMess]

Don't cut just yet. I would just keep with the updos and if anything maybe just trim no more than an inch. I go back and forth with wanting to chop all of my layers to make one blunt hemline as well. If I did that, my hair would be a chin length bobcut. I don't think It'd be very flattering at that length When in doubt or if I get an urge, I just put it up and forget it.
I hope that the new shampoo will help your hair and make you feel better. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you.

[spidermom]

Yes - cut. Don't go shorter than you can stand, but get as much of that old, dried-out, thinned-out stuff cut off as you can. I hope you are putting conditioner on your ends before you shampoo for the protection; you don't have to add more after rinsing. I also think you should probably dilute your shampoo because over-cleansing stimulates more oil production, which you want to avoid.

[MsBubbles]

I'm another one of those "didn't notice a thing different with my hair during or after pregnancy" people, and I was fully expecting to have some kind of hair loss and bald patches because my mother did, and she told me that I would. Unfortunately nobody warned me about the period of temporary insanity that made me get a chin-length perm after giving birth... (I really need throw all photographic evidence of that away). You may not get any huge shedding after childbirth. I had some notion that those ladies who shed a lot of hair after childbirth did so because they retained more hair than usual during pregancy, so they didn't lose any overall thickness when all was said & done.

Regarding whether you should cut it up to your chin - try the 2 week rule. I personally would hate to see you do that, unless it made you deliriously happy.

You've come such a long way. This may just be yet another awkward phase that you need to push through to see what's on the other side.

I understand your greasy day blues. I am thinking myself of abandoning even trying to stretch washes longer than every other day any more. It's hard to go around deliberately ugly every other day (speaking for myself, by the way!!).

[neon-dream]

I wouldn't cut it yet, I would wait until your hair was longer and then you won't have to surrender to an unflattering length on yourself
xxx

[spidermom]

Yes - cut. Don't go shorter than you can stand, but get as much of that old, dried-out, thinned-out stuff cut off as you can. I hope you are putting conditioner on your ends before you shampoo for the protection; you don't have to add more after rinsing. I also think you should probably dilute your shampoo because over-cleansing stimulates more oil production, which you want to avoid.

I wanted to add the reason that I say this is because you have fretted about those ends for so long that I think you should free yourself of them. Don't go shorter than shoulder length since you already know it's an unflattering length on you; maybe cut back an inch every other month -- something like that.