Maintaining Thickness - While you grow or after?

**akurah** · February 9th, 2020, 10:08 AM

Originally Posted by Natalia_A00

I think it's better to maintain the thickness as you grow your hair... Otherwise you may get to your desired length but you'll have to cut the ends due to damage (and it'll take longer to get to your goal length + thick hemline)

Personally I just S&D once in a while and I'm fine. I trim my ends every 6 months or so and I have managed to keep my hemline more or less thick

Unless your ends are so damaged that they are in a breaking off or velcro state, I would suggest this is not true. If your ends are not so bad that they are sticking together and profusely tangling or breaking, trims are largely not necessary except for personal preference.

My ends are in a less-than-ideal state due to a number of bad decisions from about 4 years ago and further back. If you reviewed them you would find a sizeable amount of splits. My ends are probably at least several years to a decade old. My last haircut was also approximately 4 years ago as well, so even though the worst of the damage was probably trimmed off then, I mistreated my hair with some deposit-only but stubborn dyes at that same time and with washing my hair with dish soap to get it out--let's say that's not great for your hair, although not completely ruinous. That also doesn't count my adventures with Elumen from about 6 years ago and trying to get that out when I was tired of it (fortunately it was a darker purple and not a brighter color, most of it left, and what remains and hides reasonably well in my hair). I also used dish soap in that case 6 years ago.

And those statements do not account for the lint damage I'm perpetually accumulating because despite my best efforts my hair is a lint magnet. Lint also causes damage. And despite my best efforts, I have to de-lint my hair daily.

The only time I take scissors to my hair is to trim out a faerie knot that won't come out, or if a handful of strands are in a hurry and I have anywhere from 1 to 10 strands that are at least an inch or two longer than the next longest bunch (I usually, but not always, will trim that inch off). The last time I did that was a year and a half ago or so.

**saff.cel** · February 9th, 2020, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by akurah

Unless your ends are so damaged that they are in a breaking off or velcro state, I would suggest this is not true. If your ends are not so bad that they are sticking together and profusely tangling or breaking, trims are largely not necessary except for personal preference. My ends are in a less-than-ideal state due to a number of bad decisions from about 4 years ago and further back. If you reviewed them you would find a sizeable amount of splits. My ends are probably at least several years to a decade old.

Akurah, I've always heard that damage travels upwards when the ends are split, you have such long hair... is what I've heard exaggerated? You don't S&D? I'm so curious! I spent an inordinate amount of time this morning looking for any recent pictures of your hair, btw, congrats on hitting knee!!!

**akurah** · February 9th, 2020, 10:33 AM

Originally Posted by saff.cel

Akurah, I've always heard that damage travels upwards when the ends are split, you have such long hair... is what I've heard exaggerated? You don't S&D? I'm so curious! I spent an inordinate amount of time this morning looking for any recent pictures of your hair, btw, congrats on hitting knee!!!

It's true but greatly exaggerated for some people (but not necessarily others). Some people's hair is so delicate that they actually do need to trim their splits because if they don't it will break off or become velcro. Mine is not one of those. You can usually tell which category you fall in by watching for breakage or velcro behavior.

I generally don't take a lot of pictures of my hair. I don't actually like it, and if my new plan to hold it up with multiple hairpins instead of just 1-2 sticks OR one fork or one claw clip, doesn't end up panning out, I'm probably going to cut it back to BSL or APL. It's a huge nuisance because I either need the bun to lay completely flat or be on the top of my head or it drives me bonkers. I also can't stand even the tiniest bit of pulling, it drives me batty.

I figured out a Captain Janeway/Gibson Girl style top-of-head bun after getting into an argument with my hair last night (the hair won) held reasonably well with a bun spiral and two large hairpins (large enough to be treated as if they were hair forks in addition to just being treated as hairpins), so I may keep it. I'm probably not cutting it till next year though. Trying to hit floor at least once in my life.

**Zesty** · February 9th, 2020, 10:47 AM

I think it's personal preference and what you like your hemline to look like. I don't think it's necessary to trim as you go along unless you have more serious damage that could cause extra tangling and breakage. IMO hair that's well cared for doesn't *need* more than S&D for health.

Personally, I have taper and not a lot of expectation of thickness "traveling down," but I like to have blunt ish ends even if they're not thick, so since about classic I've been trimming roughly twice a year to achieve that effect.

**Ylva** · February 19th, 2020, 05:30 PM

I had to go for the cheese here because I did cut off some thinned out, bleach-damaged fairytale ends during my growth journey, but I've now reached a point where my ends don't really thin out and I'm able to grow onwards without issues. As long as I don't go absolutely crazy with chemical treatments, I don't really suffer from any meaningful thinning of the ends (at the lengths that I aspire to reach, at least).

**LittleHealthy** · February 19th, 2020, 07:25 PM

I chose the second option. My hair is thin by nature, no amount of trimming will thicken my hemline unless I want to chop my hair into a bob. My ends are thinning (post partum hairloss), but my ends are in great condition.
For me it's not a matter of length being more important than health, My hair is healthy. But if I want long hair then having thinner ends is something I have to accept, so I'm happy to 'fast track' my length by trimming very minimally.
This year I'm not trimming at all. Last year I trimmed 3 times and it didn't really thicken my hemline much. So I'd rather take the length where I can get it

**unheardletters** · February 20th, 2020, 06:25 AM

I prefer to gain length. I don’t plan to trim until I reach my goal. Then i will maintain length, while my layers and dye grow out.

**Bri-Chan** · February 20th, 2020, 08:14 AM

I voted cheese, because I am in the middle. I usually trim when my ends look too damaged (I always acted like this), so it depends. But also I don't aim for the thickest ends

**_janne91_** · February 21st, 2020, 12:19 PM

Ok so how do you encourage thickness? My ends are definitely thinner but not very thin. Ive been wanting it to thicken up.
I have thin hairs but alot of - or always felt that way.
Since moving to a place with hard water my hair feels flat and thing not sure if its fact or paranoia tho

**florenonite** · February 21st, 2020, 01:30 PM

I voted cheese because it depends. I grew out my hair to hip length and the only time I trimmed it was when I wanted a V instead of a blunt hemline, as my hair takes a while to show substantial taper. Currently I'm in the abyss between APL and BSL with a blunt hemline, but I've also got a nape undershave that's around neck length. I haven't decided if I'm going to maintain once I'm at waist to let the undershave catch up, or if I'm going to keep growing and maintain (or, knowing me, just fluctuate between BSL and hip) until it's all there again.