Despair, Distraction, Protein

This happened to me in December—a somewhat routine big chop gone horribly wrong, ended up with essentially an undercut and scraggly, uneven bob-pixie mess. No matter how bad yours is, take solace that I am CERTAIN it’s not worse than mine was (not a competition! A promise that there’s someone out there who looks worse than you 🤚 I will even include a pic of how it looked the night of the chip with this so you can feel good about how much worse it can be!)

Start by letting yourself feel it, cry it out, don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t matter. My hair is my whole personality, so I get the pain. But then, after you’ve done some despairing, buy some pretty silk scarves and learn fun ways to cover it up. Embrace the fact that it’s still roasting hot by tossing on a baseball cap. Put your faith in a half up/half down look—it completely changes the game and obscures a lot of damage. Lean into a fun makeup look or experiment with bolder clothes to give yourself something else aesthetic to focus on and feel good about, and to draw attention elsewhere. And don’t fall for scams that tell you they can help make your hair grow faster. As far as my research demonstrated to me, staying diligent with protein is the ONLY thing for optimum growth speed (as opposed to supplements that give you growth in more locations).

I eventually went to another stylist to get the look fixed, but I had to wait a couple months to even have enough to even it out. In the end, no one looks as closely at your hair as you do, so give them something fun—in your clothes, makeup, accessories—to look at instead. IT WILL GROW!!! (A mantra I am still reciting to myself every morning as I miss my old hair, but it’s getting better every day.)