Hair growing

Pretty much what CupcakeDeVil said, I blowdry on cold mostly (though sometimes its hard to avoid using warm air, specially during the winter as my hair naturally can take many hours to dry), my hair is naturally straight so I only sort it out for events at the annoying spots if needed. 🙂

I had never heard of the Brazilian blow-dry. You put a keratin product on your hair and iron it in with straighteners? Or a blow dryer I assume, by the name lol.

I have some straighteners that claim to have keratin infused plates, I'm not really sure if I believe it but they were a good price and had variable heat which I really wanted since I have fine hair and GHDs are super hot (in fact on holiday they malfunctioned and melted the side of my fringe off... luckily my boyfriend had his beard trimmer for me to play with).

I'm not good without heat styling and my hairdryer is sooo old that the cold setting is still pretty warm. I generally blow dry my hair a bit but leave it still slightly damp, otherwise it goes bloody mental and there's no way of getting round it - even leaving it in braids etc it will still find away to escape. That's probably why it's a bit dry on the ends, started coconut oiling the ends during the day, there's so much hair now no one notices.

I went for it and cut my hair. I am sitting with olive oil on it now so I can wash it (using shampoo as I am trying to fade atm) so I don't actually know how it will look, but it is done. There was a huge pile of hair in the sink :/

Well done for summing up the courage to do it! I know it feels really horrible now but it's probably for the best 🙂

*hugs* for you, Wicked Pixie... and here's hoping it was the change you needed to feel good about your hair again.  😀

Aww thanks guys! If it looks ok when it is dry I might even take a pic lol It is certainly much lighter.
Now i just need to sort the colour out, this purple is finally starting to fade.

I had never heard of the Brazilian blow-dry. You put a keratin product on your hair and iron it in with straighteners? Or a blow dryer I assume, by the name lol.

Yes, it's a product you put on and it's meant to work most effectively under the heat of a straightener, but of course it's got to be completely dried before touching it with any hot iron!  I mostly use it with a straightener, but sometimes I just blow-dry it in, sometimes just leave it to air-dry.

Thanks so much for your comments everyone.  I suppose my hair will never experience breakage from too much protein!  I guess if you're using a protein treatment that dries and hardens on the hair (like Aphogee 2-step), and you don't wash it off gently enough, I could see it breaking.  

My hair just kept improving in condition the more I used the keratin and not being aware of "over-proteining", I carried on using it over and over and over again.  In fact, my hair now responds best to a protein conditioner than moisturising alone, so perhaps my hair just loves loads of protein!

But I do accept that too much protein may be the cause of breakage for many protein users.

Good job taking the plunge, wicked! I am still mourning the loss of my 2-3 inches trim about a month ago. It is so hard, but my ends were literally crunchy and it had to be done. It feels much better now, but unfortunately I do still have a ton of split ends that I am trying to stay on top of with hunt and destroy missions. I did a clarifying wash to see how it felt because I'm itching to reach for the bleach next dying session, but sadly it just isn't going to happen any time soon if I want to keep my hair. So I will be focusing on getting it long now since lavender will not be in my near future.

WickedPixie, well done! I do think healthy-looking hair looks so much more beautiful than keeping a length that lacks life. I think you've made a great choice and will probably notice growth more quickly now. Hope you will post some pictures!

Congrats on cutting the ends off, WickedPixie!  It'll be better for your hair in the long run, I think.  I bet it looks great!

@Wicked Pixie, you could start by cutting in some long layers to help get rid of some of the ends that are making it tangley, and then if you're comfortable with it, take them up a bit. im really sorry to hear that you lost so much of your hair before, that must have been really, really tough 🙁

with my hair if its all one length, the weight of it kind of smooshes down the waves underneath and the weight of it kind of pulls the waves out on top, making it straighter. when i get layers that are in between extreme and long, it makes my waves a lot more consistent and easier to manage. i cut the some layers into my hair that werent really long layers, but not extreme, more in the middle, and it was kind of  shock at first, though my length was the exact same, minus the couple inches i cut off, it just felt so much shorter, BUT, it looked SO much better. so it was kind of a trade off...i cut a longer face frame into my hair to make the layers look better and blend more with my fringe, and that was hard, but i felt like i had to do it because it just didnt look right without it. i am going to grow the face frame out a bit, i still want it, just a bit longer so that my hair looks longer when i sweep it all to the front.

it feels like i need to trim off somemore though 🙁 its 25 inches right now. from everything i did to it trying to get all that black dye out of my hair, i knew i should have waited a bit longer to do the last bleach bath, but it had been a week and i just wanted pink hair and not the blonde, gingery mess i had going on. i cut the layers in then, and trimmed off a couple inches in the back, and it felt fine and looked fine! but, now its been a couple weeks but now my ends feel all tangley and just not the soft, healthy hair im used to. i mean, i know its not going to feel perfect after a ton of fading treatments, 2 color removers and 3 bleach baths lol. idk what to do, if i should just cut them?  idk theres a lot more to it, im going to just make a new topic because i dont want to hijack this  one.

I'm not entirely sure how you guys are measuring your hair but you got me wondering.  I measured mine from the nape of my neck and it's 15 inches and I got 5 inches off the length about a month ago.  I've got layers and a fringe so not sure where to measure from.  

And I'm probably not very kind to my hair.  At the risk of sounding horrible, I wash it once a week, using either Palmer's Olive Oil shampoo and condition or Argan Secret shampoo and conditioner.  Very rarely put a hairdryer on it cos I end up looking like the big bear from Hair Bear Bunch (anyone remember that?).  Maybe straighten it once a week and it's always tied up in a pony tail or a bun.

I spent a small fortune getting Moroccanoil shampoo, conditioner and hydrating creme and my hair doesn't like it - it seems to make it really dry.

And I'm probably not very kind to my hair.  At the risk of sounding horrible, I wash it once a week, using either Palmer's Olive Oil shampoo and condition or Argan Secret shampoo and conditioner.  Very rarely put a hairdryer on it cos I end up looking like the big bear from Hair Bear Bunch (anyone remember that?).  Maybe straighten it once a week and it's always tied up in a pony tail or a bun.

Actually, infrequent washing is one of the kindest things you can do for your hair.  🙂  Using very little heat is good, too.  😉  Keep it up!

I put mine in a ponytail near the nape and measure only the ponytail. 😛