Do You Trim Your Own Split Ends?

OH MY GOD! That website rocks, but I must say the close-ups of the damaged hair follicles made me break out in a cold sweat! I do not have a ton of them, I mostly see them on random hairs around my face that get the most heat applied via curling iron, which would make snipping the random beads relatively easy. Do you think I should be using more product and turning my iron down lower? Like I said before, I rarely blow dry anyways and I my stylists never run the color through to the ends either, plus I get regular trims professionally which is a discouraging thought because I am STILL getting these. Now I worry I have not been using enough product on the ends....  Thanks for all your help, I can now take better preventative measures.

eKatherine wrote: The problem with this is that each break forms a split. Unless you trim it above the broken part, you are not removing the damage.

I just got a nice trim on Sunday and pretty much all of my split ends are gone ... my hair looks beautiful and healthy again---I feel so happy now :)

Search and distroy!!!! I have too many split ends, and I try to do it once every couple days, but I don't think that's enough with all the splits I have. I got a trim about 3 weeks ago, but it didn't help much. I don't have too many more of the splits at the ends, but a lot of the ones that look like balls of dust on the hair shaft. Arrrrgggg.  Writing about this makes me want to go grab a pair of scissors and S&D!!

Hi,

Yes it can be addictive but in an odd way, I find it relaxing to do since usually all I do is work, work, work and then work some more  Yes, I know I am a workaholic and have an addictive personality but at this point I am aware of my work addiction and focus on providing balance in my life by taking scheduled time off to read or relax.  And oddly, sniping the ends are calming.  So I take time for that. 

I bought some expensive trimming scissors but find that the Conair Professional Barber shears work just as well and are way less expensive. 

Today I made an appointment with a new hairdresser because my former quit the biz to go work in a lawyers office.  The previous hairdresser, Shelley, is still MIA somewhere in Arizona.  Maybe I jinx hairdessers so that they quit?  LOL.

Anyway, the new hairdresser talked to me on the phone about my highlights (I haven't had them done in about 9 months) and I told her I wanted her to use Matrix SoColor which has been used on my hair for years.  She said she wanted to try Redken.  Well of course I was totally against that.  Then she asked if I needed a trim?  I said NO very forcefully.  Supposedly she specializes in "long hair" but I am going to be very cautious until I know that I can trust her.  I am taking someone to the salon with me for the first visit.

Meanwhile, the fact that she asked me about a trim made me aware of my split ends and I have been snipping off and on all afternoon.  :-)  I even bought a new pair of shears just for the purpose.  And I think my hair looks better after just a little dusting. 

Anyway...enough rambling...I am really enjoying all the input.  Fascinating.

Karen

It depends entirely on what I want at the time, but usually just the splits.  When I started going to Tony, I had very long hair (classic length apparently, by reading the long hair boards) that he just went crazy over.  When I cut it very short it seemed like he was grieving about it, in fact he refused for a while.  He's definitely very into long hair and encourages me to grow it longer everytime I go in.  If I go in just because of split ends, he removes the minimal amount of length and spends much time doing the search/destroy method.  Right now we've gotten to just below shoulder length, who knows where it will go from here.  I'm not attached to the concept of growing or cutting it (I liked it short, too) but the fact I am not a slave spending so much time fixing it as I did when it was shorter has kept my mindset of letting it grow a while longer. 

Interestingly enough, my girlfriend goes to him as well - she has super short hair and he never complained when she cut it short and doesn't try to push her to grow it.  On her, I love it the way it is so maybe he knows not to overstep those boundaries