Battle with Split ends

I'm in the Healthy Hair Journey war. I call it a war because it is hard work and it requires, diligence, planning and attention to details to wing the reward of healthy hair. I want my hair to be healthy, I really, really want to have beautiful healthy and long hair.

To that end I try to work hard, so in this war I have many battles to fight. Right now I am focusing on healthy ends, and no split ends. I got my hair trimmed on 10-2-10


After my last relaxer on 9-18-10





Length check on wet hair on 10-30-10



I was really bummed about my ends after my relaxer in September, so I decided that I needed to get my ends trimmed in an effort to get rid of those terrible ends. So I went to get them trimmed.

(Side note: The woman who trimmed my hair was freaking out of her mind! I mean seriously she was. I should have walked away when I saw how jacked up her hair was, but I really needed a trim so I sat down. This woman told me that my ends were dry and that next time I did a relaxer to apply the relaxer to my ends for a couple of minutes to lay down the cuticles! Now I don't know much but I know that was a fool thing to say.)

I was so sad when I got home. I went to my husband and laid my head on his chest and got a little teary eyed. He said my hair looked pretty and it didn't look like they had taken hardly end length off, but I knew different. I felt it! My hair was shoulder length again and I was none to happy.

As you can see the length in the picture above, I was so freaking happy that day. This was the longest my hair had ever been, and I was really feeling the new length but I did what I had to do.

So anyway, after I trimmed my hair I thought I would lay off the heat and my ends would do better. Little did I know. I was sitting on the couch last night looking at my ends and noticed split ends. I started to dust them and noticed quire a few! Now I will be danged but I was sure that I would have like NO split ends but noooo I am furious! I can't wait to get the Splitender for Christmas because dusting the back of my hair is super difficult.

I tried to do some research about preventing split ends but I really couldn't nail any specific information down, but here is what I know:

Split ends occur when the protective cuticle is destroyed at the end of the hair. The hair will then split into two or more strands or sometimes the strands will split mid shaft and come back together. (SN: That sucks)

Causes of split ends are: Over processing the hair with chemicals, over exposure to the sun, stripping of essential oils from hair, using a damaging brush or comb (SN: I had to look more into this one because, what is the right brush or comb?! So an ideal brush is a Boar Bristle brush. Brushes should not be used to de-tangle hair, so they should only be used on dry hair that is tangle free with good slip. No info on bad combs at this time), exposure to the elements, over use of heat styling tools and anything that snags or catches the hair which will damage the cuticle and expose the hair shaft.

So here is the plan! We know that split ends occur when the protective cuticle is destroyed or stripped from the hair shaft, so I have to redouble my efforts to baby my ends. Keep that oil on them and look for something, silicone free to keep them moisturized. Oh and try super hard to find something that stays on my head while I sleep.