NATURALS HELP!!! How to Spot "Split Ends"

[LadyPBC]

I feel kinda dense asking this question but how do you know what is a split end and what is just scraggly, coily, curly hair. None my my hair seems to be the same length. I've read that you should braid your hair then trim the parts that stick out. Or, twist your hair and dust. I do that but I'm not sure if I'm just cutting or if my hair is damaged.

I do, from time to time yank on small knots at the end of my hair (rather than cut ) or pull what seems to be excess shed hair. I have natural hair and the majority of it is 4a type. I've had my hair trimmed professionally once per year because I'm afraid of the heat damage. I always end up with a little of it (heat damage).

I want to take a stab at maintaining my ends myself but I don't want to cut hair I don't need to be cutting. Not sure if my vision has deteriorated or I just have uneven ends but it looks like I should just cut myself bald and start all over . Any suggestions/advice etc. is welcomed and would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Charz]

I look at my ends in the sunlight, and if I can see any of these (except for the healthy end) :

Then it is a split end.

 

[Yoshi3329]

Here's an article on how to trim as well, This is what I do.

 

[Nonie]

Personally, I think looking for split ends is a waste of time. Hair will split regardless of what you do because like anything else, with time and aging, things breakdown and deteriorate. So rather than waste time looking for what you may never find--and trust me, what you may think is a whole strand may actually be half a strand coz the split part broke off--you're better off just snipping off about 1/4 inch regularly on all your strands.

What's the point of snipping off some strands and not others...and ending up with uneven hair that later needs to be cut to even out? What's more, how can you possible believe that you will not miss some strands trying to look at them when you have 100,000+ hair strands on your head? And if you're missing some, again, what's the point? And if anyone wants to challenge this argument with the fact that some strands are "younger" and therefore shorter so trimming all ends doesn't get those, then I will argue back that the "younger" strands are probably in much better condition than the longer ones as they are still "wet behind the ears" and yet to endure the trauma older strands have faced. Plus they also get "protected" by virtue of being small and hidden so again, they are in much better shape.

The twist and snip, or looking at braids and snipping hair that sticks out is a big mistake IMO, coz you have baby hairs that started growing months after the oldest hairs on your head, and they will stick out from the braids. Just because they do, doesn't mean they are split. I mean, splits are so tiny that they have to be magnified a lot to be visible to the eye most times. And if you're seeing them, it could be coz your hair is in really bad shape.

This split has been magnified a lot. The white line (key) you see there is 1/100th of a centimeter. In other words, the length of the entire split part is about 1/20th of a centimeter. Put another way, if you were to divide this line--> ___ into 20 parts and then take 1 small section of the 20, that's the size of the split shown below.

So if you can see a split w/ your naked eyes, then things are probably at this stage:

Now if instead of straining your eyes looking through a 100,000 strands, if you just put your hair in many 2-strand twists, and snipped a small bit from the ends of the twists, you might stop the split from continuing its assault on your strands and create a stronger end. And you'd do it in less time than S&D...and in due time, you will end up with hair as thick and pretty as Spring's and Pokahontas', who know the benefits of regular trimming.

I say prevention is better than cure.

 

[LadyPBC]

I've seen this chart (didn't know there were so many types of split ends) but the problem is my hair is always so coily I can't tell and uneven I can't tell the difference. I have not noticed any split ends from shed hair but then again ... they could be the splitserplexed.

I look at my ends in the sunlight, and if I can see any of these (except for the healthy end) :

Then it is a split end.

 

[LadyPBC]

Here's an article on how to trim as well, This is what I do.

Darn - can't open the article at work (blocked) I'll take a look when I get home. Thanks!

 

[LadyPBC]

Personally, I think looking for split ends is a waste of time. Hair will split regardless of what you do because like anything else, with time and aging, things breakdown and deteriorate. So rather than waste time looking for what you may never find--and trust me, what you may think is a whole strand may actually be half a strand coz the split part broke off--you're better off just snipping off about 1/4 inch regularly on all your strands.

The twist and snip, or looking at braids and snipping hair that sticks out is a big mistake IMO, coz you have baby hairs that started growing months after the oldest hairs on your head, and they will stick out from the braids. Just because they do, doesn't mean they are split. I mean, splits are so tiny that they have to be magnified a lot to be visible to the eye most times. And if you're seeing them, it could be coz your hair is in really bad shape.

This split has been magnified a lot. The white line (key) you see there is 1/100th of a centimeter. In other words, the length of the entire split part is about 1/20th of a centimeter. Put another way, if you were to divide this line--> ___ into 20 parts and then take 1 small section of the 20, that's the size of the split shown below.

So if you can see a split w/ your naked eyes, then things are probably at this stage:

Now if instead of straining your eyes looking through a 100,000 strands, if you just put your hair in many 2-strand twists, and snipped a small bit from the ends of the twists, you might stop the split from continuing its assault on your strands and create a stronger end. And you'd do it in less time than S&D...and in due time, you will end up with hair as thick and pretty as Spring's and Pokahontas', who know the benefits of regular trimming.

I say prevention is better than cure.

First let me say "WHOA" that's an awful lot of feedback and I love the graphics. I often wondered why some of my hair is closer to my scalp (like baby hair) when the rest of it is soooo much longer. I chose to believe, as you have suggested, that its baby hair that grew afterwards. I was worried that it was breakage and couldn't figure out for the life of my why my hair breaking off all over my head but long at the same time especially when I'm taking all these supplementserplexed.

My hair is coily so I never get it to lay straight to see (with my deteriorating vision) if I have splits or not - it can be a chore. My search & destroy missions have come up with no results. I know what split ends look like cuz I had plenty when I was relaxed.

I like the idea better or regularly dusting off 1/4 (too be safe) I just need to know ... what is your definition of regularly? I only use direct heat to get a professional trim. My last professional trim was the end of April and my ends are raggedy.

 

[Nonie]

I like the idea better or regularly dusting off 1/4 (too be safe) I just need to know ... what is your definition of regularly? I only use direct heat to get a professional trim. My last professional trim was the end of April and my ends are raggedy.

Right now my schedules and idea of "regularly" are a joke. I just do it when I remember. But I can tell you that the one time I did it by the clock, I saw awesome progress and my hair was thick from base to ends. For those who've already heard this song before, this is where you leave this post coz I'm about to echo myself all over again.

I was following Brenda's regimen (www.blackwomenrejoice.com) and dusting my hair every 6-8 weeks w/o fail. In one year, my hair grew from one inch to this with that much dusting:

​

And in another year of following the same 6-8 weeks dusting, it grew from the above length to a length greater than my hair had ever known before:

​

I joined LHCF a month before this second photo was taken and discovered that there were people who believed in not trimming (I had also just read Cathy Howse's book and again she too didn't believe in trimming). I mention this so you can see the difference not dusting regularly made to my hair.

The pics above were taken August 2002 and August 2003. In November 2003, my hair ends had thinned this much thanks to not dusting since August:

So thinking that I'd be holding onto length by not trimming was a lie coz those ends had to go, and I ended up losing about 2 inches just to be happy with my hair. If I hadn't cut them off, they'd have broken off on their own coz they were hanging on by a thread, literally:

​

In other words, regular dusting enabled me to retain length better and also have fuller, healthier looking hair.

ETA: And those of you clutching their pearls at the thought of dusting a whole 1/4 inch so often, take a look at your ruler and see how tiny 1/4 inch is. Yes, so you gain 1/2 inch a month. Which means you are losing 1/4 for every 1 inch you gain (8 weeks). So instead of 6 inches a year, you get 4.5 inches a year. But if you retained that, you'd gain 9 inches in 2 years, which would really be good progress, IMO. If you don't dust, you will probably gain less because the ends will break off on their own. Of course once you get to SL, you do need PS otherwise you won't retain much. (I should know. )
​

 

[LadyPBC]

Right now my schedules and idea of "regularly" are a joke. I just do it when I remember. But I can tell you that the one time I did it by the clock, I saw awesome progress and my hair was thick from base to ends. For those who've already heard this song before, this is where you leave this post coz I'm about to echo myself all over again.

I was following Brenda's regimen (www.blackwomenrejoice.com) and dusting my hair every 6-8 weeks w/o fail. In one year, my hair grew from one inch to this with that much dusting:

​

Of course I can't see the picture (darn darn darn) but I will give it a try. It would probably be easier for me to remember every 8 weeks. Thanks Noni!