I Cut Off 1 inch Because....

[Lucille]

I could not be bothered to do 'search and destroy'

1) My hair is not that long.. so I can't see err'thang that's going up in thurr

2) Looking at each and every strand is just too tedious for me.

3) I don't trust hairdressers

I'm thinking about purchasing the split ender

Would it be worth it?

Any other tips when it comes to trimming, please do share.

TIA

 

[Nerdstruck]

I have...never even heard of the split ender before. Judging from that advertisement I can see why lol.

Tip: You can just do dusting instead of trimming. I don't trim but I do dust. Less inches comes off that way. I doubt your hair (depending on your practices) is so messed up that a whole inch is necessary.

 

[Nina_1987]

Good for you! I went to a hair stylist for a trim and she cut 4 1/2 inches of my hair off! I know there wasn't that much damage. It'll grow back but I'll never get a trim there again.

 

[AlwaysNatural]

I'm actually gonna do the same thing and ironically thinking the same. I dont trust hairdressers and I manually couldn't do it, so I'm gonna keep this sew in until it comes in the mail.

 

[NaturalBeauty<3]

Lots of our members use the split ender..., I heard it works pretty well. NJoy is the first that comes to mind.

 

[NJoy]

Yep. I bought one last year and used it a few times. It does what it says. You definitely see 1/8 to 1/4 inch pieces cut off your ends but, you don't even notice the difference in length. But the ends are freshly cut and nips splits in the bud. My ends stayed in perfect condition.

Plus, with my layered hair, how could I S&D the back? Splitender.

That said, I plan to use mine tonight.

 

[greenandchic]

Could this be used on hair that's blown out, or does it need to be completely straight?

 

[Lucille]

Thanks for the feedback Ladies

NJoy - How often do you use it?

 

[LilMissSunshine5]

NJoy- Does the hair need to be flatironed straight to have the SplitEnder work well? I have been eyeing this for a year and thinking in the next six months, I need to take the plunge because I am having nightmares about a stylist cutting off too much It has been a year since I have gone to a stylist for a flatiron and trim and I am doing it at the end of the month for the reveal...I am terrified

 

[NJoy]

@NJoy- Does the hair need to be flatironed straight to have the SplitEnder work well? I have been eyeing this for a year and thinking in the next six months, I need to take the plunge because I am having nightmares about a stylist cutting off too much It has been a year since I have gone to a stylist for a flatiron and trim and I am doing it at the end of the month for the reveal...I am terrified

LilMissSunshine5

Yeah, I think you'd have to make sure the hair is straight because it will cut whatever pops up. Theoretically, a curl could pop up and get cut mid strand.

I only use it on the last few inches of my hair and I use it whenever my hair is straight. And since my ends are bonelaxed, I can get those to flatten fairly easily. So, yeah, I do have to have straight ends but, I feel more comfortable than trusting someone else to trim.

 

[ms.blue]

NJoy, Will it cut the ssks?

 

[NJoy]

@NJoy, Will it cut the ssks?

ms.blue

I'm not sure about that, since I wasn't having any issues with ssk. But, again, it will cut whatever pops up.

Am I clear on what I mean by that? Is there an illustration on that site? It's just like when you thread your hair through your fingers so that you cut whatever pops up instead of sliding smoothly through the fingers.

Same thing. When splits or your ends pass thru, they're cut. If the ssk isn't big enough to pop up near the cutting blade (approx 1/8"), then it will pass thru without being cut. But, if they're on the ends, they'll surely get cut.

But again, I don't have experience with ssk and the splitender. sawwy.

 

[LilMissSunshine5]

Thanks @NJoy! I was thinking a blow out wouldn't be straight enough, but I don't mind flatironing my hair 2-3x/year to trim myself I gotta save up to purchase it though Since going natural, I am very concerned about whether to trim wet or dry...stylists say they can do both, but I don't believe them and think they will take off too much hair wet I will just do a dry trim myself with this and I won't have to worry about them heat damaging or cutting too much off my hair! It's a win-win Thanks for the quick feedback!

OT: How much of your hair is bonelaxed versus texlaxed?

 

[classoohfive]

Yep. I bought one last year and used it a few times. It does what it says. You definitely see 1/8 to 1/4 inch pieces cut off your ends but, you don't even notice the difference in length. But the ends are freshly cut and nips splits in the bud. My ends stayed in perfect condition.

Plus, with my layered hair, how could I S&D the back? Splitender.

That said, I plan to use mine tonight.

I used to rely on S&D and while I knew it wasn't perfect, I couldn't do much in the back at all. At least with the SplitEnder I know I'm getting most of them. Like you said, you don't notice a difference in length but you notice a difference in how your hair feels.

I could have sworn I've seen YouTube videos of naturals using it. Your hair can't be curly. I'm texlaxed and for me it doesn't trim my hair when it's not straight enough, I just can't run the device down and stop as soon as I feel a pull. I think some people wrap or rollerset if they don't want to flat iron. Personally I do it when I flat iron since I'm dividing my hair into sections anyway.

 

[NJoy]

Thanks @NJoy! I was thinking a blow out wouldn't be straight enough, but I don't mind flatironing my hair 2-3x/year to trim myself I gotta save up to purchase it though Since going natural, I am very concerned about whether to trim wet or dry...stylists say they can do both, but I don't believe them and think they will take off too much hair wet I will just do a dry trim myself with this and I won't have to worry about them heat damaging or cutting too much off my hair! It's a win-win Thanks for the quick feedback!

OT: How much of your hair is bonelaxed versus texlaxed?

I'm more texlaxed than bonelaxed at this point. I'm gonna say I have about 4-5 inches to cut to be fully texlaxed. But dont' quote me on that.

 

[Nonie]

I have...never even heard of the split ender before. Judging from that advertisement I can see why lol.

Tip: You can just do dusting instead of trimming. I don't trim but I do dust. Less inches comes off that way. I doubt your hair (depending on your practices) is so messed up that a whole inch is necessary.

I agree with Nerdstruck, and I agree with you OP about Search and Destroy being a futile task since you can't possibly examine 100,000 strands nor can you see splits that are about a millimeter long without straining your eyes. And leaving any splits behind is just leaving problems behind.

Now that you've trimmed an inch, you do need to dust sooner so you can take off just 1/4 inch. I do this every 8 weeks and because I keep this tight schedule and dust all the strands, I can feel somewhat confident that the splits have not developed in that short time to where they are much bigger than that. If you wait too long to do it, then you may need to cut an inch or more. Nerdstruck, how much one needs to cut depends on how long you go w/o trimming.

When I went 4 months w/o trimming, my ends went from looking like this:

...to looking like this:

I had to cut off 2 inches to get the fullness I like:

And sticking to this 8 week dustings has enabled me to keep my ends looking pretty decent:

So it's not accurate to say that hair cannot be so damaged as not to need a one inch trim. It depends on how long since your last trim and how resilient your hair is. Fine strands seem to wither faster than coarse strands and no matter what you do, splits are inevitable. Even if you don't trim yourself, they will break off themselves usually in a way that continues to wreck havoc--which is why some people are stuck at the same length. I used to be one of those people. That changed when I started regular dusting.

OP doing an even dust to all strands makes more sense than S&D because your hair strands endure the same things and so will be worn more or less the same so to assume only some strands need trimming is wishful thinking. Take care of all and you can be sure you didn't miss any.

 

[NYDiva]

Even if you don't trim yourself, they will break off themselves usually in a way that continues to wreck havoc--which is why some people are stuck at the same length. I used to be one of those people. That changed when I started regular dusting.

(SIGH) This is probably why I'm not making as much progress as I think I should have at this point.

 

[Lucille]

Nonie - Thanks for the detailed explanation.

I always look forward to your informative posts and pics

 

[Theresamonet]

I bought one when they were 9.99 at Ross. But there was a lot of talk about some of the ones at Ross being counterfeit. Even though the one I had fit the description of an authentic one, I was paranoid and didn't really give it a chance.

My splits are out of control in the back, so I think I'll try it again tonight...Or during the winter solstice.