We curly-haired folks need twice as much patience when growing our hair. Why? Because curls can shrink our visible length by anywhere from 20% to even 80%, thanks to the way they coil. So it’s completely understandable that when we sit in the stylist’s chair, we say, “Just a tiny trim!” and watch every snip like hawks. But here’s the hard truth - what we’re often trying to “preserve” is just dead, see-through ends. And if we don’t trim them, they’ll end up “cutting” themselves - breaking off on their own.
If you want to keep your hair long, I totally respect that and will leave the length. I know there’s nothing worse than walking out of a salon in tears because your hair was cut too short. But I also want to show you what it looks like when we skip a necessary trim just to keep the length:
You can see that even with styling, the ends don’t look healthy. It’s clear - even to the untrained eye - where they should have been trimmed. And here’s what the same hair looks like after we cleaned up the thinned-out ends:
Once split ends are gone, the hair instantly looks thicker, fuller, healthier - and the curls spring back with more definition. Split ends should always be trimmed, because if left alone, they’ll keep breaking higher up the strand. No serum or oil can “heal” them. So keeping those ends isn’t helping you - in fact, you’re likely preventing your curls from reaching their full potential. Once you trim them, you’ll finally see growth.
Just keep in mind: the idea that trimming hair makes it grow faster is a myth. What really happens is that the hair stops breaking, so it keeps its length. It might feel like it's growing faster, but in reality, it’s just not breaking off anymore. Here’s an example - a client’s hair right after a much-needed cut:
And here’s her hair 5 months later, after a second trim:
So, I hope this helps you see that there's not much beauty in hanging onto length that’s ju
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