What to look for when S&Ding

[long.hair.maybe]

So I've started chopping off some of my wonky looking ends, although because my hair is short I can't do the whole head's worth. It's almost like a weird addiction now, cutting off bad ends.

But what exactly are the ones I should be cutting off, and which should I leave?

I've got

- tapered ends
- tapered into nothing ends
- broken looking ends
- an end that is much thicker than the rest of the strand
- wonky looking ends, eg snapped looking little curl, bumps all near the end

Should I be cutting all of those off?

[Yame]

I don't cut off tapered or wonky ends. I just cut off splits and white dots, because splits could keep splitting up the length and white dots could become splits.

[Madora]

So I've started chopping off some of my wonky looking ends, although because my hair is short I can't do the whole head's worth. It's almost like a weird addiction now, cutting off bad ends.

But what exactly are the ones I should be cutting off, and which should I leave?

I've got

- tapered ends
- tapered into nothing ends
- broken looking ends
- an end that is much thicker than the rest of the strand
- wonky looking ends, eg snapped looking little curl, bumps all near the end

Should I be cutting all of those off?

Personally, I'd snip them all. But it's your hair.

[Rebeccalaurenxx]

I snip ANYTHING that looks like damage. But usually i leave the wonky looking ends because my hair is curly so its prone to them.

[Airmide]

I just snip the obvious splits, or fairy knots. I'd say it's probably best to snip anything that feels rough since that can cause velcro-ends and create further damage. I would imagine though, that S&D is pretty hard at your length? Would you have better luck with regular (like every 3-4 weeks) micro trims? I just bring the length around front to do my S&D but I couldn't do anything too close to my head!

[jaine]

Tapered hairs are probably hairs that haven't been cut yet... I like to leave those.
I also leave white dots because usually I find that those are false alarms in my hair... either a piece of dust, or the light reflecting in a certain way.
I only cut something that's physically split.

[MinderMutsig]

I cut splits, dots, knots and wonky ends if they feel irregular when I run my fingers over them. I leave smooth wonky ends and tapers alone.

[Panth]

All, except the tapered ones. They could be worn that way, or they could be just that the hair has never broken or been cut yet; either way, I don't personally think tapered ends are problematic.

[mora]

I used to just cut the splits and breaks/white dots but started adding tapers when I was finger combing and realized that almost every time my fingers would actually stop at a tangle, there were tapered ends in it. Now, when I regularly S&D tapers, I get less tangling. I also noticed that the tapers were usually were I'd find straggly ends and where most of my splits and white dots occurred. This is probably because most of my hair is fairly coarse and the tapered ends are more like fine strands. It's probably depends on the person, too. From the responses here and on this thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=48725), it seems to vary. I still sometimes leave the very mild tapers alone.

[ravenreed]

I snip anything odd, including bent hairs and ones that feel rough. When in doubt, I wet the hair to see if the end will straighten out and if not, snip snip!

[jennescence]

I dont do that because if i did i would end up with no hair. I get scissor happy.

[WinterButterfly]

I cut splits single strand knots and dots. If a hair is odly bent I may snip it if it won't straighten when I wet it. But that is because I find lots of tangles around the bent strands.