Natural Beauty: Summer Hair Experiment--No Trims! Part I

I’m trying a summer hair experiment and resisting the urge to get a trim at the salon.

Since I was a college freshman, I dutifully got my hair trimmed every 2-3 months. It was simply a rule for me. After all, just about every piece of advice I’ve read about hair care stressed that regular trims were necessary to banish split ends and help hair grow longer (despite the length lost during the trim). The principle behind this is that if you allow your hair to continue to grow and accumulate worsening split ends, you will ultimately lose more length during your next visit to the salon because you will have to cut off so much damage. Makes sense.

This routine has been working for a long time—nearly eight years—so I didn’t question it until came across a Barefoot Blonde piece about chilling out with the trims. If your hair is in good condition, she explains, it may not be necessary to get a trim for several months. It’s not like it’s written in biological law. If you must, you can trim the damage yourself without losing any real length. (It sounds scary, but the linked method seems pretty foolproof.)

My last haircut was May 1, so I’m coming up on my normal hair trimming time, but I’m going to resist. Why do such a crazy thing? There are a lot of reasons, some of them kind of silly. Besides enjoying experiments like these, I’m honestly just tired of going to the salon so often. Plus, if I can stretch my $40 haircut for longer periods of time, then maintaining my hair will be cheaper! Finally, I do want to grow my hair a bit longer to play around with different styles and enjoy some flowy, bohemian-ness.

Of course, I will want to take especially good care of my hair during this time. I’ll be following our tips on growing out hair during the summer, expect for tip #7 (which is getting a trim)! I’m also going to stick to my favorite, sulfate-free shampoo, Acure’s clarifying keratin boosting lemongrass + argan stem cell shampoo, weekly deep-conditioning treatments (probably a coconut oil mask), and leave-in serum for my ends (lately I’ve been using John Masters Organics dry hair and defrizzer serum, but a little bit of argan oil works well, too!).

Besides that, I’m going to limit myself to heat styling only once a week (if that). I guess there’s some benefit to living in a climate where heat styling is kind of pointless!

Fortunately, after studying my hair for a bit, I don’t see too many split ends, so I hopefully won’t have to do any self-trimming for a bit. Maybe I can make it until October or November. I will give an update in a month with an in-depth hair routine and progress report!