Time for a hair-check! What does my hair look like one month later?

For those of you new to my blog, back in the spring I had decided to lop off all the damaged hair and start from scratch. I initially cut it down to the length it is now, maybe a tad longer, and then tried maintaining it thinking I had properly addressed the cause(s) of dry ends and breakage. When I realized that actually wasn’t solved (yet another topic I want to discuss in its own post), I went even shorter and trimmed it all the way down to about an inch. In addition to the fix, which that time actually worked, I absolutely wanted to be sure I had gotten out all the damage. The last trim was August 4th, 2025.

Today it’s just under 2.5 inches long. Disappointing? No actually, and here’s why:

Growing hair is a slow, gradual, continual process that doesn’t happen overnight. I kind-of feel like I have to be brave writing this post because people might be coming to my blog expecting floor-length hair, and instead see just a few inches. Rapunzel hair takes -years- of dedication to achieve. I’ve already been there and done that, but in my journey for improved quality and health compared to years ago, I am starting over and using wisdom I’ve learned that I didn’t know about or have access to the first time around.

So, I promise the long hair is coming! It’s just going to take its sweet time (0.5 inches a month) and, along the way I’ll be keeping track so you can see what my effort looks like from month to month. This journey, and not just the end result, is the entire point of this blog.

Over the following months and into this summer I was growing it out to about 2 inches and then trimming it back down. Again, at first this was to get out the old and somewhat newer damage, but it later became a way of phasing out any hair that, while technically healthy, hadn’t grown in as strongly as I would have liked as that length had grown back when I was still learning how to improve what I ate. This means that while I technically did the big chop this spring, I hadn’t phased it all out until the start of last month (August). Since then I have been keeping every millimeter of hair that’s grown in by using the hair powders, rinses, and diet changes I’ve discussed recently.

It’s crazy just how dense and full my scalp feels now. There are two factors I’m noticing are different about my new hair that have made a major difference for hair quality. The first is that old hairs that were going to shed out anyways are getting replacements that are coming in strong this time, and that are following right up on the heels of the shed ones. The second is that areas along my hairline that would perpetually have baby hairs falling out have finally started to get long roots (I can actually see the difference of how much more white root there is at the end of a shed hair) and those baby hairs are -staying- for good. Shedding is also at an all time low–nearly absent.

You might be wondering if it’s necessary to phase out the old hair–if it would be better to just keep it alongside any new growth. Having cut everything off may not have been the most efficient for getting my hair to become longer, though I chose to because I had always wanted to try a pixie cut, and so I took advantage of the opportunity.

Knowing exactly how old my hair is and what it has or hasn’t been exposed to was also my goal–if my hair suddenly started to do well, I wanted to know if that wasn’t just diet changes or bathing changes, but also improvements to just how much protection my hair has now been getting. I like how my hair feels softer and springier; removing the old sections was also partly for sensory reasons and I’ve felt more motivated and encouraged by being able to reach up and only feel healthy hair.

Something that’s helped me keep track of where I’m at: I made my own spreadsheet in Excel that isn’t as prescriptive as it is more like an audit–simply observing and recording what I’ve been doing. I just place a mark in each of the intersections of today’s day (the column) and the things I’ve eaten or ways I’ve cared for my hair (many rows). I like to think of this as my “paper brain”, extra space to hold onto things that I may forget and re-remember inconsistently.

So, just save yourself the headache and make for yourself a simple spreadsheet that keeps track of what you’re doing for you. It makes for a really cool reference as I go, because I can then look back over months and months of data and see what has worked for me and what hasn’t–and it means I can tell you about it with certainty as it’s all right there for me to review.

Thanks for joining me 🙂