Can anyone go from fairytale ends to blunt hemline?

[Theobroma]

I really hate my fairytale ends. My hair is too kinky to be straight, not kinky enough to be curly, and just lacks general cohesion (OK, maybe that's the negative-attitude way of saying it has lots and lots of natural volume), and with that kind of texture, fairytale ends just make my hair look like it fizzles and fades out towards the tips.

The ends are totally healthy as far as I can tell -- these days I rarely find any splits to S&D -- but I still have a mean braid taper and always have had. Even the classic-length hair I cut off at age twelve tapered dramatically, and that was hair that had been in braids 24/7 since I was seven or eight!

So I'm wondering whether I have any hope of ever developing and keeping a blunt hemline at my goal length (at least tailbone, possibly classic). Lately I have felt ever so slightly encouraged because the end of the braid seems not to have become any thinner since February (when I started wearing my hair up all the time) even though it's grown quite a bit. That suggests that I might be able to develop a thicker hemline. On the other hand, when I was a child it was protected in braids all the time and STILL had fairytale ends... which rather suggests the contrary.

Anybody know? Are blunt hemlines genetic or simply the result of careful handling?

[DragonLady]

As far as I know, blunt hemlines only come from frequent trimming.

[jane53]

Blunt hemlines are the result of trimming.

My hair is hip length. Often it's tailbone length.

I trim it frequently to a blunt hem.

Fairytale ends (which I had years ago) look terrible with my hair, in my opinion.

It is easy to achieve a good blunt hemline with trimming.

[Calista]

It depends on how close to your terminal length your goal length actually is. Once you´re approaching terminal it´s very difficult to keep a blunt hemline.

[Sunny_side_up]

Trims every couple months to keep it even, my hairs forming quite a V from me growing out my layers from Feb. Did an inch trim to rid myself of the few hairs dangling at the bottom which weren't looking their best. I have a bit to go though, im thinking get to BSL then regular maintaining there to even out my hair and work on a blunt hem or soft U shape maybe:)

[spidermom]

I agree - regular trims, such as 1/2 inch off every 4 months for example = blunt, thicker ends.

[Theobroma]

jane53: That's encouraging to know that you had them and managed to get rid of them! :)

Calista: That makes sense. Hmmm... I have no idea what my terminal length would be, so I suppose I'll just have to wait and see what happens. :(

I have a history of getting annoyed enough with my thinning ends to trim off large chunks in one go, which has been getting me nowhere in terms of gaining length, so this time round I plan to do no trimming until hip and then, and only then, maintain for a while with frequent small trims to let the hemline thicken up. The updos are helping me to stick with this resolution, because while my hair is up I don't see the thin ends!

[Carolyn]

As the others have said you have to trim the ends to maintain a blunt hemline. You also have to grow more than you cut to gain length. This year I've started trimming about a half inch about every 3 months. So far it's working and I'm slowly gaining length but also keeping a blunt hemline. You can do a bigger trim to get started with a nice hemline and then go from there. I have 1C hair too and it can be so annoying in that it's not straight enough to suit me or curly enough to be curly hair. It's so in between.

[Angeletti]

I would say you have the right idea, grow to hip and then trim them regularly, I'm in the same situation as you and plan on doing that myself now that I'm almost at goal. I find when I wear my hair wavy or curly it kind of disguises them as well

[heidihug]

On the other hand, when I was a child it was protected in braids all the time and STILL had fairytale ends... which rather suggests the contrary.
In my experience, when I braid my hair, it gets pretty abused. All the shorter hairs tend to get "pulled out" by friction with my skin, clothes and furniture, for example. All that friction throughout the day tends to wear the sticking-out hairs out and make the ends break and dry out and so on. That, plus the elastics you have to use to fasten the tassle can easily cause breakage.

The only really protective hairstyles - again, in my opinion - for those of us with fragile hair are those in which the hair is completely up. I have achieved some success in building up the circumference of my hair by always wearing my hair up and protected, but I don't believe I will ever be able to achieve a truly blunt hemline as long as I chose to keep my hair as long as it is. I would have to cut back to tailbone if I wanted a blunt hemline, and I'm not willing to go there. So up it goes every day, and up it stays.

[jane53]

I found that my fairytale ends were much more fragile than my blunt cut. My hair SEEMS to grow faster when it's blunt cut. Actually, of course, it's growing at the same rate, but the ends are breaking less.

Fairytale ends, the thinner they get, get more and more vulnerable. The ends in my blunt cut are protected by the other hair around them and break much less.

[Loreley]

The only way to have blunt hemline is trimming. My ends were very thin, not exactly fairytale ends, but similar. I've trimmed it every month for a few months (approximately 1cm a month, but I trimmed an inch a week ago) and my hemline has improved a lot! It looks much fuller now. :)

[jane53]

Trimming makes my hair look and feel a lot healthier. And once you're used to it, you can grow to your preferred length and still keep it trimmed.

[spidermom]

I don't find braids protective, either, HeidiHug. Shorter hairs work their way loose as my braids swing around across my clothing, and pretty soon they're all tangled or knotted up, and I have a long de-tangling session ahead of me. Lately I've been working on braiding and then pinning up as the most protective option of all. Buns pull too much at my hair-line because my hair is heavy, so I'm trying to find a way to distribute the weight. Thin hair kept trimmed bluntly gets HEAVY. I might try fairy tale ends next.

[jera]

This is thought provoking. If you had them as a child when your hair was protected by braids, it could be your hair just does this naturally as many other member's hair does, myself included. As the others have suggested, minor trimming will most likely give you the thicker hemline you want. :) It's tough to sacrifice the growth, but if it will make you happier then it's worth it.

[Pandora.]

Judging by this thread, I feel like the only person here who prefers fairytale ends. I think they look prettier and more kind of unique and stylish, if that makes sense.

[Nae]

Nah plenty of people like fairy tale ends as well. There are threads about them too.

[Theobroma]

I think the bottom line about fairytale ends is that they look better on some types of hair than on others. I love some of the pics of fairytale ends that people with straighter or more cohesive hair have posted on this board... but with my texture they just make it look as though my hair is fading out towards the edges. If anything, they create the impression that my ends are damaged even though they aren't.

Fairytale ends on fine, straight hair or hair with nicely defined waves or curls: Lovely. On my in-between-everything texture: Nope, do not want. :)

[Theobroma]

Thanks to everyone who's chimed in here! I'm going to stick with my original plan of keeping it up and not trimming until I hit hip, because I've been sabotaging my growth for too long by wearing it down and then chopping off hunks in frustration with my thin ends. Once I get to hip I'll continue keeping it up and maintain the length for a while in the hope that the ends will thicken up.

@jera: Yes, the appearance of my childhood braids does make me think too, though back then I wasn't taking care of it and long braids on an active kid will be exposed to plenty of damaging situations despite being braided. Still, I'm hoping that I'll at least be able to reduce the degree of taper even if I can't eliminate it completely.

[Nago]

I'm new in this forum and non speaking so I don't understat what "fairytale ends" and "blunt hemline" means. Could you explain me please?

[torrilin]

This would be why we read sticky posts...

vocabulary! (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=10)

There's a lot of other cool stuff linked in the sticky post at the top of this forum.

[may1em]

I'm new in this forum and non speaking so I don't understat what "fairytale ends" and "blunt hemline" means. Could you explain me please?

Welcome! Fairytale ends are wispy, with the longest bits being a few inches longer than most of the hair. There's usually a lot of taper (the circumference of the hair is much smaller at the ends than at the nape). Usually people with fairytale ends don't trim very often, if at all, and some people think they look more natural than blunt cuts. Hemline refers to the shape of the hair's ends, so a blunt hemline is hair that all looks to be the same length. There isn't as much taper, and if you want blunt ends, you have to trim regularly because some hairs grow faster than others.

[Panth]

To get the blunt hemline, you need to trim, as everyone else has said. You can have a *thicker* hemline by babying the hair (e.g. updos) but for a blunt hemline you need trims.

I wonder if the taper you mention in your plait is due to wearing it down, even if it is plaited. Since I was in my teens, I've always worn my hair down - usually loose, sometimes in a low ponytail or one or two english plaits. I have quite a lot of taper - and, I notice, in my plait there's two definite points where there is a massive increase in taper - one at just past collar line, the second at about bra-strap line. My theory: the top mark is where my hair starts getting rubbed on rucksacks, clothes and, most of all, chairs. But, because I do lots of close work (reading, laptop, studying, sewing, knitting, etc.) most of the time I'm in a chair I stoop really badly, so only bra strap and below consistently touches the chair. Then, I started getting a third taper increase point - when I was between TB and classic - from the further increase in friction damage from sitting on it.

I cut back to about TB and now wear it up (i.e. off the collar - buns or faux-crownbraids) except for drying and headache days. It might be my imagination, but I think my hair is getting thicker at around collar level - I hope I am loosing those dramatic taper points. *fingers crossed*

So ... rambling aside, everyone's hair is different, but if you want to reduce your taper I think the best bet is wearing it up (off the collar) as much as possible. With my hair, I can't get nice hair below TB without wearing it up all the time - but I have fine hair. Someone with coarse hair might not have so much trouble. But, for blunt ends you'll have to trim.

[Nago]

uhh ok, thanks May1em!!!

So I suppose I have fairytale ends, although I trim them frecuently, as I cut my hair in V shape.

And thanks Torrilin, but this forum has so many things that is a bit crazy for me. I promise that I have looked for it!



And to the question that is made in this thread, I think that the unique way of going from fairytale ends to blunt hemline is to cut quite a lot, but I'm don't know about this subject...

[Theobroma]

Panth, if you're referencing my original post even though it dates back to June, then I agree with you that a braid worn down has limited protective value. Back in my childhood/early teens I'm sure the braid taper was due to mechanical damage that was happening despite the braids.

After starting this thread, however, I belatedly realised that a lot of my current braid taper is not so much a sign of mechanical damage than lingering evidence of the severe shed I went through a couple of years ago. I must have lost at least 25% of my total volume back then, and so my ends are correspondingly extra-thin now while the new growth is coming in thicker again. Hence the extra-severe taper.

On the plus side, I've worn my hair up consistently since February and the taper hasn't got any worse at all in that time, so clearly the updos are working. I'm taking that as a partial answer to my own question and concluding that my hair probably will be able to achieve a fuller hemline as long as I keep it out of harm's way and -- eventually -- trim off the thin ends. But I'm not going to start doing that until the ends reach solid hip, and even then it'll be microtrims. Current priority is definitely length over thickness of braid tassel. :)

[Garnetgem]

Yes that's possible i myself did in the past when i grew my hair the first time but i had regular trims every 8 weeks without fail,this time i haven't but i am waiting for a little more length before starting as it means losing a little bit of length at first but its surprising how quickly the blunt hem thickens out and the length regains.

[yahirwaO.o]

I'm a succesful clear case it can be done! My hair was long but a scraggly awful thin mess for my own taste (think about 5 hairs starting at BSL and went all the way to Hip Length).
I micro trim my hair and maintain it at APL-BSL zone for about a year and my hair looks much happier, healthier and thicker. And well I have the most blunt hem i'm able to get by myself, it takes patience and dedication, but once you see results its a GREAT GREAT feeling!!!

[lapis_lazuli]

Why not? :D I think with dedication, patience, and microtrimming you can definitely get to a blunt hemline. It just takes time :)

[gustavonut]

This is such a noob question but how many times a week should you micro trim/s&d?
I haven't ever s&d'd because I never knew how much you could do it. Plus my hair has been so short so it was hard to do it before.

[Arctic]

This is such a noob question but how many times a week should you micro trim/s&d?
I haven't ever s&d'd because I never knew how much you could do it. Plus my hair has been so short so it was hard to do it before.

Micro trimming is different from S&D (search and destroy), it's where you take tiny bit of the whole hemline, and maybe layers, where-as the latter is where individual hairs are snipped.

I don't think there is right or wrong way to S&D. Assuming that one is new to it and would continue doing it regularly, it would be very likely that at the beginning one would find more damaged ends than after some weeks or months. So in the beginning I would use the beginner enthusiasm to my advantage and S&D as often as I'd feel like.

There are 2 things that might be good to keep in mind: S&D can become addictive for some (me being one of them), which is of course not so good. And secondly, if it would be done over-zealously for a long period of time, it can thin your hemline (which some people like).

I would probably aim in the beginning for either once a week for a bit longer time or several times a week few minutes at a time. When you get to a point where you no longer really see damaged ends, you'll need to find a happy balance of maintaining that situation (not too often, but often enough).

But basicly do whatever feels the right method to you; aim to eliminate damage and get to almost split-free state, but try also to avoid obsession and over-enthusiasm.

[Daydreamer.]

It's possible. You'd just have to trim often. Here's a thread about it: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=75468