Okay to Pull Short Hairs?

[puredoxyk]

Hi all! Wow, it's nice to be back -- there were times I wasn't sure I could make it without you guys. ;)

But things are going okay. I still haven't found the "right" stuff to do to keep my hair happy all the time, but it seems healthy and on average it's not ticking me off too badly. Which is saying something, because it's getting lonnnnng now, longer than its been for many years. I should probably start learning how to put it up soon. But first...

I don't know how this happened, but I now have a handful, maybe 20, hairs right at my part that are broken off to only a few inches long. Which means they stick right up. I hate it! The rest of my hair is long enough now that even my shortest layers are nearly shoulder-length -- the longest are a few inches short of BSL -- but unless I pull my hair straight back, you can always see this little cloud of sticky-uppies. And I don't pull my hair straight back, mostly because it hurts after a while.

My question is, can I pull out the short ones? There's not that many, and lord knows I have enough hair to cover the loss. If there's no reason not to, I'm yanking them, so at least my hair will look somewhat passable when it's down, or pulled loosely back!

Thanks people, nice to see you again!!

pd

[pookatrina]

You could pull them, but there are always going to be new hairs growing that will be short. No way around that. I'd say work on figuring out what works for your hair to get them to lay down, maybe water or aloe? I'm sure others will have some great tips.

[TammySue]

I don't pull the short hairs, but then I need all the thickness I can get. LOL!

Really, the shorter hairs are "new" growth, so I would advise against pulling them out. I use a tiny bit of leave-in conditioner (in a spray) to tame my short hairs. HTH! :)

[Silver & Gold]

You will always have new hairs coming in and they will stick straight up in your part when they get to a certain length. If you pull these, in a few months you will find others. The reason you didn't notice this before is probably because you had short layers and the new hairs blended in easily with the shorter layers.
I'm finding the same thing as I'm growing my hair out. Just leave it be, in another couple of months they will lay down as they get longer.

[FrannyG]

Those short hairs might not be broken hair, they might be new growth! They show up more at parts and at the hairline. Just leave them be. I'm sure they bother you, but no one else notices. I have them too; I always have.

[khyricat]

I ignore them, they are new growth.. and they seem to grow faster than the rest of my hair, as I now have some hairs where I had no hair that are much longer than the rest of my hair has grown during the interim.. yet I also have more new growth in spots too..

[carinkla]

I also ignore them, I think one never is without. And to be honest when I first read this title I thought it was a thread abouth hairpulling (when ehm having an argument) and you wanted to know if it was okay to pull some poor shor haired persons hair...(blushes..I am sorry I really need some coffe to clear my mind);)

[spidermom]

I agree; don't pull them! They are your future long hairs. If you start pulling the new hairs out, you won't have anything to replace the old hairs when they shed. I use a little gel, to smooth them down, and sometimes it even works.

[Anje]

I'm occasionally known to pull the stretched-and-broken look-like-4a hairs from my part, but generally, I'd advise against pulling hairs out. As you've been told, you'll always have new growth coming in, and from time to time some of it will stick up. If they're a few inches long, they'll probably lie down pretty soon anyway, and you can attempt to slick them down with water, aloe, conditioner, etc in the meantime.

[Kelpie]

I get the same thing all the time. My hair seems to grow in patches so I get a tuft of new hair that appears over night and is much shorter than the rest so it sticks out. My hair is also curly so it sticks out even more. Don't pull them because as others have said you'll just get more growing and if you keep pulling them out I think the follicles would eventually stop making new hairs and that's not going to be good in the long run. Try and deal with it for a little while and they'll soon grow into the rest of your hair.

[Elenna]

I got short hairs growing in. BUT mine are silver and really show.

[puredoxyk]

Well, thanks everybody...I guess I should refrain from taking the revenge I long for against these suckers...If anybody knows a way to get them to lay down, though, that'd be great! My hair is impervious to goop...water, conditioner, and gel...none of it works...I haven't tried aloe yet though. *sigh*

Thanks!

[spidermom]

For me, at times it takes repeated applications of a strong-hold gel over the surface of my hair because those new silvery hairs can be very wirey and stubborn. Most of the time it's o.k. if they fluff out all over the place because I work at home and nobody sees me who isn't used to it. But if I'm going out and want to look especially nice, I have to apply and reapply and reapply some more. One nice thing about aloe vera gel, I can still comb through. Some of the strong-hold gels have to be rinsed out.

[Xanthippe]

You say they are right at your part. Are there styles you can do that don't involve a part? Or maybe involve a different part? If it's breakage, it might help to change it up, but if it's baby hairs, changing the part probably won't help.

[purplebubba]

Regardless of whether the hair is new growth or broken I would say don't do it. You can damage your scalp pulling hairs out. Which means you could damage the scalp that's holding the hairs that you want to keep.

Read up on Traction Alopecia and Trichotillomania.

Even if you only intend to do a few hairs it's still better not to start. There are 90,000 to 140,000 hairs on a head. That means that even in just the area by your part you could have thousands of short hairs. And if these short hairs really bug you then you might pluck every one you can see. That's quite a few. You may pluck a few and then suddenly see the ones that were hiding behind them.