So, I've always had long hair. However, in recent years, my hair seems to be getting shorter somehow, and it's freaking me out and making me upset since I have long hair for very personal reasons. I hadn't trimmed it in years, thinking it would just stay long and keep growing. It used to be down to my mid/lower back a few years ago. Now it rests on the top of my boobs. I literally don't know why it's gotten shorter. I just trimmed an inch off it tonight (it was very dry and unhealthy looking) for the first time in years, since I've heard that helps, but it doesn't make sense to me.

I'm wondering if my 'shrinking' hair is a result of the vegetarian diet I started about 3 years ago. :| Or otherwise emotional stress.

Are there special vitamins or something I could be taking? I have never dyed my hair, don't use a blow dryer, and don't use a straightener. My hair is fairly thin, and unfortunately oily, but I wash and condition it daily.

It might be partially due to your diet; I've heard a lack of protein can result in hair loss. My mom just said that B12 vitamins or Zinc might help. Trimming the ends does help, too. Maybe try the supplements and see if it changes the feel of your hair, and cut off a quarter an inch off the ends every three weeks to a month and see if it helps? Hope you get it worked out!

Thank you for your advice. :) I try to get a lot of protein, but maybe I should start putting MOAR cheese on things haha. Maybe the quantity or quality of protein from dairy/legumes is different somehow. I just started taking vitamins again and always look for ones with B12, but I'll start looking into Zinc as well. Thanks again!

No big! I'm sorry I couldn't offer more substantial advice; I'm not a vegetarian, so I can only say what I've heard. XD I do hope you figure something out, though! I've long since given up on having long hair. /lazy

Washing/conditioning your hair daily (unless it's absolutely necessary aka it gets too oily to bear) can actually be damaging to your hair because it strips the natural oils. The girls at the makeup forum I hang at say that prenatal vitamins help your hair (and nails) grow faster but if you're iffy over that, biotin should work as well. I've never taken either though.

You can also shop around for hair masks that you can use once every week or two that will deep condition your hair. I use this one (it's cheaper on Amazon) every 2-3 weeks and my hair is super glossy for the first time in years and hasn't had any split ends even though I still dye and bleach my hair all the time.

I might look into biotin. I think I'll probably skip the prenatal vitamins only because I'm already on birth control for hormonal issues and feel iffy on taking those alongside the pill.

The thing with washing and conditioning was that I washed and conditioned every day back when my hair was a good length. I could perhaps try only conditioning it (no conditioner=snarl city), and use the shampoo every couple of days instead of every day.

I'll look into a deep conditioning mask! :D Sounds like it would be fun to try either way.

yeah, that would probably be a strange thing to do haha. If there are any GNCs near you I'm sure one of the salespeople would be able to help or recommend additional vitamins and such you could take.

co-washing is actually a trend right now and I hear that the cheaper conditioners work best (the ones without silicones). what shampoo/conditioner do you use? You might want to switch over to something sulfate free - the Organix line is fab and they're 25-50% off every month or two at drug/grocery/beauty stores so you never have to pay full price. I use their macadamia line but my mother uses the brazilian keratin one and she likes it more than the macadamia.

If you don't have a lot of time to put into deep conditioning (since some of them require heat and for you to sit around with it in for 2 hours), there are some that you leave in for only 5-10 minutes that work really well too. Organix also makes a bunch of different masks.

I actually do know the location of a vitamin store. I always used to make fun of it, but now maybe I should go in there. :P (I only made fun of it because the building itself is enormous and only sells vitamins wtf)

I'm currently using conditioner from the dollar store /slinks away. It comes in a green bottle and says Salon on it I think? I'll look around for sulfate free stuff though. We generally get Suave too, I just happen to be on this dollar-store Salon kick. I'm going to keep Organix in mind! Hopefully they are kind of cheap.

Hair in general should be trimmed to keep it healthy. If it looks unhealthy, and you haven't cut any off in years, yeah, you need that trim. That for one thing is the only way to get rid of split ends. You can never 'mend' them back together, they can however continue to grow and just get worse. Damaged lengths don't repair easy, and leaving them on is like leaving dead old leaves on a plant. It doesn't benefit the plant.

If you're concerned about your diet go look up some natural health and figure out for your age, gender, and weight, what you need. Every body needs certain nutrients to live at its optimal. Then look at your diet and find out the facts of what you're eating. You can harm yourself both by not getting enough, or getting too much of something. And it can definitely affect your hair. Hair and nails among other things are one of the easiest ways to see when you are not healthy.

If you see needs for adjustment, figure out the best and easiest way to do so, and do so. Sometimes it's eating more of something and other times it is a supplement. Filling the voids certainly stopped the colds I constantly had.

So it's breakage that caused it to shorten? Because I don't know what else could cause that severe a shrink in hair. Unless it's curly. Keep trimming it, basically, as it grows. Because if it is breaking off, that's the only surefire way to keep the ends undamaged as it grows. If you find it's driving you crazy, you could always dye your hair a slightly different colour so that you see that the roots are growing at least!

Would be better if you didn't wash it everyday, but obviously if it's really oily you're not going to want to go around with greasy hair. Just only apply shampoo to the scalp, and conditioner only to the ends, and don't roughly towel dry it like some people do.

I don't know about diet. I've got an awful diet and my hair grows really fast - I do eat a lot of meat though, it's probably just vitamins I'm lacking.

lmao I would make fun of it too. The last time I went to GNC the guy judged me because I was buying caffeine pills but they're also a current weight loss trend (wtf just eat properly and exercise, there is no EASY way) ugh I JUST NEED TO STAY AWAKE OK.

That should be a great conditioner to co-wash with though! Keep in mind that your hair may feel kind of weird if you wash it with only conditioner. Some people don't mind it, others hate it. Organix is $8/bottle (13 oz) full price, but I rarely pay over $3.50-4 because it's always on sale at Walgreens or Krogers/HEB, which I find a reasonable price.

Thank you for your advice. I'm pretty careful about my diet, but I'll have to look into it more closely specifically for hair and nail nutrients. I do plan on asking my doctor about all this the next time I see her, but that won't be for a while, sadly. I wanted to ask her at my last appointment but I completely forgot since I had something more important to discuss. Thanks again. :)

My hair is naturally straight with a slight wave/bounce to it, but not curly, which is why I'm concerned it's shrinking. Ha, I was actually thinking about dying my hair red for the new year and figured I could truly see whether or not my hair was growing by the root color. :P Maybe it has been growing but it's so fragile at the bottom it just keeps splitting from the dead ends and falling off? I was briefly reading something saying that split ends can travel up the hair shaft and cause breakage. Thank you for the tip on conditioning only the end and just washing the scalp. I definitely can't go without some kind of washing, so that sounds like a good compromise. I think I'll try it today, in fact.

YESS I can keep using my dollar store conditioner! It comes in a huge bottle so you get so much for your dollar omg~ I think I'm going to try Volga's tip above to just condition the ends and wash only my scalp. Previously I'd scrunch all my hair up on top of my head and wash everything.

:D yay! That's a pretty good tip too. And yeah, split ends actually can get pretty huge, it's scary really. The first time I ever had my hair bleached (professionally too), it fried my hair and there were literally 1-2 inch long splits in my ends and they would just snap off when I ran my hands through my hair. I ended up having to cut about 6 inches off.

I can't even imagine cutting 6 inches off, I'd probably cry. x.x I'm hoping my trim yesterday will begin the cycle of healthier hair again, since when my hair used to grow, I'd get regular trims. Some of my split ends were split like 3 or 4 times on one hair. x.x

I was pretty upset. I went from having boob length hair (is there a non-awkward way to describe that length?) to chin length. I hated it and I couldn't do anything to it except cut it shorter and shorter, at one point I ended up with a standard dude haircut ugh that was terrible NEVER AGAIN. Multiple split ends are so sad.

OH, also, don't bother with products that claim to heal split ends because that's impossible. The most they can do is "seal" them but they're still there and all that's really changed is that your wallet is a lot lighter.

Actually you need to trim your hair at least every 3 months to help it grow. The ends will start getting split, and will break off and that's probably why it's getting shorter. You need to get it cut so that the ends are nice and new. Also, never blow drying your hair or straightening or using any heat products on it really helps it to grow.

Thank you! Like I said, I finally gave it a little trim, so hopefully that will set me back on the right track. :) I'm going to keep in mind what you said about the 3 month time interval.

I'm a vegetarian and have hair just at ass-crack length. But when you're not eating healthy and it starts to die, all those ends just break off. Washing it, brushing it, touching it. It's too brittle to handle any of it. Just work on your vegetarian diet if you think that's part of the problem, and vitamin pills. There are nail/hair strengthening pills too.

As someone else said, condition only the bottom half of your hair and nowhere near you scalp. Only use shampoo on your scalp or it will be more oily. Also don't wash your hair every day with shampoo, some people just condition it every day and use shampoo every second day if the need is there. Are your showers hot? If you have a really hot shower that will damage your hair (I think its why mine is getting damaged). When you towel dry your hair be gentle and dont attack it with the towel (some people do lol). Uum.. Also B vitamins are good for your hair so consider tablets or something or eat more things that have B vitamins. Is your hair out in the sun a lot? If so wear a hat because I'm pretty sure sun damages it. If you swim, wet your hair before you swim or better yet wear a swimming hat to prevent chlorine getting in it.

Regular trims are good too :)...

Thank you for your advice! I've already started to avoid conditioning my scalp, just to see how that goes. And I'll see about shampooing every other day, but I really do need to do something about the oiliness. My showers usually are pretty hot but I have issues with being chronically cold all the time, and sometimes those showers are literally my only break from not shivering haha. I'll keep B vitamins in mind, thanks!