New here with SLOW growing hair

Thank you everyone for the advice.

I don't usually trim my hair, maybe once a year at most.
I don't eat well and am trying to work on that, and am starting to take vitamins to help in that area. I think I am going to have to go through my hair and selectivley trim the damaged hairs. I am using artecs new texture cream and that does seem to help the appearance atleast.

In the week I have switched from panteen to artec smoothing I can see a huge diference in the appearance of my hair.

I am trying to be super gentle and bought a wide tooth comb and boar bristle brush and am getting up earlier so I don't rush my hair care :)

Thank you everyone for your support. I will post a pic soon.

By the way, on the topic of avoiding split ends, Susan W, I have been using your advice on the metal barettes, and it´s so great. Suddenly, I have a couple of new hairstyles!

Thank you!

Some people have problems with conditioners that have lots of silicones in them. Pantene is chock full of them. (When you read the ingredients of your conditioner, they will be any word that ends in "cone"). They can bind to your hair making it feel very nice, but after awhile they're binding seems to break off, and it can break your hair off with it. It could be these heavy silicone products are causing your breakage. Some shampoos and conditioners that have less of that stuff in them are "Avalon" and "Natures Gate". Avalon I can get at the GNC store, the other at the organic foods store (or online).

Also as said above, you have to keep the splits in check or they will just break off, and if you hear popping sounds when you brush or comb it, you're breaking it off yourself and you must start at the bottom and be more gentle.

So what I'm saying is, maybe its growing, but if its breaking off at too high a rate, you would never see any growth. If in fact, it really isn't growing, it may be that you're just in a slow growth phase right now, which happens, and can take a long time to end. But that too will pass, and it will grow again.

Welcome to the forum, Maraga. It seems like you are already quite a ways on your way to a really long mane. It must be lovely to have naturally red hair.

As far as advice goes, I´m no expert on the very fine hair, mine is typical central european = medium everything. But all the general things apply: gentle combing, gentle cleaning, conditioning, etc. There are lots of threads about that that you can explore, and articles on this website. And, there is a special forum here about the fine hair, which might be worth checking out.

Sensitive scalp is a tricky condition, I´m personally always struggling with it. I have just started with a clay wash, as an alternative to ordinary schampoo, but how it affects the hair long term I will not be able to say for many months yet. My doctor says: the more ingredients a schampoo has, the more trouble it is likely to give you. And, "natural" is not always the same as "gentle on your hair" or "good for sensitive skin". Often, it is quite the opposite.

I hope you will enjoy participating here!