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hair trimming

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Tell someone “you need a trim,” and chances are, they just might break into a sweat.

I imagine the response is “A TRIM!?” in a fashion like this:

When we talk about trimming hair, it’s not a conversation people look forward to because we all know someone who has gone to the salon to get “a little” off the ends, only to come out with what they felt was much shorter hair they knew wouldn’t quickly grow back. That experience would become a deterrent to making regular trips for them. However, as the fable passed around has always stated, if you shook off your fears and went to get regular trims, your hair would grow longer.

That’s not exactly true, though.

“It’s not really the trimming that makes the hair grow. The trimming prevents it from splitting up the shaft so you [don’t] lose length,” says Hair Hacks‘ go-to dermatologist Dr. Yolanda Lenzy. “The hair grows from the root and so whether you trim it or not, the growth rate is what it is. But if you’re not doing trims you’re going to end up losing more length because you’re going to get some areas that are splitting up the shaft from the ends. The distal end is going to split up. Then you’re going to end up cutting way more hair.”

So, in layman’s terms, you should trim your hair in order to have healthier strands and retain length. We tend to hold onto scraggly ends with a death grip because we believe that trimming will keep our hair at bra-strap length forever. However, some of us haven’t moved past that stage because our hair has weakened and is splitting up the shaft. That’s the true reason when we finally go for a trim, we lose so much of the hair and length we have. Those broken ends weren’t good for the full length of hair.

According to Dr. Lenzy, not only does trimming lead to healthier, fuller hair, but it also can make it easier to style per the testimony of her clients.

“I definitely know that styling is easier when the hair is freshly trimmed. Even for people doing wash-n-gos they say, ‘Once I get my hair cut, it falls better,'” she says. “Those split ends can get very tangled. It can make detangling much worse.”

“It’s a lot of good reasons to trim, but it’s not because of growth,” she adds. “Because growth comes from the root and the ends can really determine how much split ends you get, which can lead to you needing to cut a larger amount of hair. [Trimming] lso can just make your styling and detangling go much easier.”

Depending on the health of your hair currently, a cut every three to four months is recommended to keep split ends at bay. And the longer you can keep weathering and damage from running wild on your mane, the thicker and longer it can be. So for clarity, trimming your hair won’t make it come out of the roots faster, but it will certainly contribute to less breakage at the ends so your hair can flourish.

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