Do You Trim Your Own Split Ends?

To trim or not to trim...those pesky splits.  What do you do about them?  Do you ignore them and hope they will go away (they won't) or what do you do?  Share your thoughts and vote in the new poll above.

Thanks in advance for sharing your clipping wisdoms.

Best wishes,
Karen

Well...well.  I trim the ones I can see, which is very little of my hair.  It stinks having foot-long hair.

When a few strands come out of the back, I examine them to see if 1) they came out by the root (which means they're not breaking off - phew and 2) if they're split.  So far the back seems to be generally okay, though I'm going to ask a relative to dust my hair all over this weekend.

EDIT: Nice to see you posting again, Ms. Shelton.

Hi Anais,

Ahhhh, I was snipping this morning in the bright morning sunlight.  I didn't find too many but did find a few.  :-)  I am glad to hear that you are so diligent to catch them.  I try to devote some time each week but tend to forget and then will notice one and want to instantly snip it, regardless of where I am.  Which is sometimes inappropriate to snip.  :-)  Once I was in a restaurant and notice a long split end and was beside myself until I snipped it later.  And then sometimes they float back into the bulk of my hair and are gone forever.  :-)

[QUOTE=AnaisSatin]Hi Karen
Heehee, even though I know they don't "spread", it makes me paranoid to leave one alone. Because if it doesn't get lost, I'll still forget to go back and find it!

What to do when you find a split, and don't have scissors:
(1) Tug on the hair gently to locate its root.
(2) Make a note of that, or at least the general area on your head
(3) Narrow it down at a more convenient time.
(4) OFF IT GOES!

Hope this helps some folks

Anais
[/QUOTE]

You could carry around those little tape flags and flag it for later.

Hi Anais,

Thank you soooooooo much for the helpful hints.

Jeff was making a funny.  I am famous for always putting little colored tape flags on all the magazines I am reading, so it makes sense that I could mark my split ends with them.  I guess I would need to use red flags.  :-)

Thanks again Anais.

Have a great weekend.

Karen

I not only trim my ends, but do all of my trims because no stylist ever listens to me!  

I've been saving a fortune cutting and coloring at home for eons.  I also find it most convenient because I can do it whenever I choose.

It depends entirely on what I want at the time, but usually just the splits.  When I started going to Tony, I had very long hair (classic length apparently, by reading the long hair boards) that he just went crazy over.  When I cut it very short it seemed like he was grieving about it, in fact he refused for a while.  He's definitely very into long hair and encourages me to grow it longer everytime I go in.  If I go in just because of split ends, he removes the minimal amount of length and spends much time doing the search/destroy method.  Right now we've gotten to just below shoulder length, who knows where it will go from here.  I'm not attached to the concept of growing or cutting it (I liked it short, too) but the fact I am not a slave spending so much time fixing it as I did when it was shorter has kept my mindset of letting it grow a while longer. 

Interestingly enough, my girlfriend goes to him as well - she has super short hair and he never complained when she cut it short and doesn't try to push her to grow it.  On her, I love it the way it is so maybe he knows not to overstep those boundaries

hehe thank god i have short hair, the split ends are cut off evry month before they even start to formed

Hi,

Yes it can be addictive but in an odd way, I find it relaxing to do since usually all I do is work, work, work and then work some more  Yes, I know I am a workaholic and have an addictive personality but at this point I am aware of my work addiction and focus on providing balance in my life by taking scheduled time off to read or relax.  And oddly, sniping the ends are calming.  So I take time for that. 

I bought some expensive trimming scissors but find that the Conair Professional Barber shears work just as well and are way less expensive. 

Today I made an appointment with a new hairdresser because my former quit the biz to go work in a lawyers office.  The previous hairdresser, Shelley, is still MIA somewhere in Arizona.  Maybe I jinx hairdessers so that they quit?  LOL.

Anyway, the new hairdresser talked to me on the phone about my highlights (I haven't had them done in about 9 months) and I told her I wanted her to use Matrix SoColor which has been used on my hair for years.  She said she wanted to try Redken.  Well of course I was totally against that.  Then she asked if I needed a trim?  I said NO very forcefully.  Supposedly she specializes in "long hair" but I am going to be very cautious until I know that I can trust her.  I am taking someone to the salon with me for the first visit.

Meanwhile, the fact that she asked me about a trim made me aware of my split ends and I have been snipping off and on all afternoon.  :-)  I even bought a new pair of shears just for the purpose.  And I think my hair looks better after just a little dusting. 

Anyway...enough rambling...I am really enjoying all the input.  Fascinating.

Karen

[QUOTE=Susan W]Careful, it can be addictive!  I even worked myself into a case of trichotillomania about a year back because I got so obsessed with pulling out weird kinky hairs!  [/QUOTE]

Wow ... trichotillomania ... sorry to hear that!

See, with me I don't actually pull the whole hair out of my head.  I just break off the "split" piece which is usually right at the end of my hair.  I am very, oh what's the word I'm looking for...???...??? vain (?) about my hair--I am very careful with it and I try to keep it looking healthy and shiny ... that salon visit really messed my mind up over this whole situation because now I'm obsessed with trying to get it back into "beautiful" condition ... I think I've bought every product for "dry and damaged hair" that they sell ... I guess the best I can do right now is "mask" the damage :(

Thanks for the reply :)

Search and distroy!!!! I have too many split ends, and I try to do it once every couple days, but I don't think that's enough with all the splits I have. I got a trim about 3 weeks ago, but it didn't help much. I don't have too many more of the splits at the ends, but a lot of the ones that look like balls of dust on the hair shaft. Arrrrgggg.  Writing about this makes me want to go grab a pair of scissors and S&D!!

See, with me I don't actually pull the whole hair out of my head.

[QUOTE=eKatherine] [quote]
[/QUOTE]
The problem with this is that each break forms a split. Unless you trim it above the broken part, you are not removing the damage. [/QUOTE]

I just got a nice trim on Sunday and pretty much all of my split ends are gone ... my hair looks beautiful and healthy again---I feel so happy now :)