new thread
Hi,
I’m at 17 months without a maintenance cut. I’m satisfied with the progress I’ve made and am not unhappy with the shape of my hair.
However, I have heard that maintenance cuts are important to the all over health of your hair.
Thing is...I just don’t want one :(
I (really) don’t want to loose any length and I have a few split ends but I have to look hard to find them...so that does not bother me; but if they are important (maintenance cuts) I guess i'll bite the bullet and get one.
But before I do...what do you think? Generally speaking, are they essential?
Thanks in advance y'all
-S-
If you take the advise of the majority of this board, maintenance cuts are not needed if you take gentle care of your hair. The general consensus about split ends is that they can travel up the shaft of the hair and you will loose that hair. But you also need to take into consideration also that the human head looses on average 40 to 100 hairs a day anyway, so a few lost to split ends would not be a big deal in my book, especially if you have thick hair like I do. The ones who speak of maintenance cuts on this board do so for the fact that it keeps the hair looking more extra well kept looking, although to me the hair can look just as nice without it. Cutting looses length, and untill my hair is considerably below my shoulders, I do not want to loose any length. Hope this helps. Peace!
Am a men's stylist with over twenty years' experience and I heartily concur with Treyn's assessment: maintenance cuts are NOT a necessity but, rather, a matter of choice. If you choose to keep your hair neater and looking more groomed, then a maintenance cut helps. But if you like a more natural look to the ends of your long hair (and it seems this is already your preference), then there is no need for you to have a maintenance cut. After all, Treyn is correct: every cut results in the loss of some length. You write that you are satisfied with the length and shape--then don't be talked into fixing "what ain't broke". Grow for it!!
Actually, from my understanding if you take good care of your hair - not shampooing every day, using conditioner, getting tangles out carefully - split ends will not travel up the length of the hair, but rather reach the healthy part of the hair and then the split part will just break off. Most people don't need to worry to much about split ends anyway unless you die or bleach your hair, or do other damaging thing's to it. I was like you, I worried about split ends. And like you I didn't want to lose any length. But thanks to these guys I know better. Just take good care of your hair and don't worry about it.
Solution is a breeze! You don't want it.........don't get it.
Hair without maintence cuts can never look as good as hair with them, no matter how much you take care of it. You dont need to lose much, only about half an inch or whatever you ask. Those ends are still more than a year old and will show it. Check someone's hair who gets maintence trims every 6-8 months, and takes care of it. You will see the huge difference.
This remark is false as stated. It depends upon what your goals are. There are three reasons to have maintenance trims.
1. To remove split ends.
2. To maintain a trim line.
3. To maintain a desired length
If the goal is to remove split ends, there are techniques specifically for that purpose (and with the invention of the split ender, a tool, as well). I'm speaking specifically of twisting locks of hair and snipping off split ends that stick out. This technique doesn't significantly affect the overall length.
If the goal is to maintain a trim line, for example, if you have a blunt cut, a maintenance cut will certainly help, since individual hairs grow at different rates. What will happen is that the bulk of the hair is trimmed down to the length of the slower growing hairs.
If the goal is to maintain a desired length, then it is not to achieve a long style.
In any case, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The technique used depends on what is desired.
Look at somebody's hair who gets regular trims and see for yourself. All I can say. There is no point in long hair if it doesn't look as good as it can. Neck hairs and sideburns also need to be cleaned up. If sideburns are desired, then have them looking neat.
There are many reasons to have long hair, only some of which have to do with beauty. You seem to be concentrating only on beauty and are also making an assumption which you have yet to prove (and which I question) -- that regular trims enhance beauty.
As I said before, it's in the eye of the beholder. If you are expressing your own preference, fine. If you are making a blanket statement, you are simply wrong.
If your hair isn't kept well taken care of, then what does that say? Says you just don't care about it. Says you just have it there to have it. It also affects a persons appearence drastically. Kinda like the people who go to makeover shows and get their hair cut off. They usually dont have very good looking hair and don't care if it gets cut off. Nobody who cares would allow scissors 1 foot from their hair. On to the maintence trims. Even if you are growing your hair out, maintence trims are not a must, but recommended by the experts. If you are growing it out, obviously you wouldn't go every month, but every 6 or 7 months. It gets rid of old hair and keeps your hair fresh. Just like with everything else. No matter how much you try to make something old look new, it will never look exactly like it. Like I said before, it's hard to prove unless you see it for yourself.
I guess I don't really have an argument there. But I also notice that so far you've said nothing about trims. You can take care of your hair well without trims -- if you have the right kind of hair.
Then how would you get a maintenance trim?
I can't disagree with you here. I must disagree with the experts, though, that you refer to. Maintenance trims CAN be helpful, but that is not a must. Some people's hair simply doesn't fray easily, especially with proper care. Trimming that kind of hair just shortens it without a benefit other than what I previously mentioned.
On never.
If it's long, it's old. How do you think it got to be that long?
I don't know what you mean by fresh.
And long hair is old. No matter how many times you trim it, if it's long, it's old.
There are objective ways to look at hair to see if a trim is required (assuming your goal is not to have damaged hair). Probably the best technique is simply to backlight it with a strong light. Damaged hair gets a glow to it that undamaged hair doesn't. If there is no damage, there is no reason to trim, except for reasons I described earlier.
What do you mean by a "glow"?
The hair literally looks brighter -- and not just from lack of pigment. To understand what's going on, it helps to know a little bit about how light interacts with material that it encounters.
If the material consists of fibers or other nonuniform matter that is spaced less than 1/2 the wavelength of the light, the material appears to be transparent. If the particles are spaced further apart, they will interact with the light and cause it to either refract or reflect.
Consider the eye, for example. A normal eye is transparent because the fibers making up the cornea are tightly spaced. However, when a person gets glaucoma, the lens fogs up. It fogs up because these fibers get spaced further apart, turning gradually opaque.
The same thing happens with your hair. A single healthy hair fiber is mostly transparent. This is because the fibers making it up are densely packed together -- so densely, in fact, that the spacing is less than half the wavelength of visible light.
However, when the hair is damaged, by shearing forces (and I don't mean scissors here), stretching, tearing, etc., these fibers begin to work loose from each other. Eventually, this can lead to split ends or a simple break. However, before that happens, the microspaces in the hair attain a spacing that exceeds 1/2 the wavelength of light. This makes the light scatter.
To the eye, it makes the hair look lighter than a healthy hair would look, especially when backlit.
By backlit, I mean when the illumination source is on the other side of the hair from your eye (but not directly behind). Have a dark background right behind the hair so that you get good contrast.
If I can find a damaged hair, maybe I'll illustrate what I'm talking about with a photo.
Makes sense (even to my scientifically challenged mind). Gotta go inspect my hair now!
~Jenn
I agree with the others who have posted - you sound to be "satisfied with your hair". If that's the case, you may not need to get a maint cut. For me, I visit my stylist every 10 to 12 weeks for a maintenance cut - actually it's called a "microtrim". He takes about 1/8th inch off and cleans my neck [hairs] up. He understands my goal and is completely in synch with it. I think my hair looks all the neater for these regular microtrims. HOWEVER, if you're going to get one I suggest that you and your stylist are on the same page before you even get in the chair.
T