S&d ruined my hair!!!!

[Leighash]

Hey guys, I joined LHC around a month ago and when I found out about S&D'ing I got HOOKED and obsessively cut off every split or white dot I found - which now has left me with layers on the sides of my hair which I hate because it makes my hair look thinner and UGH! it's just past APL, hovers above my boobs so my mum won't let me go for the big chop. I don't know what to do, I've been doing half up half down styles and half up buns but it's really getting me down as I STILL have loads of damage :(

[Tosca]

I noticed that you straighten your hair 2-3 times a week. I think that is your real problem. The S&D thing is just a symptom of the damage caused by excessive straightening.

[lapushka]

If you still use heat on it, do NOT S&D or you're going to be left with no hair after a while. If you cut off every white dot as you create them (by using heat), then you're in for a world of trouble!

[Rebel Rebel]

Yes exactly what Lapushka said!
It sounds to me like you might just need to let it grow, do some conditioning treatments and when the time comes, just do a clean blunt trim on ends only. If I had tried to cut all the damage and splits in my hair I would have been left with a haircut up to my ears. If you don't want to cut it shorter, then you might have to just accept the damage you have and give it a chance to grow out. Progress takes time, as annoying as that can be.

[Anje]

Also, if you're one of those personalities that gets picky and perfectionist, S&D can be a bad idea. Getting obsessive and trimming every minor imperfection isn't useful for growing hair long. I found I needed to limit how much I S&Ded.

[sarahthegemini]

Why on earth would your Mum not let you chop? :-/

[Moonfall]

Also, if you're one of those personalities that gets picky and perfectionist, S&D can be a bad idea. Getting obsessive and trimming every minor imperfection isn't useful for growing hair long. I found I needed to limit how much I S&Ded.

Yep, same thing for me. I let my partner hide my scissors a few weeks ago, because my ends were only getting worse as I kept S&Ding obsessively. I got my ends trimmed a few days ago and I'm going to try not S&Ding for a while, to see if it will give me a thicker hemline. I think S&D can be a great thing, but like with probably everything in life, too much of it isn't good either!

[Synester]

Fill me in im pretty new and dont know ANY of the abbreviations, what is S&D. ( or can anyone make a list of what all the Abbreviations mean. Because I feel like I S&D but dont know the term for it.

[Aredhel]

Fill me in im pretty new and dont know ANY of the abbreviations, what is S&D. ( or can anyone make a list of what all the Abbreviations mean. Because I feel like I S&D but dont know the term for it.

Search & destroy. Check out the Glossary of LHC Terms and Abbreviations (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=54874).

[Synester]

omg thankyou!

[sweetvalley00]

Yep, same thing for me. I let my partner hide my scissors a few weeks ago, because my ends were only getting worse as I kept S&Ding obsessively. I got my ends trimmed a few days ago and I'm going to try not S&Ding for a while, to see if it will give me a thicker hemline. I think S&D can be a great thing, but like with probably everything in life, too much of it isn't good either!

Thank you so much for this. I was just heading into the obsessive territory and this thread is probably motivating enough for me to stop. Ughhh those white dots. :rolleyes:

[Dung Beetle]

I can easily get obsessed with S&D, except that after ten minutes or so, my husband comes to ask why I'm in the bathroom so long. :)
Also, I only cut off the tiniest bit above the splits. White dots I try to ignore.

You could always do your own haircut (there are instructions here someplace), but I suspect that might not be the right advice for everyone!

[Begemot]

I can get pretty obsessive about S&Ding. It can be quite therapeutic but won't be good for my hair in the long run... just touching my hair too much probably damages it. Previously it thinned out my ends because I couldn't accept that even the healthiest head of hair has some damage and aimed to cut every single damaged strand/strand that looked like it might break or split eventually. I try to S&D max twice a week and have been thinking that I should take a break from it altogether.

[lapushka]

Thank you so much for this. I was just heading into the obsessive territory and this thread is probably motivating enough for me to stop. Ughhh those white dots. :rolleyes:

Those white dots can actually hang on for quite some time. I would leave them alone as much as possible.

I had them with a shoulder cut due to heat styling and perming, half my head was riddled with them at the time, starting about 1 to 2 inches from the root. So I grew it out until hip. Then my mom did a massive S&D on my head and my hemline, no joke, was half thinned out all the way up to BSL, so we just had to cut it back to BSL. But hadn't I grown them out, I would have had to go with a pixie cut, which was something I was not prepared to do.

They only break when you "force" them, a few will break off, inevitably with washing and a little stronger manipulation, but a lot will hang onto the hair. If you have a lot of them, I would stop messing with them, or you will ruin the hair + hemline.

Maybe microtrim?