Microtrimming and Maintaining Club!

[Quahatundightu]

Calling everyone who is trimming at regular intervals to thicken up or get rid of damaged hair.

It feels like a thankless task sometimes when you really just want longer hair - it would be good to have some inspiration and progress pics from people!

I have been trimming 1/2cm (1/4") or more each month this year. The difference it has made to my hair is just amazing! I need to take some more recent pics, my hair has got a lot thicker. Being able to see the difference is really encouraging, but it still feels quite annoying when all I want to do is grow.

I spent quite a few years saying I would maintain once I got to TB. Well that day never came, as my hair kept crumbling at the ends instead of growing!! My no-trim plan actually set me back because now I am having to trim off the ends I should have been slowly trimming for years. I didn't plan to grow any this year, because my hair always grew slowly so I expected not to see any growth if I microtrimmed. But now my hair is healthier than ever I am still actually seeing growth despite all the trims! I wish I had done this earlier rather than shooting straight for TB...

My progress so far (edit: added progress pics for a whole year)


Anyone else? How often do you microtrim, what are your tips for keeping up motivation?!

Some helpful links

Feye's Self Trimming Method (choice of straight, U or V shaped hemline)
Spidermom's under the chin method plus Additional info
Spring's method - Pictures
CreaClip Blog with pictures of it, tutorials of how to use it can be found on youtube
Haselnussblond: How to trim your own hair
How To Hair Girl's DIY cuts - good for trimming layered hair (instead of big cuts you can just use this method to do small trims)
Veronica Meza on trimming curly hair (video) Start at 4 minutes to see the part about oxygenating the curl and cutting at the end of the C. Whole video is interesting too though.
Tips for Cutting Curly hair

Emichee's great blog post about the theory behind microtrimming
Thread about scissors, what's recommended and what to look for
Cinnamon Hair's journey to thicker ends - great inspiration!

[Dragon Faery]

I didn't really have a plan until the last few months, but I'm starting to now. I want my hair as long as possible, but I want it to look as good as possible every step of the way. So my current plan is to trim whenever my ends start looking or feeling icky, with maybe the occasional S&D along the way. Right now I have layers, which I put in myself, partly because my canopy always gets damaged before my under layers, and partly because it makes it curl more and I like the look of a cascade of curls down my back.

I don't have a picture yet, but my shortest layer is chin length when wet or stretched, and my longest is almost BSL. In between I have one layer approaching Collarbone length, one a little way past that, and another close to APL. I think that's all.

Thanks for starting this thread! I definitely need the support!

[skraprchik]

My progress so far


Anyone else? How often do you microtrim, what are your tips for keeping up motivation?!

Very nice! This makes a good argument for regularly scheduled trims. Your progress is impressive.

[Spring]

Thanks for starting this thread!! Hope I can join. I always thought a support thread like this was needed but then I remembered the Trimmers measure in thread. I just decided in June of this year to start trimming all of my new growth each month to maintain. I wish I would've started sooner trimming a .25 in monthly, but I'll be trimming .5 in every month until things get better. Wish I had comparison pics.... they are so encouraging. Thanks for sharing yours! MissManda just made a thread showing the huge difference maintaining made on her hemline.

[Ruvie]

Your thread is what I am doing! My hair has been breaking off and keeping me at a certain length, when all I would like to do also is grow. I have been micro-trimming my hair and have lost about half an inch over all, but like you, I want the health and thicker hem. I am definitely a member of this club, and I posted a blog about how my S&D's have become much more. I will upload some pictures with my progress too.

I will only s&d, but I need to cut higher on some strands than others. I trimmed one earlier today with a split 4 inches up

[Ruvie]

Thanks for starting this thread!! Hope I can join. I always thought a support thread like this was needed but then I remembered the Trimmers measure in thread. I just decided in June of this year to start trimming all of my new growth each month to maintain. I wish I would've started sooner trimming a .25 in monthly, but I'll be trimming .5 in every month until things get better. Wish I had comparison pics.... they are so encouraging. Thanks for sharing yours! MandaMom just made a thread showing the huge difference maintaining made on her hemline.

I just looked and couldnt find the thread, do you think you could link me to it?

[MissManda]

Oh, this thread is for me! Thank you so much for starting this thread! Quahatundightu, I love your progress pictures! Your hem looks so much thicker and your abundance of wurls looks awesome!

I've been microtrimming since August of last year to get rid of my layers and chemical damage. I trimmed 0.5", half my monthly growth rate, per month and still got growth, but the upper layers were getting to the point where they were in such bad condition that I couldn't simply S&D and ignore them, so I cut off the rest of my growth, too. My hem has thickened dramatically and I couldn't be happier.

Oh dear, I'm blabbering... I've posted this picture elsewhere, but I'm going to put it in this thread, too for demonstrational purposes:



I still have some layering left, though, so I'm going to keep up with the microtrims until they're all gone, which means I'll be here for the next several months to the next couple of years. Since I've been yo-yoing between Waist and almost Hip length for almost a year and my ends are much thicker, I would like to grow a little longer. My intent is to continue with the trims but make them smaller to maximize growth but keep my ends looking nice and tidy, which is very important for someone with fine hair like me. I won't trim any more than than that until I get past Hip. I started my mini-microtrims earlier this month by taking off about 1/8th of an inch.

I also hope to be able to post monthly progress pictures here. I'll start that by posting my picture from June after trimming.
[IMG]"http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=3936&pictureid=105879"[/IMG]

And here is my hair after my mini-microtrim last week (July):


I'm wearing the same kind shirt in both pictures, so the bottom sits right at hip length. Hopefully I'll get better at taking these types of pictures...

I can't wait to see everyone else's progress pictures, too. That's definitely one of the things that keep me motivated to keep going when all I want to do is chop all the way back to BSL. I also think it's so nice to feel my ends gradually thicken after every trim and to feel my braid become more substantial.

[Spring]

I just looked and couldnt find the thread, do you think you could link me to it?

Oh ehm gee! It's not MandaMom... it was MissManda's thread. MissManda thanks for posting your results again in this thread!

[SoulOfTheSea]

Oh count me in!! I don't really have a regular schedule as to when I do my microtrims, but I just do it when I feel I can't take my ends anymore, or if they start to look a little stringy. So far this year I've done it two times, and I love it!!

[MissManda]

Oh ehm gee! It's not MandaMom... it was MissManda's thread. MissManda thanks for posting your results again in this thread!

You are all welcome! The aforementioned thread can be found here if anyone is curious.

And thank you, Spring, for mentioning that thread. I take that is a huge compliment! :blush: You made my day!