Feeling Good About Reassessing My Goals

I woke up this morning, had a shower and washed my hair.  I was very pleased with how my hair looked when it was dry.  The trim really helped.

As I’ve discussed before, the chemical damage on the bottom few inches of my hair is driving me crazy.  The hair is still shiny, due to the good care that I give it, and the damage isn’t always obvious in photos, but I can feel it. 

Anyone who has damaged areas in their hair knows just how different that damage feels than the rest of the hair, especially when wet.

In days gone by, I would not have had the patience to even keep my hair as long as it is.  I would have cut out all the damage even if it meant a pixie cut.

However, I am slowly learning a bit of patience.  It is taking a bit of trial and error though, to figure out just how much to regularly trim. 

I had really thought that cutting 1/3 of my growth every three months would be a good enough compromise, but I really watched my hair over the past two months, and I realized that the damage catches up to my ends more quickly  than that trimming regimen allows.

So now, as I mentioned yesterday, I will be trimming off half of my growth until the damage is gone.  It’s going to be quite easy for me to both see and feel where that damage ends.

It’s made me have to readjust my timeline, and it’s going to be much longer to get to my next goal, which is BSL.  I was already getting impatient to get there, but I really have to remember that this is a journey, not a race.

I charted my projected growth and trims with my new trimming plan, and I should still be able to get to BSL by the end of the year.

I will be able to reach waist length and longer by the end of next year for sure.

While it’s disappointing to still pay for damage that I did to my hair over two years ago, it’s been a learning experience, and I know that however long it takes, I will reach my goal.  It’s just going to take longer than I’d hoped.

I’m not going to try to kid you or myself; it’s not going to be easy to be as patient as I need to be, but it’s a choice between long, nice-looking hair in the long term or long raggedy looking hair in the short term.

To me, it’s not contest.  I’m always about quality over quantity.  I just need to keep my eye on the goal and exercise more patience than I had originally thought.

I’ll tell you a secret though.  If it wasn’t for this blog, I would have been sorely tempted to get rid of all of the damage, which would have taken me just around shoulder length.  I know I would have regretted that, so again, I’m so grateful to be accountable to you who read this.

‘Til tomorrow, my friends.