Constantly getting split ends, I'm addicted to dusting!

[Kayto]

Okay well, first off I think I should share my hair story. :D
The beginning of last year I was reckless with my hair, I had long, mid-back length uncolored, natural, hair that everyone said they wanted.
I used to straighten it with a flat iron every day and had little heat damage, if any at all. I decided to finally dye it for the first time. I bleached it and dyed it with hot pink hair dye. Total fail of an idea. It damaged my hair completely. I went to the salon and got a hair cut to get rid of the dry, damaged ends and get bangs.
time passed, I dyed it burgundy and black, then more time passed and I got another hair cut. The lady at the salon took thinning shears and DESTROYED my hair, and gave me uneven layers. I'm still trying to grow out the damage.
However, now, I have been heat free for almost a year and have only dyed it once and that was last month just so all my hair would be the same color (it was a mix of reds, browns, etc. It was weird) I never brush while my hair is wet, I do hair masks, I am careful about what shampoo I use, I drink water, I eat healthy.
(I currently I use mane n' tail about once a week. I normally go sulfate/paraben/etc free however I heard good things about mane n' tail.) and I constantly am cutting my split ends.
But the question is, why do I get so many?!
I am the most careful person when it comes to my hair. I cut my hair with regular scissors rather than hair cutting scissors is that why they just keep coming back?
I sleep with my hair up, or I let it loose. Does that cause split ends too?
I'm a wreck. I want my hair to be long, preferably to my hip and right now its not even in the middle of my back yet, but it is healthy and soft, I just have split ends.
I know this was a TL;DR, I just am in need of help. I cut my split ends off every time my hair dries after I wash, which like I said before, once a week.
:o Thanks for reading

[Larki]

I think the problem is that you're using regular scissors instead of hair shears.

[Kayto]

I was thinking that was the issue, I have cut off so much length because I didn't know this.. :c If that's your hair in your icon, your hair is gorgeous. <3

[Larki]

I was thinking that was the issue, I have cut off so much length because I didn't know this.. :c If that's your hair in your icon, your hair is gorgeous. <3
Aww, well thank you!! If only I could figure out how to fishtail my own hair, that one was done by a friend who braided it and took a picture. ;)

[Crumpet]

You still have lots of old dye damage to clear up. Also, when she thinned your hair, did she use a razor? That is very bad for your hair.

Definitely switch up your scissors to hair ONLY scissors. Don't use those scissors for anything else.

Eventually your dye damage will grow out. You may wish to join the thread about growing out dye. They have lots of great suggestions over there.

Good luck!

[Kayto]

Aww, well thank you!! If only I could figure out how to fishtail my own hair, that one was done by a friend who braided it and took a picture. ;)

You're welcome! :)

[Kayto]

Yeah she did use a razor. I was really naive back then I thought it would just literally make my hair thin, my hair is very thick and I hate it.
I'm going to go buy some hair cutting scissors tomorrow.
Thank you for the suggestion, I will definitely go check that out. =)

[Crumpet]

Yeah she did use a razor. I was really naive back then I thought it would just literally make my hair thin, my hair is very thick and I hate it.
I'm going to go buy some hair cutting scissors tomorrow.
Thank you for the suggestion, I will definitely go check that out. =)

We've all been there. I used to request the use of a razor for my face framing layers. :rolleyes:

The growing out hair dye thread is super-supportive and they can also help with ideas about how to blend your natural colour in if you want to go that way. Also, if you want to keep dying, there are more gentle ways out there and people here can help you.

[Kayto]

If you have a link to the thread that would be super helpful, I'm new and still trying to find my way around =)
I wish I could go back and tell myself no! do not touch hair dye, ever! :c

[Addy]

Here ya go... http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=51155

The thread is pretty active and is usually on the first or second page. It takes commitment to grow out dye and even more to grow out an awful razor cut on top of it! If it's as bad as you say it is, I'd suggest that you maintain and trim your growth off every month or so to get rid of the problem *eventually*. OR you can take 2 weeks or more and think, is it very bad and go down to a pixie to get rid of the razored hair. Razor cuts are horrid in my humble opinion. I've had them and they are a nightmare to deal with. OR you can continue to S&D while growing with a new pair of hair shears for the long haul. The choice is yours and there is no wrong choice. All of them are going to be painful in some way.

Good Luck Growing!

[CurlMonster]

I have hair that has been bleached and heat-abused in the past and even after a year of no heat, no dye, and very gentle treatment, I still get splits in that hair. I keep the splits down with S&D and regular trimming, but I think when hair is really damaged you can't eliminate splits entirely! So I'd say keep up the gentle treatment and regular trims and eventually you'll be rid of that old damage and the split problem will go away. :)

[Weewah]

As long as you have bleach damage you'll get splits. I keep hair scissors by my bed and am constantly cutting off splits every day. My bleached hairs split more than my normal hairs. It's a long road to grow this out but it'll be worth it in the end. :)

[restless]

Welcome to LHC :)

Youre writing that your hair has gone through heat, bleach, several dyes and a razored cut but for the past year youve been taking good care of it. On an average, hair grows around 6 inches per year so that means you have 6 inches of hair that hasnt gone through abuse. However, Im gonna assume your hair is longer than 6 inches- lets pretend its 20 inches. That means the last 14 inches still carry a lot of damage and thus theyre more fragile than the new hair. That could be why its splitting. It doesnt matter how kind you are to your hair because once its been damage, it´ll stay damaged. You can make it look nicer and feel better but at the end of the day it wont heal.

Id say the best thing you can do is to continue with your microtrims/S&D (with a sharp scissor) and treating your hair nicely as the rest of the damage grows out. Im in the same boat as you are- Im also growing out heat/bleach/dye-damage and for me, oiling with coconut oil has helped my hair a lot. There are plenty of oils out there though and I can highly recommend trying some of them out if you havent already. Check out the threads about them here in the forum ;)

Edit: I just wanted to add that the razored cut might be a big culprit too behind split ends. Have you had your layers dusted with a good scissor yet?

[Madora]

I also recommend buying shears for dusting your hair and using them solely for that purpose.

To help with the split end situation, you might want to investigate using catnip rinses. More about it here:http://ktanihairsense.blogspot.ca/2009/11/part-3-of-4-on-innovative-approaches-to.html

[meteor]

If your ends have sustained some of that flat-ironing / bleaching / dyeing damage that you described, you will continue having fragile and split-prone ends, because damage is cumulative as hair is dead and can't be "healed".
What you can do is be a bit more careful with your ends (put hair up, sleep on silk satin, oil your ends regularly) and use conditioners that have patch-repairing ingredients: hydrolyzed proteins, fatty acids like ceramides and 18-MEA, panthenol and other humectants when the humidity is right.

And yes, razors are not the right way for cutting hair to prevent splits. You can read this informative article with the photos of different types of damage under a microscope: http://www.pgbeautygroomingscience.com/hair-damage.php
Scroll down to "damage from hair cutting and styling":
"It is even possible to tell whether a stylist chose to use scissors or a razor by looking at the record of the hair: razor cutting produces long, tapering sections of cuticle which weather quickly, and even peel back."
Unskilled razor cutting can leave a long 'tail' on the severed hair, which may lead to breakdown of the end of the hair
http://www.pgbeautygroomingscience.com/assets/images/twoh/Chapter%202/Damage%2012.jpg

[Firefox7275]

You likely did have some heat damage, even if not visible/ fried. Then you have dye damage and razor damage. Hair is dead, it cannot be permanently repaired: hydrolysed protein (Mane'n'Tail) is great but also consider coconut oil, ceramides, 18-MEA and panthenol.

[Kayto]

Welcome to LHC :)

Youre writing that your hair has gone through heat, bleach, several dyes and a razored cut but for the past year youve been taking good care of it. On an average, hair grows around 6 inches per year so that means you have 6 inches of hair that hasnt gone through abuse. However, Im gonna assume your hair is longer than 6 inches- lets pretend its 20 inches. That means the last 14 inches still carry a lot of damage and thus theyre more fragile than the new hair. That could be why its splitting. It doesnt matter how kind you are to your hair because once its been damage, it´ll stay damaged. You can make it look nicer and feel better but at the end of the day it wont heal.

Id say the best thing you can do is to continue with your microtrims/S&D (with a sharp scissor) and treating your hair nicely as the rest of the damage grows out. Im in the same boat as you are- Im also growing out heat/bleach/dye-damage and for me, oiling with coconut oil has helped my hair a lot. There are plenty of oils out there though and I can highly recommend trying some of them out if you havent already. Check out the threads about them here in the forum ;)

Edit: I just wanted to add that the razored cut might be a big culprit too behind split ends. Have you had your layers dusted with a good scissor yet?

I haven't cut it with good scissors yet. It's hard to get to see the splits on my layers because I can't see behind my head. I have such weird layers.
I want to get it fixed somehow, but I find it hard to trust a hairdresser again after that happened and from experience it seems like all they want to do is cut, cut, cut.
http://oi60.tinypic.com/2dkfi2w.jpg that is a picture of my hair, at the end of my finger is how long it is. You can see on the side of the picture kind of a close up of my hair, it looks dry, and you can tell how it sticks out the variation of length in the layers. My hair is 18 inches long. I just measured today and my hair grows relatively fast, probably even more than 1/2 inch a month. It's not as dry as it looks in the picture, I guess my hair looks coarse or something.

I definitely want to try coconut oil, I've been meaning to for a long time. My hair doesn't have that many split ends, but if you look closely toward the light, the parts where the girl used the razor white dots pop up like crazy so I just continue to cut them. I didn't know before that using non-hair scissors are bad for your hair. I feel like I have sacrificed a lot of length because of this, then again it was bleached so I need to force myself to realize cutting my hair is going to be apart of healthy hair growth.

[meteor]

I find it hard to trust a hairdresser again after that happened and from experience it seems like all they want to do is cut, cut, cut.
(...) My hair doesn't have that many split ends, but if you look closely toward the light, the parts where the girl used the razor white dots pop up like crazy so I just continue to cut them.
I think S&D'ing those white dots and splits is the way to go then. You can twist or braid sections of your hair and examine the ends that are sticking out, cutting out damage.
But continue babying (protecting, conditioning and oiling) your ends since they sustained significant chemical and heat damage in the past.

[Kayto]

Thank you! I do S&D pretty much every day. It's addicting. I just have been using the wrong scissors but that will change today! :)
I have a hard time getting my hair in protective hairstyles. My hair has too many layers to put in a braid.