To cut or not to cut? Please help!

[SweetD]

Hello ladies,

I am a newbie. I have 4a or 4a/b coarse relaxed hair. Periodically I experience breakage in the middle and back of my hair up to the new growth. (My hair dresser says this is because I wear my hair in one a lot.) The front of my hair is long and the back is short which has been the case for some time now. The front of my hair used to cover the breakage in the back but for the past 2 years my ends have thinned. When I wear my hair down it is noticeable that the middle is not full and looks thin. I don’t know what to do.

I am 8 weeks post relaxer. I have an appointment to relax and cut my hair tomorrow. I would like to stretch longer. CW and DC would help with that. My hair is a little past shoulder length.

Should I cut the thin ends? Should I cut up to the breakage which would mean mid neck or should I just wait for it to grow back? I have learned so much since finding this site in April. Any advice would be appreciated.


ETA: Added some pictures below.

 

[Mook's hair]

Hi,
WELCOME to LHCF!

If the thin ends look bad to you then go ahead and cut it up to the breakage and start from that point.

Do you have any photos you can post so that we can have a visual of how it looks. We are often our own worst critics it might not look as bad as you think it does.

Have you considered getting your hair braided or cornrowed and keeping it that way for about 2 or 3 weeks to prolong the stretch? That might help. along with daily scalp massages.

Maybe you should only relax the damaged part every other touch up.
When you go to the salon for your touchups you should put some oil on your relaxed length ahead of time to protect from over processing.

You should check out DSylla's fotki for inspiration she actually keeps the back part of her hair shorter but you can't even tell.

I hope you will also get more responses.

 

[Neala21]

IMO there is no need to cut up to the breakage point unless that is the style you are opting for. What you can do is wearing your hair in a protective style such cornrows, weave so that your breakage area can rest from manipulation and MOISTURIZE!!

There a plenty of ladies that have had thin ends or breakage and have nourished their hair back. Now if you plan on cutting your ends due to appearance sake fine but I suggest only cutting if they are damaged. Your may be appearing thing and lack fullness due to the breakage in the back. Also, to find the culprit behind your breakage.

I am currently working on my breakage spots that at the nape of my hair and at the middle back of my head. My culprit was banana clips. So I've been mositurizing my hair 2-3x a week and in a protective style (weaves).

Hopefully other ladies that have experienced this will chime in as to what they did or give you some ideas/tips.

 

[SweetD]

Thanks for the responses. Here are a few pics.

 

[bermudabeauty]

SweetD I will be honest with you back in the days when I didn't know any better I would have breakage in the nape of my neck and the middle of my head from wearing drawstring ponytails all the time. I used to cut my hair to a healthy length and start all over. I think sometimes our focus is on the length of our hair instead of healthy hair. I would recommend cuting your hair into layers to camafloge the breakage and bring your hair to a healthier state.

 

[bermudabeauty]

Also you mentioned stretching your perms. It looks like yuor breakage is at the end of your new growth. That could be a problem too. Maybe you should get your perms regularly instead of stretching them. Just a suggestion

 

[Tarae]

If you're wearing your hair down and the unevenness is bothering you, I'd cut it.
You can also look into different protective styles if your usual one is doing more harm than good.
I'll bump a post that has tons of protective styles that you can check out.

 

[FlawedBeauty]

if you are gonna wear your hair out i would say cut it. i just grew mine out, i didnt wanna cut and it was terribly uneven and messy but no one was seein it anyways so it didnt matter

 

[shermeezy]

I'm for stretching relaxers and trims. I say, trim about one inch and make sure your hair has enough moisture. My ends always look worse when dry. Do you really need a relaxer? Your roots look nice to me. Looks like your hair could use some moisture and TLC. Try some protective styles and a daily moisturizer for a few months. That really helped with my ends.

 

[SweetD]

Bermudabeauty – Thanks for the suggestion about cutting the hair into layers. I agree that sometimes we think about hair length instead of hair health. I am now on my journey to healthy hair.

Tarae – Thanks for bumping “101 Protective Styles”. Really appreciate it.

Mook’s hair - Great tip about oiling the relaxed length to protect from over processing. I checked out Dsylla’s fotki. What an inspiration! Much thanks for that.

Neala21 – I might just cut a few inches and not all the way to the breakage and do protective styles. Thank you.

Flawedbeauty – I would like to have the option to wear it out sometimes. Thanks.

Shermaine08 – I like the stretching idea. But I think I will start after this relaxer. Thank you.