As you can see, I'm fairly new here. I need help! But I don't really know what to start with.

The pic in my avi is my hair at it's best, probably about 2 years ago. It is not nearly so long or healthy looking now. How do I get that back? I can't "thank" pregnancy for it, since my baby by then was 2 years or close to it. Looking at that pic, I would say I have probably 5-7" LESS hair. These stupid hair clips I was using for awhile I think are to blame. I think they broke the ends of my hair. :rolleyes:

I don't know what to do or where to begin to try and "fix" my hair. I so badly want that hair back, or at least a decent variation of it. Help?

Thanks,

Tami

Welcome to LHC! There is a wealth of information here, and the people are so friendly!
To help your hair get longer, I would say condition, condition, condition. For my own hair I use Garnier Fructis "Long and Strong" shampoo, conditioner, and leave in conditioner. The leave in is important because it gives my hair the "slip" it needs. I have no problem combing out my hair, I have hardly any tangles, and I have very little breakage at the ends.

If you can stand untidy hair for a bit, I would concentrate on growing it for at least 6 months. Try to find a shampoo and conditioner (or try CO only if you prefer): there's lots of useful info on what's good and what isn't in this community. Once you've got a bit more length, you can then onsider if you need to trim a bit before the next period of growth.

Good luck!

I believe that major improvement on the condition of my hair has to do with quitting the dye job, using organic products (plus everything there is in my fridge...) and completely putting a stop to any kind of heating equipment.
Just browse through the threads and read the journals and youŽll get a pretty good idea what everyoneŽs doing.
And Welcome! :)

I'd just start with using a good conditioner your hair likes, no blowdrying, gentle combing with a seamless comb and keep it up and out of the way to protect it, using hairfriendly toys. I'm sure your hair will be long and beautiful before you know it!

Welcome :flowers:

Lots of good advice here!

I would recommend, that you also braid or French hair your hair for night, even if it is quite short. That will do wonders in tangle prevention.

Welcome! :flower:

Hi CurlyBlonde :waving:

As a fellow curly, I would suggest looking into going shampoo free, there lots of helpful info on here and also try NaturallyCurly (http://www.naturallycurly.com)

Good luck and watch out this site is addictive!

I would suggest finding other LHC members with your same hair type. Read their journals and find out what their routines are and what products they use. I find that a big help.

Summer and hot weather is coming so maybe plan to keep your hair up in a bun for a lot of the time. Condition condition condition. Moisturized that hair. Gently finger comb your waves. Try some oil on the ends. Some like it and some don't. Jojoba oil is supposed to be the closest thing to natural sebum. Go to the recipe section and check out Snowy's Deep Moisture Treatment. I swear by that. You can customize it to your needs. Try to ignore your hair as much as possible. That means lots of TLC and put it up and forget it. You can get the hair you want. It's a matter of experiementing and finding out what your hair wants.

Oh, thank you all! I am planning to sit here for a good while and read read read! I appreciate the help and advice so much!

Welcome to LHC!!! :waving:

All of the above advice is wonderful and I will just reiterate some of the things that helped me to during the early stages:

1. Lots of conditioner... and a lot less shampoo. I am find of the CWC method of hair cleansing. Apply conditioner to your length, shampoo your scalp, rinse, condition entire length again, rinse. :D

2. Unless you have a lot of visible split ends, stay far, far away from the scissors. Lots of folks here have gone over a year without a trim. If you do need to trim, ask your stylist to only "dust" your ends.

3. Avoid super hot styling tools like the plague (curling irons, flat irons, extra hot blowdryers). I use a blowdryer with a diffuser on medium heat without a problem. It's the concentrated, super hot air that can wreak havoc on fragile tresses.

4. Try to avoid coloring too often. I'll probably never, ever be color free (especially with all of these grays coming in), but I have decided to lay off the highlighting and have opted for demi-perm color instead.

5. The best advice that i can give you is that experimentation is paramount! We are both curlyheads, but I what works best for me, may not work at all for you. Climate, water quality, and even application of products has a great deal to do with it.

Good luck to you... and again, welcome! :grouphug: