small breaks

[faeriewings]

So--I've been experiencing little pieces (maybe half an inch?) of individual hairs breaking off, mostly when I play with my hair (which I do a lot--massaging the scalp, distributing oils.) Another thing I think could be doing it is that I braid it before I go to bed--while it's still slightly damp. Can these little breaks cause split ends/long term damage? Is there anything I can do to make them stronger? No matter how mosturized (or oily) my hair is, the ends are always kind of brittle.

[heynormy]

Do you use heat tools on your hair? If so that might be why your hair is breaking off like that. Hair tends to break at a weak point (white dot). Yes this can lead to more damage and split ends. Unfortunately the only way to get rid of damaged ends is to trim your hair!! Hope this helps a little! :)

[Night_Kitten]

My hair does this too, though not very often. It usually starts with a white dot about 1/4 to 1/2 inch above the end of the hair, that after some time snaps and the small piece falls off... Sometimes it leads to a split and sometimes just a white dot remains where the hair snapped off, not developing into a split...

[virgo75]

My hair does this as well.

For me, I think it's from using henna because I never had this problem before no matter what I did to my hair. :rolleyes:

I used to perm, flat iron, blow dry, and dye it = no breaks.
Cut off all of the damaged hair and no longer do all those things + henna = breaks.

I've also found that using shampoo on it less often helps(I had been washing daily), but my oily scalp rebels if I cut it down less than 2-3 times per week. I CWC and that helps a bit, but it still happens. :shrug:

I hope you're able to find the culprit and a solution. :flower:

[Panth]

My hair does this too, though less than it used to since I stopped brushing it wet...

With me, it seems to be that I get white dots on the hair anywhere from the end to up to 6 inches up. The white dots are weak spots. The hair either bends and snaps off at that point, or it bends and splits. If the hair snaps, I get the little short bits breaking off like you do. If it splits, I get these annoying splits that may be anywhere up to 6 inches up from the end of the hair and may be a very big, nasty multiple-tailed split.

I'm not really sure what is causing it in my hair except that all of my lower lengths aren't in great shape as until last Nov I wore it down almost 24/7.

Hope you find your culprit!

[lyria]

I find these sometimes when I s+d. I think the best way to deal with them is to treat it basically as a split end and trim off just a little above the break so that you have a healthy end.

[SwordWomanRiona]

My hair does this as well.

For me, I think it's from using henna because I never had this problem before no matter what I did to my hair. :rolleyes:

I used to perm, flat iron, blow dry, and dye it = no breaks.
Cut off all of the damaged hair and no longer do all those things + henna = breaks.

I've also found that using shampoo on it less often helps(I had been washing daily), but my oily scalp rebels if I cut it down less than 2-3 times per week. I CWC and that helps a bit, but it still happens. :shrug:

I hope you're able to find the culprit and a solution. :flower:


Strange that henna would cause your hair to break...:confused: It normally strengthens hair, not damages it...For me it works great. But each hair's different, I suppose, maybe your hair reacts badly to henna :(.

[Panth]

I find these sometimes when I s+d. I think the best way to deal with them is to treat it basically as a split end and trim off just a little above the break so that you have a healthy end.

This is what I do to them. Whenever I find one of those white dots, or a white dot about to break (basically, a bent hair where the bend is very, very abrupt and is at the point of a white dot and acts a bit like a hinge not like a hair that is simply curled into a shape) or one of those nasty multi-ended splits ... they get S&Ded off, removing any and all of those nasty bits.

It's disappointing, as sometimes I have to trip off several inches from a hair ... but, better than it splitting and tangling and making a mess of all my hair.

[jesis]

S&Ding will stop this problem. At least, it did for me. Whenever you get a weak spot (white dot) in your hair, your hair will break off or split at that point. I go through and cut all of these individual hair strands off above the white dot or split. It takes about 20-30 minutes but it's worth it. I do it once a week or every two weeks depending on the state of my hair. My hair grows faster too, because I am taking care of the problem at the source and no more breakage can occur once I get rid of the weak spot. Hope this makes sense! :)

[SwordWomanRiona]

Apart from henna the only thing I do to my hair is shampooing and blow-drying. I know blow-drying's supposed to be bad, but I need to blow-dry given my propensity to catch a cold every time I don't! I have some split ends from time to time, but my hair doesn't seem to be in a bad condition just because I blow-dry. I do microtrims every month and a half to get rid of splits, and that's it.
Maybe you're forcing your ends to breakage point if you handle them too hard when your hair's still wet/damp. You say you braid your hair when it's still damp. Wet hairs are much more elastic, and much more propense to breaking. I found I had much less split ends when I stopped detangling my hair when it was wet.
Hope this helps a bit.

[virgo75]

Strange that henna would cause your hair to break...:confused: It normally strengthens hair, not damages it...For me it works great. But each hair's different, I suppose, maybe your hair reacts badly to henna :(.

Yeah, I'm not sure why? :confused:

I've read that it coats the hair.
Maybe the moisture my hair needs to stay in tact can't get through?

It has made it feel stronger in a way, and I love that it makes my baby fine strands thicker. But it's been breaking on the ends and that's the only thing I can attribute it to since I only straighten my hair like 2x per year(if that) for trims and use deep conditioners before and after as well as heat protectants during. Sometimes I don't even use heat or a blowdryer to straighten it for trims, I'll just put in 2 strand rope braids, or bun it for a couple of days and it becomes straight enough to trim.

Even so, before now I could have used heat mulitple times a week and still not get breakage. So I'm not sure what's different except for the henna? :shrug:

[faeriewings]

I don't use heat, but maybe I should stop braiding (and combing?) when its wet. Sometimes I can't tell if I have a deep split or just uneven ends...