split ends and white dots

My hair is really nice right now. It's soft, smooth, and shiny except in the front where I get split ends. I cut most of the split ends out but I still have a bunch of white dots. I've been doing protein treatments once a week but it's not helping....5 minutes later....Okay I just cut a bunch of the white dots off. Nothing was helping them. What can I do to stop getting them and to fix them?

A white dot on a hair is the point at which there is damage that will cause it to break off. When it breaks off (or if you pull the end piece off), the white dot remaining will form a split within the next few days. I can see on my own hair (which is long and straight) that if I pull off the broken end, the split is already forming.

I trim off the white dots, which makes the hair look better, too. I also get little white stripes in the hair where a hair is splitting in the middle of the shaft. If I cut one of those in the middle of the damaged part, it is already split. Ah, damage.

Good luck on preventing these. If you're conditioning your hair properly, deep treating it, oil, not coloring or perming, not heat styling, and handling your hair as gently as possible, there's probably nothing more you can do. If you're heat styling or relaxing your hair, you probably don't want to stop this, so it's just a tradeoff.

Mine are better than they used to be - my hair used to break off, but now it's growing longer - but since I color my hair and it's fine, I don't see any way of completely stopping these.

cmesweet wrote: Good information eKatherine.

I agree!!

ehat kind of sicissors are you using to trim and what method are you using?

perhaps you are using dull scisors which are forming damage or your not cutting them all off int he 1st place.

sound slike you could use a good dusting trim.

I get the white dots too. I hate them. My hair is in much better condition now and I don't get anymore, but I need to have it cut to get rid of them. The bummer is my hair is layered so I know it will probably take a while for all of them to get cut off. Mine don't turn into split ends though. If I break them off at the dot, the bottom part will break off, but the dot stays there. I need to walk around with my scissors!
If I remember correctly  that when I was training though my book said something about this and it was called trichorrhexis nodosa. And basically it can be caused my stress to the hair (overprocessing, heat etc) that causes the cuticle to swell and eventually form a dot that may break off.

Ladies I had the same problem, and no one knew what I was talking about!  Thanks for the info!!! 

My scissors are for trimming hair. I got them from the beauty supply store. How often do you have to sharpen them and how do you sharpen them?

Edited by Layla

No prob QueenLinda!

 

and Layla... honestly I don't know girl!  I don't know if its the same way you would do sharpening a regular kitchen knife or what!  Knowing me, if I thought my shears were a little dull- I'd probably go out and get new ones.