Have you ever brought your hair back from split ends and breakage...

[cmperez]

without chopping it all off? I'm ready to cut all of mine off... it's so damaged I feel like crying every morning when I comb it. Split ends in the sink, hair looks like I cut it with a butter knife...

Were any of you ladies able to nurse your hair back to health without taking extreme measures?

 

[PatTodd]

Yes, when I joined the forum in 2005 my hair was lower neck length from box perms, hard brushing, blow drying from soaking wet...everything I knew better than to do but did anyway out of laziness, until I noticed my hair "leaving". After I joined the forum, I started protective styles and low manipulation. I also exercised patience.

Now my hair has gone from bone straight neck length to below bra strap texlaxed. I have only trimmed the ends a couple of times. I don't have before pictures but there are some progress pictures in my fotki and my "hairstory" is at the beginning of my LHCF journal.

 

[collegeDoll]

i had to cut mines off but i just told myself that my hair wouldnt be splittin any further up and i wont have to worry about cuttin when i get to my goal for my ends to look strong healthy and thick. iow, you keep everything you grow

i think you can make them FEEL better/healthier but you cant un-split an ends. i wish tho....

 

[joyandfaith]

Keeping my ends wet has really helped me. By this I mean co-washing and sealing like its a religion. My hair has done a 180 since joining LHCF in April. Before that, there were little shards of hair all over the bathroom all the time.

 

[bermudabeauty]

Yep unfortunately when my hair was going through this stage I choose to cut my hair to Halle Berry Short. But a year later it is back thick and strong and I'm working on long.

 

[MoMo]

I did! A combo of co-washing and a good hair vitamin with iron saved me from having to cut it all off.

 

[Chicoro]

Yes! When I joined the forum, I had crunchy, brittle dry split hair. My hair was so bad that I had hairs that had double splits and four and five splits up one shaft or hair strand. My solution was baggying and sealing the ends. I had been wearing protective styles but not doing the baggying and the sealing.

 

[ToyToy]

Yes! I started braiding my hair. When it is not in braids I use Aveda Damage Remedy Treatment. I am natural, and I had tons and tons of split hair but since I started putting my hair in braids, I hardly see any anymore, and I haven't trimmed my hair at all.

 

[gorgeoushair]

Yes back in 2001-2002,girl it looked like I had my hair shaved in the back. It was all ate up! Let's just say I only cut it b/c of that.......but didn't have to cut very much. There was no way to hide it or style it w/o the cut. I did nurse it back to health. I started using Motions CPR DCT, Motions Moisture Plus, Aphogee Treatment for damaged hair. I followed the Motions breakage recipe on their site. I always recommend Motions CPR.

 

[wheezy807]

I really believe deep conditioning is the key. It really turned my hair around.

 

[Cleve_gryl]

I really believe deep conditioning is the key. It really turned my hair around.

ITA!!! Deep conditioning and no direct heat gave me a new head of hair. I also agree with the other posters on moisture, low mani, and protective styles.

 

[*closer*2*my*dreams*]

I suggest deep conditioning and moisturizing and baggying daily/nightly. You may not see instant results but it will work in the long-run in my opinion.

 

[honeybadgirl]

definitely deep conditioning!!
baggying is NOT for me! it made my hair even worst and/or ruined my ends more. it works for many but not for all.

 

[Filmatic]

I agree with deep conditioning. Moisturizing my ends and sealing worked for me too.

 

[cmperez]

Thank you ladies! It's hard for me to not use any heat whatsoever... I can't rock the Halle Berry do-- my head is too big.

 

[envybeauty]

Thank you ladies! It's hard for me to not use any heat whatsoever... I can't rock the Halle Berry do-- my head is too big.

you can leave direct heat (sitting under a dryer is indirect and ok to use). learn to rollerset or airdry/flatiron only like twice a month.

deep conditioning every wash and cutting out my flat iron worked for me. my ends are soooooooooooo much healthier.

 

[KurleeK5]

I am actually going through that now. I noticed that using a protein treatment (Aphogee 2 min) and co-washing daily or nightly and sealing with oil has helped a lot. Also i put MT on my ends to protect them. Every few days i'll hunt and peck through my hairs a dust the ends where the splits are. I hardly see breakage anymore. Initially, there were hairs that were split far up the hair and branched off in to three's and fours. Now I still see some hair that isn't quite split at the ends, but mid-shaft and i just use a protein bi-weekly and deep condition 2x. It's been working so far. Good luck to you!

 

[AudraChanell]

I had to cut off 4" of hair within 20 days trying to avoid the cut. It simply ran up the length of my hair until I cut it. The only way I can rid splt ends is tocut them. I'm trying to be more proactive this go 'round instead of reactive. GOSH, I miss my hair

 

[mochamadness]

Sure have What worked for me was getting on a low heat, and low manipulation regimen. Basically once a week I washed, deep conditioned and rollerset my hair without fail. During the week I would moisturize and oil my hair to keep it hydrated and to protect it from breakage.

IMO you can definitely get your hair back to a healthy state without a drastic cut, you just have to be willing to make the changes in your regimen to get you where you wanna be. You mentioned that its hard for you not to use any heat, but if you are abusing the blowdryer and curling iron on already damaged hair, that's just gonna lead to more damage. You should really try rollersetting if you haven't tried it already. It's a great way to acheive the straight styles w/o all the heat damage. Also what might help is to do small trims every 3 months or so to get rid of the damaged hair instead of a huge trim.

 

[cmperez]

Sure have What worked for me was getting on a low heat, and low manipulation regimen. Basically once a week I washed, deep conditioned and rollerset my hair without fail. During the week I would moisturize and oil my hair to keep it hydrated and to protect it from breakage.

IMO you can definitely get your hair back to a healthy state without a drastic cut, you just have to be willing to make the changes in your regimen to get you where you wanna be. You mentioned that its hard for you not to use any heat, but if you are abusing the blowdryer and curling iron on already damaged hair, that's just gonna lead to more damage. You should really try rollersetting if you haven't tried it already. It's a great way to acheive the straight styles w/o all the heat damage. Also what might help is to do small trims every 3 months or so to get rid of the damaged hair instead of a huge trim.

Your hair is beautiful!

I think I'm going to have to do quite a bit of research... for about a year and a half I would wash and condition my hair every day, put a frizz serum, leave-in conditioner in and then blow dry it with a diffuser until it was about 80% dry... my ends never curled the way I wanted them to so after it was about 80% dry I would use a curling iron with a very small barrel and curl the pieces that didn't look right. It sounded like bacon frying so I'm sure that's where all of the damage came from. I'm not too familiar with rollersetting. The extent of my rollersetting was putting one pink foam roller in my bangs before I went to bed when I was 14. So needless to say I don't know where to begin! I have a hard time with my hair holding curls when I curl it with a curling iron. I don't know what to do with rollers... it's not relaxed so... *sigh* I don't know where to start.

 

[long2short2_?]

If you cut a paper in two, you can't un-cut a few months later.

just my $0.02

 

[aloof one]

Lots of biosilk or CHI Silk infusion (CHI is better). I use it when I airdry, I use it when I flatiron... I use it before I go out in the humidity or sun, I use it before I shower, before I go to bed and when I wake up.

This is how I keep my hair from splitting. I cut my hair on 7/5 and my ends are still blunt with no breakage/splits.

ETA: Organix Cocont Milk Anti Breakage Serum is also good to use on wet ends or even dry too

 

[Determined22]

Lots of biosilk or CHI Silk infusion (CHI is better). I use it when I airdry, I use it when I flatiron... I use it before I go out in the humidity or sun, I use it before I shower, before I go to bed and when I wake up.

This is how I keep my hair from splitting. I cut my hair on 7/5 and my ends are still blunt with no breakage/splits.

ETA: Organix Cocont Milk Anti Breakage Serum is also good to use on wet ends or even dry too

I love that serum, I've gotten really good results from using it.

To answer the OP, I had to nurse and trim over time. I couldn't handle chopping all the damaged hair off at once, so I cut a bit at a time. Getting rid of the bad ends were really what I needed to do, because like someone said, if its already split, there is no way to repair, no matter what a product says. Once I cut the bad ends off I did only protective styles with no direct heat.

 

[shorthairdiva09]

I have nursed one side back to normal but the other one is getting my full attention now. I did alot of cowashing and sealing my ends and keep them moisturized but they are 100%, they are better than when i started out in june though

 

[zzirvingj]

Keeping my ends wet has really helped me. By this I mean co-washing and sealing like its a religion. My hair has done a 180 since joining LHCF in April. Before that, there were little shards of hair all over the bathroom all the time.

What conditioners are you using to CW with?

 

[cocoaluv]

If you cut a paper in two, you can't un-cut a few months later.

just my $0.02

ITA.

I kept my raggedy ends for months and ignored when multiple stylists told me I needed to cut them. I just figured that they wanted me to cut my hair short like them . But after she dried my hair and I saw how even though my hair did get a lot longer in the past few weeks my ends were split and climbing upwards. I just had to suck it in and cut...major cut. I was 2 seconds from bsl and I had to let it go. But it was a lesson learned because now I have read and re-read soooooo much about caring for my ends and sealing ( which is something I could never get the hang of). I know its gonna take some time for my hair to grow back to bsl ( not that long with the help of mega tek ) but at least I am more comfortable now that I know how to care for my ends so I wont have to go through this again.

 

[AudraChanell]

This was me. Split ends plagued me for months because I just wouldn't cut. A very hard lesson learned. I'm never going to hold on to raggedy ends ever again. I just can't take the fall out from it. I just had a major cut, 4", a little under a month ago and I think I see more splits *crying*

ITA.

I kept my raggedy ends for months and ignored when multiple stylists told me I needed to cut them. I just figured that they wanted me to cut my hair short like them . But after she dried my hair and I saw how even though my hair did get a lot longer in the past few weeks my ends were split and climbing upwards. I just had to suck it in and cut...major cut.

 

[cocoaluv]

This was me. Split ends plagued me for months because I just wouldn't cut. A very hard lesson learned. I'm never going to hold on to raggedy ends ever again. I just can't take the fall out from it. I just had a major cut, 4", a little under a month ago and I think I see more splits *crying*

OMG well are you moisturizing and sealing? Whats going on?

 

[aloof one]

Well yea, if you already have splits (sorry I answered the wrong question) then the only thing you can do is trim them off.

When I was relaxed I would take off an inch every few months religiously. My ends would split, but using the Biosilk (I had never heard of CHI Silk Infusion until last year) everyday on my ends whether I was flatironing or not, kept the splits from going up the shaft. So the splits I already had stayed where they were, then when it came time to trim I got rid of them. Sure some splits came back again, but I protected them until I was ready to trim. If you dont protect your ends (however you think is good protecting them whether its cones or moisture) they are going to keep splitting...

I would not suggest biosilk anymore, I just realized they are putting more alcohol in their products than ever before CHI Silk Infusion is about the same price and does a better job and has NO alcohol.