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When growing your hair, did you not get any maintenance trims and your hair is great all over? (especially the back).
I want to avoid trims as much as possible, but I don't want dry, split ends when it's long and have to cut a massive chunk out.
Read my post as of 2 days ago. First trim and response.
When growing out my hair I avoided cuts, maintaince trims or cuts to "even-out" my hair. (Needless and useless is the idea that one has to even-out their hair.) I had posted this update photo several weeks ago. Here is the result of hair allowed to grow naturally. The "only" exception to cutting of any kind was a one time Split-end problem where "only" the splits were targeted and cut.
When was this exception into the growth process? (Like, how many months from growing did you do this).
I am at 2 and a half months, and mine is fine so far for split ends. :)
Somewhere just past the 2nd year the "Splits" were taken care of. I am now at the 3 year plus several months point.
No trims. It was almost three years before scissors came close to my hair.
The first year I more or less ignored it. I knew it would look like crap for a year or more and decided it was no use to torture myself about it. Yeah, it looked like crap--especially since I was already mostly bald. I dealt.
Those things come from poor care, not from lack of scissors.
Trims are not how you get great looking hair. Trims are how you remove evidence of failure to care for it properly.
During that first year I learned--I took the initiative and time to learn--all the differences between between being a shorthair and a longhair.
Shampoos and conditioners are only part of the story. The *WAY* you shampoo and the *WAY* you use conditioner is far more important than what's in the bottle. Perhaps even more important is the way you dry after the shower and how you use a comb and brush.
All of these things require a different technique in order to avoid damage.
Doing these things the right way, and accounting for differences in your scalp and hair type--what works for my scalp and hair may not be right for yours--are how you avoid such damage (and the need for scissors) in the first place.
That said, six years down the road now, I get trimmed once or twice a year, simply because I like the length. For myself, I find longer than pecs and mid-back to be more than I care to deal with throughout a day filled with high-back chairs, coats and backpacks.
HTH!
I trimmed my hair, but mostly under pressure from others
That's the key to understanding it. If you have to trim regularly, then firstly you must be doing something wrong, and secondly your hair won't grow. Normal growth is only six inches a year, so regular trims will usually remove _ALL_ the growth. That is fine if you are trying to maintain a particular length, but no use atall if you are growing it out.
To avoid the combo of a greasy scalp and dry ends you may want to try shampooing only the scalp and conditioning only the ends. You have to vary this dpending on the actual length of your hair and how much oil your scalp makes, but the key is to shampoo the oily bits and condition the dry bits and don't do vicea versa.
Forget any ideas of piling you hair on top of your head and vigourously rubbing it, in fact forget any idea of rubbing it atall. This would tangle it, forcing you to comb it, but hair combed when wet breaks more easily. You have to dry your hair by moving the towel along the length of your hair, and if you don't the tangling can cause breakages and loss of length by itself.
Next forget speeding up the process using a hair dryer. If you must use one, use it on a cold setting and/or hold it well back away from your hair. Preferably don't use one atall, except possibly for special ocassions. I only blow dry my hair if I have something like a wedding to go to.
Also, you have to comb from the ends upwards. What that means is you still move the comb downwards, but you start by combing a little at the ends and then gradually work your way up to the roots, preferably starting only once your hair is at least partly dry.
Alun
At the time, only because my school at the time forced me to keep getting trims. I wouldn't have otherwise really.
For me, I found that repeated trims just made whatever split ends that formed, form higher up, ie, at a shorter length. I learned to just wait and wait as long as Possible. Then, the very slightest trim possible. In the growing out, I tried not to do anything that might damage my hair, like too much sun, too much brushing, shampooing, blowdrying, dyeing, straightening, etc. You kind of just have to treat it as good as possible, condition with a good one, and leave it at peace.
Nope, haven't cut my hair in three years now.
Is it great? I guess so, I've had a couple ladies tell me I have nicer hair then theirs (though I'm not sure that's true)
Split ends will normally take care of themselves. Do you know what the major cause of split ends is? Cutting your hair.
When a hair grows out naturally it's tip tappers to a point. This hair will NOT develope a split end.
When the hair is cut or broken the inside is exposed and it can dry out. This can cause the shell to crack and split. This split will usually spread down the hair for a bit and then one or both sides will break off. If you're lucky it will end here.
If the hair is cut with VERY sharp scissors so that it is straight across, it's less likely to split.
Anyway the point is, if you don't cut or break the hairs they won't split. So my theory is, don't get hair cuts.
It works for me.
I've said it over and over....
This the main difference between men and women. Why, for the most part, does a woman's hair look better while growing? She gets trims and takes care of it.
Is your only goal long hair?
Or is your goal to have long and healthy looking hair?
