What do you think? Can scissors make or break length retention?

[CurlsBazillion]

I believe I do my hair right. I keep it clean and balanced, moisturized, and oiled at all times. I've been dusting monthly because my ends would split like clock work to keep the splits at bay I dust around an 1/8 to 1/4 in. Two days ago I flat ironed my hair for the HYH reveal and sat down to dust my ends. I cut a very small section and it looked as if I had a blunt cut for about 5 seconds then it frayed out. I cut a little more, felt it, and took a close look at it. It also looked and felt good but the same thing happened again, it frayed out. So to test it out I took a very small section which is pictured below and cut way up past my ends, about 2 inches past and I cut that hair, it was a blunt cut for the length of time it took me to take one picture and it looked damaged by the time I took the next picture which was back to back. I bought this pair of scissors. I thought they were decent but after only 3 or 4 uses of strictly hair cutting they could be causing more harm than good. Or is something going on with my hair?

 

[Nonie]

@CurlsBazillion I think you're mis-reading your hair. A hair strand is different from several strands held together. What you're showing us isn't a split END but several ends of many hairs held together. It's hard to see split unless you're magnifying the hair which is why I think Search and Destroy is a futile task. You may have been cutting off hair that has nothing wrong with it. What you may be looking at are whole strands that are just fanning away from each other.

A split end is ONE strand torn into two or more parts, or those parts having broken off. One way that people know they have split ends is when their ends are not behaving right (eg tangling) or when small pieces of weakened hair from splitting are breaking off or sometimes split ends are only noticed when the ends look thin from breakage.

So I say if you dust with that pair of scissors (which IMO is a good pair) then seal and PS and trust you are OK. I don't know if your hair is cut in layers or falls to one length but if you have fullness all the way to ends, then you most likely don't have split ends. Strands fanning away from each other just means they have static electricity not that they are split.

 

[LunadeMiel]

A good pair of scissors makes a big difference in how your hair will behave after a trim. Make sure the scissors are very sharp.

 

[faithVA]

CurlsBazillion, put the scissors down. You can cut your hair all the way to the scalp and your hair will do it over and over again.

Hair that goes it multiple directions and split ends are not the same.

Maybe someone else can help you get the appearance you want. But you aren't going to get it with scissors.

 

[Nonie]

Below is a photo of a magnified strand of my hair that has already split (image to the left). Notice we're looking at ONE strand. If you look at the end, you can see it is narrower than the main body of the strand. That's because the end split and part of that tear broke off to leave the thin end or part of a strand. The second strand shows you a nice full end after I dusted off the split end. So if I had many such strands, they may fan away from each other after the dusting but they would still be whole and not split.

BTW, notice how much I had to magnify the hair to see the split. That's my thumbnail you see to the left. If you're dusting regularly as you seem to be doing OP, your splits are probably that tiny and so you can stop fretting. More importantly, put the scissors away coz you're chopping off your retention.

To answer your question, yes you can affect your retention if you are using your scissors to cut off as much hair per month as you grow in that time or more. If you haven't dusted in months, your first cut can be big. But if you're maintaining your hair with regular dusting then you need to trust you get the splits off and also use the way your ends behave as a backup check. But what you're doing isn't the way to go, IMO.

 

[lamaria211]

This is just what I do:
I buy a good pair of scissors trim and trash them or give them away because once I start cutting and I no I have scissors on hand I continue to cut I cant help it, so now im down to trimming like 2 or 3 timez a year

 

[manter26]

I only cut splits when I see them. I look at each strand for breaks, forks, and shredding. At this length, I can examine before I search and destroy. I trim hair from all over only 4-5 times a year. It's possible that your ends are not split at all, since it's too short to see the strands up close.

 

[CurlsBazillion]

ok so I overreacted, not the first time smh. the last few trims have been on wet curly hair so I didn't expect to see my hair do what it did. It made me think my scissors were dull and causing damage but thanks for clearing things up for me ladies. I'm going to go ahead and dust the rest of my head as I normally would.

 

[Evolving78]

i dust my ends all of the time and it hasn't hurt my growth. but your scissors need to be very sharp.

 

[faithVA]

shortdub78[/USER];16317961]i dust my ends all of the time and it hasn't hurt my growth. but your scissors need to be very sharp.

She's not just talking about dusting your ends, shes talking about the phenomenon of dusting your ends and they look good for a second and then they look like they need a trim again.

 

[Evolving78]

She's not just talking about dusting your ends, shes talking about the phenomenon of dusting your ends and they look good for a second and then they look like they need a trim again.

is it the strand itself or a group of strands? if it is just one strand, then she has some rough scissors. they need to be sharpened.

 

[faithVA]

shortdub78[/USER];16318017]is it the strand itself or a group of strands? if it is just one strand, then she has some rough scissors. they need to be sharpened.

Can you see her pictures?

 

[Evolving78]

Can you see her pictures?

the picture was taking too long to load. but i see it now. oh i see nothing wrong here and now i am totally confused by the OP's question. i don't see how something like this could stunt growth or retention.

 

[CurlsBazillion]

the picture was taking too long to load. but i see it now. oh i see nothing wrong here and now i am totally confused by the OP's question. i don't see how something like this could stunt growth or retention.

as I said shortdub78 I overreacted. I am used to cutting on wet curly hair and in that state the strands never frayed out, it always came out blunt and smooth. btw I don't recall mentioning growth or retention being stunted or anything like that. My question is about the scissors that are used since I thought they were causing more harm than good but if yall say I'm good then I'm happy about it.


Quick question, what are you all using to sharpen your shears? Are you sending them off or do u have a tool you use at home?