keeping long hair healthy

[greywolf]

I apologize if I have posted about this before. I joined a long time ago, but I don't know if I ever actually posted, and I am unable to go back and check if I made a thread.

Anyway, I've been getting tons of split ends. I had my hair trimmed 2 weeks ago, and I already have split ends again. My hair is very healthy otherwise. I get tons of compliments for how healthy my hair is when I go get it trimmed, yet I still get all these split ends. Is this normal? And is there anything I can do to prevent it? My hair stylist told me to wash it less, but that is something I really just can't do.

[greywolf]

I just wanted to add that the last time I went to the hairstylist, I actually had her cut off 2 inches instead of just trimming it.

[torrilin]

Wash it less is not necessarily useful advice.

But your washing routine may be drying out your hair and causing splits. What exactly do you do to wash and dry your hair?

[Amorice]

Split ends are just part of having longer hair, I'm not sure you can eliminate them completely (though a more experienced member can correct me if I'm wrong)

How long have you tried a less-frequent washing routine? If you wash a lot, your scalp over-compensates from all the oils being stripped out by producing more oil, so it feels like you need to wash more. If you consistantly wash less frequently (give it a good 6-8 weeks), your scalp will re-adjust back to a more normal oil-producing level and your "greasy days" should fade.

[Amorice]

Also (can't edit, sorry): I'm talking about a slight adjustment to your routine. Go from every day to every other day, not every day to once a week.

[greywolf]

I tend to sweat when I sleep so it just feels gross for me not to wash my hair in the morning. Last year or so, I began to only shampoo my scalp instead of shampooing all of my hair, and that took awhile to get used to as well.

So when I take a shower in the morning, I should just skip washing my hair every other day or so?

[greywolf]

Wash it less is not necessarily useful advice.

But your washing routine may be drying out your hair and causing splits. What exactly do you do to wash and dry your hair?


I just use shampoo, conditioner, and air dry.

[Amorice]

So when I take a shower in the morning, I should just skip washing my hair every other day or so?

Yep, pretty much. Shampoo strips an awful lot of the good oils out of your hair, as well as the icky extras. Giving it an extra day to soak a little up will keep it from getting too dry. If it just feels sweaty, rinsing the sweat from your head without a full wash might help.

But its obviously not for everyone. If you give it 6-8 weeks and it still feels gross, don't force it. A lot of long hair maintanence is learning to observe what your hair does/doesn't like.

[arielágua]

Hi!

You could try oiling the tips of your hair every day. A light oil will do and it won't look greasy at all.
It will help protect your ends.

Also you could try using a leave-in conditioner or do deep conditioning treatments more often, like twice a week.

I also wash my hair every day because I train and exercise a lot, so I can't skip or stretch one single day now.
What I do is wash my hair with water or conditioner only, or very diluted shampoo, on some of the days I don't want to use a full shampoo rinse.

Hope it helps :)
Good Luck

[Madora]

I apologize if I have posted about this before. I joined a long time ago, but I don't know if I ever actually posted, and I am unable to go back and check if I made a thread.

Anyway, I've been getting tons of split ends. I had my hair trimmed 2 weeks ago, and I already have split ends again. My hair is very healthy otherwise. I get tons of compliments for how healthy my hair is when I go get it trimmed, yet I still get all these split ends. Is this normal? And is there anything I can do to prevent it? My hair stylist told me to wash it less, but that is something I really just can't do.

Split ends are usually due to two things: dryness and mechanical damage.

Too frequent washing can strip your hair of its natural oil, leaving it like hay. If possible, try and limit your hairwashing to no more than twice a week (unless you have an oily scalp).

Are you drinking enough water?

Here's an article by Ktani, one of our most respected members, on using catnip rinses to combat splits:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=118

You might also want to consider trying mineral oil, aka baby oil, to help keep your hair moisturized.

Here's a link:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=225

MO is also great as a detangler and helps tame the frizzies. It is very lightweight and leaves your hair soft, shiny and supple. Great for keeping split ends in good condition too! Works best on hair that is damp, but you can use it on dry hair also.

Lastly, what kind of hair tools are you using? Is your comb free of snags or rough seams? Is your brush natural bb or plastic. Nylon bristles and plastic are not good for your hair. Boar bristles are the closest thing in nature that mimic your natural hair and when used properly, can help keep your tresses healthy and beautiful.

[DinaAG]

sure wash ur scalp when u sweat but u can wash it with water only and shampoo once or twice per week, put a moisturizing cream on ur ends and seal them with oil after that, that helped me alot hope it will work 4 u

[akilina]

I like to CO wash :) Conditioner only. My hair is not *long* but I feel like this really works for me. I am trying more and more to ditch out on shampoo but I can't help it most of the time. Instead I have been using a "hair cleanser" and honestly...many have found just washing with conditioner works way better.

Make sure you are drinking plenty of water, and eating well balanced fairly healthy diet, and perhaps taking a good balanced multivitamin. Even being active is good. You grow your hair from the inside out :) at lease I like to think so personally.
I also like to do deep oiling over night, scalp massages, and use my BBB.

[heidi w.]

I just wanted to add that the last time I went to the hairstylist, I actually had her cut off 2 inches instead of just trimming it.

I call that two inches removed a trim...

heidi w.

[Silken]

The best tricks I learned were no heat styling and to CO wash. I still get trims occasionally, but only rarely. My hairstylist yesterday took a long, careful look at my ends and found zero splits: I haven't trimmed in over 3 months.

[greywolf]

Split ends are usually due to two things: dryness and mechanical damage.

Too frequent washing can strip your hair of its natural oil, leaving it like hay. If possible, try and limit your hairwashing to no more than twice a week (unless you have an oily scalp).

Are you drinking enough water?

Here's an article by Ktani, one of our most respected members, on using catnip rinses to combat splits:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=118

You might also want to consider trying mineral oil, aka baby oil, to help keep your hair moisturized.

Here's a link:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=225

MO is also great as a detangler and helps tame the frizzies. It is very lightweight and leaves your hair soft, shiny and supple. Great for keeping split ends in good condition too! Works best on hair that is damp, but you can use it on dry hair also.

Lastly, what kind of hair tools are you using? Is your comb free of snags or rough seams? Is your brush natural bb or plastic. Nylon bristles and plastic are not good for your hair. Boar bristles are the closest thing in nature that mimic your natural hair and when used properly, can help keep your tresses healthy and beautiful.

I probably don't drink as much water as I should. I try to, but sometimes it just doesn't happen.

I'll try the baby oil, and I bought some coconut oil yesterday so that I could give myself hot oil treatments.

I don't use brushes. I use combs, but it is made of plastic. I don't comb my hair as often as I should. Do you think that could be causing problems?



I call that two inches removed a trim...

heidi w.

[greywolf]

Can't edit, and I forgot to reply to heidi's post.


I call that two inches removed a trim...

I don't understand what you mean. =/

[Madora]

I probably don't drink as much water as I should. I try to, but sometimes it just doesn't happen.

I'll try the baby oil, and I bought some coconut oil yesterday so that I could give myself hot oil treatments.

I don't use brushes. I use combs, but it is made of plastic. I don't comb my hair as often as I should. Do you think that could be causing problems?

I'm not much of a water drinker myself but am trying to do more because it is better for your hair.

A plastic comb is fine so long as it is a wide tooth one, and has no seams. It is how you use it that makes all the difference.

For healthier hair, it is best to comb it every day (detangle it first, however). Combing every day removes all the hair that has been shed and that helps to keep your hair from getting tangles.

[lole18]

my hair is very short and isnt healthy but i heard that trimming it regurally helps :)

[jojo]

Just to add to check your posts just click on your name and chose see posts, you say you joined ages ago yet your avatar says you joined in April of this year? That just confused me a little!!!

Anyway I'd advise trimming any damage off and maybe starting co washes, they certainly help me when my hair is getting dry or feeling damaged. And laying off the heat, it will make your hair worse overtime! Good luck and welcome to LHC !

[KwaveT]

I apologize if I have posted about this before. I joined a long time ago, but I don't know if I ever actually posted, and I am unable to go back and check if I made a thread.

I know you probably don't know how but yes you can. You can look up last 500 posts that you have made and you aren't close to this. With only eight posts you can skim in a hurry everything that you have posted. Go under your Profile and click "Statistics". Under "Total Posts" section is a link that will say "Find all posts by greywolf". Click on it. It will bring up every posts you made since you started your account no matter how long ago they were. Under this is one that lets you search all the threads that you started too. I do this all the time when I want to quickly find something I posted in because sometimes it's faster than hunting for the thread. If it is a real long thread I won't remember where in thread I posted. This will let you go directly to those posts in these long threads. Jojo beat me to punch I just went into more detail on how to do it. Go and skim around in your profile to see all the things that you can access. This is just one thing you can do in your profile.

[greywolf]

I know how vbulletin works. I'm a moderator on another forum. But I can't view my profile here.

[Madora]

I know how vbulletin works. I'm a moderator on another forum. But I can't view my profile here.

Perhaps this will help:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=68520

[greywolf]

Yeah, I figured that I'd need a higher post count to weed out spammers and trolls.

[SunlightShines]

Something that helps me is to use conditioner on the length while shampooing my scalp only. So the shampoo doesn't dry out the rest of it when I rinse. Then I condition as normal. Sometimes I'll CO wash with VO5 clarifying conditioner.