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littlemoon
January 24th, 2010, 07:02 PM
so though i am not at all new to little trims of individual hairs and picking at stray splits when im bored, i am new to the healthy ways of doing S&D. i did read rach's article about self dust trims (link) (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=146) but my biggest problem is the very ends of my strands, and i dont think this will cover them all.

whats the most efficient way to S&D? i have hair scissors and a good lifetime movie ready, i just need the best technique so that i dont end up cutting off hairs i didnt need to.

throw me some tips! :D

Pierre
January 24th, 2010, 11:43 PM
Rach is wavy, you're curly, and her instructions would work better on straight than curly hair. What I do is hold a bunch of hair in one hand loosely, fluff it out, and look for splits. This works best outside on a sunny day, but I have found them looking through my hair at the monitor. When I find one, I pull it away from the cloud of hair and snip it. The only problem with this method is that I need three hands ;)

The other way I do S&D is in the shower. I comb while water is running down my hair, and when I find a tangle that is near the ends of all the hairs involved, I snip it off.

Avalin
January 25th, 2010, 12:00 AM
Whenever I see one randomly I try to hold on to it and run for my hair scissors (darn expensive things.... I love them though!). I cut a little further up from the split in case it is splitting where I can't see (If you cut right at the split you might not keep it from splitting more).

I sit in the sun or in front of a lamp and get in a position where there is a dark background behind my hair (my ends are very blonde) so I can see the tips. If you have dark hair do the opposite color background (white or light-colored... a piece of paper might do). I hold up very small sections of my hair and bend it so that little hairs will fray away from where I fold the hair. this gets hairs that aren't "full length" that are starting to split. If you just look at the last inch of your hair you are missing all the ones that need to grow out! I just play with my hair and run my finders through looking at individual strands and assessing them for splits, white dots, and very bent pieces. It's addicting!

littlemoon
January 25th, 2010, 12:10 AM
ahh, I see! I tried doing a little mini session on a small section to test out different ways, and my ends do feel a little better. the only problem is that my longest ends aren't long enough for me to hold in front of my face to see, without hurting my eyes! I didn't try using a mirror though, so I'll do that next.

oh and pierre, I forgot to mention that though I'm a curly, I have 3 to 4 inches of straight ends thanks to a themal reconditioning last march. so I'm not sure if it would work on them, but I figured id let you know :)

Neen
January 25th, 2010, 02:41 AM
I recently discovered a way to S&D those hairs at the back of my head... I pull them up over my head so they're right in front of my eyes, it seems obvious now, but it took me a while to figure out :o.

Using a mirror is good for the shorter hairs, but be careful... it takes some coordination!

Once I've found a split I'll put my fingers as far up on that hair as I can and run them down the length of it until I feel it start to roughen up or bend at a right angle, then I'll use my fingers as a guide to cut straight across the hair just before the damage starts. I hope that made sense :).

rach
January 25th, 2010, 07:19 AM
as long as you expose the ends i can't see there being a problem what hair type you are which is why the spiraling works well.
- maybe spiraling the opposite to your natural curl may enhance the success to expose the ends.
i know after doing this my hair does looses all wave and curl due to disputing its natural direction.
I tend to use a lamp by my side also to see the colour change within the hair shaft which shows that it is damaged or a breakage which is higher up then thought and making sure as many white dots are dealt with during the process.
for shorter layers that you can't physically see yourself it may help having someone to help you.
doing this over and over and sometimes bending and rubbing exposing as many ends until all have been eliminated that spiral of all split ends then clip up to know where you have been and where you have not , then move on to the next spiral.
for best results you can take say and hour to do this (it does take allot of patience to do) because there is an awful lot of hair ends to sift through.
but doing it well pays off as suddenly all the velcro feel at the ends are gone with virtually no change in length.
i hope this can be of some help :)

JamieLeigh
January 25th, 2010, 08:45 AM
If you can't go outside into the sunshine, I'd suggest getting a fluorescent lightbulb to plug into your lamp for occasions like these. (Yeah, they're not "green" but neither is most of the other stuff recommended on here. ;)) Rach's spiraling technique works well for me, though I'm just a common wavy. :)