Mamacita,
Personally, I would not even presume to give you advice on how, when or where to cut your hair, because we all know, hair is a very personal thing and very subjective. Like hair care products, what will work for one may not work for another! However, I will tell you what I do/have done with my mop!
What I did initially, when I decided to let my hair grow, was to wear it up, in a bun, a ponytail, pineappled, whatever, just so I wouldn’t have to look at the mess I had going on on my head when I put my hair down! 😆 😳 At that time, it seemed like every 8 weeks or so I needed a trim badly on the ends as my hair seemed to be drying out excessively. I had not discovered this website yet! This little sight became my “Mr. Miyagi” for haircare very quickly. There is a tremendous amount of information on this site, but it will take up a lot of your time!
It was on one of the threads on this site that I learned about Lorraine’s book, and different methods of taking care of my curls. First lesson, I was washing it way too much and not conditioning it near enough. With all the money I had spent on hair cutting, you would think ONE of the stylists would’ve told me I could spare myself some cutting just by making my hair healthier thru deep conditioning, etc.! 👿
On this site, I also learned about “dusting” where you take your hair and go thru it and trim back any split ends you see, which have been significantly less since I started a modified CG routine. When the ends really start to look ratty, I just go to a reliable salon and tell them I want a micro-trim, no more than 1/4 to 1/2″ off the bottom, depending on how ratty it is, NO layering. Basically, I tell them not to mess with it other than the trim on the bottom. I’m noticing that as I am gaining length, I am losing some volume (the pyramid effect), probably because of the weight of the hair. However, as I said before, what works for some doesn’t necessarily work for all, so this may not be the case for you.
As mentioned on this thread before, you may want to look at other reviews of salons in and around your area on this website. Sometimes it’s worth a long drive! 😆 and when you call them, either ask a lot of questions while on the phone to see if they are getting what you are talking about, or ask if they do consults and take that opportunity to ask a million questions. Just a thought: You might even ask if any of their stylists has taken seminars/classes with Lorraine Massey or Ouidad, or if they’ve heard of “Curly Girl.” If they don’t know what you’re talking about, you may want to consider trying someone else.
That’s what I did when I went on my trip to Oregon and made the appt. with Aimee at Dirty Little Secrets salon in Portland. I was more than prepared to pay her her cutting fees just for a consult. I was taking up time she could have used on another client, and her time is valuable as is mine. She completely got what I was talking about, she’d heard of “Curly Girl” and she knew about Lorraine’s cutting techniques, so I risked a “mini cut” and was extremely happy with the results. Aimee also knew about NC.com!
Now that I’m back in Florida, I will be doing basically the same thing with a haircutter I found in the salon reviews on this site. She is a four hour drive away from me, but it will be worth my time and money if it turns out she’s what I’m looking for. If not, I see it as a daytrip to a lovely area of Florida and as I said, I will squirrel away money for a trip to NYC or Oregon when I actually need my hair “re-shaped.”
Don’t be blue Mamacita, I am confident it will all be ok in the end! 😆
