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My mom keeps telling me that the ends of my hair look yucky because it is now up to my waist and i havent trimmed it for two years. Im beginning to think she's right but i like the length. she even told me i look dirty in it. Does super longhair really make one look dirty? I condition my hair and i believe it's in great shape. it's very straight and shiny. HELP or i may be forced to shave off the whole thing.
Cut it a bit, maybe 1 or 2 dm, and then let it grow out again...
I had a similar situation when my hair was close to waist-length. I cut about 6 inches and it great-- silky smooth and not ragged at all. I suspect a couple of reasons or this. One might be that the older hair toward the ends grew out before I started using panthanol conditioners, so it wasn't in as good a shape as the higher hair. Another reason might be that being the oldest part of the hair, it had recieved more abuse and heat and such, thus had become dry and damaged.
I think if you want really good looking waist-length hair, you have to take very, very good care of it.
I haven't seen your hair but your mom might be right. I think long hair look good only if one takes good care of it. Unfortunaly, most men with long hair I see do not know how to care for their hair. The result is they look "dirty" and very unattractive. I think it is better to have short hair than to have ugly hair. But long beautiful hair can certainly be very attractive.
There is an easy way to find out if your mom is right: long beautiful hair attract compliments, especially from women trying to grow their hair. If no one compliments you on your hair, they probably don't look good. But in that case, you don't need to shave it all off! Probably a couple inches off and better care would be enough.
My own experience is that a mother who doesn't like having a
longhaired son is not an honest source of feedback. My mom
tells me lots of terrible things that hurt my ego until I realized
that lots of other people really dig my hair. Even if she's not
being malicious, what she tells you is going to be influenced, or
at least colored, by her wishes for you.
Mimi is right on- if you get some compliments, you've got a good
mane. Once I got compliments from my ultra-arch-radical
conservative freshman roomate and my 11th-grade English teacher,
I realized the hair was a good thing. Try asking your friends
what they think of it.
Personally, I think the tapering, arrowhead-shaped look that comes
from not trimming the hair is more visually interesting than
trimming it all straight across at one level anyway, but maybe
just that straight trim across is what you need to make it look
better and/or get your mom to back off your case a bit.
Very long hair doesn't make anyone look inherently "dirty" or
unclean. It does of course require more maintainance to avoid
looking unkempt- maybe that is what your mom really means.
your mom may be referring to split ends... you can have them trimmed (no more that ¼-½ inch) without effecting the overall appearance of length. wear your hair the way you like and bear in mind that there will ALWAYS be someone who doesn't like it. wearing your hair in an alternative style requires alot of self-confidence. don't worry about what other people think.
Your ends are probably pretty ragged, not being trimmed for two years. Find a hairstylist you trust (see if you can find one with long hair) Tell him/her excatly how much to trim (never tell a stylist to take off the dead ends!) I would start with 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch.
Next, get some safflower oil from the grocery store and work a few DROPS into dry hair ends daily. The oil is a humectant and will attract moisture to keep your hair from looking dry and splitting off.