The Jury on Dreaded Bent Ends - are we at agreement?

[julliams]

Are these the start of damage and/or what causes tangles? My 11 year old has started S&D and has discovered many bent ends. They are quite a bit longer than mine and looks like these are what might be causing all the tangling that she finds (something I don't get as much).

Should we by cutting them off? If they are just a symptom of her hair type I don't want her cutting them off as this will just stunt the growth. On the other hand, if they are the start of a weak, damaged hair then they should be cut.

Background is that her hair has not been trimmed for a while (last trim by me about 5 months ago), totally virgin hair, wears it in a ponytail pretty much every day and uses a tangle teaser work through her ends. Her hair was very fine as a young child but now is thickening up, much like mine did at her age with some very thick hairs and some even like tiny corkscrews (not many of these though). She would be straight with a hint of a wave when she doesn't comb through her hair before drying.

[AgnesONutter]

I'm no expert on bent ends and honestly can't say if they are natural to her hair type or not. I do have fine hair with the occasional wiry hair in it that gets this bent wire kind of look. They are natural to my hair and does not cause tangles unless they split which they seldom do.

Personally, I would try a deep conditioning treatment to see if the hairs will straighten out with some love and gentle combing and brushing.

As for the tangles, since she has fine hair, I would actually blame those. My fine hairs split very easily and therefore I need regular trimming/dusting (every 2nd-3rd month) to keep the tangles at bay. As soon as I feel my hair becoming more unruly than usual, despite taking care of it, I trim a centimetre or so, and then it is fine again. I know she and you probably want to avoid cutting as much as possible, but really, there is no keeping up with fine hair and splits by doing S&D unless you have several hours a day at your disposal for it.

[julliams]

Thanks for your advice. Actually she doesn't have many splits at all. We only found one. It was just full of bent ends and I can't blame them on updos because she only wears it in a ponytail. I think she's getting into the S & D thing because she has seen me doing it so often in the evening and has somehow cottoned on that it's something she should do for herself. Her comment was "I'm looking and looking and I can't find a single split end? What's wrong with my hair?" That was too cute. NOTHING I said:)

[FrannyG]

Do you mean bent ends that are almost like an L-shape? If so, yes that is damage, not unlike a split end. Usually the hair will end up splitting off at the bend if not cut out. And yes, they do encourage tangles.

I would treat them as split ends and cut them out as such. Hope that helps.

[julliams]

Yes and no. Mine are like that - almost at a right angle. Hers are more curved. They don't seem to straighten when you smooth them with your fingers. There just seems to be so many of them. Perhaps I should take her up to the hairdresser for a trim. I'm sure it's just that she hasn't had a trim for ages.

[cmnt831]

I agree with FrannyG, at least I've found this to be the case with my hair. When I look closely at the bent hairs, they are often damaged and sometimes break off right in my hand as I'm looking at them. Those hairs are never split at the ends, either.

If they return to normal after washing then it's probably not damaged hair, though.

[LILBERT]

I have a lot of curved/bent ends where my upper layers are because they are the most damaged. i dont get them with the length, the rest of my hair is pretty straight, just these, and they cause CRAZY tangles. i tried cutting them but wasnt having any success with S&D as they are literally every end of my upper layers. ive just come to the conclusion i will grow them to the rest of my length then i can trim them out.

So i would say yeah, cut them and they cause tangles for me. But im no expert! im just relating my experience with them. They are very strange. i think its just where the ends are a bit fragile, since they dont split, just seem to curl.

[GlassEyes]

All my ends are bent. Curly hair and what not.

If your daughter has your hairtype, maybe that's what's cuasing them? Or are they completely against the curl pattern?

[Bellona]

I have hair that is on the coarse end of the spectrum and wavy (2c). When I comb or brush my hair to try and straighten out the wave pattern (or just to put it up) the ends usually don't straighten completely giving the "bend ends" look. My hair tangles quite a bit, and yes, the ends can look bent after detangling, but I don't think it's damage. I only S&D splits and "white dots", which I don't get often, but they are rarely on the "bent ends" and seem to be more on the regular, straight ends. So be careful it's not just her hair texture! I use a bit of oil or curl cream to smooth them out:)

[kittensoupnrice]

I also second making sure that they are not actual damage. I get the bent end thing quite frequently. I find that this largely happens after I braid (so it's caused by pressure from the hair tie) or more often, from being impatient while combing.

The combing moves tangles down towards the end, and if they "knot" up, the knot causes some bending in the hair which stay around like braid waves. Tugging at the knot with the comb intensifies my bent ends.

I usually treat mine by putting my hair in a braid at night with a long tassel, and then deep conditioning just the tassel. I'll pop a baggie on afterwards with a hair tie (to protect my pillow from wet deep conditioner) and rinse it out in the morning. If you're in a rush, even just wetting the bent ends should remove most of them, providing that they are not actual damage.

[Anje]

I think they can be symptomatic of certain kinds of dryness, such as silicone buildup or protein overload. I also get some if I'm not careful when securing my braid ends and end up kinking a few hairs backward with the elastic.
I don't know whether it's common or now, but all my new hairs with tapered ends curve for the first inch or so. Once the individual hair gets to full thickness, it straightens a bit and growth after that point blends into the bulk of the hair. Unfortunately, this means that I will always have a bit of frizz sticking out of my hair from new growth. It's a hair texture thing.

[Animae]

I've found that when I get bent ends, they have a tendency to break off when I'm looking at them, so I trim when it split.

But as someone mentioned, I can get then from hairs getting caught backwards in a pony tail holder.

Does your daughter ever do the teardrop ponytail where she pull is halfway though? that can cause it.

[lapushka]

If the ends aren't split, don't have white dots, then don't cut them off! The bent ends might be from updos. Most likely updos are causing the bends. As long as a hair's not broken (split, white dotted), don't do a thing... I'd have to cut a lot of hair off constantly if bent ends meant damage. Not everything is damage! After washing bent ends return to normal quite happily (mine do).

[Wind Dragon]

Don't be so quick to snip all those off, they might not be damaged. You can tell pretty easily by manipulating the hair at the bend. Try moving the very end of the hair (below the bend) back and forth. If it moves at the bend as though it were on a hinge, then it's broken and yes, you're better off snipping the hair just above it than waiting for it to break on its own.

As has been mentioned, hair that's not very carefully smoothed into updos or that might be crimped by updo tools in spots can look like that. I have no idea what causes bends in hair that's not manipulated into updos, but mine ended up with a lot more of them when I used conditioner containing cyclopentasiloxane. For whatever that's worth. :shrug:

[julliams]

Thanks everyone for your input. We ended up going to the hairdresser and getting her to give Elly a trim. Her hair was a little uneven anyway from growth and whilst she did have an inch off, her hair still looks long and lovely. We will keep an eye on it and see if her tangling is a little less now that all the ends are fresh.

Elly pretty much has no wave to her hair (as yet) but there are a few coursies starting to show up so it probably won't be long before it starts to wave. The only updos she does is a ponytail so it really couldn't be from updos which is what I would have suspected too.

I think it's one of those things to keep an eye on and I am completely convinced that this is why her hair tangles so much. We'll see how she goes now. I also thought that if she is ripping through her hair with that tangle teaser, this might have caused some damage too.

Thanks again,
Juliette