S & D addict!!??

[chrystalevonne]

Hi yall. I have recently vowed to grow out my hair, I am trying to not trim as much as possible and just do s & d to maintain length. My hair is damaged pretty badly. I find myself trimming the little breaks and rough (white knots) ends a LOT!! I run my hand through my hair and if it gets caught on a tiny knot and I find that it is a damaged hair that is causing it I will cut that sucker off. So what are your thoughts about leaving some of the damaged hair be and just try to keep it in the best condition vs cutting off the damaged portion entirely. I feel like I am doing this all the time and NEVER get to a point where I feel its looking better. I am afraid i'm being a little OCD about this and maybe i'm actually hampering my hair growth progress by doing this. It really seems like i'm trimming quite a bit (maybe 20 hairs every other day or so). Is this normal or is my hair maybe just too damaged to use this method? I know I do get more breakage from broken ends and splits because it catches other hairs and creates knots.

On a side note, it's been over a month since i've used any heat on my hair. I have totally retired the blow frier and flat iron. I was thinking the damage would start subsiding, but even though i've taken the steps to prevent damage, more seems to be showing up constantly.

Anyone have any advice on this? My goal is to get long but healthy hair the fastest way I can by trimming less often. Normally by now I would have gone to the salon to do at least a 1" trim to help my hair not tangle so much at the breaks, but i'm trying to go for length.....

[Chamy]

If you are feeling like you don't get anything out of it, maybe you should stop it. I used to S&D a lot before, and my hair thinned out because of it. And i'm still recovering from it.
If you don't see any difference, it is probably not worth it. Just cut the ends when you need it, and most splits will go, plus you will save thickness of your hemline.

[Madora]

Damaged hair will continue to split unless it is cut. If it is badly damaged, then a full trim would be the way to go. You can "baby" damaged hair..but it is still damaged and nothing will get rid of it except cutting it off.

S and D is fine, once the hair has been trimmed. It is better to start off with the damage removed and then baby the hair as best you can. Otherwise, it is a losing battle trying to deal with the damage..especially so if your hair is short and you can't see the damage up close.

Since growing hair can be a painstaking journey I cannot see the point in growing damaged hair out to a certain point, only to realize that the ends have split more and the longer hair will need to be cut in order to appear healthy. Whereas, if you had trimmed off the damage when your started your hairquest, your hair would be in much better shape once it reached its goal.

[swearnsue]

Don't worry about 20 hairs a day being OCD! When you do a S & D though, be sure to cut up into the healthy portion of hair. In other words, don't cut so close to the split that you aren't getting the entire split part off the hair strand.

[NymphSpirit]

Mhmm... This sucks. It happened to me a couple of years ago when I was growing out a fringe... It was at chin length and the splits that suddenly appeared out of nowhere were truly annoying me, so I S&D'ed a lot, this resulted in my hair not gaining any length for months... When I noticed s&d was the reason, I stayed away from it and just ignored completely the split ends/white dots... It grew and once it was past chin, the split ends/damaged hairs stop appearing.
So, my guess is that you get so many split ends because of the current length of your hair, and that you should stay away from S&D as long as you can. If you still want to s&d set a limit, like... cutting max 10 hairs and doing it once a month.

(Of course this is something that has only happened to me and a couple of friends so I'm not 100% sure this is your case)

[moon2dove]

Damaged hair will continue to split unless it is cut. If it is badly damaged, then a full trim would be the way to go. You can "baby" damaged hair..but it is still damaged and nothing will get rid of it except cutting it off.

S and D is fine, once the hair has been trimmed. It is better to start off with the damage removed and then baby the hair as best you can. Otherwise, it is a losing battle trying to deal with the damage..especially so if your hair is short and you can't see the damage up close.

Since growing hair can be a painstaking journey I cannot see the point in growing damaged hair out to a certain point, only to realize that the ends have split more and the longer hair will need to be cut in order to appear healthy. Whereas, if you had trimmed off the damage when your started your hairquest, your hair would be in much better shape once it reached its goal.


^^This^^ I agree! Wise words :)

When I discovered LHC My hair was damaged through heat styling every day. I decided to stop frying my hair, find a routine my hair liked, and have stuck to it. Do S&D regularly and a couple of micro trims, then if my ends still looked a mess, I would have to give in and get a couple of inches cut off. After 3 months my hair is in better health, thicker and my ends look better!:D
But I will cut them off, if I think they need it!

[chrystalevonne]

as much as i did not want to looks like i'll be getting a trim and shy away from so much s&d. i kinda knew in my gut that i probably needed to get this damage off if i really want to see length. i was hoping maybe there would be a chance that i could nurse this along and not have to cut, but oh well, it's only hair and it will grow back and look much better without the damage. thanks so much everyone for your input, it has really helped me!!! :)

[Amber_Maiden]

I S&D all the time- every day. I figure the healthier my hair is the better it looks.

[MonaLisa]

I did this often, first few months after joining. Now i barely ever do it...maybe once a month if that. I don't notice any difference! trims, and mictotrims do make difference however!
If your hair is prone to splits...you will never be completely splits-free :) And that is ok :)

[QMacrocarpa]

I'm split-prone, but never S&D, only trims. For me there's too much potential for obsessional behavior down that path.

[clairenewcastle]

I was addicted to S and D-ing for years in my teens and twenties, with the result I thinned my hair out badly.

In theory I do believe it is a good idea, but knowing when to stop is important....

[dili]

i was S&D all the time before i did a very big chop..if i would cut all the splits would be more then 50%, then i chopped...now i only S&D if by chance i find some split ends..but when the hair have too much split ends is better trim, and if is very damaged its better chop the damaged part

[Zesty]

That doesn't sound obsessive to me. I S&D often, and get the urge to do it pretty much anytime I can see my hair, which is a good incentive to keep it up. Everyone has good advice though. If your hair is that damaged it might be better for you to just do small trims and maintain your length until you feel like a lot of the damage is gone, and then you can S&D every once in a while in between trims.

[blondie9912]

I would agree with the 'get a trim and clean up remaining splits by S&Dimg'. Pretty much all of your splits should be gone after a trim, and if they're not, I think it's a sign that you needed to trim more hair. Relying solely on S&Ding to get rid of damage could result in a raggedy hem