Is it absolutely mandatory to trim split ends?

Is it mandatory to trim split ends?


  • Total voters
    875

HighlyFavored1

New Member
I've personally learned that I have to keep my ends trimmed. My hair tangles very easily and when my ends are ragged it just makes it worse. I get them trimmed about every 8 weeks, but i just found a lady at a Supercuts-type place who does it the way i like.

I think the neccesity of trimming really varies from person to person.
 

Wishin4BSL

New Member
MizaniMami said:
Personally, *I* don't believe in split ends. Frizzy? Yeah. Uneven? Hell yeah. But "splitting?" I can't get with that!

I have NEVER saw a "splitting" end on my hair. Ever! Now, I am not saying my hair is above damage because I get moe damage than the next sista. Just never saw a "splitting" hair and I just don't believe in them.

I'm pretty much this way too. I've only seen maybe 5 split ends in my hair in my life. I only get them if I don't tie my hair down with a silk/satin scarf. I don't get them from flat-ironing or blowdrying. My SO is INSISTENT on finding a split end in my head and he still hasn't found one and we've been together for 2 1/2 years! I just get breakage, but never splits! It's weird.
 

kbragg

Well-Known Member
I voted NO. Here's why. My oldest daughter's hair is SUPER THICK and hip bone length when stretched. We're Apostolic and the women at my church are waistlength and below and never let a paid of scissors near their heads. My baby is already waistlength...no scissors. I have yet to find a split on my head. I think splits/breakage has more to do with hair habits than anything else. Cathy Howse says to keep the "raggedy" ends until you reach your goal length THEN trim. To me this makes since. When you trim you are just exposing new healthy hair to the environment. Wash and DC every 3 days and bun and you'll eliminate almost all breakage. Think of the ugly ends as old varnish on a cherry table. On one hand stripping the varnish would make the table look better, but on the other hand, it's exposing the wood to the elements. Anywho it's late, I voted no:lol:

Check out Cathy's "raggedy ends" clients: http://www.ubhpublications.com/CustomerBeforeAfter.html
 

GlamourGirl

New Member
kbragg said:
I voted NO. Here's why. My oldest daughter's hair is SUPER THICK and hip bone length when stretched. We're Apostolic and the women at my church are waistlength and below and never let a paid of scissors near their heads. My baby is already waistlength...no scissors. I have yet to find a split on my head. I think splits/breakage has more to do with hair habits than anything else. Cathy Howse says to keep the "raggedy" ends until you reach your goal length THEN trim. To me this makes since. When you trim you are just exposing new healthy hair to the environment. Wash and DC every 3 days and bun and you'll eliminate almost all breakage. Think of the ugly ends as old varnish on a cherry table. On one hand stripping the varnish would make the table look better, but on the other hand, it's exposing the wood to the elements. Anywho it's late, I voted no:lol:

Check out Cathy's "raggedy ends" clients: http://www.ubhpublications.com/CustomerBeforeAfter.html


ITA with your entire post Kbragg...:). It's hard for me to find split ends in my hair as well.
 

navsegda

New Member
kbragg said:
I voted NO. Here's why. My oldest daughter's hair is SUPER THICK and hip bone length when stretched. We're Apostolic and the women at my church are waistlength and below and never let a paid of scissors near their heads. My baby is already waistlength...no scissors. I have yet to find a split on my head. I think splits/breakage has more to do with hair habits than anything else. Cathy Howse says to keep the "raggedy" ends until you reach your goal length THEN trim. To me this makes since. When you trim you are just exposing new healthy hair to the environment. Wash and DC every 3 days and bun and you'll eliminate almost all breakage. Think of the ugly ends as old varnish on a cherry table. On one hand stripping the varnish would make the table look better, but on the other hand, it's exposing the wood to the elements. Anywho it's late, I voted no:lol:

Check out Cathy's "raggedy ends" clients: http://www.ubhpublications.com/CustomerBeforeAfter.html

Co-signing!
 

Babygurl

New Member
Of course I voted a big NO! I didnt trim my hair for almost 3 years and had no problems whatsoever, yeah I had a few splits but no they didnt travel up the hair shaft like so many people believe they definately do. Keep them moisturized and for the most part it wont be a crime and your hair wont necessarily look a "mess" if you dont trim, Im proof of that, but you do have to baby your ends to death, but is trimming a necessity, HECK NO! :lol:
 

navsegda

New Member
Babygurl said:
Of course I voted a big NO! I didnt trim my hair for almost 3 years and had no problems whatsoever, yeah I had a few splits but no they didnt travel up the hair shaft like so many people believe they definately do. Keep them moisturized and for the most part it wont be a crime and your hair wont necessarily look a "mess" if you dont trim, Im proof of that, but you do have to baby your ends to death, but is trimming a necessity, HECK NO! :lol:

Cosigning on this, too!
 

InnerSoul

Active Member
I voted NO. I also agree with what KBRAGG said (Cathy Howse method). I totally agree that it is not necessary to trim..but only if u want to. I only dust my hair once in awhile for a neater look but I know for sure that my hair will grow if even if I don't trim. I will probably do a thorough trim once I reach my desired length.. until then it's just a dusting and not on any schedule to do it.
 

misspriss

Well-Known Member
I don't know if this was already addressed but if you do trim your splits, please use super sharp hair scissors and moisturize the ends or else the dull blades could end up resplitting your newly trimmed ends.
 

Mortons

Well-Known Member
I must agree that although I have had spilt ends I never had them travel up the hair shaft. if anything the end that split off was thing a weak and broke of the strand.
 

Gryphyn

Active Member
I don't think it's absolutely mandatory, but I do think its something that should be done. If you don't trim your split ends you ends might start to look thin.
 

pistachio

New Member
If ur hair is split all over, then yes. But if it's healthy and not a split in sight, then NO, which is what I voted. I haven't trimmed my ends in four years.
 

SleekandBouncy

Well-Known Member
It's not mandatory but I think it should be trimmed. I think thin or uneven ends take away from the look and luster of long hair, giving it an older and damaged appearance. If you wear protective styles 24-7 than I don't think it matters as much though it's probably a good idea to trim just to rpevent the split from traveling further up the shaft.
 

rdm

New Member
In my experience, not cutting split ends has led to frizzy hair...no matter how much serum I put in, how good the roller set was done, how good it is flat ironed. Still a big frizz ball!!!!
 

cheetarah1980

Well-Known Member
I voted yes, but I'm more a fan of dusting than overall trimming. If the hair is healthy I don't think it should be cut.
I don't know if it's possible to prevent all the hairs from splitting. There will always be a split or two amongst the thousands of hairs. Split ends become a problem when the hair begins to break.
 

MrsHouston

Well-Known Member
Babygurl said:
Of course I voted a big NO! I didnt trim my hair for almost 3 years and had no problems whatsoever, yeah I had a few splits but no they didnt travel up the hair shaft like so many people believe they definately do. Keep them moisturized and for the most part it wont be a crime and your hair wont necessarily look a "mess" if you dont trim, Im proof of that, but you do have to baby your ends to death, but is trimming a necessity, HECK NO! :lol:

I agree too. I don't trim my ends that often. I've decided to do it about once a year, since I baby my ends.
 

Twisties

New Member
:look: I guess so. I just got my hair professional trimmed yesterday. Up until then, I litterally can't remember when I had it professionally done by a beautician. Now I was snipping my ends every now and then, but she told me I need major trim. I let her do it and my hair DOES look better.

I am natural with twists and the ends do look better now. So yes, afer I see the difference in my own ahir (even with natural hair) I think it should be done maybe 2x's a year if you color your hair or manipulate with twisiting a lot.
 

ShaniKeys

New Member
I think it's the easiest/healthiest way, just trim them. I noticed that after trimming my split ends (that were crunchy aswell) I had less breakage while combing.
 

SleekandBouncy

Well-Known Member
It's not mandatory but it's better for the health of the hair since splits can travel up the hair shaft.
On a superficial level I think a lot of split ends on hair that's worn down looks nasty and bum-ish. Neat, even length, clean hair always look best regarldess of the length, split ends usually have a whiteish tip and look frizzed.
 

tricie

Well-Known Member
I voted yes, simply because those times that I didn't, my hair end up looking ratty, and I had to get it cut anyway, and there went at least 1/2" or more.

HTH!
 

Bmack

Active Member
I of course vote hell yes!!! I don't care if it spilts all the way up or not! the ish looks raggedy and I never seen a head of hair I liked with a bunch of spilts of uneveness its all a big ball of HOT MESS!! no matter how you wear your hair it looks a HORRIFIED MESS!

I can't understand why people are so scared to trim that mess off... :lol: :lol: :lol:

I am crazy with the scissors so I am not advising anyone to be like me but I can't understand holding on to a damged head of hair:confused:
 

imstush

New Member
I am torn...growing up I never had my ends trimmed. Unless I didn't have split ends, and my hair was beyond healthy. Once I started relaxing and doing my hair, that's when my ends became shot:look:
 

bLackButtaFly

Well-Known Member
imstush said:
I am torn...growing up I never had my ends trimmed. Unless I didn't have split ends, and my hair was beyond healthy. Once I started relaxing and doing my hair, that's when my ends became shot:look:

I think that when you do things to your hair that are damaging the structure from perming to heat damage that when the damage turns up, or splits. You do have to remedy those before they get worse, but I don't think you need to trim every two weeks if you''re not doing major damage to your hair.(and yess I know women who do this, and wonder why their hair isn't growing:lol:)
 

deltagyrl

Well-Known Member
I'm so glad this thread is still ALIVE!

I wanted to karate chop my stylist and shampoo girl yesterday.

I'm about 2 months post and shampoo girl has my hair in tangles and says that I need a perm b/c my hair is tangled (sigh). I asked if they used detangler and she said no because they use 'good' conditioner and that should be all I need.

Stylist tells me that my 'split ends' (which she holds up so I can see them) are getting worse and will be traveling up the shaft yadda yadda, woo-woo...

I then ask her to show the splits strand by strand and she says that will take too long. I'm ok with it being uneven because it's GROWING, hello?

She's so fired.
 

meaganita

New Member
delta_gyrl said:
I'm so glad this thread is still ALIVE!

I wanted to karate chop my stylist and shampoo girl yesterday.

I'm about 2 months post and shampoo girl has my hair in tangles and says that I need a perm b/c my hair is tangled (sigh). I asked if they used detangler and she said no because they use 'good' conditioner and that should be all I need.

Stylist tells me that my 'split ends' (which she holds up so I can see them) are getting worse and will be traveling up the shaft yadda yadda, woo-woo...

I then ask her to show the splits strand by strand and she says that will take too long. I'm ok with it being uneven because it's GROWING, hello?

She's so fired.
I hate how so many stylists are so unaccountable for what they do to your hair. The last time I took my braids down and went to the shop for my DC and re-braid, I combed through my hair so good I could run my fingers through it. My stylist was even running her fingers through it as she was washing/conditioning me. But somehow after I sat under the dryer and she rinsed me out, my hair was SUPER tangled....like it was never combed out!?! I asked her why my hair was so tangled and she says, "Well how long was your hair in braids? Two months?" - I said, "Nooo, I combed my hair out COMPLETELY....to the point where it was soft and manageable." She couldn't say anything...But proceeded to man-handle my tangled hair with a pick!:mad: :mad: :mad:
 

freshlikemoi

Well-Known Member
You should start off with even ends...then baggy or protect them so you won't have to do em' for a looonnnngggggg time. :eek: IMHO, you should start a clean slate, then go for the finish line from there.
 
C

chica_canella

Guest
kbragg said:
I voted NO. Here's why. My oldest daughter's hair is SUPER THICK and hip bone length when stretched. We're Apostolic and the women at my church are waistlength and below and never let a paid of scissors near their heads. My baby is already waistlength...no scissors. I have yet to find a split on my head. I think splits/breakage has more to do with hair habits than anything else. Cathy Howse says to keep the "raggedy" ends until you reach your goal length THEN trim. To me this makes since. When you trim you are just exposing new healthy hair to the environment. Wash and DC every 3 days and bun and you'll eliminate almost all breakage. Think of the ugly ends as old varnish on a cherry table. On one hand stripping the varnish would make the table look better, but on the other hand, it's exposing the wood to the elements. Anywho it's late, I voted no:lol:

Check out Cathy's "raggedy ends" clients: http://www.ubhpublications.com/CustomerBeforeAfter.html

Ok, I think this will be best for me.
 

JuicesN'Berries

Well-Known Member
Well I do believe it is important to trim your ends.....but personally I won't be trimming for a year. I figured that if I moisturize and wear protective styles I will be able to hold out on it for a while. That way my hair can grow 5-6 six inches and then I won't mind cutting off an inch to a inch and a half. It beats cutting off 1/4 inch to a 1/2 inch every 6 to 8 weeks (in my opinion). I will let ya'll know how this works out.
 

pinkdot's blog

New Member

I would say yes because if you don't it may end up looking like this. I was trying so hard to hold on to these thin ends. I wanted so badly to say that I was almost shoulder length. But I just had to let it go. My mom even told me not to trim but I had to explain to her that my hair will reap the benefits by the end of this year. I wouldn't even call this a trim. I had to cut it. I will never let my ends go ever again. I think its about preventing them in the first place. So you wont have to trim all the time.



This is my hair after the trim. My hair felt and looked more healthy. I had never had so much body and bounce in my hair in my whole entire life. I'd rather have healthy neck length hair and grow it out, then broken off see through hair. At first I didn't like that I cut it off but now I feel much better because I know my ends will be thick and healthy this time around. I'm not trimming for a while but I will be dusting the heck out of my hair.
 
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