Hiya curlies, I just gave myself a much needed trim tonight. As you know, for the past few weeks I've been protective styling with my wigs. I've been sticking to my regimen, moisture, hot oil treatments, and deep conditioning. However, I'm usually horrible at keeping my ends trimmed. Below are a list of ways to find out if you need to trim you hair.
1. Twist and braid outs. If your hair thins out towards the end, it's definitely time for a trim. Take a bit of oil or butter and curl your ends around your finger. If the hair unravels or puffs out, you need a trim. Hair should be even from root to tip and you shouldn't be able to see through it.
2. When you're taking twists and braids down, the hair strands should slide against each other with ease, not get tangled. The appearance of this looks similar to webbing, you just get a tangled mess and possible single strand knots.
3. Inability to retain moisture. I swear, I did go through this a few weeks ago, even with the LOC method.
4. Inability to maintain a defined twist or braid out. Even after I clarified my hair, my style would go literally go "poof." There's nothing more disappointing than when you invest time and effort into a perfect twist out and see it puff up right after taking them down.
5. Split ends. Another name for split ends are Trichoptilosis, splitting or fraying of the hair shaft occurs. This happens naturally as the hair grows out, be we usually help it along by means of flat irons, rough combing, and mechanical manipulation. Yes, twisting and braiding every night can do this to the hair. Our 4b, 4c hair is very fragile and are definitely diva strands. We need to treat them like silk. If split ends aren't caught early on, they'll travel up the hair shaft, forcing you to cut more hair off than you'd like. Sometimes these damaged ends will just break off. Whenever you handle your hair and you see your sink decorated with strands, it's time for a trim.
6. Crumbly, rough ends. Your ends are supposed to be smooth as silk. If your ends feel spongey, or crumbly, you definitely need to trim.
Here are what your ends should always look like, sorry I should have taken some pics of my hair before the trim. The end results are fuller, luscious hair styles without fraying ends! When I was on my game, I trimmed my hair every 6-8 weeks, pay attention to your hair to determine when you should schedule your next trim. Remember, you don't want to unnecessarily cut your hair off. Sometimes I could slide a few extra weeks without a trim but I haven't trimmed since early July. Keep a journal, and mark your calendar because this is so important curlies!
