TRIMMING/CUTTING THIN ENDS

“Health over length” is something I hear a lot in the online hair community: don’t overuse heat, don’t use heat on dirty hair, don’t do this, don’t do that... Then they would conclude or hashtag “health over length” or “with health comes length”. This term is repeated so much, it becomes somewhat overused on social media, hair blogs/vlogs, I often wonder if it holds any truth to it at all Well, this “saying” was put to the test when my shedding became uncontrollable.

I was doing everything right (or so I thought): weekly I’d do hot oil treatment for 1 hour, cleanse, deep condition, dry my hair with a towel, apply a leave-in conditioner, oil and hair lotion and let air dry. No blow drying or flat ironing no matter how un-stretched my hair looked… I’d do a flat twist out, or tie my hair down when it’s about 50% dry for a somewhat sleek look (my hair wasn’t long enough for roller sets yet)... moisturizing and sealing and scalp massages during the week... but my hair kept shedding. So I started to alter or change some products altogether: I added castor oil to my oil mix and held my hot oil treatment in for longer - up to 2 - 3 hours, I started cleansing with a cleansing conditioner instead of just a regular conditioner (reason will be for another blog post), more protein treatment, more protective styling, reduced hair manipulation, etc… etc.

It had been over 8 months since my last trim. Only then did it dawned on me that I “maybe” needed to trim my thin ends… I was more than 8 weeks post relaxer, so yes, shedding was getting scarier. For a whole week, I kept cutting all thin ends. I didn’t care how much I was cutting. If it was thin, it had to go! And I’d even cut healthy ends to even out my hair. Wash day is usually Sunday. So, the following Sunday, several weeks post relaxer hair, after wash day was complete, I was totally shocked by the amount of hair that came out! By cutting all thin ends, I basically decreased my shedding by 70%!!! I was so shocked, I wasn’t able to keep this to myself! Family members, friends, random people complaining about shedding on the internet (which I never do!)...

So I began to think: trimming thin ends may not make your hair grow, but it definitely keeps thin ends from hindering hair growth. This way, I can really picture the “health over length”/”with health comes length” saying. Other people may be saying it just to say it or making themselves look good even though they don't practice it, but I can truly say that I have experienced this. Trimming thin ends really does help hair growth.

I intend to purposely not trim my hair during the coming months so I can have comparison pictures to backup my claims. Because it was truly an amazing experience to me! Until then, have a happy and healthy hair journey 💜!