Growing out a pixie cut without trims can be tricky. How can you style your hair during that awkward “in-between” stage? Here’s my experience — I hope it helps you as you grow out your hair!
Throw the Awkward Stage Out the Window
I chopped my hair off one Labor Day Weekend after being fed up with being a platinum blonde. I decided to go on a quest to go back to my roots and stop coloring my hair completely. That’s right. After building my reputation as a stylist around my skill for hair color and my own Barbie blond locks, I was going to go all-natural.
Even though I knew that meant I’d be (gasp!) a brunette. After a solid seven months with an ultra-short pixie, I found myself with my natural hair color and a desire to change again. When you have a pixie, the only option other than growing it out is shaving it off, and that wasn’t on my radar.
If there’s one thing I refused to have during the growing of my beloved pixie cut, it was awkward hair. I was not going to look like I was a snip away from a mullet or something Miley Cyrus might dream up.
So, the first step in successfully growing out any short haircut is to find a hairstylist that you can trust. Someone that will take your growing hair out goal seriously and understands how to transition a haircut from pixie to a bob to wherever your heart desires without the dreaded awkward stage.
It’s not rocket science, but a skilled stylist that understands hair growth patterns and how to properly shape hair for optimal growth is essential. Think about it. It just takes one bad haircut to set you back months in the hair-growing process.
Speeding Up the Hair Growing Process
I have the patience of a hungry toddler, and my hair grows at a snail’s pace. I’ve always been envious of people that chop their hair and can grow it out in a matter of months. I’m lucky if my hair grows an average of 1/2″ per month. I know because I’ve measured. I was more than interested in learning ways to speed up my own hair growth.
I already make a habit of some of the recommendations for faster hair growth, like taking vitamins, taking really great care of my scalp, eating a hair-healthy diet, and not coloring my hair.
Even doing all that, the hair on my head grows incredibly slowly. I wish that random hair on my chin and my leg hair would pass along a memo on growing faster, but since that was unlikely, I looked for a different solution.
On the recommendation of my stylist, I decided to give F.A.S.T. Shampoo and Conditioner a try. F.A.S.T. by Nisim is designed to feed your hair and scalp the hair-building proteins and nutrients it needs for optimal growth. I was pleased with my results from using F.A.S.T., and you can check out a full review of the product here.
Six Months Later: Important Hair Growing Tips
Like I said, growing hair out can be a slow, almost painful process, but I felt like I was finally getting somewhere six months later. While my hair was still short, it was a much longer crop cut. I continued to use F.A.S.T. Shampoo (Fortified Amino Scalp Therapy Shampoo) and Conditioner until this point (I stopped because I didn’t want to continue using the product during the dry winter months). During the winter, I took extra care to deep condition my hair often to ensure that my ends didn’t get brittle and broken and slow my progress.
Coconut oil is my favorite deep conditioning (and longest-lasting) treatment.
Believe it or not, the other tip for getting the best results is to get your hair cut regularly. During the first six months, I visited my stylist every six to eight weeks to keep everything neat and prevent my hair from spontaneously turning into a mullet or some kind of awful shag.
During this time, our focus was keeping the back short while the top and sides were allowed to grow into a nice shape and catch up with the back. This is truly essential for not having an awkward hair shape while growing your hair out.
Have Fun While Growing Your Pixie Cut
I think the best advice I can give you while growing your hair out is to have fun with it, no matter the length. I got compliments while growing my hair out at every stage in the process. I learned a lot of styling techniques with various lengths of hair. I learned how hair products worked differently on my hair at different lengths. I learned that I didn’t have to have long “updo-worthy hair” to have fancy hair.
In this photo (which was taken approximately 8 months after I started growing my pixie haircut out), I used some of these tips to give myself a pompadour during a trip to Las Vegas. I loved my hair like this, and even though I probably wouldn’t have picked this exact haircut out of a magazine, I rocked the cut and enjoyed it while it lasted.
Nine Months Later: It’s a Bob!
It took almost exactly nine months before I really felt like my hair was starting to take on a bob shape. Did I mention that my hair grows painfully slowly? I think I did. I remember on this day when I left the salon, nine months after I decided to grow my pixie cut out, I felt like my hair had taken on a new bob shape, and I was thrilled. At this point, I was able to extend my haircut appointments from every seven weeks to every ten weeks, as the shape didn’t come undone as quickly, and it allowed my hair to grow more between salon visits.
One Year Down, Forever to Go
Hitting the one-year mark of growing my hair out seemed to take an eternity rather than twelve months. Considering that my hair was approximately 2″ in length at its longest point when I started, I guess I shouldn’t complain. I continued to play with style and texture. At this length, adding curl didn’t look as awkward, and flipping my hair out (like this photo illustrates) gave the illusion that my hair was longer.
The only complaint I really had with my hair at this length was that it was too short to put in a ponytail and drove me absolutely crazy at the gym. I used a lot of hairpin clips and headbands.
Hitting Big Milestones: the Pony & the Braid
I was able to pull my hair into a ponytail without the aid of clips and pins after growing my hair for 15 months, and I could successfully french braid my hair at around 17 months. These were both really momentous days for me and meant that I no longer had to deal with hair on my face, although both styles, at this point, are more functional than fashionable.
I’m still keeping my hair color completely natural, and I love the fact that I’m often accused of highlighting my hair.
The natural color is much lighter than I had imagined and has a ton of great blond highlights, most of which have been brightened by time in the sun. When those highlights turn silver, I’ll likely rethink my stance on coloring my hair, but for now, I absolutely love not having to deal with the maintenance of hair color.
How do you Grow Out a Pixie Without Trims?
Growing out a pixie cut without trims is not possible, as split ends need to be eliminated to encourage hair growth. However, there are ways to grow out a pixie cut while minimizing the number of trims needed. Here are some tips from the search results:
- Patience: Growing out a pixie cut without trims requires patience, as the shape of the cut will disappear.
- Promote hair growth: Follow basic rules to encourage faster hair growth, such as eating a healthy diet, taking vitamins, and avoiding heat styling tools.
- Get regular trims: Try to get a trim every eight to ten weeks to avoid split ends and maintain the shape while growing it out.
- Be creative with styling: Experiment with different hairstyles and accessories to make the growing-out phase more manageable.
- Consider a gradual transition: Transitioning from a pixie cut to a bob or longer style will take time and adjustments. On average, hair grows about half an inch per month, so growing out a pixie cut into a medium bob will take from 6 months to a year, depending on the starting length.
While growing out a pixie cut without trims is not possible, following these tips can help minimize the number of trims needed and make the growing-out phase more manageable.
Ready to transition from a pixie cut but dread the awkward in-between stages? Watch this YouTube video on Growing Out A Pixie Cut Hairstyles Without Trims and discover a step-by-step guide to effortlessly stylish growth without a single trim!
What do you think about the pixie haircut? Is it a style you would try? Share your opinion here.
Iskra Banović is our seasoned Editor-in-Chief at BlueFashion. She has been steering the website’s content and editorial direction since 2013. With a rich background in fashion design, Iskra’s expertise spans across fashion, interior design, beauty, lifestyle, travel, and culture.
