Chop Chop

Dear Amalah,

I have a hair dilemma that I could use some help with. I have the kind of hair that stylists love (very, very, thick, lots of natural curl but straightens pretty well, lots of shine) but can be pretty hard to manage day-to-day when it’s long. I have always kept it pretty short-about chin length- with lots of layers to manage the thickness and make it easy to blow out. But I started growing it out for my wedding last summer and have decided to keep growing it so it can be donated.

So, two dilemmas- I am trimming my hair pretty regularly so that when Locks of Love gets my hair they don’t say “what is this bundle of straw someone sent us?”, and still going to my usual stylist for the trims. While she’s worth every penny for my old and elaborate cute short layery cuts, I feel pretty silly shelling out fifty bucks for a 1/4″ trim. Will the Hair Cuttery or MasterCuts or some other weird strip-mall salon totally ruin my hair? It seems like a pretty straightforward thing to do, but since I have so much hair I’m worried they’ll mess it up. Thoughts?

Second, I think I need a really great deep conditioner to manage such thick dry hair at this length, and I’m hoping to spend around $15-ish dollars? if at all possible. I’m hoping for something that will make dry ends look less so when blown out and control the frizz when I leave it curly. Any recommendations?

Thanks!
L

Any time you try a new stylist — whether they charge $50 or $15 — there’s a risk they might screw up your hair. At the Hair Cuttery you run the risk of getting someone who can’t cut a straight line (happened to me on several occasions, back when I used cheap shampoo and got cheaps cuts and wondered why my hair always looked like ass), but at a more expensive place you might get someone who doesn’t listen — someone who doesn’t care that you’re growing your hair out and decides to cut layers you don’t want, because They Are God’s Gift To Hair.

With your hair type, though, the chance of a bad trim really screwing things up is pretty slim. Thick, curly and long hair covers a multitude of scissor sins fairly easily. My hair is fine and straight but very, very long, and even though I hastily chopped three inches of ratty dead ends off myself on Friday (!!), you can’t really tell that I didn’t cut the straightest of lines. It’s not great, like at all, but it will buy me some time while my stylist is on vacation. (I am Queen of Bad Hair Appointment Timing, since I always wait too long to call the salon, and if I can’t get an appointment immediately, I’m pretty much screwed and have to wear a hat in the meantime.)

Not great, but SO MUCH BETTER than the “before” picture, which thankfully, does not exist.

There are plenty of stylists at the walk-in places who are perfectly capable of giving you a good trim. And there are probably a few who aren’t, but hopefully it won’t be that noticeable. Just be really clear on the 1/4 inch request, be ready to yelp if they appear to be cutting more. And a crooked trim can be fixed in your bathroom at home, with a little help from your husband or a friend.

And if you haven’t already, you might want to nicely ask your regular stylist for a price break — maybe offer to show up with wet hair and skip the blowdry. Some salons have a lower price point for trims, but some don’t. But it doesn’t hurt, as a loyal regular, to ask.

As for the conditioner question, you can see my list of recommendations here — and the Wella Deep Treatment is $15 exactly. (Although the Kiehl’s is $10 more for an additional 3 ounces of product, and I think it’s definitely worth it.) Our intrepid commenters have other recommendations there too.

You might also want to consider a tonic or leave-in conditioner to further fight the frizz, since blowdrying hair straight is a really harsh thing to be doing everyday. Rubbing a little of BedHead’s Ego Boost on the bottom inch of so of your hair will help those dry ends, while Fast Fixx (no longer available) or B&B Tonic will help fight the frizz.