How can you tell if you need to trim your hair?

[blessed_momma21]

I’ve looked for a thread like this but I can’t find one so starting one myself… how do you tell if your hair is in need of a trim? It’s been 8 months since my last trim and I can’t tell if I need one or not! Trying to make it another 4 months before I trim again though (unless I need it now!)

[MermaidLuna]

Hello! I always know I'm in need of a trim if I notice the ends my hair looking uneven or stringy when fully brushed in the back. Also, if I'm sliding the bulk of my hair through my hand and it doesn't all end together (a few super long hairs here and their for example) I know it's time.

[JasminxCat]

When my ends start to become so dry or fragile and break with no way of fixing, or if it's very obviously uneven or thin on the ends. Anything enough to bother me. If you can't tell there's anything wrong, then I would stretch longer before a next trim

[illicitlizard]

I know it's time to trim:

If I notice an abundance of split ends
When my hair becomes more prone to tangles, harder to detangle, and detangling results in more hairs snapping than usual
When the ends feel rough but deep conditioning treatments and clarifying don't help
When my hemline starts getting too thin for my liking.


I'm currently seeing how long I can go without trimming before the above factors bother me too much - not sure I'll get much past 8 months, my ends are starting to fray quite badly and they don't feel amazing even coated in silicones.

If the ends feel fine and you're happy with them, there's no need to trim in my opinion!

[GoddesJourney]

I know it's time to trim:

If I notice an abundance of split ends
When my hair becomes more prone to tangles, harder to detangle, and detangling results in more hairs snapping than usual
When the ends feel rough but deep conditioning treatments and clarifying don't help
When my hemline starts getting too thin for my liking.


I'm currently seeing how long I can go without trimming before the above factors bother me too much - not sure I'll get much past 8 months, my ends are starting to fray quite badly and they don't feel amazing even coated in silicones.

If the ends feel fine and you're happy with them, there's no need to trim in my opinion!

This is pretty much what I was going to write. I just trimmed both my hair and my daughter's tonight as we were both getting breakage and rough ends that conditioning wasn't fixing. The breakage was causing sudden increased taper as well. Happy to be rid of those ends and the length will come back hopefully.

[lapushka]

It's simple. It depends on what you like. If you like fairytale ends you basically can go indeterminately long! Years. Many many years even. As long as you keep up with split ends and/or white dots up a strand that cause a hard break in the hair; not talking about the dots at the end of a hair, that's normal.

If you want a straight hemline, you just keep an eye on that.

But rule is, if you have few splits or white dots, you can S&D them out just fine. No need for a cut!

If your ends feel rough, all it probably needs is a good clarify-wash or a nice deep conditioning. Dry ends are no guideline for cutting, not one bit! Contrary to what hairdressers want to make you believe!

[Finda]

I'd also say the first step is realizing what you want in a hemline and then cut accordingly. I haven't had a trim in 2 1/2 years, but of course my hemline is not straight anymore and looks a bit frayed. Other people would have cut by now, but since it doesn't tangle much I leave it be for the time being since I want to gain more length. What are your thoughts when you look at your hair? Is your avatar picture current? Then I'd say your hemline looks great still. But again, depending on who you ask, you'll get different answers.

[sipnsun]

When my ends get thin and shredded and I'm noticing breakage it's time for a trim. Also I snip off racer hairs if they are abnormally long, otherwise I let it be.

[Amy-Lee]

When the ends of my hair is very dry, splits, or breaks off.

[ZoeZ]

I want to grow as long as I can for the moment, so I don't trim unless there are a large number of splits (thankfully my hair doesn't seem to do that much) so, although the ends are fairy tailed, they're quite healthy. If and when I reach tailbone I may trim just to get a better hemline. Since I wear it up all the time, I don't really care what the ends look like, as long as they're healthy.

[Ylva]

Wanting to maintain a certain kind of hemline, for example, is a thing of its own and I won't comment on that because I think there are already plenty of good explanations here on that subject.

I would say that my hair is in need of a trim right now because it's tangling abnormally badly. Of course, I have thrice-bleached ends (+ at least one permanent colour; it's so long ago it's hard to remember all the things they've been through!), so I take that into consideration - someone else might argue that my hair needed a trim long ago because of the bleach itself. Over the past couple of weeks, I've had to cut out two or three (lint) tangles, which is something quite new to me.

However, I'm determined to hang in there until after the next seasonal length shot, so another month and a bit.

[Belgrade Beauty]

When you've exhausted all options and you're hair is still in a bad shape, as said above hard to detangle, rough full of splits.
But you first try everything to see if something is amiss in your routine.
Deep conditioning, hydration, nurturing, deep cleaning, serums, etc, if nothing helps, than it's time.

[foreveryours]

When your hair lengths become unbalanced due to different growth rates and destructive influences caring for it, then you need to trim your hair to restore the appearance you desire.

[Xlena]

For me it's when my ends start to be dry and weird and I already washed it to see if it was build-up. That's the moment to trim

[Deborah]

I just cut when my hair is a little longer than I like, or when it feels like too much to manage.

[lapis_lazuli]

I trim when I deem my ends too thin.

[Jools69]

I trim when I think my ends are too thin, start to knot or snag from any splits or dry ends and to even up my hemline. I’m growing out layers, so I’m also attempting to achieve hair that it all one length.

[zhivago]

When it starts to look super unkempt and straggly at the ends, or if its thinning like crazy, or if there's an unmanageable number of splits.