Question about breaking hair at the ends

[brok3nwings]

This is a question i have not for me but for a friend of mine that is also trying to grow her hair. Her hair is fine and oily (she washes every day but it is a very shiny hair) and the hair from the back is almost at the midle of her back (maybe 2 inches less). Once or Twice a year she does a chimical dye at home black and her hair seams to stay at the same talking about conditioning and texture. So the problem is, maybe because her hair is fine (just a guess) the ends are always breaking, you can see at the end of the hair some white balls? (i dont know what should i call it) and then she push it and it breaks. The ends are not dry at all but it seams that it simply breaks. She already cut some hair and it comes back again almost instantly (after a few days maybe). Any of you have any experience about this? What she could do about it? What are the causes?

[Nat242]

Does she heat style? How careful is she with her hair - does she put it up, protect the length? If she doesn't heat style and if she protects her hair well, I'm stumped. A bit of oil could help, maybe some protein?

-- Natalie

[shell78]

I've seen that before, back when I was chemically straightened and blow-fried all the time. I'm fine-haired also.

Seeing that I was literally boiling the water in my hair shaft scared me curly. I'm 100% virgin now and air dry most of the time.

I recommend she quit the chemicals if she values length over color.

In the short term, deep treatments and not using heat styling (if she is) may help.

[zift]

Yes I used to have a friend in university with the same type and texture of hair as your friend. And she had a lot of visible splits are white dots on her ends,so much that people comment on them all the time. I've discovered that she's combing her hair a thousand times during the day and so fast and furious ripping off the hair with a finetooth comb. I've adviced her to comb her hair more gently and a slower and ess or at least buy a wide-tooth comb. Than she did buy a wide-tooth comb and started combing slowly. Lo and behold her hair grew like weeds and without those splits at the ends...

[CurlyOne]

What type of shampoo and conditioner is she using? I had to stop using Pantene stuff because they are so harsh that my hair just broke off like hers.

[Meli]

If she dyes her hair black, perhaps she could use henna and indigo instead of a chemical dye?