Hi from Australia!
I've been a lurker for some time now but decided to finally make an account.
a bit about my hair history:
In around 2015-2017, I was obsessed with growing out long mermaid hair. I used tons of different products, stuff from Woolies and random ingredients I would find in the kitchen (eggs, coconut oil). My hair was really soft, shiny, with pretty uniform waves. The lengths were healthy but the ends were quite thin because I rarely cut it. I think at its longest it was maybe just reaching WL or was between MBL and WL.
In 2018 I discovered heat tools and began religiously using my straightener most days. Obviously this created some damage, I lost my wave definition and my lengths were a lot drier. I ended up cutting back a bit on heat but would still straighten my hair fairly regularly from 2019-2020. However, in 2019 I had given up on having long hair and cut it to APL. I regretted doing so and have been trying to grow it out since. In 2021 I first began bleaching my hair and looking back it was suuuuuch a mistake cause I have very fine hair which was easily damaged by the bleach. I would constantly have ends snapping off, and they would cover the floor every time I brushed my hair. By this point I had returned to near daily straightening, and kept bleaching my hair until Feb 2023 which was the last time bleach will ever touch my hair!!!!
Around the end of 2022 I began using more natural products/oils and reducing my use of heat, until we get to now, where I will very rarely use the straightener and might lightly blow dry once every couple of weeks.
In an effort to hack off some of my split ends, I began getting regular trims in Jul 2023 every 6-8 weeks or so. While my hair is soooo much healthier now, my growth keeps being reversed and I have been stuck at MBL for some time now.
Now in 2024, my goal is to reduce the amount of damage to my hair and take care of my scalp/reduce shedding so I can hopefully grow to hip/tailbone in the future!
Thanks for reading this long post!!