split ends
Posted by Mike S. on February 26, 2002 at 21:12:07: Previous Next
It's been exactly a year since my last hair cut. I've been going through each strand and cutting off the split ends, because I don't want to lose any length. It is an extremely tedious process to cut the split ends. I wash and condition the hair every other night and I don't blow dry it. It seems once my hair reaches to the middle of my back, split ends become a problem. For the past month I've been contemplating cutting the hair, but I have doubts about doing it. Should I just accept the fact that I will have some split ends (just a part of having long hair)? Are there any on this board who don't have split ends? What are your secrets?
Re: split ends
Posted by Bill on February 26, 2002 at 23:00:37: Previous Next
In Reply to: split ends posted by Mike S. on February 26, 2002 at 21:12:07:
: It's been exactly a year since my last hair cut. I've been going through each strand and cutting off the split ends, because I don't want to lose any length. It is an extremely tedious process to cut the split ends. I wash and condition the hair every other night and I don't blow dry it. It seems once my hair reaches to the middle of my back, split ends become a problem. For the past month I've been contemplating cutting the hair, but I have doubts about doing it. Should I just accept the fact that I will have some split ends (just a part of having long hair)? Are there any on this board who don't have split ends? What are your secrets?
Well, for one, not washing and conditioning my hair every other night. My hair is not tough enough for that, and maybe yours isn't either.
If you can do it every fourth night, for example, you will cut in half the wear and tear you get from washing and conditioning.
A couple of years back we took a survey on here and the bell curve peaked for "how often does a longhair wash his hair" at "twice a week". That's about half as often as you're doing it. Short haired people need to wash more frequently because they don't have a mane to absorb their oil. You do!
And your mane needs that oil. Nature designed it to make your mane healthy.
If you are just washing so often to make your hair neat, try just moistening it instead. That will let you neaten it up without stripping the oils which nourish it out of it.
With some of these techniques, let's hope your split ends soon disappear! Mine were all gone within a few months after making these changes.
Re: split ends
Posted by Mike S. on February 27, 2002 at 01:44:45: Previous Next
In Reply to: Re: split ends posted by Bill on February 26, 2002 at 23:00:37:
: : It's been exactly a year since my last hair cut. I've been going through each strand and cutting off the split ends, because I don't want to lose any length. It is an extremely tedious process to cut the split ends. I wash and condition the hair every other night and I don't blow dry it. It seems once my hair reaches to the middle of my back, split ends become a problem. For the past month I've been contemplating cutting the hair, but I have doubts about doing it. Should I just accept the fact that I will have some split ends (just a part of having long hair)? Are there any on this board who don't have split ends? What are your secrets?
: Well, for one, not washing and conditioning my hair every other night. My hair is not tough enough for that, and maybe yours isn't either.
: If you can do it every fourth night, for example, you will cut in half the wear and tear you get from washing and conditioning.
: A couple of years back we took a survey on here and the bell curve peaked for "how often does a longhair wash his hair" at "twice a week". That's about half as often as you're doing it. Short haired people need to wash more frequently because they don't have a mane to absorb their oil. You do!
: And your mane needs that oil. Nature designed it to make your mane healthy.
: If you are just washing so often to make your hair neat, try just moistening it instead. That will let you neaten it up without stripping the oils which nourish it out of it.
: With some of these techniques, let's hope your split ends soon disappear! Mine were all gone within a few months after making these changes.
Thanks for the advice Bill. The reason I've been washing it that often is because I get alot of oil after two days of not washing it. So much that it actually feels like I put a palm full of olive oil on top of my scalp. Could the oil build up actually cause the scalp to itch? my scalp itches bad after a couple of days of not washing it.
Re: split ends
Posted by Bill on February 27, 2002 at 09:56:08: Previous Next
In Reply to: Re: split ends posted by Mike S. on February 27, 2002 at 01:44:45:
: Thanks for the advice Bill. The reason I've been washing it that often is because I get alot of oil after two days of not washing it. So much that it actually feels like I put a palm full of olive oil on top of my scalp. Could the oil build up actually cause the scalp to itch? my scalp itches bad after a couple of days of not washing it.
Indeed, too much oil will cause itching. You're lucky to have too much, rather than too little. If you have too much you can always get rid of it.
If you get rid of it by shampooing, it is very hard to not get rid of all of it, because the shampoo readily binds with the oil to remove it. That is what it is designed to do. On the other hand, if you allow plain water to flow across your head, it will dissolve and move away the oil more slowly. You can control how much water and how hot it is (hotter dissolves oil faster) and thus control two things - how much oil is dislodged and where it goes. Hot water for very long will remove all of the oil, but you don't want that.
The ideal result is to move oil down into the tips of your hair where you are getting breakage, from your scalp where you apparently have too much. Plus wash any excess oil completely off. Doing this right takes some practice and experimentation. Unlike shampooing, where you get the same result every time by just following the instructions on the bottle, washing your hair in plain water with an aim to move the oil to where you want it will give widely varying results until you learn what acts do what. Thus, you have to be willing to experiment and you have to exhibit a bit of perseverance. Not a lot, but some. :-)
You may also find that timing combing or smoothing down your hair to the drying cycle of the water affects how your hair ultimately looks. I've found, for example, that my hair looks really attractive and behaves its best too, if I come back ten to fifteen minutes later and smooth it down. By that time the remaining fine layer of oil is beginning to set but is still maleable. Rather than have your hair set up looking like it was wet and you combed it, you can at this time run your hands over it and in effect polish it, giving it a very nice natural sheen.
Just washing in water is not as tough on your hair as washing in shampoo, so you may choose to do it daily. It has no ill effects
on your hair at all so long as you don't overdo the oil removal. If your hair looks better or your scalp feels better by doing it daily, do it!
You can also just semi-wash your hair (moistening it but not soaking it) if that will accomplish what you want. You would not want to do that with shampoo (!) but with plain water that is an alternative to not overlook and doing that is fine.
And finally, of course you can mix these techniques. You can shampoo every few days and use water alone in between those times. This will subject your hair to less stress than shampooing every time.