What happens if you do not cut off split ends?

[ZenBird07]

This is something I've been reading into a little bit and I have to say that I am completely friggin confused... That said, decide for yourself this way perhaps; go ahead and look at the pics of people with untrimmed hair and compare to those that do. It's not hard to find, you can tell who's been dusting and whose been lettin it go.
Now, whose hair do you want? Do you want long healthy hair or just length? Even if you do a big trim when you reach goal YOU'RE the one who has to deal with it until then. YOU will know and feel your splits.
I say trim what you can see with the very sharp scissors as prescribed previously by samarkan. Trimmed hair grows to. It typically grows with less damage. Good Luck...

[Kirin]

My advice is, to basically ignore the splits, especially if you always encounter them. You can spend an eternity trying to chase them down, and since you state you always have splits, trims and S&D are not really doing much.

This is just my personal theory, but the worst that will happen is that one hair will be damaged with a split traveling up, splits don't "migrate" to other hairs. You will never ever gain any length constantly chasing down splits with trims, only drive yourself batty.

I would for now, put the scissors down and just let it go. I know many who use this philosophy and it works well, and they cut the splits off after they achieved their goal lengths, with much better results than constant trimming.

[violetka]

Thank all of you very much for your input and optimistic thoughts I will just SnD until full BSL and then and only then trim, because otherwise the process will be too long. I do use sharp scissors which are supposedly professional... but i gues my hair is just drier and I just stopped breaking my hair an wild brushing two weeks ago an using very agressive shampoo. So I think that it will be awhile till my hair repairs and I want it longer before that.

[kdaniels8811]

I believe you said it has been two weeks since you started caring for your hair? It takes months for the changes to show up. I do not cut off my splits, I would not have any hair if I did! I went to the salon for years to get my thin ends trimmed and never grew past arm pit length. Then found LHC. No more trims, coconut oil twice a week, henna - I have to cover the grey!, and no more shampoo, herbs only have caused my hair to grow.

Another thing to try is catnip tea soaks. There are great articles about it, basically it is pet store catnip, a teaspoon in a mug for 8 hours or so, strain it, and pour it over your hair. I pour some into a baggie and put my hair in a ponytail and let it soak for a half hour, then wash my scalp only with herbs. I do not wash the length. The tea is the best thing, hands down, for preventing splits on my fine, thin hair. I do not use conditioner, just the catnip tea and oil. And I started last thanksgiving so I have some time in this process.

Good luck! Treat your hair gently and you will see result. And, in my opinion, not cutting is fine. My hair was really damaged from chemical coloring and blowfrying and is doing fine now. Check out the "no trimming" thread. Oh, and those thin ends? They are called fairytale ends! I used to hate them, now I love them, knowing what they are!

[Sarahmoon]

I had split ends when I first came to LHC and I didn't have a trim ever since, and yes I still have split ends, but they don't move up, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Yes, my ends look a bit dry and split but it never affected the healthy part of my hair.

If you want to let it grow more first, just make sure to protect your ends as well as you can.