what if you stoped trimming hair?

In my former hair growing times I never got a trim to cut off split ends although I could see them (best with a magnifying glass). At the end the hair doesn`t looked beautiful any more (at a length about 40 - 50 cm). Some parts of it looked transparent. This split ends have grown up and destroyed essential parts of the hair. I think healthy long hair needs a trim sometimes but only for the damaged parts. This may be the reason that a woman`s long hair often looks much more beautiful as a men`s long hair. But I have also seen men with absolutely great hair, so it seems to be a question of hair care. I heard that conditioner help to avoid split ends or jojaba oil. I use conditioner every day and have already jojoba oil at home. Currently I couldn`t see split ends with my magnifying glass. Hair length now is 30 cm but I fear that MPB will come up and this will be a much more serious problem for me then split ends.

wolfgang

Just a comment for Wolfgang

I think that hair care plays an important role in keeping our hair in good shape but other things also come into play. For example over here our weather is very rough for our hair. Wind etc whip our hair and cause it to break etc. I think as long as we live we will always have split ends.

Dear Diane,

I would like to have the knowledge women have to manage their hair. I will never reach it. Sometimes my hair looks really nice and I am astonished and think so should it be, but often I think something must be wrong. I don`t know the reasons behind the hair`s appearance, and I have observed it for many years. Nevertheless, I like it and sometimes I think the hair likes me, otherwise it could have been gone already, if I look after the genetic prerequisites in my family. Currently it seems so that the split end problem has been solved by using conditioner every day, but I am not sure. Wind makes sometimes problems in Munich, it causes tangles that can be hardly made out. I think some of the hair breaks why the lost hair is sometimes shorter then the maximum length.

Diane, I wish you many many good hair days

wolfgang

I agree with what most posters here said about a trim now and then being beneficial to the overall health of your
hair, at far as keeping the bottom inches looking smooth and managable. I also know first hand (as do most posters
here) about a professional "trim" that leads to the loss of years of hard work.

So if you don`t have a roommate or Significant Other who is willing to take off the required amount and no more,
or a regular stylist you can trust, do what i did. Buy a home haircut kit. The specific brand i bought is called the Cutting Edge but i know there are other brands available. I can attest to how easy my kit is to use, either doing about 90% of the work myself (i don`t have double-jointed shoulders so i need my SO to take the straightedge and make sure its level) or having my SO do it all himself. (The second is much more work since he`s so paranoid he`ll mess up :) I normally take of about a cm every 3-6 months, and the difference is dramatic. The icky layers are much closer to being grown out as well, since i trim them less while most stylists made them more noticable.

The cost was $45 and it came with scissors, a cape, some combs, rubber bands, the straightedge, some clips, some layering tools which i don`t use so much, and best of all, a video. For cheapskates, that`s about 5 haircuts of money, but i know plenty of people who pay that much for one haircut. I think its paid off already. I`ve had it almost a year now and have used it 4 times, i think.

Good luck with whatever maintainence regime you decide upon.

I totally agree with not being "required" or "expected" to cut a person`s own hair. I`m a 16 year old MALE and my black curly hair`s about 2 inches below my shoulders. When straightened, it`s about 5 inches longer. I constantly argue with my parents about it, but I feel that as long as I`m paying for supplies [products, conditioners, and so on], I don`t think they should have a problem with it. I like the way I look, and with many teens my age having identity problems and an overall disliking of the way they appear nowadays, I should think that they`d be glad that I like the way I look and are happy with myself.

true, no one should be pressured for even a trim. I didn`t even step foot in a salon for over a year, until i got sick of people nagging me. my hair wasn`t in bad condition at all. In fact, it was pretty, wavy, and around 6 inches past my shoulders. when I got the trim, it almost seemed to make thing seen worse, but when I got a little more taken off it was fine. when i got into braids, split ends became my enemies, so i started getting trims regularly, and then became hair-obsessed. so inless it looks like a rats nest or they want braids, there`s not realy reason for anyone to get a trim. oh, but it does make your hair grow faster. by the end of my little trimming escapade, my hair was three or four inches shorter, and it grows really fast now. in fact, i just dyed my hair about two weeks ago and i have massive rootage going on. i think i need to give the dye a rest.