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Well after around 20 years, my long damaged hair is gone (by my own hand) and it's all 2 inches around my head now. I'm not happy about it but I couldn't get my hair past my shoulders and hopefully if I can keep my hair healthy it will since I now know what split ends look like (mine weren't at the ends but had traveled at least 6 inches of my 12 inch length.
My intention is to grow it out again as I've already been through the awkward phase twice and know better how to deal with things without damaging my hair again. This time next year it should be near my shoulders when wet but my hair is wavy and curls a lot when long so it won't look that long till later in 2020.
So, here's my question. I looked at a lot of youtube videos about how to identify split ends and cut them. However, the best strategy is to keep your hair healthy so that spit ends are minimized-no heat tools, keep your hair conditioned and oiled. The videos I watched the people had smooth hair which I didn't have. Now I was thinking that my hair is just different but maybe healthy hair should be smooth.
Is smooth hair an indication of a healthy head of hair?
Marty
Hey Marty,
I hope that you keep growing your hair that your hair will reach down to the floor when you stand up.
Smooth, clean hair can be an indication of a healthy head of hair. However, wavy, curly hair can also be healthy so long as you keep it clean.
Your long-haired bro,
Raymond
It sounds counter intuitive for length and Bill wouldn't have gone with this but no trims helped split ends to spread from a 1/4" cut to half a foot-my sister in law is a hair dresser and said she will trim the split ends every 6-8 weeks and minimize the trims to 1/4". She thinks it'll magically make my hair grow faster which I question but I need to go the healthy route this time and not the quick route. She does think I can get my hair past my shoulders which was a relief to hear!
Marty
Live and learn...unfortunately it took me many, many years to realize I was damaging my hair and by that time it was to late to fix it without cutting everything.
I knew heat from a hair dryer was bad and caused me hair damage during my first round with long hair in the late 80's and early 90's so when I started growing my hair out again in 2000 I avoided the hair dryer and followed advice from this forum. in 2001 I was finally at a length to pull my hair into a ponytail. The way I did it looked clean and I thought it was OK but it involved wetting my hair that was in a ponytail and letting it air dry that way. I did that everyday for the next 17 years and the ponytail kept getting smaller and smaller and tighter and tighter causing headaches because my hair was getting stretched straight and taught. Eventually the strands would snap and were splitting along the way till half my 1 foot length was damaged.
My hair is naturally wavy and curls when long and I wanted straight hair. So, lesson learned now is go with what God gave you. If you have curls coming out of your scalp then go with it and if your hair is naturally straight then go with that.
Marty
BlueBeard,
Thanks for sharing your experience.
So many of us on the longhair journey are guilty of attempting to change the natural character of our hair (especially we "CurlyHeads").
WWT
I've done it all my life when I've had long hair. First I tried to straighten it with a hair dyer back in the 80's and 90's (even got a straightening perm...imagine that) and then just letting it air dry in a ponytail during my recent years. Stays straight out of the ponytail but the hair gets messed up over time. Both times I couldn't get my hair much past my shoulders when dry. I'm hoping this third round of just letting it do it's thing will be different and I can at least get it to my back!
Marty
If anybody is wondering about why I cut my hair down to 2" so I can start the longhair journey all over, I found an old pic and put it beside a pic of me from a couple weeks ago. There was one pro trim in the 15 years between the 2 but you can see my length just got shorter over the years. I chalked it up to age and genetics but I think it was actually due to all the damage in my hair that never got cut and worked it's way up my hair strands till the hairs broke. If I can get my hair mid-back this time around then I'll know it wasn't an age or genetics thing. If it's the same then I won't cut it again, but I think trims are needed once you get your hair off your head and can do twists. Cut the 1/4" on the end that gets raggedy every couple months so you don't wind up having to chop off inches.
Marty
