My already thin/fine hair is absolutely abysmal 1.8 years postpartum and it makes me feel hideous
My hair has always been thin and fine, but I am devastated with how it looks now. I am a year and 8 months postpartum and my hair has never felt thinner or finer. I was looking through photos of me even last year when my hair was bleached blonde and it looked so much fuller than what I have now. For reference, pictures one through six are photos of my hair now with no extensions, picture seven is my hair with one row of hand-tied extensions that I feel are necessary for me to feel even a little bit good about how my hair looks. Photo nine is my hair while pregnant, and photo 10 and 11 are photos taken last year after I had bleached/colored it.
My hair has gotten so bad that I’ve completely restarted my hair routine to desperately try and improve the state of it. This is my routine that I started a month ago when I finally reached my breaking point:
- only wash hair every three days
- topical Minoxidil every morning and night
- rosemary oil with mint oil as a hair mask on scalp and ends on hair wash day, leave in for the full day until I wash
- use scalp brush to massage rosemary oil into hair in shower
- double cleanse with shampoo
- let hair dry slightly in microfiber towel after shower
- only blow dry on low warm heat with heat protectant
- only curl hair once a week for work, always with heat protectant before
- leave-in conditioner twice a week
- nightly folic acid supplement
- sleep in two loose braids, silk pillowcase
- using Amika shampoo and conditioner on wash days, Amika hair styling oil on ends of hair afterwards and throughout the week as needed
I was already doing a few of these things before I reached my breaking point, but now I’ve gotten very strict with my routine. I’m just at a loss with what I should do moving forward, I feel so ugly all the time. I don’t want to rely on hair extensions to thicken the appearance of my hair for the rest of my life but that feels like the only viable option now. I do want to mention that I’ve noticed a decent amount of new growth over the past month, but I don’t know if my hair can ever actually appear fuller at this point.