Retaining Length = The Appearance of Thinning?

[DivineNapps1728]

I'm at a strange place hair wise.

Neglecting my hair led me to cut a few inches earlier in the year, but my tresses have since done a full turn around; breakage has stalled, I've caught back up length wise & my hair feels so healthy, but it seems SOOO thin.

My hair has always been dense with fine strands, is it inevitable that it will look thin as it grows? I don't even want to wear it down because it looks so horrible to me.

I don't know if I should cut it, install twists, go back to bunning or just accept the fact that it will appear less full as it grows longer. It's weird though, it feels thicker than it ever has when curly, but thinner than it ever has when straight.

Anyone else experience this?

P.S. I'll be back with pictures !!

 

[NappyNelle]

You may have lead hair strands making your hair appear thin. I have fine dense hair, so it only looks 'full' and 'thick' when it's in a semi-stretched state. I wear a lot of protective and low-manipulation styles because of this. I haven't worn straight hair in almost six years. I'm worried that when I do decide to straighten it. my hair would look horrible because its so fine.

 

[DivineNapps1728]

You may have lead hair strands making your hair appear thin. I have fine dense hair, so it only looks 'full' and 'thick' when it's in a semi-stretched state. I wear a lot of protective and low-manipulation styles because of this. I haven't worn straight hair in almost six years. I'm worried that when I do decide to straighten it. my hair would look horrible because its so fine.

Hi Nelle ,

I've never had an issue with wearing my hair straightened until now. I guess it could be lead hairs, but it's an awful sight. I think I need to go wash my hair...

 

[DivineNapps1728]

I can't even get a good picture of how bad it looks...







(P.S. The 3rd pic is of all of my hair combed back erplexed)

 

[curlyninjagirl]

I'm at a strange place hair wise.

Neglecting my hair led me to cut a few inches earlier in the year, but my tresses have since done a full turn around; breakage has stalled, I've caught back up length wise & my hair feels so healthy, but it seems SOOO thin.

My hair has always been dense with fine strands, is it inevitable that it will look thin as it grows? I don't even want to wear it down because it looks so horrible to me.

I don't know if I should cut it, install twists, go back to bunning or just accept the fact that it will appear less full as it grows longer. It's weird though, it feels thicker than it ever has when curly, but thinner than it ever has when straight.

Anyone else experience this?

P.S. I'll be back with pictures !!

From the 3rd picture, I'd guess that you'd experienced some damage. I don't think this is how your hair is destined to look as it grows longer. I think if you give it some time and keep up your hair care, you'll see a difference in thickness in another couple of months.

What's your daily styling regimen? Your products? What entails "neglecting your hair"? How often do you comb/brush?

 

[Prudent1]

^^^In addition to that, how's your diet internally? There are many products/ supplements you can try to thicken your strands but they will only serve as band-aids if you have not maximized your internal health. Really health period (internal, mental, etc).

 

[Nonie]

DivineNapps1728, you won't like what I have to say but what I believe is going on is your split ends are tearing away and leaving you with thin ends. 90% of your strands are growing at any one time, so I've never understood how people can believe that it's normal for less than a 25% of their strands to stand out from the others. You may be one of those people who would do well with regular dusting. That doesn't mean waiting a long time to dust and just making the interval the same. It means dusting more regularly so you can afford to get away with cutting off very little.

This hair you see below isn't thin because it has gotten to that length:

It is thin because it's been worn away. A split grew bigger and bigger until part of it tore off to leave thin ends. If you wait too long to trim your hair, or if you don't use the sharpest scissors you can get, even after you trim, you leave damage that continues like a cancer to tear your hair down.

This is the same hair longer than it was in that pic but with regular dusting. No thinning here:

So where do you go from here? You could wait for your hair to catch up with lead hairs, which IMO just means waiting till those weak ends break off on their own or get shed and the shorter strands just grow longer to convince you they caught up. Or you could just quit wasting time and get the damaged thin ends cut off and starting on a clean state, stay on top of maintaining your ends.

There are people who don't trim and their hair looks good. But they are a special few. Most people who don't trim, especially those with fine ends have skinny looking ends that only look good if you bring all the hair together; see-through if you let the hair hang straight down.

 

[virtuenow]

90% of your strands are growing at any one time, so I've never understood how people can believe that it's normal for less than a 25% of their strands to stand out from the others.

Nonie what does this statment mean? Do you mean its unusual for more than 25% of the hair to appear shorter than the rest of your hair (or longer, however it works out) hence the lead hair theory debunked. Where do you get this 90% of hair is growing at any time; what about the resting [& fall out] phases?

 

[havilland]

This is how my hair was in 2009. I swear it's from chemicals wearing away my ends over time. Even though I protective style, stretch for long periods, texlax and rarely use heat.

I combat this by cutting my hair. In 2010 I cut three inches. From that point on I dust like a maniac. I still stretch relaxers and may go natural at some point because my hair just is so fine and fragile that it may not be a good idea to keep using chemicals.

I also use castor oil on my ends which seems to have helped alot this year. I don't have nearly as much problems with my ends as I used to.

But trust me, end of 2009, my ends looked just like yours. My only solution was to cut and do deep treatments with protein weekly. I also hide my hair 95% of the time.


Sent from my iPhone while out living my best life!

 

[Nonie]

@Nonie what does this statment mean? Do you mean its unusual for more than 25% of the hair to appear shorter than the rest of your hair (or longer, however it works out) hence the lead hair theory debunked. Where do you get this 90% of hair is growing at any time; what about the resting [& fall out] phases?

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying @virtuenow. I have always said the lead hair theory is BS. Never seen it in any scientific journals and it makes no sense. At any one time 10% or so of your strands are at rest waiting to be shed. That is about 10,000 hairs. The other 90% are still growing. You shed about 100 daily so in about a little over 3 months, you shed 10% of your hair. The hair you shed is the hair that had finished its growth cycle, ie the longest strands.

So while people continue to see unicorns and believe their long strands are waiting for other strands to "catch up" with them, what really happens is the longest ones simply just wait to fall out at the end of their growth cycle as a new hair pushes them out. And when you don't see them anymore, it's not coz others caught up; it's cause they are gone.The alternative to this is skinny weak ends that are a result of wear and tear break off while hair is still growing, and in time all strands appear to be the same length. In other words, what people call "short hairs catching up with lead hairs" is really the so-called lead hairs breaking off at the ends from wear and tear to the length of shorter strands. Otherwise "lead hairs" which have been around the longest get shed so you no longer have the oldest strands sticking out. And yes, I have seen the photos of so-called proof of the lead-hairs phenomenon, and what I see is what I just described.

I know someone will show me a photo of TWA where the sides grow slower than the crown. Well, that continues to be the case all-through, unless there was a follicular issue that can be resolved by massage or topicals that affected the optimum performance of the "slower" follicles.

Hair doesn't stop growing to wait for other strands; hair stops growing because it is about to fall off. What's more, commom sense should make people question how follicles can communicate to each other about what's going on at the ends (at the end of a dead rod of protein, I might add)... "Yo, Jo, you're going to have to take a few days off work so that Boyee from down the block who has a shorter strand can grow it to the length of yours, OK?" What's more, every follicle has a schedule it must follow: grow hair for a few years, rest for a short while, spit out the hair as another takes its place. There is no interruption to this scheme of things because a memo showed up talmbout "You have become lead hairs so there is a change of plan and the telogen phase must be lengthened for this team so the anagen hairs of another team can catch up, and that's an order!"

 

[NappyNelle]

Thanks Nonie. I assumed 'lead hairs' just meant differing growth rates, and therefore lengths, on a person's scalp; not that an individual longer hair strand will encourage the growth of others around it.

DivineNapps1728 After seeing the pictures, I agree that your hair needs extra TLC from the damage earlier this year. I see my original response was more of a 'How to deal with fine/thin looking hair' rather than 'Why does my hair look like this'. How often do you trim? How long have you been upping the care with deep conditioning, etc? Have you noticed a difference from the las time you straightened your hair?

 

[Poohbear]

I have felt that retaining length has given me the appearance of thinning hair too. It seems like the crown and back of my hair isn't growing as long as the nape area, making the nape area look thinner than the rest of my hair.

 

[irsgirl]

I have cut my hair twice since 2009 for this same reason.. My hair seems thickest at a little SL. Both times when I cut I was almost APL and my goal is BSL.

 

[havilland]

Nonie "unicorns"......rotflmao!!!! Girl you crack me up


Sent from my iPhone while out living my best life!

 

[HauteHippie]

NappyNelle I assumed 'lead hairs' just meant differing growth rates, and therefore lengths, on a person's scalp; not that an individual longer hair strand will encourage the growth of others around it.

Lol, I agree. My hair grows faster in certain spots. It's been that way for-ev-er. That other lead hair theory makes it sound like the strands are alive and friendly, just waiting on their buddies. I wouldn't believe that, either!

Oh, yeah, the topic at hand. Sometimes it does seem like retaining length can contribute to thin looking ends for a little while depending upon a few things.

For example, my nape grows faster than the rest of my hair, especially the left side. I retain that length and my ends look thin b/c it's just the very back of my head that's poking out from the rest of the pack. I don't expect the hair above to catch up, though. I generally trim it, but I probably trim more than necessary.



Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using T-Mobile G2

 

[Napp]

In my exerience if i see thinning as it grows it means i am having breakage to the point where a large amount of hair is breaking around the same time. Judging by the way your hair looks (extreme v) it looks to be you are having alot of breakage.. I agree with many points already stated so i wont restate them.


Personally i feel like this is something that certain protective styles mask... They hide the hair but they also hide the breakage that is occuring as well. That is why i have a preference for loose hair styles and protective styles that allow for small sections of the hair to be observed(like braids or twists w/o extentions) so that it is easier to discern if breakage is occuring. If your ends are drastically thinner then the ends in small sections of the hair it is easier to pintpoint weak areas and how to elimnate the breakage in that area before you see it has thinned all over. It is easier to see with loose hair then say if the hair was in a bun or weave for a long period of time.

 

[Imani]

I have fine strands w/medium density (natural 4b) and my hair actually looks fuller and fuller as it gets longer. So I'd venture to say something is amiss w/your reggie and/or you need to get a good haircut to get rid of damaged ends and start anew. When you have fine strands you have to stay on your game with trimming.

 

[virtuenow]

@DivineNapps1728 I suggest you do a thorough examination of your hair one day soon. Start in the front corner by your ear/side burn and section off a one inch section of hair. Study that section. See if there are longer hairs bunched w/really short pieces of hair. Try and see if the ends are pointy or torn/ripped. You should work your way back. These small sections will allow you to see exactly whats going on w/your hair. You may be surprised to find colonies of broken patches of hair. Or it could be the opposite, you may find a whole head of new strands (which suggest shedding and newgrowth)

Overall it looks like you did not have a bout breakage but rather extreme shedding from [possibly] stress. The two (breakage v. shedding) look totally different to me. Let us know what you find out from your hair evaluation. I schedule them periodically now. Natural shrunken hair can hide breakage pretty easily like someone said. I will not be fooled and caught off guard again. Make sure you block off a good amount of time to do it.

@Nonie Thanks for the thorough explanation. My whole head must have went into the rest and shed phase, hmmmph.

 

[SuchaLady]

I know exactly what you mean OP. I believe its because when you actually retain your length and your hair gets longer you can clearly see the difference in density between your old hair (ends) and the new fresher hair (hair closer to the scalp). If hair is constantly trimmed or at one length the ends are newer and not as worn. I cut my hair at the beginning of the year because of this. I did some unhealthy things to it and while it didnt fall out/break off my ends were clearly not as thick as the hair a few inches above it. Sorry if I am repeating anything I didnt read the complete thread.

 

[Nonie]

virtuenow, you have long hair (APL at least, right?), and some growth cycles are as short as 2 years long; that would give you 12 inches of hair if no damage whatsoever occurred. So it could be that your terminal growth time has been reached. Doesn't mean your hair can't get longer than what you have. As Supergirl has shared before, you have to remember that at the point you start good haircare, you have hair that has endured some damage, so only the new growth will be acting right. That means only the new growth will actually grow at a better rate if you have dotted your i's and crossed your t's. And the ends will just either continue to break off or just stick around till they are shed at a point where they never showed your true potential.

The other thing could be that you need to dust more regularly than you do. Ask anyone who knew me before my 30's, and they'll tell you that my hair never grew beyond 6 inches. At 6 inches, I would be so happy to have such long hair. While I have added other good practices I never had in my regimen, like DCing and using ACV rinses, I know without a doubt that the secret to my passing that threshold is regular dusting. I know this because when I removed it from the equation, my hair thinned so much (due to ends breaking off) and I'd have just gone back to my 6 inches limit. I added that back to the equation and my hair thrived. I would like to mention that if trimming has been missing in your regimen, then it may take a few months or even a year for you to realize the benefit of this. Reason being, if your ends are split or beyond splitting and are now just partial strands, you may need a big cut to get to where you have whole strands. But since that's not a popular solution, then you may need to do regular dustings, and sooner than you would normally have to, just to get rid of those weak ends fast so that you can have ends that aren't breaking off and keeping you stuck at that length.

Also I don't know of you're a low-manipulation chick. If not, that could make a huge difference too, especially if you have fine strands.

 

[Nonie]

I know exactly what you mean OP. I believe its because when you actually retain your length and your hair gets longer you can clearly see the difference in density between your old hair (ends) and the new fresher hair (hair closer to the scalp). If hair is constantly trimmed or at one length the ends are newer and not as worn. I cut my hair at the beginning of the year because of this. I did some unhealthy things to it and while it didnt fall out/break off my ends were clearly not as thick as the hair a few inches above it. Sorry if I am repeating anything I didnt read the complete thread.

@SuchaLady, that's not normal. You have to remember 90,000 hair are growing all the time. The time difference between their growth stages is so negligible which is why when someone has a TWA, it grows to a BA evenly--unless you're someone who has slow-growing areas. So the only reason some strands would stick out like a sore thumb as seen in OP's post is because other strands around them have broken off to leave those hanging by a thread. If 90,000 strands are growing at the rate of 1/2 an inch a month, and for most people their hair has been cut at one time or another so that regardless of the growth stage of the individual strands, the long ones were at the same length increasing at the same rate, then how is it that 3 hairs suddenly shoot out of nowhere and leave the rest? It doesn't add up. I think folks have taken the hair growth cycle theory and added a twist that is far from fact and passed it on as truth. Don't believe it.

 

[DivineNapps1728]

From the 3rd picture, I'd guess that you'd experienced some damage. I don't think this is how your hair is destined to look as it grows longer. I think if you give it some time and keep up your hair care, you'll see a difference in thickness in another couple of months.

What's your daily styling regimen? Your products? What entails "neglecting your hair"? How often do you comb/brush?

Since the summer, after my cut, I've been bunning primarily; when I get home in the evenings I re-moisturize my hair, plait my ponytail & put on my satin bonnet or scarf. My products change periodically, but when bunning I use a creamy leave in sealed with coconut, sunflower or castor oil with eco styler gel for my edges. I brush nightly after moisturizing & comb on wash days when detangling.

The neglect consisted of me wearing loads of shrunken styles, slacking when it came to maintaining a proper moisture/protein balance & wearing a too tight set or cornrows.

 

[DivineNapps1728]

^^^In addition to that, how's your diet internally? There are many products/ supplements you can try to thicken your strands but they will only serve as band-aids if you have not maximized your internal health. Really health period (internal, mental, etc).

My diet is relatively clean now & my health is excellent overall with the exception of low vitamin D levels; am starting a supplement to address that.

 

[Nonie]

I have cut my hair twice since 2009 for this same reason.. My hair seems thickest at a little SL. Both times when I cut I was almost APL and my goal is BSL.

@irsgirl you echo my story pre-regular dusting. You should try adding dusting to your regimen. If you already do it, especially if you do S&D, you need to adjust that and do it before damage happens.

Check out my explanation on why dusting works in these posts:

http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showpost.php?p=14282553&postcount=13

http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showpost.php?p=12878839&postcount=46

I think I shared the most about dusting in this discussion: http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=520739

 

[DivineNapps1728]

DivineNapps1728, you won't like what I have to say but what I believe is going on is your split ends are tearing away and leaving you with thin ends. 90% of your strands are growing at any one time, so I've never understood how people can believe that it's normal for less than a 25% of their strands to stand out from the others. You may be one of those people who would do well with regular dusting. That doesn't mean waiting a long time to dust and just making the interval the same. It means dusting more regularly so you can afford to get away with cutting off ends.

This is the first time in over 8 months that I've straightened my hair; never considered the fact that I could simply be seeing all the damage done from earlier in the year. My hair has always grown in a v-shape & when I trim I cut my hair into that same v-shape, but previously it looked purposive not haphazard like it does now.

I agree, I may be due for a second bc

 

[DivineNapps1728]

@DivineNapps1728 I suggest you do a thorough examination of your hair one day soon. Start in the front corner by your ear/side burn and section off a one inch section of hair. Study that section. See if there are longer hairs bunched w/really short pieces of hair. Try and see if the ends are pointy or torn/ripped. You should work your way back. These small sections will allow you to see exactly whats going on w/your hair. You may be surprised to find colonies of broken patches of hair. Or it could be the opposite, you may find a whole head of new strands (which suggest shedding and newgrowth)

Overall it looks like you did not have a bout breakage but rather extreme shedding from [possibly] stress. The two (breakage v. shedding) look totally different to me. Let us know what you find out from your hair evaluation. I schedule them periodically now. Natural shrunken hair can hide breakage pretty easily like someone said. I will not be fooled and caught off guard again. Make sure you block off a good amount of time to do it.

@Nonie Thanks for the thorough explanation. My whole head must have went into the rest and shed phase, hmmmph.

Thanks for the tip, I will try this !

 

[DivineNapps1728]

Thanks Nonie. I assumed 'lead hairs' just meant differing growth rates, and therefore lengths, on a person's scalp; not that an individual longer hair strand will encourage the growth of others around it.

DivineNapps1728 After seeing the pictures, I agree that your hair needs extra TLC from the damage earlier this year. I see my original response was more of a 'How to deal with fine/thin looking hair' rather than 'Why does my hair look like this'. How often do you trim? How long have you been upping the care with deep conditioning, etc? Have you noticed a difference from the las time you straightened your hair?

I used to trim every 6wks, but I stopped doing that last December; I cut 3 inches (measured the hair afterwards ) in late Spring. I guess that wasn't enough cutting. && there's a big difference btwn now & the last time I straightened; my hair is a longer than it was then, but much thinner. I have upped my hair care significantly & it feels great, but looks HORRIBLE to me.

 

[SuchaLady]

Nonie Okay I went back to the OP and looked closer. That is not normal. What I was speaking of is even hair that is relatively thinner at the ends. I believe OP has some sort of breakage issues.

I hope you get to the bottom of it OP. Having to keep cutting your hair is frustrating.

 

[Nonie]

@Nonie Okay I went back to the OP and looked closer. That is not normal. What I was speaking of is even hair that is relatively thinner at the ends. I believe OP has some sort of breakage issues.

I hope you get to the bottom of it OP. Having to keep cutting your hair is frustrating.

@SuchaLady hair that is relatively thin at the ends is that way because of being worn out, not because of the growth cycle. That's what I was disagreeing with. The time difference between the point at which hair strands start their journeys is so insignificant that there'd not be such an obvious difference in old strands and new ones to the point of ends looking thin. This only happens after splits have come and gone so you have partial strands or after some strands have broken off from being worn off so you have holes.