The taper - can someone explain?

[julliams]

I have been told that a taper on the end of a hair means that it is a totally virgin hair that has never been cut, but I just saw a "split ends" chart that shows the taper as being damaged.

What are your thoughts - virgin or damaged?

[Dreams_in_Pink]

Taper might happen when one of the branches of a split gets broken. So i think it's quite hard to tell if it's damage or baby hair. But they're more likely to be baby hair, since splits don't break but continue to travel upward.

[Night_Kitten]

I think the only way to tell is by looking at a microscope or a good magnifying glass... The virgin hair will look smooth all the way down to the end and the tip will be round, while the damaged hair will have a sharper "broken" or "torn" ending.

[FrannyG]

It really is hard to tell sometimes, but often if its an end that has been split off, the taper will go further up the shaft.

The virgin hair has a relatively small taper. It does take practise to spot the difference, and even at that you'd really need a magnifying glass.

Also, if a hair is tapered due to damage, it will often curl or bend at the end, even if just a little. A virgin hair won't do that.

[*Aoife*]

Could be either or both. I have a little bit of a taper starting to occur. But that's because I used to have a lot of layers and I'm growing them out instead of cutting them out.