when is it time to trim?

kaytorry

kaytorry

Well-Known Member
I am undecided on whether I should trim my hair or not. I am texlaxed, and I am trying to grow out my ends that are color treated and a bit damaged. The last time I had a trim was around the third week of march. My stylist told me that I should trim my hair about every six weeks, but how can I retain length and get longer hair if I trim my hair every six weeks? Do any of the ladies here trim on this type of timeframe? when do you know it's time for a trim? how do you trim and grow longer hair at the same time?
 
When you trim should depend on your hair's condition. If your ends are healthy, then there's no need to trim. If your ends are split/damaged, trimming more often is necessary because you won't retain much length with damaged ends anyway. Trimming may seem counterproductive to growing your hair, but your retention will be so much better with healthier ends.

Sent from my Sidekick 4G using LHCF
 
Stylist say that six to eight week trim thing to everybody. You only need that if your hair is really really damaged or if your trying to maintain a style, otherwise, they are just trying to make sure you come in more than once or twice a year.
I don't have a schedule with doing trims. Just do them when you see or are annoyed by lots of splits or knots.
 
I agree that you should check the condition of your hair. However, retention is really dependent on how much growth you can retain (you know this). Right now I strive to DUST (remove about 1/8 to 1/4") my ends every three months.

My stylist and I have an agreement that as long as my ends are doing well with no splits, she will only DUST the ends. It becomes a trim when you are taking off more than that quarter inch. So in this way, if I am growing at 1/2" a month - in 3 months I am only removing less than a 1/4 of a potential 1 1/2" retention. (Make sense?)

So my suggestion is to take the best possible care of your ends after this upcoming trim. That way you can try to switch to just dusting the ends every 3 months or so.
 
I agree with the others...it's been 6 months since my last trim and my ends still look good.
 
My stylist told me that I should trim my hair about every six weeks, but how can I retain length and get longer hair if I trim my hair every six weeks?
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Exactly. Don't do it unless your hair is damaged on the ends. If you want to maintain your hair at a certain length, then yeah, this would be the way to go. If you are trimming your hair as fast as it grows, then all you are doing is breaking even.

Do any of the ladies here trim on this type of timeframe?
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Nope. I haven't trimmed my hair since September. Don't plan on doing it anytime soon either, I don't need to. Only trim your hair when you need to.


when do you know it's time for a trim? how do you trim and grow longer hair at the same time?
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I know it is time to trim when my hair is damaged on the ends, if my ends feel really hard, or if my hair starts to really stick together on the ends (tangling very abnormally). Also if the ends of my twists are really frizzy no matter how much product I use.

You can trim and grow long hair at the same time, you just can't trim your hair off like a mad women and still expect to grow long hair. You have to preserve your hair, treat it well and minimize damage so that you will not have to trim as often. If you are constantly damaging your hair, then you will have to trim more often. If you are doing a good job of keeping your hair healthy, then it will not be necessary to trim as often.
 
I trim for aesthetic reasons now. When my ends start to look ridiculously uneven to the point where it's affecting my hairstyle, I snip. I just can't do unkempt ends now that I'm back to being relaxed. When I was natural, it didn't matter, I just trimmed when I had damage to get rid of.
 
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I'm on the three month schedule beginning with the thread where people trimmed around the first week of spring to promote growth and thickness. Every 6 weeks is a bit much unless you're doing it to maintain a specific shape. Some people do grow hair while maintaining a shape (trimming) so i guess it can be done but it depends on how fast your hair grows. If your hair grows .5"/month, and you trim .25"/every 6 weeks then you get 6" of growth per year, minus 2" trimmed away = total retained length of 4".
 
Thanks for the info, ladies! I last trimmed in February but I have no splits so I won't trim when I get my hair done next month.
 
kaytorry said:
I am undecided on whether I should trim my hair or not. I am texlaxed, and I am trying to grow out my ends that are color treated and a bit damaged. The last time I had a trim was around the third week of march. My stylist told me that I should trim my hair about every six weeks, but how can I retain length and get longer hair if I trim my hair every six weeks? Do any of the ladies here trim on this type of timeframe? when do you know it's time for a trim? how do you trim and grow longer hair at the same time?
Click to expand...

IMO you have two separate goals. It might be easier to pick which is more important: growing out damaged ends, or retaining length. Since your hair is going to grow regardless, and healthier hair grows "better" than damaged hair, it might be more practical in the long run to trim more frequently now until the damaged hair is gone (while still maintaining a healthy regime) and then switch to a less frequent trim schedule when your hair's overall condition has improved.

:twocents:
 
Every 8 to 10 weeks should be good with monthly protein treatments in between. Just be sure to MOISTURIZE after the protein treatments...
 
I personally don't wait to see problems before I trim (er...dust). I do it on a schedule. Every 8 weeks works for me. Having healthy ends is important to me. The secret is to be consistent so you can get away with trimming just a dusting of your hair. You wait too long, and the wear/tear gets so bad that you have to cut off more.

If you haven't trimmed in a long time, your first trim will be to get rid of damage so you may find you may need a big cut. But after that comes maintenance, where you trim to prevent damage not fix it. That means you snip off the starts of damage so it doesn't stand a chance to happen.

kaytorry, see my explanation here: http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showpost.php?p=12878839&postcount=46
 
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