For as long as I can remember, I (43, female) have repeatedly been told by magazines, my hairdresser, everyone who deals in anything to do with hair, to get a trim every 6-8 weeks to cut off ‘split ends’ or ‘dead hair’ and that it encourages growth. I did this because I trusted the people who I believed were experts but my hair literally never grew past my shoulders. I asked my own hairdresser and she said that it’s important to keep the ends tidy and ‘blunt’ because then it’ll grow, and split ends won’t travel upwards, further damaging my hair. Well, I got so fed up with my hair not growing that I have now not had my hair cut in over a year, it has finally grown and guess what ?? I have no unhealthy split ends, I have no breakage, my hair finally, finally is growing – it looks healthy and thick and its condition hasn’t been compromised at all by not having it cut as frequently as every single hairdresser / expert on tv / online / in magazines says.
I think that the whole cut – your – hair – or – trim – it – every – 6/8 – weeks is a myth perpetuated by the hairdressing industry so that folk will book haircuts regularly and keep them making money on the regular. My hair is just as healthy as it’s ever been and it’s finally getting longer and growing and how I wanted it. It looks even nicer, actually, by not having been cut. I condition it and look after it and I still go to my hairdresser to have it highlighted but I just don’t cut it. When it starts getting visibly damaged, I will – but it’s a lie that we need to get our hair cut that regularly.
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It depends what you want out of your hair doesn’t it
There’s a variety of reasons why a 4-8 week haircut is reasonable
I do it not for “hair health” or whatever you’re talking about, but because I wear my hair short and in a style that I like. So I go back every 8 weeks purely to maintain the look.
Who are u to tell me i don’t need it
You only have to get your split ends trimmed when you notice your hair looking scraggly or you can see split ends everywhere. I’ve never had a hairdresser try to schedule me when I didn’t need it. My mom was also a hairdresser. Some people do have damaged hair from color, etc. and need it every month or two.
Hairdressers HATE her!
43-year-old soccer mom blows the whistle on 6-8 week myth perpetuated by Big Hair industry!
I do it because I don’t like the feel of longer hair. It irritates me
Depends on your hair. I need it every 2-4 weeks because I keep it buzzed, so you leave it for a couple weeks and it’s already too long.
Well for men it’s different if you’re tryna sustain a fade or a taper. Not sure if you’re only talking about women tho
You do not “need” to do anything to style your hair. You can choose to do whatever you want.
With that being said, people’s hair textures, types and even scalp oils change dramatically, so to realistically achieve certain looks, you need to care for your specific hair differently.
You don’t “need” to cut your hair for years if you don’t want to.
No one is claiming they really “need” to cut their hair that often, it’s just personal preference and it always has been.
If you can look like this sure, otherwise you should. 😀
Everyone’s hair is different. Some people are more prone to split ends. Just because you don’t get them, doesn’t mean others don’t.
I get my hair cut every 1.5 years. I’ll do a trim if I have an important event, but I’ll also trim my own bangs and clean up my angles. But I can definitely see why some people get regular trims.
Wait till you find out that some men go get their haircut twice a month because they can
I have a few friends that are obsessed with getting a cut like that and we’ll literally spend 50 to $100 a month on haircuts
The people that think this are the same ones that consider shoulder length medium and anything past the shoulders is long. Like no ma’am, shoulder length and above is short, and until it’s midway down the back, it’s medium.
You should cross post this to r/longhair.
I agree. For my entire life, I thought my hair literally couldn’t grow much past my shoulders. I stopped getting trims in 2019 and it grew to my waist and still feels healthy. It didn’t “split up the shaft, break off and stop growing” as everyone says will happen.
I’ve always assumed that was a guideline to maintain a certain style? I often grow my hair out and will go years between cuts when doing so, but if I’m keeping it in a bob I need to go about every two months.
(I do not have split ends?)
All I’ll add is my wife is an expert hair stylist at the top of her industry skills wise. She says that’s wrong – but everyone is entitled to an opinion 😊
I definitely agree – as long as you have no health issues that may interfere with heathy hair growth.
I currently have some issues that interfere with my hair’s health (hypothyroidism) but before, I never got my hair cut and my hair was good. When I was younger, my family didn’t have much money and so I never got my hair cut. I would get haircuts here and there (usually a trim) but went long stretches without one. I got a big hair cut around age 7 or 8, a trim around 10 and a trim around 14, and at that point my hair was at my butt and the hair dresser refused to believe I hadn’t had a haircut in 4 years because I had almost no split ends. From age 13-15 I also straightened my hair every day, sometimes while it was still a little damp, and always without heat protection. Additionally, I have wavy hair that never got the moisturize it required so it was always frizzy.
I use to get asked (by my peers and adults) how my hair was so long, and I would say “don’t cut it” and they would always follow up with, “okay but what else?” At 14, I didn’t really know what to say because I didn’t do anything else lol
I haven’t gotten mine cut in over a year
I keep my hair short, if I let it grow out it looks like a puff ball.
I hate that sentence, too.
If you want to grow long hair simply LET IT GROW. It goes same with eyebrows, leg’s hair and others, lol. I have always cut my hair when someone said ooh you need a trim, and always, always regret it because my hair gets damaged again after 3 months and I’ve never got to the point where I have long hair because of ”frequent trimming” that apparently helps with growth, how yes no. That’s the hairdresser’s stupid logic, hair grows from the roots
Now, I didn’t cut my hair in 8 months and it’s finally GROWING. Yes, it’s damaged tho, but idc because I want LONG hair. When it gets past butt I’ll chop dead ends and I’ll still have long hair. As simple as that
I grow my hair til my family tells me it’s getting to long
I do it once a year😅😅
I have friends that cut their hair once a year and it looks great. It is ALL hype
Short hair = more frequent cuts as growing 1cm when your hairs length is 2cm is very noticeable and the weight has a massive impact on how it holds/shapes.
This is why a lot of guys get their hair cut every 2-4weeks.
Long hair = less frequent cuts, if your hair is long, ie past your shoulders, you need to grow more hair to notice things or have it impact how you style it.
If you have a mix of styles then you are going to have to go in more often to get the short stuff trimmed. Like if you have long hair but also a fringe, or long hair but short sides then those short areas are going to need more maintenance.
I’ve never heard anyone say you need to get your hair cut every 6-8 weeks?? 😭 I just got mine last week and the last time I got a haircut was June 2024 😭
My hair looks healthier when I cut it every 8 weeks. But I go to my friends or sisters for a cut lol.
I can’t stand my hair touching my ears or collar. It also grows like a weed.
I’m 45 and still have all of it so as much of a pain as it is I’ll be in around 6 weeks to get it cut.
Haha yes you’re probably right!
Someone told me to do a cut for every season 🩷
I haven’t cut my hair for 4 years lol
I get my hair trimmed every few weeks to remove damage and maintain my style. You want plain long hair? Don’t cut it.
I prefer to have my hair styled. You do you. It’s your hair. Don’t tell other people what to do with their hair.
I agree with OP. And I used to work in marketing for Pivot Point. I get my hair cut once or twice a year… you can seriously buy a professional shear on Amazon to give yourself minor trims. Also, most women shampoo their hair waaaaay too often. We strip the good stuff with shampoo; immediately try to fix it with conditioner 🤨 It makes no sense. Some folks need to shampoo more, but most of the rest of the planet thinks our beauty indoctrination is weird.
People get their hair cut? /j
My mom used to take my sister and I regularly to get our hair done and then she just..stopped
Even though she goes every five weeks for a cut and color
😐
I cut my hair usually once a year maybe twice if I’m feeling frisky.
I cut my hair every week, but I do it myself like many balding dudes!
Idk man… I went 4 months without a haircut and I looked like shit. But I’m a guy with short hair so…
Cut? Agree!
For those of us who chose the expensive colour life – sadly yes it’s required to go more often 😭
If I don’t get my haircut refreshed in 8 weeks it will outgrow and look fully wrong.
I don’t want to grow them long, I had it before, I don’t want all that maintenance
Hairdressers assume most people use hot tools and colors their hair, because that is what they are being paid to do. If you have a good stylist, and let them know what you do and what you are looking for, they will be honest with you about what you need. I have very curly hair, and I got sick of coloring my grey (white really) and let my stylist know I’d be fine with shaping my hair at home for the most part, but I needed my grey blended in with my old color, and a good haircut so I could have a decent shape to work from. She obliged, and let me know we’d probably have to tone the color again in approx 6 months, and she could reshape it then too, and it would be cheaper then as well bc I’d have more growth, so there would be less delineation from my old color. Yep- makes sense to me.
When I was growing out my shaved head into a pixie year ago, I was told every 4 weeks, and that was accurate too, or it looked like a mushroom. Sometimes I even popped in early. Before the shaved head I had hair almost to my waist, and I just went in for trims when I felt like it, and they didn’t even recommend a return. I used no color, no heat- hair was generally healthy as hell. She just said, “call when you want to come back!” and when I did she’d recommend how much I needed off, never more than an inch or two.
TLDR, a good stylist works with what you have.
Split ends don’t travel upwards.
The reason to trim your hair occasionally is the ends will still take damage over time and the damaged ends will start to stick together, forming tangles. You want to trim so as to avoid this. Yes conditioning helps, but no, it doesn’t necessarily fix the issue completely.
Depending on hair texture this is more of an issue for some than for others.
I feel it also depends on if you have long or short hair.
When I had long hair I didn’t need a cut very often.
Now I have short hair (think like a pixie cut) that it really does need cutting every 6-8 weeks…. The top and sides usually aren’t too bad and I might be able to push it a few weeks longer… But the back…. Dear lord the back. Mullet ! A pixie hair cut with a mullet back. That’s a fashion I hope never makes it big haha
As a guy, I find this interesting. I never get my hair cut .ore than every 2-3 months. But other guys get it cut every 2 – 3 weeks!
6-8 weeks is a reasonable time frame if you intend to keep the style and length it’s currently at.
If you intend to grow your hair out, and keep growing it, there is no point in trimming it every 6-8 weeks. You’d just be cutting off the length you spent so much time and effort growing.
What I personally enjoy doing from time to time, as someone who wants thigh-knee length hair, is do a small dusting every other month, and the search and destroy method if I notice my split ends getting bad. With a small micro trim to even it out. Usually a few centimeters.
So, no, you do not need to trim your hair so often. It usually boils down to preference.
I just learned to use a clippers on my own hair. Kinda fun, looks decent, and free.
I usually have my hair up in a bun so I don’t care about my split ends as much and it I have it down I usually braid it or something, my hair is curly and hard to manage when loose. I only get my hair cut once it’s down to my butt then I get about 7 inches cut so it’s the middle of my back
I haven’t been to a hairdresser in maybe 15 years aside from having them hack my long hair off in favour of a pixie. I assure you me hair isn’t full of splits and whatnot it’s fine
I have a coworker who goes and gets a haircut every couple weeks. And then when he comes back we can’t even tell that the barber even touched his hair
I think the 6-8 weeks recommendation makes sense if you’re trying to keep your hair the same length, but it’s a big old lie to say it makes your hair grow faster.
Hair grows about 1 inch every 8 weeks. It’s not going to get longer if you’re trimming off an inch every 8 weeks too. However, if your ends are unhealthy, then it might look shorter since it’s thinning and straggled at the ends.
I have longish hair. I like it to fall just past my boobs. I usually get it cut once or twice a year, when it’s at my waist or the ends are starting to look unhealthy.
I personally don’t like haircuts though. Small talk while wearing a cape and staring into a mirror is not my idea of fun, so I’m no expert here.
Of course you don’t? If you cut off 2 centimeters every 2 months you are constantly cutting off the regrowth.
Well your just plain fucking wrong my dear.
As a thin haired man, if I don’t shave it weekly I look like a goon.
Glad you admitted your own oversight in another comment. Because yes that is basically my entire point; that was advertised for people constantly putting heat on their hair and dying it. Which has been the trend for a long time. So they probably didn’t even need to really specify in the beginning. But the last few years they have been specifying due to an uptick in healthier hairstyles, less heat, and less hair dying. That last one is probably more due to a recession and pandemic though. People will dye their hair until it’s gone I personally think. I’ve seen it first hand. People bleach it all to hell but refuse heat. We’ll see how the trends continue. lol.