Dangers of not trimming

I did a search and I couldn't find anything definitive. What are the dangers of not trimming your hair besides the aesthetics? I'm due for a relaxer but I'm so scared to go in and ask for a trim also. I don;t want my hard work to go down the drain

Good question

bump bump....

I think it depends. I haven't had a trim since August 2009 but I don't heat style at all. I'm relaxed. I've been protective styling like crazy - bun, bun, bun!! My ends are fine. But like I said, I don't use heat AT ALL. I know that makes a big difference.

If there are no splits there is no need to trim. Please don't ask for a trim or else they will find something to trim.

thanks PDub! I stopped using heat when I joined last year. The only heat I use is a steamer and I airdry always

My stylist used to always trim my hair every time that I got my hair relaxed but since joining LHCF and cowashing and moisturizing, the last time I went in for a touchup, she said my ends looked good and she didn't trim my ends.

I haven't had a trim since December and I don't plan on getting one until May. I trust my hair dresser though. If I say 1/4 inch, that's what she cuts. If you don't trust your stylist, wait!

The danger - once a hair splits, the split will travel up the hair shaft and when it eventually breaks, it will be a much longer piece of hair than what you should/could have trimmed.

For me, four months of not trimming took me back 2 whole inches or so. I'll try to be brief (ahem).

Trimming every 6-8 weeks (really dusting coz I was only trimming 1/4 inch which is this much __) took me from one inch to this in one year (about 5 inches total length):


And continuing that regimen, I went from that to this in another year (9-11 inches):


It was around that time that I discovered LHCF and found that some on LHCF didn't believe in trimming and so I tried it. In four months, my thick hair that had been growing nicely didn't seem to budge and my retention seemed to suffer. I think it was splitting as fast as it was growing and basically peeling away to leave thin ends whose days were numbered. Instead of intact strands, I probably had hair like what you see in the links I give at the bottom. Here's what my hair looked like after just 4 months of not trimming:


Clearly I wasn't going to have another 5 inches of growth in a year with my hair in such poor condition, so I had to trim off about 2 inches just to get the fullness I was used to from roots to ends. Below you can see the setback this caused:


And here's a comparison of the thickness of regular trimming and progress (first two pics) and what not trimming did to my hair and then where I wound up:


Notice from the second and third pics, that trying to hold onto my ends didn't make my hair appear any longer. Such a waste of time that little change of regimen was!

The article I link to below describes how the strands of your hair look different from base to ends and kinda shows you why I strongly believe in regularly dusting your hair--not waiting till you need a huge trim--but doing it regularly and then protective styling so that you can hold onto more of your length. (I didn't really protective style when I had the growth I shared. I did manipulate my hair less because it was in braids, but I'm sure if I had PS'd I'd probably be able to stretch the time between dustings.)

http://www.hair-science.com/_int/_en/topic/topic_sousrub.aspx?tc=ROOT-HAIR-SCIENCE^SO-STURDY-SO-FRAGILE^RESISTING-HOSTILE&cur=RESISTING-HOSTILE

I use heat all the time and I do not believe in "trimming". The search and destroy method, however, makes perfect sense; but I still see some encouraging others to "trim" as if it makes the hair grow! I'm not sure what heat has to do with anything unless u are overdoing it. Heat only temporarily affects the bonds of hair- but relaxing permenantlly breaks the bonds that hold hair together in one pop. So heat alone has nothing on what relaxing does to hair.

Wow! Thanks Nonie

I've alway been told you're supposed to trim 6-8 weeks. I'm always scared about it, though. I've had scissor happy stylists that end up chopping off obvious lengths from my hair (when it was longer).

Right now I think I need one. I haven't had a trim since December of 09, I haven't relaxed since then, but I HAVE used heat, and I'm fairly sure I have split ends. I just am scared to walk into a salon with my hair at least slightly better than it left off in December 09 and walk out with my hair the exact same way, 5 steps back AGAIN.

^^ That's why you have to learn to do your own trims. I think there are youtube vids on that or thread on how to. I think when it comes to something as "serious" as trimming, you need to be a DIYer.

Not trimming cost me more length than anything, but I went super extreme and did not trim my hair in over two years until this past December. As a result, my hair had to be cut back to APL.

Nonie said:

For me, four months of not trimming took me back 2 whole inches or so. I'll try to be brief (ahem)...

Trimming every 6-8 weeks (really dusting coz I was only trimming 1/4 inch which is this much __) took me from one inch to this in one year (about 5 inches total length):
Clearly I wasn't going to have another 5 inches of growth in a year with my hair in such poor condition, so I had to trim off about 2 inches just to get the fullness I was used to from roots to ends. Below you can see the setback this caused:

Click to expand...

Are you sure something more is not going on. Something sounds very off. I mean the fact that you are splitting at such a rapid rate. Also, as hair grows out, the ends will naturally appear to be thinner. One overriding factor is that our hairs shed and are naturally going to be on a different growth schedule. With that, your ends will not always look as thick as they did when you first did a blunt cut; especially as hair gets very long. But if your hair is breaking off like you said, then maybe look into the methods out there that prevent splits like that. that is how I avoid trimming -- and jumped into the group of those that do not trim at all-- its works if you have found a technique that prevents splits in the first place.

Nonie said:

^^ That's why you have to learn to do your own trims. I think there are youtube vids on that or thread on how to. I think when it comes to something as "serious" as trimming, you need to be a DIYer.

Click to expand...

I was planning on checking out some youtube videos on it. Only hair I've ever cut with scissors is my barbies when I felt like giving them bobs and pixies, lol. So I'm going to find a really 101 easy video. I'm sure youtube has some. Youtube has videos on everything!

thanks spelman! You and Nonie are making me rethink everything. I'm just doing to have to learn to do my own trims because I really don't trust my stylist. I wonder if the shears from Sallys are any good

I know I need a trim when my hair tangles more at the ends and starts to pop off at the last inch or so. Can't fully explain it, but it's always remedied when I get a trim.

virtue do you not trim? If not when was the last time you trimmed? tia

I haven't had a trim since December 2008. I also don't use direct heat and PS 90% of the time. My ends have no splits and I went to my stylist last week and she said my ends look fine.

However, this year I will self trim/dust every 3-4 months just because I like the look. I already bought my trimming scissors and will do my first trim next month.

i've gone yrs with out trimming, cutting, or s&d's in the past... last 2 inches of hair was ate up, but the rest was fine.

i then started trimming regularly and my ends were fine

last cut was in oct and my last s&d was in nov (i think, maybe dec). i'm in a no cut challenge so i'm not supposed to cut until '011. right now my ends are looking good. a few little splits (under 10) but they've been there for a while now and havent gotten any worse.

i think it all depends on the health of your hair, what you do to your hair, and how you want your hair to look

BellaLunie said:

virtue do you not trim? If not when was the last time you trimmed? tia

Click to expand...

No I do not. It has been around a year; and I have more retention than ever, with no breakage or split issues. Read this longhair survivor's technique. This is what inspired me to "go for it"! Take a look at her radical opinion on trimming. Oh, by the way, She hasn't trimmed in 10 years! http://www.tightlycurly.com/technique/therules/

You should read her whole story (click on the links on the sidebar), but she has a seciton on that page about trimming at the bottom.

I think people have to realize that hair wears and tears down like anything else in life. And even with all the care in the world, the oldest parts of your hair are bound to experience some splitting/wear, and usually, since all the strands' ends are around the same things and sort of endure the same elements, they most likely wear and tear in a pattern that is more or less common to all. The reason I think search and destroy is such a futile task is:

1. There's no way one can possibly examine the 110,000 strands of hair on the head to make sure they don't miss one;
2. Unless you're tracing your hair strands from root to ends, there's no way to tell if the "unsplit" end is truly an intact strand or one that's already split and torn away leaving a single thin end.

Let's consider the second point above. My hair after 4 months of nottrimming wasn't thin because it had split ends. If you think about it, split ends would probably just look frizzy but not thin. The thinness comes AFTER part of the split ends have actually torn away. The thin ends IMO are a sign that my hair ends not only burst open due to the cuticle tearing off and exposing the cortex but that it too is wearing away without the cuticle to protect it:


So what I would see with S&D would be half a hair that seems fine coz it's not two ends, but I suspect a microscope would tell me a whole different story and explain the thin ends. It just makes no sense to me that my hair strands can be living together on this head of mine all going through the same procedures and only a few get to split. So rather than play a game of guessing which ones are whole and which ones are not, or playing a game of inny mini miny moe where some get dusted and some get missed coz my naked eye just isn't equipped to scan each strand, I treat them all the same because prevention, IMO, is better than cure .

Not trimming for 8 months lead me to having to get 1 1/2 inches cut off of my hair in Dec. I now make sure to dust regularly and get my trims with my touch up every 3 to 4 months. It is a preventive measure to keep my ends healthy. I don't use a lot of direct heat either and was PSing like crazy.

I didn't trim for a full year and my stylist just clipped 1 inch a couple of weeks ago...my ends look great so I will continue to trim only once a year. I dust every 4 months, I don't use direct heat and I keep my ends moisturized and protected.

virtuenow said:

Are you sure something more is not going on. Something sounds very off. I mean the fact that you are splitting at such a rapid rate. Also, as hair grows out, the ends will naturally appear to be thinner. One overriding factor is that our hairs shed and are naturally going to be on a different growth schedule. With that, your ends will not always look as thick as they did when you first did a blunt cut; especially as hair gets very long. But if your hair is breaking off like you said, then maybe look into the methods out there that prevent splits like that. that is how I avoid trimming -- and jumped into the group of those that do not trim at all-- its works if you have found a technique that prevents splits in the first place.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it wasn't anything else because the only thing I changed on LHCF besides the not trimming is started to use moisture on my hair when I used to go bare. I started to moisturize my hair because it was preached ad nauseum on the forum (and by Cathy Howse that you had to keep your hair moisturized). So surely that shouldn't have caused my hair any damage. I was wearing it in braids as before and the pic you see of thin hair was me undoing a braid to redo and being horrified by how thin m hair felt.

I guess I can't convince you but I know myself that there isn't anything different I did except adopt the good habit of spritzing my hair with a moisturizer instead of letting it just stay bare and dry. I kept it braided so no manipulation. I just didn't trim it when I redid a braid as I always did.

When I went back to regularly trimming, even after a period of heat damage in 2004 when I had to do another major trim, my hair in 2006 was thick as it had been before:

My twist were full from base to ends:


And even my press looked really thick (and I have fine hair):


So maybe it seems hard to believe, but the proof is the pudding for me. And I usually examine all things before blaming one thing, and for me it was clear that not trimming regularly was to blame for my hair ends looking so bad. I mean, if it had been something else (products, health) surely it wouldn't just be the ends that were thin. Clearly by not trimming off the split ends, I just allowed them to continue to split further down the strand until they broke off. It's as clear as day to me.

In response to the bold, protective styling might help keep my ends from drying and splitting and might extend the time between dustings, but even those who protect will tell you that their hair splits. If you think about a strand it looks like a tube. The end is open. It's bound to lose moisture if exposed to the air even a bit, and friction against that end is just the beginning of trouble. I really think that everyone with really long full hair has to get a trim even when they protective style at one time or another. Wanakee was an advocate for this and she certainly knows what she's talking about. Those of us who don't PS just need to do it more often than not.

ETA To address the part in red: I didn't actually SEE my hair breaking, but what other explanation could there be for my ends looking thinner. They're not breaking coz clearly I still have more or less the length I had if not a touch more; they are just thinning badly to a very weak point that is obviously going to break off. Maybe the tips were breaking but not enough for me to notice any loss in length. What I did notice was how instead of having the fullness of the months before, tracing my hair from base to ends went from thick to almost invisible--something I had not witnessed on my head in 2 years. And because I'd been reading about the science of hair, I could only come up with one explanation, and I'm still 100% convinced I'm right.

nymane said:

I didn't trim for a full year and my stylist just clipped 1 inch a couple of weeks ago...my ends look great so I will continue to trim only once a year. I dust every 4 months, I don't use direct heat and I keep my ends moisturized and protected.

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That's the point I'm trying to make. You dust regularly, you prevent splits from extending up the strands. You protective style, you will find you can get away with dusting less often, as in Nymane's case (every 16 weeks instead of every 8 weeks).

BTW, dusting is relative to everyone. When I dust, I aim to trim a 1/4 inch. A 1/4 inch is only this long __. That's such a tiny amount that most likely people (including me) probably dust a bit more ___ 3/8? ____ 1/2. So waiting to dust after 16 weeks and dusting twice what I do in 8 weeks is the same thing. The idea is just to keep ends from taking over the entire strand.

I am not an expert, but it seems that if your hair is splitting then a danger could be that the hair could continue to split off and break, cause kinks on other strands and break them.

Seems like those open ends could lead to loss of moisture and improper moisture retention.

It could just be that it's unsightly if you have frizzy bushy ends.

On the other hand, if your ends are fine, then I dont see any issue with not trimming.

to trim or not to trim... that is the question. and an answer only you can decide.

as you see there are avid trimmers and avid non-trimmer. that goes the same for most things on this site. some swear by one thing and others cant figure out why you think its so great...

its like the great s-curl vs care free curl vs hawaiian siliky 14-1 debate. you will hear raves about all, you will hear boo's about all... but what matters is what YOUR hair likes and responds well to.

experiment. try it out. see what it's like to not trim. you'll know if you're hair doesnt like it, and at that point, trim and then decide how often you should.

it causes alot of snagging therefore can lead to breakage more shedding than usual. ends need to be trimmed, i see so many women that don't trim and they turn around and their ends look awful, even one of my friends hates to trim and when I looked at her ends they were frayed, not split but just scraggly looking and she was getting ALOT of shedding.

unkept ends look bad, I don't see the problem of trimming under an inch on the regular.

even if you don't use heat ends still need to be maintained because they are the oldest part of the hair, heat users and relaxed heads aren't the only ones that need trimmings.

my mom normally does my trims she no longer does hair but has been the only person i've ever trusted to cut my hair, since she's busy with her job I just started doing my own trims and they actually come out pretty good.

Ladies who are interested in doing their own trims these shears are really good, they are sharp (which is important) and are professional but cheap. I got my shears delivered in 3 days!


http://www.amazon.com/Suvorna-Profe...ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1268111533&sr=8-1

i've bought shears from sallys and these are better for half the price.