I really don't know how to describe how damaged my hair is, and the pictures don't even come close to showing the actual damage.

It's so poofy and dry and frizzy, especially at the bottom. I don't ever really use heat (I straighten it like once a year)

But it has so many split ends, and it just looks so wild and feels so dry.

It used to be super curly but now I'm older and it's just a mixture of limp waves with a few decent curls here and there.

It's also super thick and I can run my hands down it and pull out an entire wig at any point in time, seriously, my blankets might as well be made out of my hair because it's just everywhere. I can run my hand across my blanket and pick up a whole handful of hair.

So much hair falls out in the shower I feel like chewbaca cause it gets stuck all over me.

It's so gross.

I used to love my hair, I don't know what happened. I haven't even dyed it in so long.

But I'm at the point of wanting to shave it all off (but I could never, cause I would look so ugly 😂😭)

I've tried so many hair products and conditioners, but I can't afford to get it cut or fixed for me.

I just want it to be smooth and soft and pretty.

It really takes a toll on how I see myself.

Is there any advice I can use that I maybe haven't thought of yet?

I've tried so much, but yet it always looks the same.

If I brush it, it just Poof's up even worse and gets more frizzy.

I don't use shampoo very often cause I was suggested to try the curly girl method, still no luck.

Basically it only looks good if it's wet, and I can't just live with wet hair 24/7.

It also looks and feels so nice when I straighten it, so I want to do it all the time, but I don't want to make it worse so I just leave it be and keep trying new things to no avail.

I really want to cut the ends myself and see if it looks any better but I'm terrified I'll mess it up, and then it'll be exactly the same but with an uneven cut

Please help me 😭

ETA: my friend took me to saloncentric a while back to get me wide tooth combs and such cause I just had a normal brush and she said it would help.

While there, one of the ladies working there was telling me that if your hair like breaks off in short pieces its most likely chemical damage from dye etc, but if it's long full strands of hair falling out then it's usually from stress.

Is that true?

Cause if that's the case then I must not realize how stressed I've been, I feel like I should be bald by now with how much my hair has been falling out by the handfuls in full strands and not just breaking off in pieces