:) Hi,
    I have long dark blonde/light brown hair. Its about 3-4 inches past my waist . It  is pretty fine and even more so since I had my hair braided while in Cancun in October. When I removed the braids I lost alot of hair. I have alot of breakage at the hairline and It doesnt seem to be growing back. It looks really bad when my hair is pulled back. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get my hair healthy like it was before. I was so stupid to do this but oh well to late now. I really learn alot from this board. My fiance loves checking out these boards too as he is totally infatuated with long hair and after reading others comments I guess there are alot of other guys out there who feel the same as he does. Keep up the posts everyone. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Colleen :D

Oh, you poor thing.  So many people don't realize how hard small braids can be on your hair.

I think my free Ultimate Guide to Growing Long Hair might be of some help.  You can find it at the URL below:

http://www.longlocks.com/how-to-grow-long-hair.htm

Please keep us updated on your progress!  :)

How sad that you suffered damage from the braids.  Rapunzel's listing of how to grow beautiful, long hair has excellent suggestions.  I would recommend following all of them!  In addition to that list, I might suggest considering taking a good multi-vitamin and add MSM, Biotin and Silica supplements to encourage new, healthy growth.

Be patient and you can have beautiful hair again!

When I started growing my hair after the *big cut*, it was only shoulder length. Now it's 1-2 inches past the bottom of my bra strap. I don't usually look at my ends, because I tie my hair up a lot especially in the hot weather, but I noticed today as I was combing my hair out tonight that my ends are very dry. I don't know why! I trim my hair often and I deep condition it every week, and condition it for 5 minutes every time I wash it. My conditioner is very strong and leaves most of my hair moisturized... except the ends! The dye is not on the ends anymore so it can't be that. When my hair was hip-length it was never dry and I didn't even use conditioner... ever! I don't know what to do  :'(!

I heard somewhere that if your hair is frizzy, you can put your normal conditioner (not leave-in) on the frizzy bits and it will help control frizz. My hair frizzes only when it's damaged so the bottom is a bit frizzy, and today I put the conditioner. I'm hoping if I do this often it will help the dry ends (thank goodness they're not splitting! Keeping my fingers crossed), but does anyone else have any other suggestions?

Depending on what types of conditioners you are using, you could be over conditioning.  Too much protien type conditioners can dry some types of hair.  A good clarifying shampoo or vinegar rinse can help with this.

I use clarifying shampoo every time I wash my hair, because I only wash my hair once a week now and it tends to get slightly oily. Also since I am washing it once a week I am leaving the conditioner overnight on that day. I'm not sure what the ingredients of my conditioner are because they are all in Thai  :-[! Anyway, what exactly does vinegar rinse do, and do I mix the vinegar with anything? Or pour some on my head and then wash it out with shampoo?

I think vinegar rinse is working the same way a clarifying shampoo does-removing build up from the hair.But if you are already using this shampoo,you won´t need vinegar rinses anymore.I personally don´t like vinegar rinses all that much,they leave my hair very dry and flyaway :P
For Colleen:All the others have already made great suggestions,for me ,leaving hair alone as much as possible(updos!!)and regular deep conditioning treatments(with for example Biolage Cond.,Alterna Caviar Cond. ,or something I recently discovered :Kenra Intensive Emollient Cond.)has made all the difference .
And,of course,Hair vitamins+MSM