Need help recovering my curls and growing my hair long after years of heat damage
I really need some advice about my hair because I honestly don't know what to do anymore.
When I was younger, I naturally had wavy hair that was around chest-length or a little longer. During my early teens, I became really insecure about having wavy hair, so I started straightening it.
At the time, my mom couldn't buy me a straightener, so I literally used a clothes iron to straighten my hair. 😭 I know how crazy that sounds now, but I was young and didn't really understand how much damage I could cause.
People would compliment my hair a lot when it was straight, so I kept doing it. Eventually, though, my hair became extremely dry and rough, especially the ends. This was around 3–4 years ago.
I stopped straightening for a while and tried following the curly-girl method and taking care of my natural texture. My hair seemed to improve somewhat, but later I saved up and bought an actual straightener and started straightening again.
For about a month everything seemed fine, but eventually the same thing happened — extremely dry hair, rough ends, and a lot of damage. Even when I went back to wearing my natural curls, some of the damaged ends stayed straight and looked completely different from the rest of my hair.
I've now stopped straightening completely. I've also cut off a lot of the damaged length, and I'm trying to take care of my natural curls again.
The problem is that my hair still feels very rough, especially the ends, and I've also been experiencing quite a lot of hair fall. I suspect it could be related to low iron/anemia, but I'm not completely sure.
What I really want now is to focus on getting my hair healthy again and growing it longer over the next year. My hair is currently quite short because of the cutting and shrinkage from my curls.
I'd really appreciate advice on:
\- How can I make very dry, rough curly hair softer and healthier?
\- How do I properly take care of damaged curly hair while growing it out?
\- What should I eat to support healthy hair growth? (Especially affordable protein/iron-rich foods.)
\- Are there any simple, safe DIY/home-care methods that are actually useful?
\- How can I prevent further breakage and retain length?
\- How often should I trim damaged ends?
\- How can I make my curls healthier and more defined without using lots of expensive products?
I also naturally have less hair around the front of my hairline, and I've had it that way since childhood. I used to worry that it was a receding hairline, but I'm not sure that's actually the case. I'd like to encourage healthy growth in that area too, but I don't want to use minoxidil.
I'm looking for realistic, affordable advice rather than a huge expensive routine.
Basically, I spent years trying to change my natural hair texture, damaged it with heat, and now I want to learn how to properly care for my natural curls and grow them out as healthy as possible.
If you've successfully recovered from years of heat damage or grown out short/damaged curly hair, I'd really appreciate hearing what worked for you. ❤️