How to overcome breakages!!

[pearl shine]

Hi,

I have a lot of breakages at the end of my hair. I dont know what to do. Can someone give some suggestions? Should i use oil ? I have bought a shampoo bar called Seanik from Lush. It made my hair a bit softer. Before that i have been using Aubrey Organics shampoo. Could they cause breakages?

[Soniasonia]

Try jojoba oil.

[AJoifulNoise]

Well, what's your routine like? How often do you wash? Do you use head styling? How do you feel about trimming? Do you wear your hair up or down more often? If up, what kind of 'dos? What kind of hair accessories to you use?

If you share a bit more, we may be able to give more specific advice.

(I apologize if you've shared more elsewhere and I just didn't see it.)

[pearl shine]

My hair is at my waist and wavy. I usually wear down and sometimes make a single braid. I wash my hair 3 times a week. I dont use so accessories. Perhaps should i have a haircut? But i want to have at hip length.

[AJoifulNoise]

My hair is at my waist and wavy. I usually wear down and sometimes make a single braid. I wash my hair 3 times a week. I dont use so accessories. Perhaps should i have a haircut? But i want to have at hip length.

Well, the ends of your hair worn down or even in a braid a lot can lead to damage. It may have little to do with what you're washing it with, and everything with what it goes through between washes. My advice would be to try out some updos that protect the ends, experiment with different oils. No one can tell you exactly what will work for your hair, only you can figure it out through trying different ones. Though, you can look at what people of a similar hair type are using for ideas.

You may also want to look into doing an SMT or other moisturizing treatment (look on the recipe board or I can link you to the SMT thread if you can't find it).

If you really can't rehabilitate those ends, I would recommend a trim. You don't need to cut a whole lot off at once. You can start with half an inch and work up from there until your hair seems healthy enough for you. I recently gave up on pampering my damaged ends and cut from nearly hip to just past BSL. I have few regrets and I plan to baby these new ends back to hip (with small trims every 6 months or so from now on). I just think it's important to remember that just because you trim, doesn't mean you have to give up on your goal of hip-length hair! It just might take a bit longer to get there... But it'll be so healthy when you arrive!

[midnighttrain]

Another thing you might want to examine is if you comb your hair, is the comb breaking anything? I used to use plastic combs but my brother got me a horn comb and I adore it.
Also combing while its wet can cause breakage. I'm guilty of doing that in the past.

[danacc]

Hair worn down tends to receive more mechanical damage than hair worn up. At waistlength, those ends are several years old, and have seen a lot of day-to-day wear and tear.

Check out Nightshade's article on Damaged Hair: Understanding, Preventing & Rehabilitating for some insight into the things that can be contributing to the damage and what to do about it.

Broken and frayed ends will cause damage to nearby strands. I recommend an S&D session or a very small trim to clean them up a bit.

[AmselJoey]

Hi pearl shine!

My hair was almost at waist early this summer and is wavy like yours. Towards the end of June I dyed with henna, freaked out, and tried to have my hairdresser tone down the red with chemical dye. Afterwards my old ends were breaking like crazy. I had splits galore! Even frequent S&Ds didn't help me.

I finally decided to take off an inch about two weeks ago and my hair now feels MUCH better. While I can notice the difference in length, it is slight and my hair was so damaged at the ends before that it was getting harder and harder to take care of. Now's it's 100 percent healthier and feels a lot better. It thickened up my hemline as well.

Multiple SMTs like AJoifulNoise recommended also helped bigtime! Plus coconut oil on the ends both at night and while hair is damp from the shower.

Just wanted to share my own personal experience. Hope it helps!

[vidgrl007]

catnip rinses are good.

[pdy2kn6]

hey, its probly because of wearing hair down. I would suggest wearing your hair up a little more. E.g. in a hair bun or perhaps different types of braids. Good luck!