leaving old ends to protect length?

[Katze]

So, I'm curious. Those of you with less-than-pretty ends, old damage, a long layer, or any other kind of thin, wispy, dry, or frazzled ends - are you using them to "save" your length? Or are you trimming, and finding that the "new" ends stay in better shape, or that they, too, get "bad" eventually?

Someone posted a long time ago that every time they trim the worst ends off, the "new" ends just end up getting dry, wispy, thin anyway, so they keep a couple of inches of "bad" old ends to protect the length.

I keep thinking of trimming those last seethrough layers off, but they don't look THAT bad, and am wondering if this theory - keep old ends to protect the length above them - makes sense.

My hair is layered, and I've been trimming since coming here, so in 2 years I have gotten probably 4-5 inches of growth. On the one hand, I want the thick hemline, on the other, don't want to have to trim again soon, and am tired of my hair never really getting longer.

what say you, O length and end experts? :D

[Nat242]

Katze, I have heat damage and colouring damage on the bottom 4 inches + of my hair; subsequently, lots of splits, some breakage. I have old layers to be grown out, too.

I do S&D trims, because I have found that after going to the hair dresser and getting a trim, I find lots and lots of splits. I'm not sure if this is because of blunt scissors, technique, or simply that the "trauma" makes fragile hairs split; the outcome is that I don't trim.

I take good care of my ends and they don't *look* bad, IMO. I know they'll have to go at some point; I'm waiting for a milestone that I feel happy with. At that point, I'll trim off my growth each month (I'll have to learn to self-trim) until the damage is gone. Also, I have relatively thick, wavy hair, so tapering, breakage and damage don't show as much.

Unless my ends become so bad that they start causing tangles, which could potentially damage the rest of my hair, I'm sticking with S&D for at least another 6 months.

-- Natalie

ETA: To answer your question (with less rambling), it's possible that keeping my less than wonderful ends "protects" my healthy hair, given that hair-dresser trims seem to cause more splits than they remove. HTH!

[Riot Crrl]

I am not sure about that theory. If hair is prone to splitting, once it splits it can keep splitting higher and higher and higher into non damaged territory. And if it's going to break, it seems a likely breaking point would be at the transition line between dye (or whatever it is) and virgin. And once it breaks it is then likely to split upwards from there. Also, if I really think about it, I think that when my ends get so tangly that they are all "Y HALO THAR WE NEED A TRIM LOL" that it is not putting stress on only those ends to detangle them, but probably the rest of my hair too.

[Katurday]

I leave my dry ends alone.
I don't have splits, so they won't cause much trouble.
Splits, however, travel upward so they could ruin length.
Trimming or S&Ding should be done to those.

[Queenie]

I am not sure about that theory. If hair is prone to splitting, once it splits it can keep splitting higher and higher and higher into non damaged territory. And if it's going to break, it seems a likely breaking point would be at the transition line between dye (or whatever it is) and virgin. And once it breaks it is then likely to split upwards from there. Also, if I really think about it, I think that when my ends get so tangly that they are all "Y HALO THAR WE NEED A TRIM LOL" that it is not putting stress on only those ends to detangle them, but probably the rest of my hair too.

That's what I'm thinking, too!

[Juliet's Silk]

I don't think "old ends that need to go at some point" necessary equal splits. Nor does trimming necessarily remove splits (at least for me, splits occur everywhere in the length but usually NOT at the very end).
As I see it, you have two options:
a) maintain the length you have while trimming away the growth until you reach the goal you wear aiming at
or b) cut all the length off that you want to see gone at once and start growing again.
At least that's the options I have since a while. I went with option b) because I wanted to keep the length, but if you did not care for the length so much, what's the better option?
I've always come to the point that I think that the older ends that get trimmed away eventually might actually protect the length you want to keep (provided that you don't have massive tangling due to "bad ends").
For the time being, I'll stay with option b) but I have to say that I do get the urge to trim back from time to time.

[Nat242]

Okay, I had a whole post typed out, the interweb ate it.

Katze: in your specific situation I would recommend that you just let your hair grow for a time. Set yourself a milestone where you'll start trimming and thickening up the ends. I know it's taken you a long time to get to your current length, and it's taken me a long time too. I know that cutting my hair would be demoralising at this point, because it's been such a struggle, so I'm pretty reluctant to trim whilst I can avoid it.

As for splits "travelling", it's not been my experience. I'm sure it happens on some heads of hair, but I've never noticed any deep v's that would indicate that a small split has "grown". My hair doesn't always split at the bottom, either, and often gets those "holes". There's no telling where or when they'll appear, so rather than trim to prevent them, I snip them as I see them.

-- Natalie

[Riot Crrl]

It is true that all hair is different.

In my case, I don't get too many actual splits. I do get the following two things:

- Light Colored Balls Of Doom at the very ends of my hair. And I know what these lead to eventually.

- Some degree of fairytaling, in a ridiculously short amount of time. And for some reason my ends hate that and think that it's a good reason to go ahead and tangle up. It doesn't look like that is what it is doing (at least from a couple feet away) but I can tell that my ends are mad at being all different lengths. They don't mind being layered, and they don't mind being blunt cut, as long as they are trimmed. They only don't like it when they do it to themselves. I know, that sounds weird, but it is what it is.

[harley mama]

I never thought of it this way. I have left my old ends because
I hate to part with any more hair right now.

[morgwn]

I also just do S&D and it seems to me that although I have fairytale ends at this point, my ends are relatively healthy (just very thin). I prefer to get my hair down to a good length first where I'm happy with trimming it back several inches. That seems to also provide for better growth potential and the fairytale ends don't really bother me since my hair's nearly always up.

[spidermom]

This has been my experience: When my ends get bad, growth slows to nearly nothing and then stops completely. Once I cut them off, growth resumes.

[Mai]

I just went through this, and my hair responded exactly like what Spidermom wrote. In fact, if I had cut at the beginning I wouldn't have had to chop 2 and 1/2 inches off. It would have been less than an inch.

But I did have splits, so may be that's a different situation all together.
Mai

[freznow]

I pretty much agree with this theory.

Though if you have horridly damaged ends that are affecting the rest, it's not going to help.

But if you're just really picky about splits or more specifically how thin your ends are, IMO if you let it grow it will be semi-protected and when you'll get to your goal faster and be happier once you get there. You just have to put aside your pickiness first!

[Ohio Sky]

I am not sure about that theory. If hair is prone to splitting, once it splits it can keep splitting higher and higher and higher into non damaged territory.

That just means you have twice as much hair, right!? :lol:

I dont really get splits often but I find my ends are snarly and tangle easy. Im not sure if its damage or just the fact that my hair hates me, because its been like that since the beginning of time. Or since the beginning of me anyways.

I dont want to lose more length, and find it unlikely that cutting would help much anyways. So my solution is just to keep experimenting to find things that help with the damage. I can always cut it off later.

[girlcat36]

Now that you mention it Katze, I have been of the mindset over the last year that keeping my thin dry ends might be protecting the rest of my hair. I have been trying to grow my hair out since 1987!(yes, 20 years!).
I used to have a sylist trim it over the years, but really it didn't improve the hemline---it just looked shorter(they ALWAYS took off too much).
So I will keep my thin, unruly ends. I microtrim(only taking off millimeters) my own hair every few months, and do S&D occasionally.

[birthmarkie]

I don't think it makes a difference for me. The only way to get rid of my split ends is to S&D. I think I pay more attention to the care of my hair since I have to baby my "unique" ends. I would not be able to wear my hair up as much if I didn't have the length of my layered ends, and wearing hair up is good. I guess I could argue for either side, but I want my length so it stays. I also think that my ends would get scraggly no matter what. It is part of my hairtype.

[Curlsgirl]

I am not sure about this but I have read it somewhere here. I couldn't see a split end if it bit me so that is one reason I leave them and don't S & D. I know I have them but my ends are not bad to look at or really thin either so right now I want the length more. I wish I could S & D but then I am an obsessive type person so maybe it's good I can't do it! Like some others said I don't think the splits are at the end anyway so unless I did S & D I am not sure that a small trim even would help. If my ends got to looking REALLY bad and I couldn't wear my hair down and feel it looked reasonably healthy then I would probably trim a bit.

[Nightshade]

Yes and no. here's the deal- I'm a wuss and won't chop the remaining 8 inches or so of old dyed hair. If I half-assed it and took off 4 inches, it'd just split again, just as much as if I took off 1/4in.

So, I've grown out some massively damaged hair by frequently trimming just the ends, which kept them from tangling, which reduced breakage. In my case it didn't matter where I cut in the damaged zone, it'd split again. So short of cutting it super-short and starting all over, I went for dusting once a month, and it's served me pretty well. Had I done nothing to the damage, it'd have done what it was doing prior to the dustings, which was breaking off faster than it grew.

[tiny_teesha]

i actually think my ratty ends are causing more damage, as they make my hair tangle more = more splits etc. But it is more a battle with length, and regret. So i think in a small way the actually exposed cut of tip is more vulnerable so if you leave the bad hair with the tips when you are finished your goal you can cut back up to the healthy hair and have it in full health from that point.
I think i may be making no sense at all though!

[julya]

I went for about three years with no trimming, but I had to get a bit of a trim a couple of months ago due to tangles from all the split ends and damage. I took off about 2 or 3 inches, and I feel like it was a good choice. Not planning any trims for a long time now though, unless those tangle problems come back again.

[Melisande]

I don't trim anything off if I can. I had one tiny trim in two years. The ends don't look spectacular, they show the damage of chemical dye, and I'd like to get rid of them at some stage. But not now. I want to be at a length I like and where I feel I can afford a trim. Until then, I let my hair grow. Because I know that exposed ends will take a beating after a while anyway, no matter how carefully I treat them.

So I guess I adhere to your theory. And if I was your Minister of Hair, I'd advise you NOT to cut anything off. You tried the trim-off method. It gave you length, your hair has indeed grown. But I feel not trimming it will give you much more.

I second the setting of a length goal (or a time limit) for the next trim. I decided I won't trim until I'm firmly at hip. Until then, my hair is misted, oiled and up. And I treat my ends with Fox' sheabutter balsam, that makes them a bit sturdier and they look better, too.

[ZaBasDa]

I think there is a different between hair that has splits and is severely damaged and hair that is just dry, scraggly, and has only minor damage.

If my hair was full of splits on the ends, I would have to trim it; it wouldn't grow otherwise, and would just cause all kinds of issues.

Layers and thin hair are not my idea of damage. I do think they can be less than ideal, but do not necessary compromise the hair in the same way splits do. I have long layers and as much as they make braiding difficult, they aren't damaged. As unkempt as my layers look until they are damaged, I'm keeping them.

[girlcat36]

I think there is a different between hair that has splits and is severely damaged and hair that is just dry, scraggly, and has only minor damage.

If my hair was full of splits on the ends, I would have to trim it; it wouldn't grow otherwise, and would just cause all kinds of issues.

Layers and thin hair are not my idea of damage. I do think they can be less than ideal, but do not necessary compromise the hair in the same way splits do. I have long layers and as much as they make braiding difficult, they aren't damaged. As unkempt as my layers look until they are damaged, I'm keeping them.

Well said.
My hair may look damaged, but I rarely get splits.
Back in the days when I used to get trims, the stylists would always say "Oh, it's so damaged--you need to cut it all off!"
How could it have been damaged? I didn't color, perm or straighten my hair. Shampooed infrequently and used lots of conditioner. I never brushed or heat styled my hair. So how could it be damaged?
Those big trims never seemed to mke much of an improvement on the ends either, they looked same, but shorter.
It'a just the way my hair is......****sigh***

[daydreamer]

I have dye and heat damage on the bottom part of my hair as well. I do get splits, but they are usually not on the very ends, they occur higher up so I S&D and don't trim the length overall. Also for me they don't travel up and up the hair shaft, instead they split even more times within the same split. I do want to get rid of the old stuff eventually, but I'm not doing it until I feel like my hair is really long!! Perhaps at waist I might start doing a little bit each month.

[smilelads]

I've wondered about this myself. For now I'm just keeping my ends, even though it's become so thin at the bottom I worry it looks "ratty."

[SweetPea88]

I guess I haven't really noticed. I'm growing out my layers right now with 1/2" trims every month (leaves me a little bit of growth per month) and my longest layer is really bothering me. I'm not doing this as a method of protecting my hair, but mainly because I do not want to loose a lot of length all at one time. I don't get a lot of splits very often and my ends are pretty healthy although a little dry.

[FrannyG]

I've heard members suggest to leave old ends to protect length, but I think this is a case where everyone is different.

I will illustrate using my daughter as an example. She is a naturally blonde 1a/f/i. She had a cut and spiral perm a few years ago. After that she didn't get so much as a trim for close to two years.

In the summer of 2006, her hair had just about reached waistlength. The perm had fallen out by that time, but there was surely some damage from the perm and some damage from the sun. She still didn't trim and one year later, although a year's worth of growth was visible on her head (you could see where the sun highlights from the previous summer ended), there was absolutely no visible growth on her length. She was still hovering just above waist.

She finally asked me to cut off the damage, and she quickly grew to a length longer than where she had been stuck for a year.

To me this shows that keeping damaged ends is not necessarily a good thing.

[bunnii]

i don't leave damaged ends because in my case they splits do travel up further making it worse, so not really protecting. Also I can't stand the ends not being tidy so I try to keep them trimmed.

[Kuchen]

I'm not patient enough to baby my damaged ends but didn't have the guts to chop them all off earlier. I don't find that they protect the rest – they make things worse because they tangle more easily.

[Altocumulus]

I just cut off 5" of old, thin ends. They weren't damaged, but had old layers and thinning from a large post partum shed years ago. I still have some of the old layers, but I wasn't willing to go shorter!

I have to go with "Haven't noticed" as far as their protective function goes - I've been careful to protect my new ends, but it's only been about a month since the big trim so I can't really tell if there's been a post-trim effect other than a fuller hemline. I was hoping I'd get faster growth after the trim, but alas, I only got my usual growth.

[Ursula]

When my ends bug me, I trim.

If I trim, it annoys me (at the most) once, at the time of the trim. If I leave the ends, I have to deal with the problems they cause (such as tangles, breakage) every day. That ongoing annoyence just makes me dislike my hair.

Some types of damage climb up the hair, such as split ends, so those I think need to be addressed promptly, with S&D, if not trimming.

If you find your ends go icky after a while, with no particular reason for damage, you may benefit from using a very rich leave-in conditioner on your ends after each wash, and using a thick oil, such as castor oil, to soak them overnight before washing. You might also try Shell's water-scrunching method to add conditioner and water moisture to your ends in-between washes.

[Elenna]

Katze

Your hair looks long and healthy.

I have damaged, dyed, ratty ends, and I am keeping the ends to protect the new growth. I do get micro-trims once in a while.

Everyone's hair is different; trimming may work for one and not for another.

[Neorah]

I don't think that leaving damaged ends is going to "protect" anything, personally. I have about 5 inches of damaged, velcro-y, layered hair that constantly splits and tangles and breaks. I keep vascillating back and forth between whether or not I ought to cut it off... One the one hand, I'm fairly sure that it's damaging the rest of my hair, at least a little. But on the other hand, it would take off almost a year's worth of growth in one go. :(

[lora410]

Some say trimming helps grown but when I had my 1/2 inch trim earlier this year it didn't grow any. I trim when my ends get snarly. I would trim if I had taper, but that strictly a personal choice on my end. My hair grows pretty evenly though even with my layers.

[Katze]

wow, so it's just as complicated as I feared. :silly:

My ends are thin. They are also heat and chemical damaged. In my avatar pic, the 'see through' longest layer is the part that looks the worst. But if I cut, and when I've cut, which I've done a lot in 'small trims', my ends end up (ha) looking bad after a while. They are getting thicker, and they are overall in much better condition, but I wonder - does dyed, bleached, old hair just get damaged no matter what? Will my ends always be ratty?

Still resisting the urge to do anything more than S and D. When I do, I find many more white dots and bends than splits these days, which does seem to be an improvement.

Ongoing misting, water scrunching, and oiling does seem to help.

thanks!

[Riot Crrl]

does dyed, bleached, old hair just get damaged no matter what?

I consider bleached and old hair to be in two totally different categories. Hair that has just been on our head a long time has the possibility to be damaged, from many different causes. Or, it may not be. Bleach is pretty much by definition somewhat damaging. But there are those who can recover from it eventually, and those who can't.

[n3m3sis42]

I also just do S&D and it seems to me that although I have fairytale ends at this point, my ends are relatively healthy (just very thin). I prefer to get my hair down to a good length first where I'm happy with trimming it back several inches. That seems to also provide for better growth potential and the fairytale ends don't really bother me since my hair's nearly always up.

This is me at the moment, too. I feel a little silly having this much fairytaling at only close to waist, so my hair is up most of the time. My plan is to get a couple inches past waist and then trim at least 2 inches and start regular trims to thicken my ends before growing more.

Edited to add: My ends are thin but not velcro-y. I did a pretty good S&D about a month ago and there don't seem to be a large number of splits.

[Angharad]

I have trimmed on a regular basis during the last six years to remove henna, but what I noticed is that if the ends really annoyed me because they were soooo dry, after cutting them it seemed only for a week or six and then the "new" ends were leaving me with the same problem.

So, at the moment I am more or less content with my dry ends and as long as they show no split ends, I will not cut for a very long time (July 2012).