Shorter hairs, breakage or new growth...?

[SerenavanderWoodsen]

Every so often I notice a slew of shorter hairs all over my head and I become horrified thinking Im going to end up as I did about 7 years ago ( my hair was relaxed and over processed and i noticed shorter hairs all over the top which ended in my losing my whole front down to about 2 inches, its really painful to go back on that even) I notice the majority of these hairs are tapered on the end which supposedly means they arent broken but are new hairs but I need some more opinions on this. This is all I could find on it which made me feel better but I want the truth, not just something to make me feel better.....http://archive.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=35292
Also found this...http://archive.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=58979

I decided to rip one and it is very tapered and does not look like the majority of the ends of my lengthy hairs which either look blunt with a whitish end or kinda broken looking. LOL, if you look closely at my avatar you can see some of the hairs standing out on the right side I think those ones are breakage though because that area always screws up, its so delicate.

 

[SerenavanderWoodsen]

BUMP! anyone have any other ideas about this or have this issue?

 

[Neith]

Even someone with floor length hair will have shorter hairs. Hair falls out and new hairs grow in every single day.

If you're not seeing many actual broken hairs or completely broken off sections, don't worry!

 

[tocktick]

I have this issue. A short while back I neglected my hair quite a bit and was pulling strands with SSKs right out of the root erplexed. Imo, the longest amongst these short hairs are broken hairs growing. Yet since I've dramatically improved my hair care, I think the shortest hairs are really just shed hair that is growing back in. I believe this because I don't get much breakage these days and when I do it's very small pieces not long strands.

If your hair is healthy and your hair care is on point, I don't think you should be too worried about it.

 

[virtuenow]

I get fearful over the same issue. I have short hairs in the back middle of head- so I am always afraid it will all break off like it did all the years I had a relaxer. Every 6 months my hair would break off really short (inch or less) in spots- especially in the back.

Now I have some shorter hairs (much longer than when I was relaxed) about 3 inches in a few random streams (not patches). I'm thinking it may be newgrowth; but it could be breakage. I refuse to accept that. Now that I am using healthy natural hair practices I can more readily pinpoint where the breakage or short hairs are coming from. I know the very small patch in the back middle that broke off is because I was wearing a hair clip and bobby pins in the same spot everyday for the past 3 months. Hey, my french roll was cute. But I have taken all hair apparatuses out of my routine and just wear it down. No ponytails or anything!

With that said, if your are tieing your hair down in the same way, e.g., ponytail, french roll w/bobby pins, or hair clip in the same spot everyday, this could be causing breakage. And of course, if you are getting perms, I personally think they always overlap and that could be the source of breakage. That was the case with my relaxed hair! Otherwise, it sounds like you pretty much figured out the source of your short hairs is new growth- and that's a good thing.