My 1st Major Setback - No Longer BSL 3" Down 3" to go (pics)

Ediese

Ediese

Well-Known Member
Good Morning Ladies,

I posted this past December about the bad condition my ends were in. The stylist wanted to trim 3" just to 'start' getting my hair in a healthy state. I didn't let her because I wanted to get a second opinion even though I knew I had really bad splits. (Prior to that my last trim was .5" in August -- clearly that wasn't enough).

Anyway, I visited another stylist in February recommended by my sister, and she basically said the same thing. Not only did I need 3" trimmed to begin, but I would need an additional 3" taken off. She recommended after we take off all the bad ends that I trim at least .5" every 3 months. Not only were my ends split. She explained that my new growth was so much thicker than the ends of my hair, and that I should get rid of the old ends so that I have the same thickness all around. I went ahead and let her trim 3". The only thing that I kept thinking was that it was for the health of my hair, and that it would take care of whatever relaxed ends that I still had. (only relaxed ends remaining are on the side of my head :ohwell:) I couldn't stand to see the split ends anymore. When I got home, I didn't take any pics, but I did a length check and I was still a little past APL, so I wasn't that depressed.

Yesterday, I took my kinky weave down. I think I gained my 1". Of course, I'm no longer BSL, but I'm about 2.5" away. I'm trying to decide if I should just go ahead and let her trim the last 3", or just trim .5" gradually each month. idk

I guess I won't be WL this year, but at least my hair will be healthier. Health before length, right? I probably won't straighten my hair again for a LONNNGGGG time, so I probably won't update on my hair. That is unless it's to show pics of a weave install or something. My advice: please trim as needed!!!!! YES, IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!!!
I just realized I'm back to the length I was at in June 08.

Here are pics from last night/morning.







I colored the hair that I left out for the weave jet black, and you can see my henna color on the rest of my hair.









-------------------------UPDATE------------------------

I'm 100% NATURAL! I tried to shingle my hair today with kccc, and I couldn't stand to see the remaining straight ends. I chopped it clean off. lol It looks kinda funny because the sides are really short.

ANOTHER UPDATE lol​

I went ahead and tried to straighten my hair myself with Sabino. I think I put way too much because my hair was pretty heavy. I have an appointment to get my hair evened up tomorrow, so I'll probably get back to APL. I hate that I have layers now. If you've seen my pics before, you know that my hair was pretty much the same length all around. Now, I have hair that's about 4-5" on the sides. lol Anyway, here are the pics.














Hated layers


Flexirod set



After curls dropped



 
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What were you doing (or not doing) that caused your ends to be unhealthy? Or was it just that they were relaxed and you knew you'd eventually cut them off anyway?
 
I feel your pain sweetie! I reached MBL and enjoyed it for 5 minutes before my stylist trimmed it 3 inches back to BSL (without permission). Trimming as needed and prevention of bad ends are important. Your hair is beautiful no matter what the length is! HHG!!!
 
msa said:
What were you doing (or not doing) that caused your ends to be unhealthy? Or was it just that they were relaxed and you knew you'd eventually cut them off anyway?
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I guess one thing that didn't help was that I never trimmed. I think I went 2 years without trimming. I should have started my hair journey with fresh ends even if they were relaxed.
I didn't use heat that much because I mostly wore sew-ins. When I did use heat, I never used heat protection. I'm sure it's a culmination of those things. Plus I would have had to cut if off anyway, since I'm no longer relaxing.
 
shtow said:
I feel your pain sweetie! I reached MBL and enjoyed it for 5 minutes before my stylist trimmed it 3 inches back to BSL (without permission). Trimming as needed and prevention of bad ends are important. Your hair is beautiful no matter what the length is! HHG!!!
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Thank you! I can't imagine that. You have gorgeous hair! You're right though as much as I didn't want to, making sure we trim to maintain healthy ends is essential! I'm sure you'll be back to MBL before the end of the year!
 
You are absolutely right, and don't feel bad about it. Health before length. What's the point of having long hair if it doesn't satisfy you? I'm trying to focus on the same thing this year.
 
Ediese said:
I guess one thing that didn't help was that I never trimmed. I think I went 2 years without trimming. I should have started my hair journey with fresh ends even if they were relaxed.
I didn't use heat that much because I mostly wore sew-ins. When I did use heat, I never used heat protection. I'm sure it's a culmination of those things. Plus I would have had to cut if off anyway, since I'm no longer relaxing.
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You know, I don't think not trimming had anything to do with it. I think it's important to search and destroy when necessary so that your hair doesn't get tangled on knots or splits at the end of the hair. But, the bolded jumped out at me. Using heat, with no heat protection, on relaxed ends seems like the problem, not the lack of trimming.

Anyway, your natural hair looks beautiful. And I don't think this setback is really that bad, more like a new beginning because it seems like all the relaxed hair is gone, which would've had to happen at some point.

I want to know, what'd you do to gain that thickness? Is it genetics, protective styles, henna, gentle handling, or a combination?
 
Ediese I think you and i are hair twins, which became apparent after looking at your hair in the twists :yep:

I'm sorry you had the setback but you'll regain that length in no time. Your hair is still gorgeous!!!
 
msa said:
You know, I don't think not trimming had anything to do with it. I think it's important to search and destroy when necessary so that your hair doesn't get tangled on knots or splits at the end of the hair. But, the bolded jumped out at me. Using heat, with no heat protection, on relaxed ends seems like the problem, not the lack of trimming.

Anyway, your natural hair looks beautiful. And I don't think this setback is really that bad, more like a new beginning because it seems like all the relaxed hair is gone, which would've had to happen at some point.

I want to know, what'd you do to gain that thickness? Is it genetics, protective styles, henna, gentle handling, or a combination?
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Yeah I think you're right. My ends were probably split because of heat damage, but I never trimmed so it kept growing up the shaft.

Thanks! "New beginning"...that's a good way to look at it. I think I probably will get rid of the last 3" instead of gradually trimming, and then I can really focus on length. I still have some relaxed ends on the side though. I was going to let her trim it, but my new growth there is only about 5" compared to the rest of my hair. I don't know why that is.:ohwell:

As for the thicknes, I'm not sure. Once I stopped relaxing, my hair has thickened up considerably. I don't henna that much. The only other thing is probably protective styling with my weaves.
 
OMG mama!!!

Your hair is fabulous. I would not focus so much on length... if it is healthy - before you know it - it will grow even longer.:yep:

:kiss: We're with ya!
 
Je Ne Sais Quoi said:
Ediese I think you and i are hair twins, which became apparent after looking at your hair in the twists :yep:

I'm sorry you had the setback but you'll regain that length in no time. Your hair is still gorgeous!!!
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Thanks girl! You're right. It probably will grow back to BSL at the end of the year after I take off the next 3". My ultimate goal is to be WL by my wedding. Since I'm not even engaged, I guess I still have time.:lachen:
 
Your hair is gorgeous! :blush: Don't sweat the trim, your hair is healthier and stronger for it. :yep: I LOVE your hair! :grin:
 
Three inches seems like a lot. If you look at an individual strand do you see mid shaft spits that high up. Maybe your shortest strands are at that mark and thats why she chose that at the trim length......to get an overall clean looking length. Is she eyeballing or examining your strands closely. I'm thinking she is overestimating the amount you need trimmed.
 
Aw, it'll be okay :hug: I just went through the same thing. My thyroid was causing major breakage and thinned my hair out bad. My ends were soooo thin, so I cut it and went from almost MBL back to APL again.

Your hair will grow back, and when it does it'll look even better than it would have before! :yep:

I think you should trim gradually, so it won't be such a shock to lose so much hair at one time :)
 
Girl, with hair as gorgeous as yours, those 3" will not cause you to lose any game! LOL. Sometimes I wonder about stylists wanting to "trim" so much. If you keep trimming your hair.5" a month, your growth will seem to get nowhere.:rolleyes: Heck, some people only get .5" per month. Is it REALLY necessary to trim your hair each month, even if your hair looks healthy? Some stylists are sneaky and do it without permission.
 
tiffers said:
Aw, it'll be okay :hug: I just went through the same thing. My thyroid was causing major breakage and thinned my hair out bad. My ends were soooo thin, so I cut it and went from almost MBL back to APL again.

Your hair will grow back, and when it does it'll look even better than it would have before! :yep:

I think you should trim gradually, so it won't be such a shock to lose so much hair at one time :)
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I thought an overactive/underactive thyroid caused hair loss. How does it cause breakage? I mean once the hair is out of your head, isn't dryness and everything else related to how you treat it externally?
 
IMO you should cut gradually, but it really depends on how you wear you hair regularly. I went without trimming for a whole year but in my case my ends were never exposed (or most of the time) and I dusted regularly to get rid of any splits.

Your hair looks healthy overall, maybe you don’t really need to chop 3 more inches and if you do, unless they really bother you, there’s really no reason to get rid of them all at once. Just my 2 cents.
 
msa said:
I thought an overactive/underactive thyroid caused hair loss. How does it cause breakage? I mean once the hair is out of your head, isn't dryness and everything else related to how you treat it externally?
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Underactive thyroid in particular can lead to excessive dryness, notjust hair loss. So this may result in breakage.
 
Your hair is so inspiring...
...but yeah, setbacks suck, alot. I'm currently going through it myself. Don't worry you'll be back at BSL in no time. And I do agree now that trimming is very necessary.
 
lollyoo said:
Underactive thyroid in particular can lead to excessive dryness, notjust hair loss. So this may result in breakage.
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Oh ok hmmm. I'm just trying to figure out how that works exactly. I mean, the hair is dead and it doesn't receive anymore nutrition from the body after it leaves the scalp. So I'm confused on how issues in the thyroid can make a dead hair strand dry.

I get that the hair that is being formed would be affected by the thyroid just as it's affected by bad nutrition or lack of water intake. I'm just not connecting the dots on how it affects the rest of the hair that's already been pushed out of the scalp. Maybe I'll ask my doctor about it.
 
Your hair is really pretty. I just had to get a trim today and I knew I needed it. Length is great, but it doesn't look as pretty when your ends are chewed up like mine were.
 
Ediese,
I agree with you, regular trimmings are just better in the long run, I do, search and destroy every 2 months. Its best for me.
Having said this, looking at your pics Idont think you need to cut additional 3in. May be 1/2in, and regular care after that.
 
msa said:
Oh ok hmmm. I'm just trying to figure out how that works exactly. I mean, the hair is dead and it doesn't receive anymore nutrition from the body after it leaves the scalp. So I'm confused on how issues in the thyroid can make a dead hair strand dry.

I get that the hair that is being formed would be affected by the thyroid just as it's affected by bad nutrition or lack of water intake. I'm just not connecting the dots on how it affects the rest of the hair that's already been pushed out of the scalp. Maybe I'll ask my doctor about it.
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I am a doc, I know that for sure. It's one of the clinical signs of hypothyroidism, including dry and flaky skin
 
I am such a fan of yours and I am sorry to hear this. However, your hair looks good and it doesn't appear like she cut it shorter. It looks very good!
 
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