Growing out damage

[Kiiruna]

I'm trying to gain length and grow out damage - but it seems impossible. I had a trim about a month ago, where my hairdresser took off some bad ends. Now my ends are full of white dot breakage. Again. Too much to S&D. My layers are especially bad, the bottom ones are still doing fine.

What should I do? Should I just keep growing, or should I trim? Even cut off everything I can and get a short bob? My ends are not tangly or rough, but pretty smooth (I'm cone-free right now) and they're not looking that bad, if you don't look closely. I don't want to trim every month, because then I won't gain any length. I'm trying my best to treat my hair gently, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Click for picture (http://41.media.tumblr.com/484d0a129a4a8a3654af33ae39b4a472/tumblr_nt88szVmQX1sf02n4o1_540.jpg)!
Click again (http://41.media.tumblr.com/ed56ed8127119af2e075e4fdcdc31084/tumblr_nt88tyWJS81sf02n4o1_540.jpg)!

[lapushka]

It doesn't look *that* bad! I'd microtrim, if I were you. Keep growing while taking a smidgen off every month or every 2nd month. Those white dots are at the end of a hair, so that's not breakage, that's the sign of dull scissors.

[vpatt]

Lapushka, I did not know that. Thanks for sharing. I don't have any dots or splits that I can see but that will save me some stress if I ever have dots on the ends. I did just buy new scissors for microtrims.

[Nightshade]

You might find the article in my siggy helpful :) I came here with immensely damaged hair and grew it out with monthly microtrims that were half my growth per month. In my case, I grow ~ 1/2 a month, so I trimmed off 1/4 a month until I had the damage under control enough to start spacing out the trims farther :)

[Stephanie]

I'm with Lapushka...that looks more like dull scissors.

I'm a big fan of damp updos (damp bunning, twists, braids, etc) and leaving it and forgetting about it. I got into this practice when I was 'cone free and found that my hair needed some extra hydration and protection at the very ends. Once a year or so, I take off my frayed ends, but other than that, I do my best to keep them away from friction (especially if you sit in a cloth backed chair like a computer/office chair), keep them hydrated, and safe. I'm the kind of person to end up bald if I let split ends bother me, so I don't S&D or microtrim - some people find it relaxing, I get compulsive with it. Also, I personally have found that if I don't have at least a light silicone in my conditioner, I get damage FAR more quickly. Tangles and friction do more damage to my hair than I've ever experienced with silicones. Your mileage may vary, of course.

[Kiiruna]

Thank you all! You made me a little bit frustrated :)
I have used salon sciccors, but apparently they're not sharp enough :/ Any tips for making them sharp again, or should I just buy new ones with higher quality? I'm definitely going to read Nightshade's article about hair damage, and microtrim my way to longer hair.
Damp updos don't work on my hair, mainly because of my thickness - my hair takes forever to dry.

[Wosie]

lapushka, When I experience breakage there is a white dot on my hair afterwards... Or did I misunderstand what you meant? :hmm:

Kiiruna, Micro-trimming sounds like a good idea; if the hair continues breaking even after multiple trims with a sharp pair of scissors you might have to make a bigger cut.

What kind of moisturising treatments do you do for your hair?

[meteor]

What should I do? Should I just keep growing, or should I trim? Even cut off everything I can and get a short bob?

Of course this is totally up to you! :D
If the damage really bothers you, you could micro-trim it away slowly, for example. To avoid the shock of going much shorter overnight, I probably would advise against a short bob in this case, just because you are only considering it due to damage and it's not the style that you want on its own benefit.
You can certainly baby your ends while growing hair out! ;) And it doesn't look bad at all! :D

Nightshade's article on hair rehabilitating (http://web.archive.org/web/20120125071723/http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79) is really a great one, I highly recommend it! :thumbsup:

Damaged, chemically processed hair tends to do well with pre-poo oiling (http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.ca/2014/03/oil-pre-shampoo-or-pre-wash.html) with penetrating oils (e.g. coconut) and periodic protein treatments (e.g. gelatin mask (http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.ca/2014/04/gelatin-protein-treatment-recipe-update.html) or Joico K-Pak Reconstructor, etc). I'd also recommend experimenting with LOC (liquid + oil + cream leave-in) for sealing moisture post-wash.

If you have white dots and don't know exactly why, I'd analyze the routine in minute detail to figure out all sources of damage and cut them out: do you ever use heat-styling? how do you detangle your hair? how do you handle it when it's wet? what scissors do you use for trimming? how often do you wash? how and on what materials do you sleep?

Try keeping hair contained (in buns, braids) as much as possible, sleeping on silky smooth materials and using fingers or a seamless wide-tooth comb for very gentle detangling.

Treat your hair very gently, avoid any additional damage, protect it on windy/sunny days with a hat, etc.... and it's condition should get much better. ;)
Best of luck! And Happy Growing! :D

[meteor]

Thank you all! You made me a little bit frustrated :)
I have used salon sciccors, but apparently they're not sharp enough :/ Any tips for making them sharp again, or should I just buy new ones with higher quality?

I'd get new ones if the old ones aren't sharp. You can hone scissors at home with the right tool, but they can only be truly sharpened professionally, but that costs quite a bit.
Your hair scissors should ONLY be used on hair and nothing else, to keep them sharp. :)

[Ephemia]

Those white dots are at the end of a hair, so that's not breakage, that's the sign of dull scissors.

I'm not sure this is always true, going by my experience and what some others have said. I'm using the parts of my fringe that are growing out as a sharpness test, since they were cut a few months ago but haven't been touched by the scissors since, and I've yet to find any splits or white dots in them. I have a lot in my length, but that's just 5 years' worth of damage and I have noticed a dramatic reduction of both since June when I started doing an S and D session every day.

[meteor]

^ Yes, you can get white dots on the ends of hair not only if you use dull scissors. :agree: For example, a common cause is hair breaking off and leaving behind a rough edge on the very tip of the strand.
The solution is to analyze the handling and routine in detail, looking for any sources of damage and cutting them out.

[Kiiruna]

My hair doesn't like coconut oil if I don't blend it with something :/ It leaves my hair ichy and sticky and won't wash away properly.
My routine is like this: I wash every two or three days, but I use sulfates. I usually CWC, and right now my conditioners are cone-free. I do an SMT once a week, and every two weeks or so I use protein conditioner. I use coconut oil and creamy leave-in after washing, and detangle wet hair with very wide toothed comb. I try to remember use only wide toothed comb, but sometimes I forget it and brush my hair with wooden brush :D I always keep my hair up in a bun (too short and layered for proper braiding) or ponytail, and use only silk scrunchies or hair forks. I don't heat style at all.
I guess that the only real sin right now is sleeping hair loose on cotton pillowcase :D I get headaches from sleeping hair up, and right now it's too warm to sleep with a cap (which I usually do). I ordered a silk pillowcase, so that's going to change in a few weeks.

I think that right now I'm going to keep looking away from my ends and keep babying it.

[meteor]

^ Thank you very much for details on your routine, Kiiruna! :D

I think your routine sounds really very good! :thumbsup:

For reducing chances of damage/white dots/etc I have a few suggestions/questions:

- Would it be possible to look into adding back some cones? Sometimes hair is just too fragile to grow out split-free to great lengths without good coating protection that cones can provide. :flower:

- How about experimenting more with some leave-ins and oils, for example pre-poo oiling or adding a drop of oil/conditioner to damp ends every other night or so? Things like this really help restore elasticity and protect the ends a bit more.

- Experimenting with detangling hair once it's fully dry with wide-tooth comb/fingers. It really works like magic for some people (but not others, it's very YMMV, of course). Personally, I find that most of my tangles work themselves out on their own while drying. If I detangle wet, I'll keep detangling when it's dry again. But if I wait till fully dry, I have to manipulate and detangle hair a lot less.

- Trying to stretch washes, if it's not too hard, might help, as well. Washing hair every 2 days = 182 washes per year, but washing weekly = 52 washes per year. Every skipped wash means saving your hair from extra hygral fatigue, wet manipulation, exposure to sulfates and other cleansers, drying and detangling -> it's good to avoid extra wear and tear. It all adds up.

And I'm happy you are getting a silk pillowcase :thumbsup:, I think it makes a huge difference for reducing tangling, dryness and frizz. :D

[mallorykay13]

So, at one point I had to make a similar decision. I can't tell you what to choose, but I'll tell you what I did. When I started at TLHC I had APL fried hair from straightening and color treating and the works. I still had a thick hemline bite my hair was clearly damaged (this is what I perceive you are experiencing based on your photos). What I did is grow my hair out and when the ends got to looking bad I would take off about three inches. I would say that happened every six months or so. Eventually less and less of the overall percentage of my hair was damaged. This was easy to tell because my damaged hair is still lighter than my natural color. So, for me, it was a happy medium. I was still gaining length (I average about an inch a month.) but I was keeping the ends feeling fresh and was cutting out the damage. Hope that all made sense. If you'd like pictures, let me know.

[mallorykay13]

Yeah, I used to get the white dots in the middle of the strand. Putting any tensile force on that strand would cause it to snap off. I basically just super babied my hair and took it off in sections.

[lapushka]

To give you a little courage. I grew out a perm (shoulder length) - I have F hair, mind you - that was riddled with white dots, all the way to hip before we tackled the white dot issue. Those hairs hung on, a few of them broke, but not that much. Only with S&D did all of them go and that ended up in me losing half my thickness, so we had to cut back to BSL. But with microtrimming this should be no issue, esp. not when all your dots are at the end of a strand, so you won't even need to cut off a lot!

White dots can withstand a *lot* and meanwhile they don't really damage your strands any (unless they break off). But those suckers are tough!

[Kiiruna]

Thank you for suggestions, meteor! :) I think I'll add some cones back to my conditioners. I've tried to stretch washes, but oily scalp makes me itchy, and to be honest... I just love washing my hair :D What if I'd wash every other time with sulfate free shampoo, could it be more gentle? Detangling dry hair doesn't work for me, because my hair gets more tangly while it dries, so I have to do it right away.

Thank you for encouragement, mallorkay and lapushka! I think I will choose something between microtrimming and normal trimming... semi-microtrimming? My lengths are somewhat white dot free and I don't feel like they're breaking off. I'm relieved to hear that my dotty ends might be just because of dull scissors :)

Using coconut oil in my ends after washing makes my hair feel good, but sometimes my ends still feel dry. Any ideas what could I use if coconut oil is not enough?

[lapushka]

Using coconut oil in my ends after washing makes my hair feel good, but sometimes my ends still feel dry. Any ideas what could I use if coconut oil is not enough?

You're not the first whose ends feel dry/crunchy even after using coconut. Maybe switch up the oils some? Olive oil (but that can be a tad heavy on F hair). Maybe some jojoba or macadamia or even sweet almond oil (love that).

[alexis917]

Maybe go for a more hydrating conditioner? Oils can only seal in existing moisture, so if your ends are dry when you put it on, they won't feel significantly better when you wash off. The oil will only protect them.

[meteor]

Thank you for suggestions, meteor! :) I think I'll add some cones back to my conditioners. I've tried to stretch washes, but oily scalp makes me itchy, and to be honest... I just love washing my hair :D What if I'd wash every other time with sulfate free shampoo, could it be more gentle?

Awesome! :thumbsup: I think adding silicones strategically will really help, even if it's just in a bit of serum/leave-in, for example. Silicones are pretty helpful for damaged hair, because they add that slip and protective coating, giving more elasticity to hair strands.

If you love washing hair frequently, using milder shampoos or diluting a bit of shampoo in water in a separate bottle or even throwing in a Water-Only wash or a Conditioner-Only wash in between stronger shampoo sessions might be worth looking into. :) Yes, sulfate-free is usually milder because gentle cleansing is the market those products are often created for, but not necessarily, it's all in the formula. ;) (More on this: here (http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2012/06/are-sulfate-free-shampoos-really.html), here (http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2012/06/sulfate-free-shampoos-genuinely-gentle.html), here (http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2012/06/sulfate-free-shampoos-least-and-most.html)and here (http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2012/03/natural-haven-on-sulfates-in-shampoo.html))