Search & Destroy - Crucial or Not?

[Nonie]

@Nonie..in a previous post you said you'd "been there". When you were having challenges with split ends did you cut all of the damage off or just start a trimming regime that eventually took care of the problem over time? I tend to do S&D's every few weeks and trims every six months but I've been grazing APL for a while now....would love to claim it fully soon.

caliscurls, I cut off all the damage...because leaving any behind just means it continues to tear up the strands hence why I was stuck at SL.

Trimming every 6 months may work for some (esp those with coarse strands) but for me, waiting 4 months would mean having to cut off 2 inches. That's what happened to me. When I decided to try not dusting every 8 weeks and waited double that time, my strands were so thin--meaning breakage was occurring--that I had to cut off the 2 inches. If I had left them there, they'd break off themselves...and don't forget a break isn't clean but just tears further up the strand so I'd have lost more hair.

I suppose if a cut is scary or too much, you can do what I do which is braid up my hair after cutting so I can forget about it and give it time to grow some w/o being aware of how short it is. Alternatively, you can do what others do with is dust more frequently than you will normally do so you quickly remove the damage w/o it being a drastic change. The only thing with this is you would have to really baby your hair so that the damage already there doesn't just cost you all you grow in the time you're waiting. Personally, since damage never stops once it starts, it's just better to get rid of it and then from that point on, dust before it ever gets that far. And if you do it sooner, you can feel "safe" taking off just a tiny bit because you can feel confident that you didn't wait till it was too late.

 

[Vshanell]

Pokahontas, because I know damage happens whether I like it or not, and particularly because my strands are fine and so will not be able to hang around the way your coarser strands might, I do not wait till I see the splits. If I did, my hair would be breaking something awful and I'd be stuck at SL like I was for 30+ years of my life. So I dust before I can see them thus catching the splits at the microscopic scale and I dust ALL the strands because I know that just because I cannot see them doesn't mean they are not there. I know wear and tear is happening all the time. A nice clean cut slows down the damage and buys me more time to grow some length but it just creates a new end that will slowly start to wear and tear. The idea to keep splits just at the "starting point" where they haven't wrecked much havoc to my hair and by doing so, I don't get to experience the breakage or thinning that occurs if I wait any longer.

By doing this, I find I can afford to get away with dusting a very tiny bit and still have my hair looking full from base to ends and also I'm able to see it gain some length. Doesn't mean I don't have any splits. They are just too small for me to see them (think: at their starting stages) and my fine stands retain better if I keep splits at that small scale.

About shorter strands: I don't worry about those for these reasons:


[*]they are shorter because they haven't been around for long to endure the wear and tearthat older strands found on the longer strands have endured;
[*]shorter strands enjoy "protection" without me needing to PS by virtue of being tucked away inside the longer strands.

My theory is split hair will break off whether you trim it yourself or leave it there, so if you have WL length and your CBL hair has splits, then that is as bad as having mid-shaft splits and there has to be something you're doing wrong to cause your hair to be splitting at such an early stage when the rest of your strands have survived all the years it took to get to WL. Hair that is split WILL break, and if splits are happening to hair that is only a few years old, on a head whose hairs usually survive many more years...then something is wrong. Alternatively, you might just have the sort of coarse strands that can split, tear and continue to hang on and make it to great lengths. And if you have a lot of hair, such damage may not be the kind that affects that look of your hair. If you consider this lady:




Her hair splits too, only she must have some really strong/coarse strands that no matter how much styling, washing, exposure to the elements her strands endure, it's only when her hair is almost as long as she's tall that this wearing of strands leads to breakage or at least tearing off of the splits--and so her hair starts to thin. But even then, you can see that she still has strands that continue to hold on so that she ends up with a skinny tail probably made of many strand but which looks like only 3 because wear and tear has creates skinny end. So splits on her hair may not affect her hair the way they do my fine and oh-so-weak strands. And likewise, the reason YOU can find splits in your long hair is because they don't affect you the way they do me. So you can afford to leave them in your hair for a while. (BTW, how do you S&D? You don't do the twisting method do you?)

Since it's impossible to inspect every strand, it seems as futile to me as counting how many drops it takes to fill an ocean to expect every single strand of your hair to be in perfect shape and to be worrying about the strands that only recently started growing and are therefore are stronger and healthier than the older longer strands that have been around to actually experience damage.

I get what your saying but I don't have coarse hair at all though. It is very fine and over years if observation I see that my fine hair is going to split no matter what. I don't have 100% perfect hair care methods but very good ones and it's not something I'm doing, it's just how my hair is going to be. I'm lo-mani and don't even use heat but still get splits, always have. I prefer not to leave the splits there if I can help it.

I only have a few splits here and there on the shorter cbl layers of my hair. It's not like my ends but they are there and I'm pretty sure it's nothing I could be doing, my fine hair is just fragile and prone to splits.

I s&d using the method that Traycee had a video on (I cut good hairs too just to give them a trim because they never get one) and I also go through small sections and just snip any splits I see (only splits, no good hair on this part). I don't do the twisting method.

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[caliscurls]

Thanks Nonie, I appreciate the response back! I think I'll go ahead and do a trim this weekend...put my hair up...and then hide my scissors for 8 weeks (The S&D thing can get addictive).

 

[nisemac]

many of the S&Ds described sound like trims to me. i try to trim regularly--6-8 weeks if wearing my hair out but can go 12 weeks PS with wigs. a S&D only makes sense for me if i've gotten a ssk that shed/other hairs have latched on to.

i do about 1/8-1/4 inch. the more diligent i am about my ends, the less i have to trim. the 2 Inches in 4 Months challenge taught me that. i trimmed at the end of the challenged and still retained a full 2 inches--on all lengths of my hair.

 

[chickory_bee]

I trim and S&D. I do agree that S&D takes a while, but I'm worth it! Furthermore, if I won't invest the time into giving each strand a chance, no one else will. My eyes do suffer from S&D though!

 

[addaboutmyhair]

@Nonie

I think I understand your approach better now. I'm actually full APL when I flat iron (next progress pic this March), so I have made it past the SL stage you were mentioning. That said, I'm going to look seriously into dusting and do some more research on this site. Your argument about dusting to get the 'invisible' splits is persuasive. I think I am going to have to experiment with how often I would want to do that. The vast majority of my splits (or the ones bad enough to see, per your good point) are at the very ends of my hair. About 2% were more than an inch from the end of my hair. And of course I can't see near the root but if the split is up there, that's just too late.

So this could be because the strand had already broken off at or near the split, which to me is the best argument for dusting. I'm sure every 4 months is too often for me. Case in point, I went from neck length to APL and this was the first time I did a S&D, and I still haven't trimmed during my hair journey.

My strands are very coarse and thick. Before LHCF my hair tolerated a lot of destructive practices and remained thick and, until the disastrous convenience store texturizer that brought me to LHCF, shoulder length. So basically I stopped abusing my hair and it grew with no problems until I had some breakage in the begining of this January. Apple cider vinegar rinse fixed most of that problem, but this S&D has eliminated strands coming out during my finger combing sessions.

I'm weaving it up Saturday as my protective style. So today (while at work) I will be furiously searching for threads on how to dust (my hairstylists is genius at comfortable, healthy good looking weaves - but scissor happy) and properly dust tonight or early tomorrow.

I will still periodically do S&Ds because I think eliminating any visible damage can only be good. I also find it strangely satisfying.

Last thought, a lot of people are saying you can't look at every strand. You really can. I had about 18 corn rows in. As I unbraided one I would hold up one inch sections to examine. If the hair is smoothed in the same direction with oil, even on curly strands you can see the (visible) damage.

Anyway, thank you very much nonie for your careful replies. You've converted me to dusting (I'm going to try every 6 months to start and see how it goes). The test to see if my dusting schedule is working is that I should see fewer visible splits/bubbles what not during my S&D sessions.

 

[lilyofthenile]

I don't do the traditional search and destroy. I don't sit, look for bad ends and cut. No. When I do my hair and see bad ends I'll cut it. However, I trim every eight weeks which has worked for me so far.

 

[NikkiGirl]

Thanks everyone for responding!

I definitely plan to incorporate some of your tactics. To provide a little detail, I was unbraiding corn rows and so S&D'd one braid at a time. I will Never take 6 hours again. I moisturize every night, so now I take that time to feel my hair. The day after my major S&D I found a couple ssks. Since then nothing. And I've been a little obsessive about checking. But I'm about to go into another long term PS so maybe I'll just check in between protective styles. I don't think I can trim, I just hate seeing healthy hair cut....

@Nonie and @NikkiGirl, I respectfully disagree - I think it is possible for one strand to be damaged and another not to be. For me this happens for several reasons. 1)my hair is naturally not a uniform texture, so all strands do not respond equally to my reggie 2)I am 4b texlaxed (i think that is in my siggy) and some parts are less processed or more processed then others (thank you best friend who is never helping me texlax again, we're still cool though).
I actually noticed my split strands were in 'groups', they weren't evenly scattered around my head.

Also, with my split ends I could actually see the strand split in 2. I only finger comb my hair or very rarely use my ouidad, and I've been in a PS since mid December (and PSing regularly before that) and no heat, so I don't think the splits had much opportunity to migrate upwards. And my strands are similarly thick although I suppose there could be one split to the root or something.

But as to not being able to 'see' some types of damage, if you use a magnifying glass while sitting in a dim room in fron of your laptop, you can see a lot. And I may have actually done this yesterday with a magnifying glass I borrowed from work...

Who knows, maybe I'll work up to a once a year dusting.

Yes, I do notice that when I do get splits, it is exactly where my fine hair is, in the front and all of the back, really never in the middle where my hair is medium. I am not really concerned with getting every little bit of damage out of my hair though. I think it is inevitable that some damage will be there. As long as I have a good hemline that I can be proud of that is all I care about. I just don't like ratty looking long hair. I hope that makes sense. And you are completely right. I suspect I will lose good hair with the bad when I trim and when i was in my MBL challenge I cut my ends and most of the girls were like, where is the damage I don't see any damage. I didn't have many splits really but my ends were thinning and fraying some and I would rather trim and have my hair look a certain way. I also find that it helps with how my hair flows if that makes sense.

 

[yorkpatties]

I used to search and destroy before I knew there was a name for it. LOL When I was relaxed it was a very easy job. Now that I am natural, I won't be searching for ish! I haven't trimmed since my BC, only cut off a few more relaxed strands I've encountered. When I get a little length, who knows, but I doubt I will return to search and destroys.

 

[CurlyActress]

I have recent started S&Ding. As my hair has gotten past APL, my hair is really starting to show wear and tear. I get my ends trimmed every 2-3 months now, but sometimes while styling I have caught a strand that looks "to up from the flo up" and snipped it. I'm going to get my hair trimmed again pretty soon.

 

[Nonie]

I s&d using the method that Traycee had a video on (I cut good hairs too just to give them a trim because they never get one) and I also go through small sections and just snip any splits I see (only splits, no good hair on this part). I don't do the twisting method.

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF

@Pokahontas I hope we're talking about the same method. I saw a video where Traycee grabs a bunch of strands, twists them and the ones that stick out she snips off.

IMHO, those hairs that are sticking out are not splits. One would have to really have badly damaged hair for splits to be that big (as seen in the vid) and if your hair strands are fine, then I doubt splits could get that big w/o them breaking off.

Those hairs that stick out IMO are just shorter hairs that started their growth journey not too long ago, since all hairs are at different stages of growth. If you were to grab on of one of those hairs sticking out, and looked at it by itself, I bet my bottom dollar you'd see it were not a split hair at all. It may actually be one a lot healthier than the longer strands you are holding and leaving behind. So what you're doing is cutting off strands that could have been OK. Since hairs are at different growing stages, you will always have hairs stick out of a bunch of long hairs held together and twisted because the ends of the shorter hairs that happen to be on the outside will not be tucked in with the other hairs.

Another flaw I see with this method--even if it were a correct method (which I personally think it isn't)--is there are so many hairs WITHIN that bunch you are twisting that will not be seen...so what about them? Don't those hairs need attention too? IMO, all you're doing is cutting away hair unnecessarily...because shorter hairs have not been around long enough to endure the wear and tear that makes split ends happen. And you're not doing a thorough job anyway since you're leaving a lot of hairs unchecked because they managed to hide in the bunch you twisted.

ETA By the way, I am not in any way trying to dissuade you or anyone from doing S&D if you are convinced it is the way to go. I am just sharing my POV and responding to posts that addressed me, so that I may help clarify why I feel the way I do...in case my logic may make sense to someone.

 

[baladi0822]

I S&D occasionally and trim once to twice a year. I never dust. Splits and breakage are inevitable in my opinion, but with good hair care practices you can keep them at a minimum, hence minimizing the need for trims and maximizing growth retention. I don't have any scientific explanation other than this has worked for me, but of course, what may work for some may not for others...

 

[Vshanell]

Nonie But with her method I already know that I'm clipping good hairs...as I said I like to clip them just to give the shorter hairs a dusting. It's just something I like to do.

I don't do the twisting method because there's too much hair inside the twist. I do the one she demonstrates before that where she takes a small piece of hair and slides two fingers down and clips the hairs that stick out.

I dont feel that your discouraging anyone, just a difference of opinion that's all. I've been doing them for many years (way before hair boards) so i cant be discouraged lol. I feel S&D is necessary for me but I know it isn't for everyone. There are people that hardly ever get splits so they wouldn't need to but for someone who does I feel it's beneficial along with dusting and trimming.

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[southerncitygirl]

nope dusting/trimming the entire head of hair is more important...at least 2-5 times a year.

 

[Victorian]

I do both, but not on a particular schedule. I can't stand raggedy ends, so I'm pretty liberal with the scissors

 

[Cendra]

Very important, I say. I have fine strands and the splits occur at any given point at least 6" from the root. I get knots as well so I try to S&D every 6 weeks or so. I do find that a regular search will keep the knots at bay.

 

[kinkycurlygurl]

I like to S&D on a regular basis because I don't trim.