A lot of people are afraid of getting trims but they are so important! It helps to maintain the health of your hair and get rid of damaged ends. It is important to find a stylist that you trust to trim your hair every so often.
People tend to shy away from getting trims because they dont want to end up cutting off too much hair. But the reality is when you wait too long to get your hair trimmed you actually end up having to cut off more than you need to. This is because our hair naturally accumulates split ends. This is due to the ends of our hair becoming "old" and weak. When we dont trim those split ends, the "split" continues to run up the hair shaft resulting in more split ends.
Find a stylist you trust, someone who is good with natural hair to trim your hair. It is not completely necessary to straighten/flat-iron your hair in order to trim it. Some stylists can trim your hair in it's natural state or when it is stretched. Make sure you express to your stylist that you only want a trim to avoid them from becoming scissor happy.