Man that slow creep is the worst feeling in the world, just a total gut punch. Good on you for shutting it down and double checking, that's the only right move. I've totally been there with the frame reading level but the ground still settling, it's sneaky. Letting the weight sit for a bit before the final check is such a crucial step that's easy to rush.

Game changer" feels like a stretch for a watch.

That "felt like straw" part is what gets me. Once it gets to that point, even deep conditioners just sit on top of the hair. It's like trying to moisturize a dead leaf. I've seen people, like your cousin @singh.elizabeth, then try to dye over the damage to fix the orange, but it just turns a weird muddy color because the hair can't hold pigment right. It becomes a cycle of trying to fix the last mistake. Honestly, sometimes the only real fix is a big chop to get rid of all the broken bits.

My Gyokucho saw made me actually enjoy cutting joinery.

Learned that lesson changing my own brakes last year. Skipped cleaning the hub surface because it looked fine, ended with a nasty vibration at highway speed. Had to take everything apart again and scrub it down with a wire brush. Now I follow the whole process step by step, even the boring prep work. That extra ten minutes saves a huge headache later.