What's the most evil thing you've ever done to your hair?

[Finda]

Before I changed my hair care routine my hair used to tangle pretty bad. I would emerge with one giant dreadlock out of the shower after washing my hair. And then I would rip a cheap brush with broken knobs through my wet hair. And with ripping I mean applying a lot of force. Brushing like this took sometimes more than half an hour. And back then I was wondering where all that breakeage was coming from

[TX Curls]

Bleach streaks...
Razor cut with thinning shears on wavy hair that shredded my hair...
Monthly box dye sessions with color changes...
Flatiron and high heat blow dries daily to destroy the evidence of wavy hair...
DIY trims that went awry...
Hairspray with curling iron until it sizzled...

[sipnsun]

I live at the beach and used Sun-In, every summer for years. My hair was the epitome of fried, dyed and laid to the side!

[Smellychknskin]

When I was mad at my life situation and shaved it all off, because you know, it just had to be my hair's fault. I took out lots of frustration on my hair instead of dealing with and voicing my frustrations. There has been more than a few instances where I had commited to growing out my hair but something would happen with life, my health, all the issues that some of us go through daily, my way of dealing was finding a way to sabatoge myself so I shaved off all my progress.

[Raiwen]

Bleached streaks. NEVER AGAIN!

Yes! I'm still growing mine out and there is such a huge difference in quality of the hair between bleached and virgin. Bleached parts split and fall apart much quicker, even though it wasn't and extreme bleaching process and I've only done it once.

[tinymoon]

I think technically the most evil thing I've done is box-dye it (medium-brown naturally) a brilliant magenta three or four times over the course of six months. It looked gorgeous for the first week but my hair was SO agonizingly brittle afterward. I'd have a halo of broken pinkish ends on my counter when I'd brush it. I switched to a stylist shortly after and my hair got much healthier (although I still had it professionally dyed for another year or so).

Now, the most emotionally damaging thing I've ever done to my hair was get it cut in a bob--which wouldn't have been bad except that this woman SHAVED the back of my head and left a thick mop up top--not at all what I'd asked for or at all like the picture references I'd brought in. Once I realized how dramatic of a bob she was carving my hair into, it was too late. It looked okay styled but would've taken me HOURS to do on my own. I let it sit for two days, was horrified by how it looked when I just let my hair dry naturally, and determined that the only way to make it better was a pixie cut.

Dear reader, I cried.

I was also dealing with a lot of self-esteem issues around that time and the loss of the one thing I felt really good about was absolutely devastating. Didn't even want to be seen in public for a good year.

Suffice it to say I'm no longer dyeing or cutting it shorter than BSL. The longest bits are almost to my tailbone now, and the magenta box dye/professional dye happened in between (with lots of trimming), so it's been a good while since the traumatic chop, but yeesh the icky feels are still fresh from that awful, awful hair cut!

[GoatLady]

Permed it back in the 80's. Yikes!

[lapis_lazuli]

Oh, the list is endless
How about... frying my hair nearly everyday in middle school with a flat iron set at 450° F? Yup. On top of that, bleached blonde highlights for 5 years... not a good choice and I'm still paying for it!!!

STILL paying for it! But now at floor I'm finally ready to maintain my length, which means ridding my hair of this damage once and for all

[AllyByrd]

When I was little I would chew my hair as a nervous habit, oftentimes actually breaking the chunks. It wasn’t visible or noticeable or anything, but just thinking about it now makes me cringe.