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  1. #1
    BushBaby is offline Active Nappturality Member
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    Default Thin Ends..what gives?

    My hair is growing (at it's usual slower than avg rate) but in past 4months my ends have appeared thinner to me.
    I'm trying to think what could have happened and the only thing that I used prior to noticing the thinness was the modified denman brush.
    So did the brush somehow destroy my ends? I can't say.

    Maybe now that my hair is longer and hangs a bit more, I can see the ends better. It's a shame, I can't fix it in anyway but to cut them. When I spray them with water, they plump and look better.

    I recall having a friend in school with really long natural hair but her ends were really thin and I would tell her to get a trim...is that what my hair has become?
    It's thick at the roots and through most of the shaft but the end (1-1.5inch) are thinner. Not straggly but just thinner to the point that it's annoying to me esp when I do a twistout.

    Is this a natural consequence of longer hair because the ends are older? I don't want to look 1inch of hair with a trim.
    http://30yearstodate.blogspot.com/

  2. #2
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    OP: I would agree with most of your post. The thin ends could be due to: regular wear and tear [this is the oldest part] or maybe it's time for a trim. I would even venture a guess that it's normal for most of us natural heads. Just my .03 worth.

    ETA: I agree w/GG as well. I've been able to hold on to my length by focusing on the ends...the roots will take care of themselves.









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    breakage.

    check your retention routine and tweak it as necessary. if you're interested in gaining length taking care of your ends is more important than your growth rate
    Last edited by GalaxyGirl2010; 01-29-2011 at 07:15 PM.

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    Yep. It's breakage. Wear and tear on the hair. The longer it gets, the older it is, and therefore, the more wear and tear it has endured, and the more likely it is to break. It's a natural process, but you can do various things to slow it down. However, you can't 'stop' it unless you keep your hair trimmed above a length where you can notice breakage.

    It just might be time to reassess how you take care of your hair.
    "I wore twists outside for the first time and the world didn't explode. Hurray." - JaeFuma

  5. #5
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    They are "virgin ends." By virgin ends I mean ends that have never been cut by scissors.

    When your hair strands grows out of your scalp or any other place on your body, the strand emerges out of the scalp/skin tapered and thin, and gets thicker as it continues to grow. When you cut the ends of your hair strands (by using scissors, a razor if you are shaving your body hair) you are making the ends blunt. That is why it is a myth that shaving your body hair makes the hair grow back thicker.

    When you shave, you are trimming off the natural tapered ends, leaving blunt, thicker ends behind. The same thing happens on your scalp too.

    And just in case anyone thinks I am full of it lol, here is a reference from newsweek.com:

    The hair shaft tapers at the end. "When you shave it, you're crossing the midshaft, so it seems like it's thicker and more coarse," explains Dr. Robin Ashinoff, director of cosmetic dermatology at Hackensack University Medical Center. "But it's not."
    The stubble feels stiffer because it's cut straight across, exposing the thicker part of the shaft, and because it's short. "As it gets longer it feels softer," says Dr. D'Anne Kleinsmith, a dermatologist in West Bloomfield, Mich......
    Last edited by ms-gg; 01-29-2011 at 09:49 PM.
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  6. #6
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    Also, if you look at hair growth pictures that show hair growing out the scalp, they show hair emerging from the scalp/skin with tapered ends:



    Thicker ends are the product of being cut.....
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  7. #7
    BushBaby is offline Active Nappturality Member
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    Okay I will try to do a trim (eeeek!) with the next wash. It's just frustrating to finally achieve growth only to have to chop part it off. Leaves me thinking if my hair has reached a plateau phase.

    I don't want to go to the salon. With my experience, they get seriously scissor happy with trims and when I try to explain what "I" want they get offended as if I'm trying to tell them how to do their job.

    I try to deep condition every week, protect ends and I only twist and untwist(once in a while).
    I stopped using the denman brush because I'm still with the belief that it had something to do with this because most of my tangles were at the end of my hair so the denman brush spent more time going thru my ends than at my roots.
    http://30yearstodate.blogspot.com/

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    This has been my situation...I just attributed to natural wear and tear so to speak. Overall, my hair is healthy and it grows. I deep condition, trim when necessary (maybe 3 times a year), and seal my ends with castor oil. I've been able to retain much of my growth that way and have just accepted that my hair shafts will not be even. Although, some of the uneveness is probably due to breakage b/c my hair is so fragile.
    "We have the same spiral in our hair as electricity, tornadoes, whirlwinds, DNA, galaxies!" -Nekhena Evans

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  9. #9
    BushBaby is offline Active Nappturality Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by sweetdrmr View Post
    This has been my situation...I just attributed to natural wear and tear so to speak. Overall, my hair is healthy and it grows. I deep condition, trim when necessary (maybe 3 times a year), and seal my ends with castor oil. I've been able to retain much of my growth that way and have just accepted that my hair shafts will not be even. Although, some of the uneveness is probably due to breakage b/c my hair is so fragile.
    I am happy with the growth but looking at the ends is really distressing . I even thought today to cut it all off and start over....but then I regained my senses.
    http://30yearstodate.blogspot.com/

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    Quote Originally Posted by GalaxyGirl2025 View Post
    breakage.

    check your retention routine and tweak it as necessary. if you're interested in gaining length taking care of your ends is more important than your growth rate
    I do cornrows. That's pretty much my style all year. Recently I read about split ends and looked for the first time...they're all over!! 3 or 4 in each section, so I cut them, washed my hair, cut a few more and braided. I sealed my ends with evoo but I can't help but wonder if my choice of protective styling is actually causing harm. What would you suggest?

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