Hello everyone...
I'm a newbie to the site! Been reading though for a while!
I have a question I'm hoping for some opinions on -
My hair is currently a few inches away from waist-length, it's taken me a fair amount of time to get it here as my hair grows so slowly. When I started growing it to where it was now, my hair was a bit below my collarbone and it's taken me a year and 7 months to get it to where it is now. I don't know if that's just I'm a slow grower, but also that I've had/have some horomone problems which has also made my hair soo thin.
Anyway, I'm careful with my hair...light shampooing, conditioning, spray in detangler/conditioner....No use of the hair dryer, curling irons, etc (honestly not a problem because it's too much fuss to me...lol), don't comb when wet, no tight, repetitive styles...etc. The only thing I haven't invested in yet is a silk pillowcase...
Anywho! My question is this - I recently started really looking at my ends closely because I'm constantly having terrible tangles in the ends - so much so after even a good conditioning and it drying - a couple hours later the ends are dry and tangled like that again. I've spent two weeks, spending an hour a day dusting for damage....and it's like I just can't get it all! I know there's some former damage from that being dyed before I started growing my hair out - but my question is this, at this point....would it be better to just cut off what I can of the damage? I can easily go up about three inches and see it's dry and that's where the issues are coming from. I just flinch at the idea because while it won't knock me back to "short" hair, I will go from nearly waist-length to about bra-strap length and it's just so hard because it's hard to lose it, ya know? I know it's easy for everyone around me to just tell me to cut it, it's no biggie, but when you commit to having it long and spend so much time and love on it....choices like these are hard, even when they're needed, ya know? Just wanting some thoughts or opinions! Thanks much!!!

Hi Jencm,

First off, welcome to LongLocks. :)

Regular trims are part of the growing process. There's no point in having long hair if it's dry and unhealthy, so you should have been getting trims as often as your ends needed it while you grew your hair out.

If you haven't, it's very important to cut off every inch of damage before it travels up the hair shaft and causes even more damage. :P You can't just leave it go and expect it to be healthy. It won't be.

You shouldn't go longer than 6 months without a trim. Depending on your hair type, you may need to do it more often. HTH

You will have to cut off the damage to stop the tangling of your ends.

If cutting off 3" is too much for you to do at once, perhaps cut off half of the amount and wait a bit to cut off the rest.  Personally, I'd prefer to be done with the damage and focus on keeping it healthy and properly moisturized and let it grow back from the healthy state.

I do understand its not an easy decision, of course you don't want to loose the length you've gained!  Remember that the damage travels up the hair shaft, so the longer you keep the damaged ends the more damage they're doing to you hair.  I hope this helps you decide.

Either way, Welcome to LongLocks!  I hope you'll introduce yourself in the New Members thread and maybe post a pic of your hair in the Show Off Your Locks thread.

Thanks Angel...
I have been trimming every 5 months about, admittedly though I probably should have had more trimmed than I did though. I stupidly spent a couple years keeping my hair dyed from it's natural dirty dark blonde/ashy brown, to a light blonde color....and I've been trying to get rid of all that mess and that's the bit that's left on my ends.
You're right though - what's the use in having long hair, that's damaged and horrible to look at and deal with. I made that comment to my husband tonight....that's it's hard for me to cut it off, but what's the use in having it look crummy? *sigh* I suppose I might be doing a little trim tonight....

Thanks Sakina!
I know you guys are right....I'm just being a pessimist I think. lol. I've had my hair long for a long time before (nearly to my tailbone for 5 years..) so I know it's better to take it off....it's just so hard for me this time around after finally getting some length back.
Like you though, I think I'd rather cut the 3-4 inches I can see DEF need to go at once and be done with it for the most part....

*sigh*
Thanks for helping me decide guys. I think I just felt I needed some reinforcement from others who understood what it's like to have long hair (rather than family members and friends who cut theirs into a different style every three months and think nothing of losing length)...

My vote would also be to trim off all of the velcro-y damaged ends.
I was in the same boat you are in about two or three years back. I cut off my tail-bone length hair to above my chin to make female relatives happy. Dyed, permed, and was generally very unfriendly to it. My hair retaliated by having the most horrible velcro-y ends imaginable. Well, I put up with those ends for too long. It was such a relief to finally have the last bits of damage and dye removed. I opted to cut out the damage through layers. By layering, a big majority of the damage was removed without making my hair look significantly shorter. Of course, now I'm stuck with layers.  ;D

Just throwing that out there, that layers are an option of removing a lot of the damage, without removing a lot of the length.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement! Last night I went ahead and snipped about 3 1/2 inches off and had hubby make sure it was straight. I do feel better - I didn't even brush my hair this morning and I can run my fingers through it, tangle free! So yeah...Glad I did it now and I know it looks a lot better! :) Will post a photo once I get my PC up and running again since I can't hook my camera up to my tiny laptop at the moment! :)

It sounds like losing length is a big factor for you. You could trim off 1/2 inch every 2 months if you still want that “I am almost at waist feeling.”

I understand how hard it is to lose length. We seem to hang on to what we have for dear life - so it makes it hard even to give up such a small amount.

If you do not want to lose too much length, start small until the damage is gone.