Split-ends! Help!

[greywolf]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I keep on trimming my hair to get rid of the split-ends, and now my hair is only at bra-strap length again. I got my hair cut last month, and a week later, I already had split-ends again.

I stopped shampooing all of my hair. I shampoo the scalp only now and I only do that every other day. I do CO-washes the rest of the time. I switched over to a seamless comb last week. I'm hoping that'll help. And I oil my ends a couple times a week before I go to bed. I only heat-style my hair a couple times a month. I don't know what else to do. My hair would be hip length by now if I didn't have to keep on cutting it off the damage. =/

[furnival]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with splits... How do you usually wear your hair? Wearing it down a lot is often enough to cause splits. If you wash very frequently you might try stretching your washes so you do less of them, as your hair is more susceptible to damage whilst wet. Detangling super-gently and wearing your hair in a protective style while you sleep also helps to minimise damage, and deep moisture treatments help if your splits are caused by dryness.

[Madora]

I'd dispense with the heat to begin with.

Also, cut back to oiling less frequently.

If you are trimming, be darn sure your shears are SHARP. Dull shears will create white dots which lead to split ends.

Splits are also a sign of lack of moisture in your hair.

You might want to try using baby oil (mineral oil) on dampened hair. To get the best effect, do it on hair that has been clarified FIRST, then apply one or two drops of mo to your palms, then run your palms through your dampened hair several times until the sheen has disappeared from your hands. The MO helps keep the moisture in your hair longer and rinses out in your next shampoo. You only need a few drops. It is lightweight, provides plenty of slip, combats the frizzies and is a great detangler too.

I would strongly recommend you try and limit your shampooing to once a week. It sounds like all that shampooing and co-ing in between is robbing your hair of moisture. Less is more works. You just need to be patient. Good luck!

[natural_shine]

maybe that's your healthy terminal lenght, sory to say, but it happens to a lot of people- it gets to a certain lenght and than it starts splitting. not much you can do about it, it's genes/...

[pixietail]

maybe that's your healthy terminal lenght, sory to say, but it happens to a lot of people- it gets to a certain lenght and than it starts splitting. not much you can do about it, it's genes/...

This frightens me because I'm struggling with the same thing. My hair is not-quite-waist length and I'm getting terrible splitting. Some of the splits are 3-6 inches from the ends! I was hoping to make it at least to tail bone, so it sucks to be stalled here.

A couple of questions - first, will coconut oil work as well as mineral? Also, how do you deal with oiliness when you stretch your washes? My hair is quite thin on top, and oily to boot. Not shampooing gives me thin, stringy looking hair with bits of scalp showing through :(

[greywolf]

maybe that's your healthy terminal lenght, sory to say, but it happens to a lot of people- it gets to a certain lenght and than it starts splitting. not much you can do about it, it's genes/...

I wondered about that, but I remember growing my hair very long when I was a teen. I also remember that I didn't pay very much attention to the health of my hair either, so maybe it was just as bad back then too, but I don't remember all the split ends.


This frightens me because I'm struggling with the same thing. My hair is not-quite-waist length and I'm getting terrible splitting. Some of the splits are 3-6 inches from the ends! I was hoping to make it at least to tail bone, so it sucks to be stalled here.

A couple of questions - first, will coconut oil work as well as mineral? Also, how do you deal with oiliness when you stretch your washes? My hair is quite thin on top, and oily to boot. Not shampooing gives me thin, stringy looking hair with bits of scalp showing through :(

Coconut oil made my ends very brittle feeling. =/


Sorry to hear you're having trouble with splits... How do you usually wear your hair? Wearing it down a lot is often enough to cause splits. If you wash very frequently you might try stretching your washes so you do less of them, as your hair is more susceptible to damage whilst wet. Detangling super-gently and wearing your hair in a protective style while you sleep also helps to minimise damage, and deep moisture treatments help if your splits are caused by dryness.

I usually wear it down or in a ponytail, or wear it up with a pencil or something.


I'd dispense with the heat to begin with.

Also, cut back to oiling less frequently.

If you are trimming, be darn sure your shears are SHARP. Dull shears will create white dots which lead to split ends.

Splits are also a sign of lack of moisture in your hair.

You might want to try using baby oil (mineral oil) on dampened hair. To get the best effect, do it on hair that has been clarified FIRST, then apply one or two drops of mo to your palms, then run your palms through your dampened hair several times until the sheen has disappeared from your hands. The MO helps keep the moisture in your hair longer and rinses out in your next shampoo. You only need a few drops. It is lightweight, provides plenty of slip, combats the frizzies and is a great detangler too.

I would strongly recommend you try and limit your shampooing to once a week. It sounds like all that shampooing and co-ing in between is robbing your hair of moisture. Less is more works. You just need to be patient. Good luck!

My hair gets very limp when I don't shampoo. =/ And is jojoba oil a good alternative to MO? Because MO tends to feel heavier on my hair. What do you recommend for a clarifying shampoo?

[Madora]

Greywolf, Neutrogena Clarifying shampoo has received good references here from other LHCers. The thing to remember is to do a simple moisturizing treatment after you clarify. The clarifying shampoo strips everything from your hair, leaving it feeling haylike and starved (for lack of a better description). Personally, I use 4 drops of MO on damp hair after I clarify (but I have 48 inches of hair so need more MO).

Sorry, but as I've never used jojoba I cannot compare it with MO. Perhaps someone else here who has used both can shed light on this.

[furnival]

maybe that's your healthy terminal lenght, sory to say, but it happens to a lot of people- it gets to a certain lenght and than it starts splitting. not much you can do about it, it's genes/...
It's possible to reach a false terminal when hair gets to a certain length and gets damaged more easily, edpecially if it's worn loose or in a ponytail as the ends are not protected. This isn't your true terminal length though.


I usually wear it down or in a ponytail, or wear it up with a pencil or something.
It's possible that this is one of the reasons you are getting splits. Wearing your hair up in a bun or other style where your ends are safely tucked away will prevent them getting damaged.

[Redhead Rebel]

I have the same problem too! My problem is from bleach/heat damage. My hair is almost BSL but my hair below shoulder length is where all the damage is. I S&D pretty much every day to avoid losing length, I haven't found any routine that stops the damage yet.

I have noticed though if I do a small trim and then straighten my hair just once, it all splits again almost instantly, so I had to quit all heat tools.

[Angelica]

I'm inclined to believe this about myself since I have never been able to grow my hair to great lengths, even when I was in school and it still remained virtually the same length. Whereas a lot of other girls in school were able to grow their hair to excessive lengths. A lot of it has to do with genes.

But since Greywolf says she grew her hair very long in her teens, it can't be her terminal length. I think sometimes even updos can damage the hair shaft.

Perhaps the ponytails are too harsh or heat styling it even occasionally is the problem.

I hope you reach a solution Greywolf :)

[Naiadryade]

maybe that's your healthy terminal lenght, sory to say, but it happens to a lot of people- it gets to a certain lenght and than it starts splitting. not much you can do about it, it's genes/...

Terminal length isn't when your hair "gets to a certain length and then starts splitting." Your hair follicles will grow hair up until a certain length, which varies by genes. Then it stops, and the hair sits on your head (at terminal length) without growing for a while, how long also varies by genes. Then, the hair falls out and the follicle rests for a while before starting the cycle again. It's not related to when/if the hair splits.

To the OP--by many people's standards, heat-styling twice a month is really quite a lot. Some people's hair can handle it... but others' can't. Some people get splits from just one heat-styling session. I don't use any heat, but my hair still splits like crazy just because it's kind of dry and I like to wear it down most of the time, so it ends up rubbing on stuff.

I feel like I've been having less breakage, though, since I've been using olive oil on my hair regularly. It simultaneously moisturizes my hair and gives it enough slip (I guess) to make it barely tangle at all even though I'm wearing it down, so there are very few casualties from detangling. Which I am now able to do with just my fingers--I run my hands through my hair a few times a day and find a few small knots, which I gently pull apart.

[lapushka]

maybe that's your healthy terminal lenght, sory to say, but it happens to a lot of people- it gets to a certain lenght and than it starts splitting. not much you can do about it, it's genes/...

Undoubtedly genes come to play in it somehow - in general, but I doubt this is on the forefront here if she's heatstyling her hair.

[lunalocks]

Regarding oils - I have tried pure mineral oil, jojoba, calendula, argan and neem, and what works best for me is baby oil. Pure mineral oil is too thick. Johnson's baby oil has a bit too much fragrance, but will do in a pinch. What I like best is generic baby oil. The ingredients are simply mineral oil and fragrance. My hair is so happy now. I put several drops on length from ears down after washing and conditioning (I have 36 inch hair) and finger comb to dry. maybe comb once or twice with wide tooth comb. Then, every night before bunning, another 2 drops on the ends.

I recently had to wash with (what turned out to be) a harsh shampoo and no conditioner that left my hair like straw. After a few days of the baby oil treatment, I washed with my usual routine EXCEPT I conditioned twice. CWCC with baby oil on the very damp hair NS air dry. No tangles and now I have very, very soft hair. It's happy now.

After the harsh shampoo episode, I snipped a hundred splits where there had been non before. I am currently doing the 30 days wearing up challenge and when I take my hair down at the end of the day, it is so soft and healthy.

[torrilin]

maybe that's your healthy terminal lenght, sory to say, but it happens to a lot of people- it gets to a certain lenght and than it starts splitting. not much you can do about it, it's genes/...

Very few people have a terminal length of BSL. It's really really really really rare for someone to only do search and destroy for splits and have their hair stop growing at BSL. There are a few posters here who claim BSL terminal, but almost all of them trim very actively, usually more often than every 6 months. People with very strong arguments for being at terminal are rarer yet, and at least one person who was sure he was at terminal based upon over 5 years of no trims evidence has started growing again.

The OP mentions using heat on her hair a few times a month. On my fine hair, that'd probably be enough to produce a false terminal all by itself. My hair is really dry, fragile and prone to splits. I haven't used heat on my hair since 2003 or so, and I wear my hair braided or bunned almost 24/7. Even so, my hair still cheerfully splits at the drop of a hat. This doesn't mean I can't grow my hair long... but it does mean that I have to be fussy about what sorts of stuff I do to my hair.

The OP also mentions basically not wearing her hair up. Again, on my hair, that would be a disaster. It splits when it's protected from everything! Wearing it down all the time is just asking for a false terminal, because my hair is fragile.

My hair is currently past waist length, and we're meandering along looking for a spot to maintain. But there's very little reason to believe my hair would hit terminal any time soon. Braid taper suggests that my earliest possible terminal is going to be past classic, and braid taper also suggests that my goal length is much shorter than my terminal. And well, braid taper is not a good predictor of terminal length. It invariably gives a much shorter terminal projection than your real terminal length would be. Most other prediction methods give answers ranging from a terminal between BSL and waist (which I'm already past) to in the knee length range. Braid taper at least doesn't predict lengths shorter than my current one :D.

I'm also not the longest poster here with 1/f/ii hair. There are at least 3-4 people with 1/f/ii hair who are in the classic to fingertip range, and I have lots of company in the waist to classic range. Past fingertip is relatively rare, and it's not a good indicator of terminal trends for a given hair type. There just aren't tons of people who have hair longer than their arms of any hair type :). And well, choosing to stay within your arms' length is a very common trimming decision.

[jeanniet]

Wearing it down or in a ponytail all the time will cause a lot of splits at about BSL for many people. There's too much friction for the hair to stay healthy. I would try keeping it up as much as possible for the next six months, S & D regularly to control the splits, use a silk pillowcase or sleep cap, and see how it looks. I bet you'll be surprised at the difference. When I was a teenager, I had BSL length hair that I wore in a ponytail all the time, and it never grew any longer--because I was damaging it just by having it down all the time. It just broke off once it reached that length. Now, almost 40 years later, my hair is a foot longer than it was back then, with way fewer splits. I'm just a lot more careful.

[natural_shine]

Terminal length isn't when your hair "gets to a certain length and then starts splitting." Your hair follicles will grow hair up until a certain length, which varies by genes. Then it stops, and the hair sits on your head (at terminal length) without growing for a while, how long also varies by genes. Then, the hair falls out and the follicle rests for a while before starting the cycle again. It's not related to when/if the hair splits.

To the OP--by many people's standards, heat-styling twice a month is really quite a lot. Some people's hair can handle it... but others' can't. Some people get splits from just one heat-styling session. I don't use any heat, but my hair still splits like crazy just because it's kind of dry and I like to wear it down most of the time, so it ends up rubbing on stuff.
.

I know what terminal lentht per se means, I added "healthy" terminal lenght. Meaning you can only grow it healthy till a certain lenght (while still being all in good condition), not that it can't grow more than that- it can, but it will be full of split ends further on. I know that the two "terminals" don't coincide. Sory for the confusion, maybe I didn t write too clear.

that being said... I'm curious how much my hair can grow, never reached any of the terminals so far, "seek and destroy" method keeps things great for me.Well, never had it really really long either...

later edit- i'm one of the people who have heat-sensitive hair. My hair can handle endless bleaching/dyeing, can handle perm, can take hair spray and teasing, can handle lye soap even. But one heat-styling and it's on "intensive care" for 2-3 months. lol. It cooks up the core of it, it feels like fried plastic.

[lunalocks]

Greywolf. I had many of the same frustrations you have. I made some changes, and now my hair is hip length. I never would have believed this possible. For years and years I would make it to a little longer than BSL to then have 2 or so inches cut off by my well meaning hairdresser. I finally found someone who was willing to trim off 1/4 inch and no more. After several years I was shocked to find my hair was almost at waist. Then I made a few more changes. I stopped drying my hair with heat. I switched to organic no cone products. Regular S and D. CWC and baby oil. If I combed, it was with a smooth, wide toothed comb. I stopped wearing ponytails (I am still growing out that damage). I started wearing my hair up at night and more often during the day. As much as I loved my 1 to 3 time per year curls on foam tubes, that contributed to breakage, so no more. My hair has never been so long or in such great shape, and I am in my 50's. It took some changes and diligence and patience. And advise I found here. I experimented a lot, and some things worked and others didn't. Keep trying different methods until you find what works for your hair and you will hit your stride.

[natural_shine]

how do ponytails damage your hair? (unless you stay in the sun a lot, or of u have it so long it gets caught in doors and pants often...)

[lunalocks]

The elastic continually rubs the hair over and over making it fragile in that spot. In my case, I wore a pony 3 times a week for exercising, and repeatedly tightened the pony when it would become a little loose. I always used a soft scrunchie, but it still caused damage. On my head, the hairs that would be inside the pony are long and healthy and there is almost no tapir. The hairs that would be on the outside of the pony are tattered and there is extreme tapir. That's where all my splits are. If only I had known. Now, for exercise, I wear a bun with spin pins.

[greywolf]

Undoubtedly genes come to play in it somehow - in general, but I doubt this is on the forefront here if she's heatstyling her hair.

I blowdry my hair about 1-2 a month (if even that much). Would that really make such a difference?

[natural_shine]

thnx for the info. I'll try to protect it more...

[Dorothy]

Greywolf, there's a lot of good advice in here, but one thing is missing - put down the pencil and step back. Pencils are rough. If you listen when you push the pencil through, you may hear snapping, or it may pull some of your hairs and be painful, and that means the pencil is snagging some of your hairs. Get a super smooth hairstick or fork. To hair test any object, rub it all over your face in various directions - if it's scratchy at all, it's too rough for hair. So you could try stopping with the heat, get some spin pins or a smooth hairstick for putting it up, and let go of the pony tail holders, and see how you do. Also, you could tolerate some splits to get some length and do search and destroy rather than trimming. When I came here I thought I was terminal at BSL, and now I'm moving past waist 4 or is it 5 years later? And the most important thing was treating it like delicate lace - avoiding snapping a single strand. Stopping using pencils or pens or other random non smooth objects, watching the seat belt, the car door, removing hairtoys gently, not getting it caught in cuff buttons, detangling with a seamless comb only from the bottom up, etc. etc. It seems ridiculous but those snapping strands or abraded strands add up. I think abrasion is the problem with pony holders, particularly if you tighten them by splitting your pony and pulling so the pony holder slides up your strands, I can just see it bending all the scales on my strands the wrong direction, breaking them up. And if you take it out by sliding it down your hair, that's more friction. Good luck.

[lapushka]

I blowdry my hair about 1-2 a month (if even that much). Would that really make such a difference?

When you said heatstyling, I thought you meant really HOT tools such as a curling iron or straighteners. I don't count blowdrying as heatstyling, and no then I don't think it matters.

[Icialine]

I know it can be frustrating but I'm sure you'll find out how to control this.I know that I've had very few split ends since I accidentally bought a detangling comb (it was the only model left in the display)about 20 years ago and discovered how easy my wet hair was to handle with one of them as opposed to the pulling and tugging with a regular comb. Since then-though I can't find the model I first bought- I've only used wide-toothed combs that I check for snagging potential by running along a pair of nylons. If I discover any roughness on their surface (or the surface of anything I put in my hair like fine-tooth combs,sticks etc.) I sand it smooth with one of those 4-textured nail buffers. I haven't brushed my hair in over a decade, I only untangle it with a wide-toothed comb and then style with a regular comb which also helps. If I put a barrette in my hair I make sure to give the metal clasp bar a few coats of varnish so it's edge can't cut my hair.

[jeanniet]

how do ponytails damage your hair? (unless you stay in the sun a lot, or of u have it so long it gets caught in doors and pants often...)

The ponytail holders, for one, as someone already mentioned, but also because ponytailed hair still moves, and every time hair moves, it's rubbing against something--your clothes, furniture, etc. Rubbing means friction, and friction damages hair. That's why a braid is better than a pony, and for many people, a bun is better than a braid (or vice versa, depending on your hair). If you really force yourself to be aware of what your hair is coming in contact with throughout the day, you'll see that there may be many ways in which your hair is getting damaged that you just didn't realize.

[jacqueline101]

I'm in the same boat you're in my hair is bsl and keeps getting splits. I'm going to try s&d to see if that helps mine. Then I'm trying mo method that's mentioned. I've had winter damage before.