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View Full Version : Broken hair or shorter hair?



Curlsgirl
June 5th, 2008, 09:07 AM
How do you tell the difference? I mean from hair that is just a new hair and shorter than the rest or if it has been broken? I have heard someone say before (forgive my loss of memory) but pictures or a description of what the end of the hair looks like for both would be helpful.

lilalong
June 5th, 2008, 09:20 AM
I have no clue, but I very much would like to know as well. I'll be watching this tread closely.

Anje
June 5th, 2008, 09:22 AM
New hairs have pointy ends when they grow. They're easily confused with the remaining half of a 2-way split, though. Broken hairs will probably have a split (though it may be tiny) at the end.

Curlsgirl
June 5th, 2008, 09:24 AM
That's good because the one I pulled from the scalp was shorter and it was tapered a bit at the end with no split. So was the long hair I examined.

Lova
June 5th, 2008, 09:59 AM
If the tapered end means new groth.. then my little halo of frizz could possibly be lots of new growth! Yay :)

Curlsgirl
June 5th, 2008, 10:57 AM
If the tapered end means new groth.. then my little halo of frizz could possibly be lots of new growth! Yay :)

I have a lot of that too!!! Spidermom was the one who got me thinking of this. Maybe she'll pop in. I think she said how to tell the difference once but I do know she is always talking about how no one has hair all the same length because it doesn't grow IN the same length or at the same time. Makes perfect sense.

I was looking in an especially bright mirror in a fitting room yesterday and that is what got me thinking about this. I though how could I have so many broken hairs up around my crown????!!! I usually don't notice in normal light I guess. I am glad to know they are not all broken hairs. I would cry!!!:(

mommy101405
June 5th, 2008, 11:10 AM
I can usually tell the difference b/c my broken hairs are white at the end for some reason.

Curlsgirl
June 5th, 2008, 11:13 AM
I can usually tell the difference b/c my broken hairs are white at the end for some reason.

Yeah I remember someone saying that. I never find a white dot. That is the beginning of a split before it breaks I think. They get white dots before they split. I have a few of those on my longer hair. I probably need to S & D but I am afraid if I ever started I would get obsessed :shudder:

Lova
June 5th, 2008, 11:23 AM
Yeah I remember someone saying that. I never find a white dot. That is the beginning of a split before it breaks I think. They get white dots before they split. I have a few of those on my longer hair. I probably need to S & D but I am afraid if I ever started I would get obsessed :shudder:

I never get the white dots either.. but my hair doesn't split or break off a lot anyway.
Once I started lookin for whatever split ends I could find I got obsessed and it's.. not fun trust me. Just spending lots of time picking your hair. Trying to stop it now because it was really affecting me in a bad way ;(

Curlsgirl
June 5th, 2008, 11:49 AM
I never get the white dots either.. but my hair doesn't split or break off a lot anyway.
Once I started lookin for whatever split ends I could find I got obsessed and it's.. not fun trust me. Just spending lots of time picking your hair. Trying to stop it now because it was really affecting me in a bad way ;(

I've heard a lot of people say that. I know my limits, that is why I never started doing it! :shudder:

Saranne772
June 5th, 2008, 12:06 PM
I had to start because I have HUNDREDS of splits (or so it seems). They never seem to cease. They multiply like rabbits (or so it seems). I especially seem to get spilts on the hairs that are naturally lightest.

FrannyG
June 5th, 2008, 01:37 PM
I always have lots of new growth showing up at my hairline, because that's where they're the most obvious, and not being held down by longer hair.

The new hairs are pointy at the end and progressively get thicker.

As others have said, my broken hairs are usually a bit white on the end. Also they don't taper to a point, if you know what I mean.

spidermom
June 5th, 2008, 01:51 PM
I don't have anything more useful to add. As has been said, new hairs are pointy at the end while broken off hairs look more blunt and generally feel rougher and look lighter in color.

I get both, but most of my halo/frizz is newer, shorter, curlier hairs. Some days I look like I styled my hair by sticking my finger into a light socket.

Oh, and I wanted to add that sometimes hairs that have broken were s t r e t c h e d to the breaking point, and the end will be a tight corkscrew-looking thing, like curling ribbon.

Kiraela
June 5th, 2008, 02:45 PM
I've got a bunch of those corkscrew ends, yeah. :( also white dots, visible splits, splits that are so high up on the hair that it almost looks like two hairs, thorns (splits that only break off for a bit, so that there are random pokey bits that well, look like thorns) etc. it's nice to know that about 1/4 of what I'm seeing really is good, nondamaged hair, with tapered ends.

mommy101405
June 5th, 2008, 03:15 PM
Yeah I remember someone saying that. I never find a white dot. That is the beginning of a split before it breaks I think. They get white dots before they split. I have a few of those on my longer hair. I probably need to S & D but I am afraid if I ever started I would get obsessed :shudder:

Your hair is a bit lighter than mine. Even if you had the lighter ends it prob would not be as noticeable. I have never done S&D. My hair isn't long enough to pull around and see the ends.

mugglemomof3
June 5th, 2008, 03:48 PM
I've been trying to S&D all my splits for like weeks now. I get started and can spend up to an hour before I literally freak out and have to get up and stretch and grunt a little. I've tried only searching at red lights or while I'm waiting for something to print - therefore I had to buy extra scissors and now I've got one pair at home, one pair at the office, one pair in the car, and one pair in my purse. Obsess much?

While doing all this hunting I found blunt end shorties and tapered shorties and wondered what the difference was - thanks for all this info!

I really can't say that I've ever been split free no matter what routine I've used over the past two years, and I remember my mom searching for and cutting off splits when I was a pre-teen, so it must just be my hair.

*off to check the mirror and hope most of my shorties are tapered!!*

Curlsgirl
June 5th, 2008, 09:23 PM
Oh I am sure I have broken hair, everyone does right? As hard as I try to detangle ever so gently with a wooden comb I can still hear a hair break now and then. :eek: I have a feeling I am not as a perfectionist about my hair as some would be I don't know. It also may have something to do with my vision though, which isn't that good even corrected. Maybe not a bad thing in this case! It may be a lot worse than I think :pumpkin: The girl who did my hair last said I do have a "few" splits but how many is that? 5? 25? 125? :shrug: I need to go to bed :p

frizzinator
June 6th, 2008, 09:25 AM
I used to think it was important to establish the difference between new growth or broken hair. I had a halo for at least a decade, but now that I have nearly 3 inches of smooth hair I think it may be possible to eliminate the halo altogether.


Even if the halo consists of baby hairs, I think they may be the result of shedding. I used to shed between 50 to 70 hairs a day for over thirty years. I thought that kind of shedding was normal, but after following some suggestions offered here on LHC, I'm shedding no more than 10 hairs a day, and the halo appears to be moving down the length of my hair.


I can say that these things probably caused my shedding and breakage:

*After washing, I flipped my hair over in order to wrap it in a towel. Since the hair had to fall back into the other direction for combing, flipping it increased the possiblity of tangles.

*Combing hair while it was still damp. I noticed fewer snags when I waited until it was completely dry before even finger-combing.

*Not starting at the hemline and then working my way up to the scalp with each of these: beginning with finger combing, then using the wide tooth comb, then using the fine tooth comb.

*Brushing too much - for the past 6 months I've only brushed once every three weeks.

*Not wearing hair up everyday.

*Not only sleeping on a silk pillowcase, but also sleeping with a silk scarf or cap with the hair loose inside. I wake up without any hair snags or tangles, plus no breakage from sleep braids or buns.