Anyone maintain LENGTH and THICKNESS without regular trims???

[soonergirl]

hey there, I trim 1 time per year... and I am sooo overdue. I protective style 90% of the time though so when I use heat it doesnt devastate my ends...Protective styling is key to no trimming and length retention for me. Keeping my ends moist and healthy have really helped.. P.S you should be in control of what your stylist is doing to YOUR hair not the other way around. Discuss what you want, smile and hold her to it... Happy growing!!

 

[cami88]

Not I. I waited 2 years after my bc to get my first trim. And then 1 1/2 years to get another one. It was a mess. I had to trim more than I intended because I let it go so long. I was wanting to hold on the the length but didn't realize that trims are a part of maintaining healthy hair.

I think four a year is plenty though.

 

[SEMO]

I trim maybe once or twice a year. Usually, I only trim my hair when I straighten it (which I don't do very often).

Not trimming hasn't caused me any setbacks. Honestly, the only two setbacks I've had came when I had my hair professionally trimmed (twice they turned into hair cuts). And it wasn't b/c I actually needed that much cut off. One stylist said I needed 1-2 inches cut, then proceeded to cut 6-7 inches off.

So I self-trim whenever seems good to me.

 

[kellistarr]

I haven't done anything. It's not that I don't believe in cutting the hair, or trimming or even doing SD, I just don't do it because the thought of it all fills me with dread. I do believe that I would experience less shedding if I did it but instead, I just try to be really gentle with my ends. Because my hair is much longer, my shed strands are long. In the beginning this was very scary. I thought my hair was falling out at the roots. But no, just shed hair, since I do very little manipulation. I wear a lot of different styles but use very little manipulation to obtain them.

It really depends on your hair. Some hair truly thrives with regular trims.

I can't remember the last time I actually got many inches cut off my hair. I want to say it was 2009. Usually, any hair that's going to come out just starts to fall. (when washing). Sometimes, I see hanging strands that clearly want to come out, but don't. If that strand is super, super fine at the end, with no curl, I may snip it. I don't believe that I have to worry about cutting ends unless I have a lot of straggling hairs when I style or knots and I don't suffer from that, so I don't worry about cutting or trimming. I have been thinking about wearing my hair straight, in which case some snipping may be necessary to ensure that it looks nice and tidy.

 

[lovebug10]

This thread is actually inspirational. My stylist told me I new 1.5-2 inches cut off. I refuse to get a traditional trim since my almost APL hair was cut to a NL bob last year.

I constantly check my ends for splits/ damage. I search and destroy when I see I need it. If I have alot of splits my mom rollersets my hair and when it dries she takes out one roller, trims any bushy/ split ends and then proceeds to the next roller. She only cuts what's needed which ends up being 1/4 of an inch or less.

I just started doing this but so far I've been retaining every inch that grows from my head.

My stylist is always pressuring me to trim and tries telling me it will make it grow faster and blah blah blah but I just ignore her.

I'm glad to see so many successful ladies who don't trim so often. It makes me feel better about my decision to trim less frequently.

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF

 

[Julessy]

My last relaxer was on June 4, 2011 and I haven't had a trim since. However, I am transitioning and sometimes the NG can be very frustrating, so I decided to flat iron a couple of times which leads me to the decision to trim my hair seeing that my ends look a hot mess now. Up until me flat ironing, I would strictly air dry my hair which is why I never really had to trim. When I do trim, I plan to go to a professional. I trimmed my hair once and ended up with uneven ends.

 

[Spongebob]

i have only trimmed my hair once in 2.5 years. is that bad?

 

[lovebug10]

I have to say though, you ladies have great regimens to support the no trimming. I see there's alot of protective styling going on in here.. for the most part I enjoy wearing my hair down and out. Because I rollerset and wrap my hair weekly I don't like to moisturize and seal heavy so as not to weigh the hair down. I have fine hair so I rollerset for the added body and bounce... when I moisturize (usually once a day, sometimes twice)I usually just dab my finger into the moisturizer lightly and use that for my whole head, I try to stay away from oil because since my hair is fine it takes away from the body I have after a rollerset. I did moisturize and seal last night but that's because you guys inspired me to do it.. lol

Saying all that to say I hope that even with my current regimen I can try the no trimming thing but I'm afraid of damage.. Maybe I will try stretching out the trims to every 4 months first to see what happens.. If it looks fine I'll wait it out a little longer.. I'm sure that will still be better than my current 8-10 week trim cycle in terms of retaining length. I'm trying to get to WL but it seems that I'm stuck at MBL forever.. My hairdresser automatically trims with every relaxer. She just reaches for the scissors without warning and goes in.. Even if I say no she still does it because she feels like I'm causing damage. Also I've been doing search and destroys and she is NOT feeling it. To her it looks like damage or breakage because I go through my hair and cut ends that are split, bent or knotted even if its from the middle of the strand! She told me that it looks like I went through my hair with thinning shears and it probably does.. So she may be trying to even it up all the time.. I may need to stop doing search and destroys and just focus on only getting periodic trims to avoid that shredded look. I think I may try self relaxing every other relaxer that way I can get a trim every 20 weeks since she won't listen ...lol

Hopefully she won't try to give me a trim to makeup for the times I didn't get trimmed (She's done it before).. Maybe I need to find a new hairdresser and/or probably stick to self relaxing and just getting trims at the salon.. But apparently she's done some kind of voodoo spell on me because I can't seem to stop going to her lol (She gives the bomb relaxers, can't find anyone else who makes my hair look like silk after a relaxer)

Sorry... I wrote a book there.. thinking out loud?

blackberry815 So I rollerset & wrap for the same bounciness you described. And for the longest I never applied product or oils so my hair wouldn't get weighed down. However my hair was "dry" and prone to splits/ breakage more. When I would try different moisturizers, my hair would get greasy and weighed down.

Randomly I decided to try moisturizing again. I part my hair in four sections & used a pea sized amount of HE LTR and then used 1-2 drops of keracare essential oils to seal. Then i wrap & tie w/a silk scarf. After being consistent, I find that I only need to do this once every few days and my hair is still bouncy and soft. Also, I get more compliments because people keep telling me how shiny and luscious my hair looks.

Maybe you should try finding a product that is very light on your hair. I hate products but I find my hair is healthier and less prone to splits when I use them.

 

[kellistarr]

I just wanted to add that when I did get those many inches cut off back in 09, it was because I went in and requested that about 6 inches be cut. This was a new hairstylists for me and she commented that my hair was in great shape considering that I never cut it. We got along great and I thought I could go to her more frequently for maintenance, but our relationship was quickly squashed when she realized that she was not going to press my hair for every visit. I was saddened because she had done a great job cutting and I thought I had found someone I could trust. Another reason for not cutting hair--need someone I can trust.