My Journey: Hair Edition

A few years ago, my once, long, healthy (despite bleached, and heat-styled), started breaking off. Badly. To this day, I have not quite figured out the root issue – it’s a work in progress, and 100% in part tied to my stress levels, but I thought I would share where it started and how it’s going.

2018

2018 was a good year for my hair. In fact, it was a great year for my hair. My hair had never been longer—aside from when I was a newborn baby, of course. It was also the most healthy and strong it had ever been in my lifetime.

Like everyone else, though, I get into a rut sometimes with my beauty routine. One day I decided to change things up and go to a new stylist at the same salon where I’d been going for years.

2019

Right after a hair cut & color appointment (September 2019)

This was the year I noticed something was wrong.

The Breakage

I don’t know what changed – maybe it was stress related? Maybe I wasn’t taking care of it as well as I could have been? Either way, I started noticing that my hair was breaking off. Not just shedding like normal (which is already a lot), but snapping at that exact length. It didn’t make sense because I used a protein treatment once every 2 weeks, and had been for years without any issues. But something changed and there was nothing I could do about it.

I started going to Voss Salon to see Kayli Soule (who at the time was fairly new, but I am still seeing her today). Since my hair was so broken, we had to do a significant cut (although, I wanted to keep it long) so we tried to bring the breakage and my actual length closer together. I was still lightening it, but I started mostly doing partial highlights years ago, simply because I like having more depth to my color, being a natural brunette, and having gone too blonde in the past.

I cut back on heat styling pretty significantly – even skipping blow drying my hair some days which is almost unheard of for me. I stopped using flat irons entirely (and just pulled out the curling wand when necessary). I also switched from using dry shampoo to using dry conditioner to try to keep it as healthy as possible.

2020

The year 2020 was a year of challenges, to say the least. But one of the challenges I faced was my hair.

Let me take you on a journey back in time

It started about a year ago when I cut my hair to shoulder length. I hate short hair on myself but after the breakage that started the prior year, I did not have much of a choice. I missed having long hair.

Then came COVID-19, and we all know what that meant for our usual beauty routines. For months I hadn’t been able to cut or color my hair. After a while, though, I got used to my dark roots, and even grew to like the two-toned look it created.

As part of my routine, I added in One-A-Day Women’s Prenatal Vitamins every day (which I had looked into and found support for hair growth), along with NAC, a supplement I was taking for CoVID.

I  was ready to finally get it back to normal so that I can get back to having long, healthy hair again. 

2021

At the beginning of 2021 I had let my hair grow out again simply from being quarantined in NY for two months. Once I came back to Dallas, I booked an appointment to get it redone, and then had a few incredibly stressful events occur back to back.

Not bad, but just shorter and darker than I prefer

I started doing leave-in conditioners when I washed my hair, and using Pureology’s Hydrate Shampoo & Conditioner, along with It’s a Miracle Leave-In with Keratin.

Around early April, I suddenly saw my hair start to grow again, and actually stay healthy and strong. By August, it was finally growing and looking the best it had in years.

Throughout the year, I could tell it was actually growing again for the first time in years, and despite dropping a significant amount of weight quickly, it was still healthy and growing. I loved having it bright, but with some darker tones mixed in. I enjoy finding new ways to style it, curl it and wear it to figure out what looks best or fun based on the situation and my mood.

When November rolled around, I loved the length, but decided to go slightly darker and cooler toned with the color. I was back to regular trims, and treating it well.

But between stress from work, doing daily HIIT workouts, and actually getting sick, by December, I noticed it breaking again for the first time since 2020.