The Big Chop

Some women choose to cut off all their hair when they start their journey to healthy hair. It is not always practical, and is in fact very scary for some women. So how do you make this all-important decision?

It’s important to closely assess the state of your hair. How badly is it damaged? Do you find lots of small hairs break off after as you comb or brush your hair, or even just from touching it? Is you hair thin, dry and brittle? Are the ends of your hair much thinner than the shaft or the roots? Is your hair over-processed? Do you tend to relax your hair all the way to the tips every time?

If you find that only the ends of your hair are damaged while the roots are fairly healthy, then you can get away with changing your hair regime and having regular trims to remove the damaged ends slowly over time.

If you find that all your hair is badly damaged, from the roots, down the shaft, to the tips, then it would be best to do the big chop. However, if it’s too big a step, you could concentrate on having healthy new hair growth and slowly trimming off your damaged hair. You will therefore not notice any growth in terms of length for some time, but you will certainly have thicker hair growing in, that doesn’t break as much.

Whatever you decide, you must trim your ends at least twice a year. I recommend a trim every 8 weeks when removing damaged hair, then twice a year when the healthy state of the hair has been restored.