How often do you dust or seek and destroy?

How often do you dust of s&d?

  • Less than monthly

    Votes: 10 10.6%
  • Monthly

    Votes: 14 14.9%
  • Every other month

    Votes: 17 18.1%
  • Quarterly

    Votes: 11 11.7%
  • Only when needed/Not often

    Votes: 42 44.7%

  • Total voters
    94
  • Poll closed .

CurlsBazillion

Well-Known Member
There are a lot of people answering these questions in several threads but I just wanted to poll you all to see how often most of us dust or S&D while still retaining most of your growth.
 
I voted as needed. I have been leaving my head alone (in twist) the last couple of months and my hair is loving it. Hardly no breakage or as many splits.
 

CurlsBazillion

Well-Known Member
Thanks for answering ladies. I ask because I am noticing dusting/trims/s&d should be a preventative measure not a corrective process. The light just went off one day and I said I'm going to dust monthly or bimonthly to avoid having to trim or cut. I was just wondering how many other LHCF members keep a schedule to prevent set backs.
 

youwillrise

Well-Known Member
Yeah...I held onto horrid ends for a long time and ended up having to chop a good 2.5 inches or so a couple weeks ago because my ends were causing all sorts of issues as well as looking like crap.. Definitely coulda been avoided if I made the effort to dust every month or so. I promised myself that I would keep up with it from now on.
 

GaiasDaughter24

New Member
I dust every 3 months like clock work. I can always tell month 3 is coming up when detangling is getting hard and my twists are tangling at the end.
 

Je Ne Sais Quoi

Well-Known Member
I typically don't, i just let my hair do its thing for now. When my hair again reaches full shoulder and beyond i'm sure i'll change that tune.
 

Nonie

Well-Known Member
@IMFOCSD @GaiasDaughter24 and @Nonie How much do you take off when you dust?

ETA I ask because I wonder if the more or less often one dusts will mean the more hair that needs to go.

DayDreamist, I usually say it's 1/4 inch but that would be this much __ . (from beginning of line to the dot) which is such a tiny amount it'd be hard to actually grab that. So I probably take off a little more than that--but that's what I aim to take off.

When I didn't trim every 8 weeks and waited for 16 weeks, my ends were so bad I had to cut off 2 inches. So I find doing it sooner saves me having to lose more hair.

This is how my ends looked after I waited 4 months to dust:




Bottom pics^^ show the hair after I cut off the damaged ends. :nono:

This is how my ends look when I'm dusting regularly:
 

IMFOCSD

Well-Known Member
Thats the most I will grow in a month, I dust maybe 1/4 of that the last 3 months I dusted.

O wow..maybe I have been cutting too much lol.I just dusted my ends about 2-3 weeks ago and that was the amount I cut. I may be a little off about the amount I cut monthly...hmm I'm gonna pay attention to that closely next month.
 

NappyNelle

Kinky Coily 4A, Fine Strands, WSL
Every three months. I don't chop much, but I don't know how to translate that in inches.
 

CurlsBazillion

Well-Known Member
Nonie ok so waiting definitely costs you in your case. I think the same is true for me. In Dec or Jan I had to cut almost 3 inches off. I blamed most of that on combing my hair roughly but also because I never maintained my ends with dusting. There are some people on here that can go 6months to a year without trimming, I could never do that and retain.
 

Lilmama1011

Well-Known Member
Whenever I catch a glance of my ends which I try not to pay attention to so badly. When I wear my hair put I try to keep my hair from my peripheral (talk bout major OCD)
 

havilland

Magical Mythical Princess
i dust as needed...sometimes i dust twice a year. sometimes i dust every shampoo. sometimes i dust monthly. it really depends on my ends and how they look.

when my ends were thinned from a setback a few years ago, i dusted almost weekly leading up to ultimately a three inch trim. that trim would have been more if i hadn't been grooming the ends and babying them in order to preserve the health of my hair and to keep it from breaking. (i only decided to dust for a few months to save myself the shock of trimming right away.)
 

LunaGorgeous

Active Member
I do it as needed. For me, trying to make/keep blunt ends is/was completely pointless (was never into the blunt look either.) I have multiple textures, and my hair is constantly growing and shedding, and will always be fuller at the root than it is at the tip. I go solely by the health and feel of the ends, since thinner ends doesn't always mean damaged ends. This has been pretty fool-proof for me so far :yep:
 

candy626

New Member
Im doing it today before I wash and style my hair. I saw soo many split ends after blow drying my hair earlier this week. And they were like 1/8 inch up the hair shaft, I could literally break the hair right off where I saw the splits.

Actually I think I might just do a quarter inch trim. Though blow drying is quicker and easier, it's definitely not worth it in the long run. It fries my ends.
 

Nonie

Well-Known Member
candy626 your eyesight must be good! 1/8 inch is about this small _. Or if you want a visual, it's the total length of 2 of the tiny 16 divisions between #1 and #2 in the image below, which is like I said this long _.



To see splits that small, I'd either get cross-eyed or get a headache. :giggle:

I would have to magnify my hair to see anything that small, and by then the split would have come and gone. Actually, I tell a lie, my splits tear off even when they are way smaller than that...so that I'd not see splits at that scale, but my hair would "appear" to be fine (no split) when it isn't (split done come and gone). The pic below shows my hair magnified A LOT. You can tell because of the size of my nail in the image. But notice that there is no SPLIT but rather a skinny end that is left when a split tears.



So when people say they wait to trim when necessary, I think that's a mistake because, if damage can happen at such a small scale, then waiting to see the damage IMO is waiting too long. And if it is visible, then just think how much of it must be invisible just waiting to show up. Why wait to treat the "cancer" when it's spread? Why not catch it early and stop its spread?
 
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candy626

New Member
Lol Nonie. Well you might be right, they may be closer to a 1/4 inch up the hair shaft which is pretty bad. Most of them I saw right on the ends. What I do is hold my hair up to the sunlight, and since it is dyed I can really see my splits this way. There were quite a few white balls on the ends of my hair, and I could even see actual splits, where my hair had parted into two separate directions on the ends in a v shape.

Basically, I probably need to a regular trim and then get back to dusting once a month, whether I see splits or not. I think you're right about dusting before damage even takes place. I've been slacking majorly with dusting the past two months because I've been so excited about the growth I've gotten. But growth without retention is meaningless I suppose. Back to regular dusting..
 

BlackMasterPiece

Well-Known Member
I rarely trim and it's not that big of a deal for my coarse strands *shrug* lol, I have some splits and ssk's in there but it's definitely not wreaking havoc on my entire strand. It definitely doesn't impact the way my styles come out either, that's just a matter of technique. If I was really on top of things though, I would dust no more then every 3-6 months and search and destroy in between.

I believe if you care for your ends properly, you can preserve their health and not have to trim/dust them repeatedly. Also if your dusting & trimming too often, you're definitely canceling out or severely limiting your yearly progress. I don't believe in trimming on a strict schedule just for the sake of it, I believe you should trim when its time for your specific head of hair, because the reality is, everyones ends weather differently. Also if your doing things properly you shouldn't need a trim after only 4-6 weeks your ends should be in good shape for at least 3-4 months.

I'm due for a trim, and I'll do it soon enough, when the wind strikes me lol but my hair looks full and healthy.


Sent from my iPhone using LHCF
 

CurlsBazillion

Well-Known Member
BlackMasterPiece
And that's the thing, my ends seem to split often and I wear buns or two cornrows 95% of the time. I am gentle when detangling, I use heat protectants whenever I use heat which is not often, and when I bun I roll my hair into a ball then I use the hair tie to hold it so the hair tie is never in contact with my ends. I keep my hair moisturized and still they split. My hair splits at a rate of about 1/4 of inch a month and if I ignore it that turns in to inches in only a few months. Please teach me the ways of maintaining healthy ends wise one.
 

BlackMasterPiece

Well-Known Member
Wow sorry to hear that DayDreamist maybe it has to do with how you detangle? For some, using tools to detangle causes splits and breakage and they find it more beneficial to finger detangle....I've been looking into it but I'm not sure I have the patience lol. Maybe you could also benefit from fortifying your strands more often with protein be it light medium or hard, I do hardcore proton here and there with Aphogee 2-step and it REALLY makes a difference in reinforcing my ends. Also, do you wash in sections? If not that is key....

It could be possible that your hair is simply more prone to splitting but maybe there's something you can remove or put into your regimen that would prevent it


Sent from my iPhone using LHCF
 
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GaiasDaughter24

New Member
My stands are super fine. Dusting on a scehdule is more than necessary. I'm in twist/braids and protective style 95% of the time. My hair is just so fine that it really can't take much. 4 times a year of dusting seems more than reasonable, to me.
 

CurlsBazillion

Well-Known Member
I've finally realized not to long ago that I have fine strands. I was doing several people's hair and compared to their strands mine were almost invisible. I do use protein (Joico Kpak) biweekly. BlackMasterPiece I did have a short stint in finger detangling but I started experiencing matting at my roots. I switched back to the wide tooth comb recently and I am super gentle and detangle in small sections. Oh and I do wash in halves but I detangle in fours.
 

Nonie

Well-Known Member
I agree with GaiasDaughter24 that for fine strands a regular dusting schedule is more than necessary. BlackMasterPiece, it is not accurate to say that trimming too often is canceling out progress, because it depends on how much one is dusting. I dust every 8 weeks, which may be often. I take off between a 1/4 give or take. I am also not one who practices sealing, moisturizing, or protective styling. In other words I am more careless than most. But my hair is the longest it has ever been. When I did not dust, or waited longer to get a trim, I stayed shorter than SL for over 30 years. And actually the time I broke that SL wall, my schedule was every 6 or 8 weeks--which was more often than now. I went from one inch to 9-11 inches in 2 years dusting every 6-8 weeks like clockwork.

People with coarse hair may be able to get away with leaving worn strands in their heads. Fine-strand folks can't, coz once fine strands start to be worn, they become way too weak to withstand even the gentlest manipulation and so retention becomes a joke.
 
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