Growing out a pixie cut

As shallow as it sounds, my hair is been a huge pain point for me lately. I’ve been trying to grow it out, and have had major setbacks. So after my last trim (and almost breaking down in 'I hate my hair' tears), I decided that I had to buckle down and get this 'growing my hair out' show on the road. In hopes of keeping on track, I’m going to be documenting my hair progress here. Monthly I'll post update pictures, and hopefully give some advice, encouragement and ideas to any of you who are trying to grow out your hair as well.

I'm currently have a short/mid-length pixie. I've been trying since November to growing my hair out, but obviously it hasn’t worked. My hair grows well (I'd estimate 1/2-1 inch per month), but excessive trims or breakage is keeping me from obtaining length.

So, my plan of action is:

1. Stop getting so many trims. This doesn’t mean I'll stop getting trims altogether, but it does mean I'll only be going for trims every 2-3 months instead of every month. There’s a misconception that getting trims helps your hair grow faster. It doesn’t. Trims will help to stop split ends from running up the hair shaft, and can clean up rough or uneven edges while your hair grows. However, trims will not make your hair grow. Personally I cant afford to have all my growth cut off every time I want to clean up my ends. Instead, I'll only visit my stylist for a trim when the dreaded mullet hair gets to hard to handle.

Love you Scarlett, but seriously this is the worse hair EVER!

2. Start doing monthly protein treatments. On Monday of this week, I did ApHogee's 2-1 protein treatment. It really worked wonders on myhair. Since my hair is bleached, its become really fragile- to the point where its gummy and sticky when wet. Doing the protein treatments will help rebuild my hairs strength. By stopping the breakage problem, I hopefully won’t have to deal with a lot of split ends either. Im also using ApHogees Keratin 2 minute treatment. I will be using this weekly to rebuild any keratin I lost in between protein treatments.

3. Take Biotin as a daily supplement. There’s no hardcore evidence that Biotin helps your hair grow faster, but it does help the hair that grows be healthy. I've noticed a big difference in my hair growth since taking Biotin. You can find Biotin at any drugstore, and its usually fairly priced.

4. Only heat style when necessary.My hair is naturally curly, so having short hair requires a lot of heat styling. However, I’m trying to minimize heat styling by only washing my hair every other day, using a heat protecting spray and only flat ironing the really unmanageable spots. Once my hair grows past my ears, I hopefully will be able to stop heat styling and go back to a more natural wave/curl. Something like this;

5. Stop bleaching. This is a big one for me. I've been bleaching my hair all over for the past 6 months or so. Its time to stop. My hair is so damaged and stripping my hair is making it worse. At my next color appointment, my goal is to go back closer to my natural hair color (a dark blonde). I may even go a shade or two darker into the light brown category.

My goal is to have my hair at my jaw line by the summer of this year. According to this hair chart, I'm somewhere between 1 and 2.

The ultimate goal is to reach this length by next year.

I've got quite a ways to go, but I’m up for the challenge!

Here are pictures of my hair as of today. I’m having a pretty bad hair day, but its a good representation of my current length and style.

My last trim and dye job was 2/4/2012. My last protein treatment was 2/6/2012.

The current length of the hair at the top of my head is about 5 inches.

At the end of this month, I'll post a collage of weekly progress pictures!