Are your ends lighter in color than the rest of your hair?

[sakuramoon08]

I was wondering if this is damage that should be cut off, or if I'm reaching my terminal length? Could someone please let me know? I'm curious... :D

[Lianna]

Mines does not lighten. And you don't need to cut if you don't want. Several dark blondes actually hope for this to happen.

[spidermom]

Used to be. Now it's the other way around since my newest hair has a lot more white/silver and my ends are still golden blonde.

[ladyfey]

My ends are lighter than the top.

[luxepiggy]

Some hair is just more susceptible to fading. It doesn't necessarily mean that the ends are damaged; I almost never get split ends or breakage, yet my hair naturally lightens quite a bit along the length. You can see in this photo how much lighter the ends are, compared to the hair close to the roots:
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff33/shoppingpiglet/parisreveal61-1.jpg

[Mairéad]

My roots and my ends are lighter. :D

[silverstars]

Mine lightens at the ends quite a bit and its only BSL. Its easy to see if I hold the end of my braid close to my head. Most of my hair is dark brown, but the ends are a shade or two lighter. They don't look like they are damaged so I'm not going to cut them off. :)

[ssjhotau2]

My hair has always lightened further down the length- naturally (if I didn't keep it wrapped up) my hair grows in medium brown and gradually lightens to closer to platinum near the ends.

[hypersensitive]

Some hair is just more susceptible to fading. It doesn't necessarily mean that the ends are damaged; I almost never get split ends or breakage, yet my hair naturally lightens quite a bit along the length. You can see in this photo how much lighter the ends are, compared to the hair close to the roots:
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff33/shoppingpiglet/parisreveal61-1.jpg

^ That is how my hair is like too. My ends are way lighter than my roots. Always been like this. Probably always will.

[HintOfMint]

My ends are like that as well. It's just fading from the sun. Sometimes it annoys me because it's not like a shampoo advert where everything is one glossy shade, but most of the time I like it. And it's not damage.

[danacc]

My ends are lighter than my roots. (I have never dyed any of it.) My mid-length is lighter than my roots, too. My hair is very gradually fading all the way down. So, at least for me, the color change doesn't mean the hair is near terminal. There is a little fading well before that.

It is likely damage to a degree. My ends are older and of course they have more wear and tear than the new hair growing from my scalp. But it definitely does not mean there is damage that needs to be cut off. Some of my ends split, most don't, and all are faded.

[lizdini]

Mine used to lighten every summer. So the last time I had long hair (almost waist) I had several shades ranging from light blond at the ends to honey blond in the middle to brown on top. It wasn't damage exactly, just my hair. Though I would get comments about "growing out dye" I didn't have. The last two years it hasn't done it, so if it weren't for the new "sparkles" I have I'd only have one color. Really it's up to you if you want to cut it or not. Sometime that sort of thing looks nice.

[Clem_Dela]

it's natural. From the sun :P S&D any splits but other than that leave your ends alone :)

[gthlvrmx]

Yes they are, but it was damage from before in the days when i didnt give a damn. It's going away though so now it's much more brown, but i can tell when there is real damage or not. Some hairs are just more prone to naturally getting lighter :P

[GlassWidow]

I think hair that lightens from root to tip looks much more natural than hair that is the same color throughout (like you'd get from a dye job...though I've seen some good dye jobs that don't look flat).

[Cassie 123]

Yes, my ends can lighten up quite a bit with sun exposure. Yes, it's damage; no, don't cut it off. Nature is the best colorist around.

[dRummie]

A touch, only really noticeable if I do something like a peacock twist. They're lighter, but also a slightly different hue, much warmer.

[Khiwanean]

My ends are lighter than my hair near the roots. It's a very gradual fade from one to the other. I think some of the lightening is from my hair color has gotten darker as I've gotten older and some is from the sun bleaching my old ends. I'm pretty sure some amount of sun bleaching is inevitable on ends, but the lighter ends on many people who have hair long enough for it to be noticable are covered up by dye, which makes the whole length look one color.

[Dars]

Yes mine are from the sun, I don't cut them off just because of a colour difference though.

[Chetanlaiho]

My ends used to be lighter before I dyed them (though they're getting lighter faster than my roots do) but I always figured it's a combination of having had more sun, and the fact that my hair colour used to darker over time for years and years.

[racrane]

My hair lightens, too. The first five inches of my hair are strawberry blond and lighten the older they get. (My last 5 inches of hair or so are especially light because I spent a lot of time outside this summer.) I don't think it's bad. I like it.

[QMacrocarpa]

I like it too! I definitely wouldn't cut it off. I think it adds interest to buns, as in luxepiggy's example. Anyway, it's just what my hair does when it gets sun exposure, and I think to prevent it I would need to spend my life in a cave, which isn't happening.

[Sweetie]

My ends are lighter too!!!!!! It's just the sun, I guess... luckily I love it.

[Alias]

Mine are lighter too... And I think that the ends of my hair started thinning. :( Is there any way I can make them thicker?

[Crysta]

I like this in my hair - it's always been very easily faded by the sun.

[Firefly]

My hair is all virgin and still gradually gets lighter to the ends-- probably because of more sun exposure. It's really only noticeable in updos, but I don't like it.

[Alcenaia]

I was platinum blonde as a kid. My hair gradually grew in darker and darker. Having not had a haircut, there's a color gradient in my hair. :) When I had braids pinned up around my head, some guy asked me if the braids were fake since they were a slightly different color, haha.

[xoxophelia]

Mine is the opposite right now as a result of growing out faded dye but naturally it does follow this trend. As long as I hadn't spent so much time in the sun or swimming that my hair was fried, I think it looks good.

[Yozhik]

The tips of my hair are medium reddish brown, while the rest of my hair is dark brown/black, so yes, I have a color gradient. I like it, though. :)

[Nastasia]

Yeah, I definitely have that going on. My roots are dark brown, and my ends are a lighter reddish brown. I don't think it's damage at all, just the result of years of sun-bleaching.

[jojo]

I think its pretty natural for hair to be lighter on the ends as it has been exposed to weather and more washes. I would imagine the only hair which doesn't is silver hair as it has no pigment so cannot really go any lighter! My hair is certainly a different colour on the ends, but is only really noticable when my hair is up, strange how it can look all one colour when down!

[Sanyia]

My ends are lighter. I don't mind.

[jil]

Like many other posters, yes my ends are lighter than my roots. For some reason my ends gradually become a warmer/more golden shade of brown than the rest of my hair. It does bother me when I notice it, but not enough to dye it or cut it. :shrug: