WHITE DOTS - what do YOU think causes them?

[princesssaffron]

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[pailin]

Usually when we talk about white dots, we mean further up the shaft, not at the ends. These are places where the hair can break more easily. If it's only at the ends, especially if you just got it cut, it's probably an effect of the light on those fresh-cut ends.

[eadwine]

White dots on the ends.. I don't have them, but when I do: blunt scissors were used when cutting the hair.

[vega]

I believe you still have white dots as not all your damage was cut off and damage climbed up the hair shaft

[lapushka]

On the ends it means: blunt scissors.

*Real* white dots (as in boiled strands from heat damage) are only up the hair shaft.

[ravenheather]

I used to have a lot of white dots in spite of not using heat. More moisture helped in my case.

[Arctic]

My personal opinion is still that tips that glow white are damage, caused by dull scissors or breakage of some kind, although there are few who say on their hair these might also be cause by recent trim with sharp scissors. In which case the same people said the white tips would fade away a short while after the trim. Maybe it's possible for some hair types to have glowing white tips even when healthy and without recent trims (with dull or sharp scissors).

When I re-looked your (OP's) photos in your old thread again, it still looks very much like damage to me, I can almost see the baby splits there. (ETA: I just read from OP's intro thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=137260) that she also bleaches and uses some heat, which only strenghtens my thoughts that these are damage. I believe this important info did not come up the the original, old thread.)


Further more, there might need to be made a distiction between white dots that for example Lapushka refers to, which are ruptured hair shaft higher up (these are actual white dots, Trichorrhexis nodosa), from the tips that glow white, of which OP is talking about. Although I do believe than when Trichorrhexis nodosa breaks off, it will leave a white tip behind, but the photos in the old thread showed mostly the hemline having these kind of tips.

I have started to call the white tips just that, white tips or tips that glow white.

I think the reasons for tips that glow white (likewise I think could be a case for actual white dots) could be many, and not just one cause. But since I know my own hair the best, on my hair white tips are breakage, a broken strand of hair. I have also seen it mentioned so many times over the years it can't be ignored: white tips are often caused by blunt shears or razors, etc.

[diddiedaisy]

I would also say that white tips are from blunt scissors.

[school of fish]

I'm thinking there's more than one type of white dot, just as there's more than one type of split end (y-formation, tree branch, needle eye, etc.)... while all fit the criteria for split ends, they present differently and may have been caused by different sources of damage.

I'm thinking that perhaps it's the same with white dots - that some form up the hair shaft, some at the tips, and for different reasons (heat damage, mechanical damage, blunt scissors, etc.).

To me, a white dot is a weakened spot that shows up as a lighter point somewhere on the strand. I don't differentiate between ways that damage may have gotten there - to me it's the end result that provides the definition. So for me, whether a white dot got there through heat, from tangling, or via blunt scissors is irrelevant to me. It's still a weakness somewhere along the hair strand, but seperate from a split in that the hair strand is not dividing off in multiple directions.

I can tell you that MY white dots almost all come micro tangles near my ends - I'll get a few strands sticking to each other almost as if there's a teeny tiny bit of dried glue residue on them, and once detangled often the strands are kinked and that's where my white dot damage appears. And that's where my hair will break off and ultimately form a split end, if that white dot was weakened enough.

I've found my best practices to eliminate them as much as possible (which I won't go into here for the sake of not writing a novel, haha!), but have no doubt that my best practices may be very different from others, because we all have different hair textures, resiliencies, needs, and probable causes for the white dots in the first place :)

[Blissful337]

Hi there! I had the same thing on a lot of my ends a few weeks ago. I didn't cut them off but I started sleeping with coconut oil in my hair 2x a week now, and then washing my hair as I normally do in the morning, and I haven't seen any of those dots since I started doing this. I search for them every day but can't find any so I think my hair is liking the coconut oil. I know some peoples hair doesn't respond well to coconut oil but it seems to be working well for me. I hope you find something that works for you! Good luck!!

[lapushka]

Except I'm not quite sure if those "spots" on the end of the hairs are indeed damage or if that's just a very clear camera angle and is what "normal" hair even looks like when we all look at our hair. :shrug: Or, that it may be from dull shears... IDK.

[Mademoiselle]

When I bleached my hair 4 years ago, I do not care to use the scissors (good scissors), white dots appeared immediately where I cut, I think it's because hair inside was totally damaged.
But that was my case, not pass me since cut every bleached hair.

[nakima]

one thing I have noticed when s&ding is that if I don't go down far enough and get the whole split off it leaves a white dot. look close and you can tell if you got it all.I usually have to go about an 1/8 of an inch below the split.

[Lavendersugar]

Except I'm not quite sure if those "spots" on the end of the hairs are indeed damage or if that's just a very clear camera angle and is what "normal" hair even looks like when we all look at our hair. :shrug: Or, that it may be from dull shears... IDK.

This is what I was thinking too.