Split ends are genetic !

[jhill923]

Ok - so I have splits everywhere ! despite how nice I am to my hair or how much I S&D....its depressing. But I noticed my 7 yr old who has my same hair type has splits too and we dont use any heat on her hair. So must be genetic ! Its going to be a losing battle, some hair is just weak I guess !

So Im guessing instead of stressing out over splits whilst i grow my hair long I should just learn to live with them. Because I'll always have them no matter what.

[gthlvrmx]

It's genetic on how the hair is formed and how strong it naturally is. But you can try your best on trying to keep at it's highest. You can't stop splits :p It's all natural!
My mother and i get splits in the exact same areas, go figure, i am her clone.

[GlassWidow]

gthlvrmx, as I type this, your post count is 666! :twisted: :rofl:

Anyway, yes, I do believe that some of us are dealt a less advantageous genetic hand. Thankfully there are things we can do to help slow the inevitable! :D

[gthlvrmx]

gthlvrmx, as I type this, your post count is 666! :twisted: :rofl:

Anyway, yes, I do believe that some of us are dealt a less advantageous genetic hand. Thankfully there are things we can do to help slow the inevitable! :D
Oo 667, thank god that's over with, i was feeling a little hellish over there :p

[SpinDance]

While definitely genes affect hair type and behavior, I don't know that I want to believe that makes splits inevitable. There may be unexpected things in your routines that affect the strength of each hair. For example, I have used only wide tooth combs for years, no brushes would make it through my hair. However, I was using mainly injection molded plastic picks/combs, which I learned in the beginner section here at LHC can strip the scales of my hair. Yuck!

I switched to horn, bone, Bakelite or wooden combs/forks and since then I've had less splitting and more hairs making it undamaged to my hemline. My hemline is also thickening up. Previously it thinned out so much about BSL that I always ended up cutting back to about waist whenever it got near BCL. For the first time I not only reached BCL with a marginally acceptable hemline, it has gotten to TB without requiring a hemline thickening chop back to waist or above. I believe that the change in tools as well as learning and using protective updo's have been a major part of this success.

I do S&D pretty regularly, but I'm having to look longer and harder to find the damaged hairs, and very few are split at the ends. Most just have been broken or split farther up the shaft. My theory is that this is partly that they were weakened by the stripping caused by the injection molded combs/picks and partly due to having been dyed for 3.5 years. As the rest of the old damage grows out I'll find out if my theory is correct!

[Darkhorse1]

Hair type and how strong the hair shaft is probably genetic, so that would go along the lines of split ends, but split ends are simply splits in the hair shaft that you can see.

My mom never had split ends, but I do--but my hair is long and my lifestyle is very active/outdoorsy. I've reduce them on what I do with my hair/how I manage it now thanks to LHC. I can't say I have a ton of splits, but I have a few.

Don't give up--maybe review your activities, what you do and also, your nutrition. Healthy hair comes from the inside out :)

[C.H.]

My hair is definitely split prone. Even after years of no chemicals; minimal brushing, washing, and heat; and pretty much continuous protective updos, I still have lots. I'm pretty sure no additional amount of babying is going to come close to eliminating them. Sure, the situation can be improved, but ultimately I'm not going to win this battle. I sometimes wonder if S&Ding is even worth it. I am considering catnip.

[Anje]

Handling can make a big difference. I know as a kid I was rough on my hair. At the time I was oblivious to splits, but I'll bet I had tons. I don't have that many now, and that's all due to being careful with my hair.

Sharpness of the scissors used to trim hair also makes an enormous difference. If you two got your hair cut by a stylist with dull scissors, it wouldn't be at all surprising for you both to be fighting splits.

[BlazingHeart]

Hair is probably the one point I lucked out on in the genetic lotto - my family has tough hair on both sides of the family (well, except for the people on my dad's side who have baby-fine hair - either you inherit the medium-to-coarse tough hair or you inherit the fine, easily broken hair, and nobody seems to escape that trend in the last 4 generations).

But as everyone has said, what you inherit is your starting point. How your hair splits is kind of an equation: inherited hair +/- nutrition - mechanical damage - product damage = overall splits.

~Blaze

[slythwolf]

A sample size of two is not enough to come to any scientific conclusions about heredity. There are any number of other factors you and your daughter may share--diet, environmental conditions, water hardness...

[Madora]

How you handle your hair, and the tools you use, and how you wear your hair, all have a definite bearing on whether or not you will have lots of splits..or less.

Splits are a way of life, but if you handle your hair carefully and use hair friendly tools, you'll cut down on the damage to your hair. Plastic and nylon are murder on your hair, as are blow drying and straight ironing.

[Mesmerise]

I think there are a lot of reasons for split ends, but I agree that to a certain extent they ARE genetic.

This doesn't mean that if your mother has splits, you will... Mothers and daughters can have very different hair types!

However, the type of hair you are born with (which is genetically determined) will have a large effect on whether or not it will be prone to splitting or not.

Some hair can take a lot of abuse and show hardly a single split. Other hair is treated well and splits all over the place.

In my hair, for example, I'm pretty sure that if I have no colour in my hair and I don't use any heat, once the hair is in its natural state (henna only) I will struggle to find a single split. I know this because even now, after just a few months of quitting chemical colour and heat and using LHC methods I find it difficult to find splits (and yes, I have a lot of residual damage).

Now, if I bleach my hair, it will split! If I have LOTS of chemical damage it will split (but bleach seems to me the worst...the worst splits of my life were in hair that had been bleached). As a child, even one with fine hair, I didn't know what split ends were when my friends talked about them!

There is hair that can't take any chemical or heat damage or it will split easily and quickly. Then again, there is hair that can be bleached/coloured/permed and more and will show hardly any damage. I've seen people with coarse hair who were really prone to splitting (mostly cause you could see numerous splits throughout their hair without even trying), and people with fine who don't get any (or very few).

I do think care helps, and I think eating a good diet helps, and many other things. I don't think you can judge your hair based on your parents' hair, as kids don't always have the same hair type. But I DO believe there is a genetic component to how easy your hair will split!