Thinner at the Ends Thicker at the Roots? You May Have Trichoptilosis!

Trichoptilosis – Will Split Your Strands, leaving your hair ends thin

Trichoptilosis-  informally split ends, is the splitting or fraying of the hair-shaft due to excessive heat and mechanical stress. Hair gets old, hair gets manipulated, and hair gets damaged. When the hair has experienced a great amount of trauma or has simply reached a certain age, these little nuisances crop up with the intention of destroying our length. There is a difference between Split Ends, & Splitting Ends. Splitting Ends are places along the hair shaft where the cuticle is actively breaking apart and the cortex of the hair is exposed. Splitting ends can occur at any point along the hair shaft, but are the most prevalent near the ends of the hair shaft. Depending on the angle of the split, the tear can reach fairly high up the hair shaft, but a majority of splits simply peel away or break off not far from or right where they originate. Split ends on the other hand, are ends where the main split has already peeled away from the rest of the shaft. These ends are no longer splitting, they are already split and broken off. These ends are thin in density. While our hair will never be totally free of split ends, there are certain measures that you can take to ensure that they don’t take the beauty away from your crowning glory, or prevent length retention.

3 Causes

Thermal, Chemical or Mechanical stress can cause split ends.

Thermal: The use of curling irons, Flat Irons, Hot Combs, Blow Dryers & other heat tools may cause split ends.

Chemical: Excessive application of hair products such as  hair coloring, and bleach may strip protective layering off the outside of the hair's shaft and weaken the hair, making the hair prone to split ends.

Mechanical: Includes pulling a comb forcefully through tangled hair and repeated combing. Rough handling of the hair can also cause split ends.

Prevention

Reducing or eliminating the causes will usually prevent split ends. Trimming, or dusting  the ends of your hair  Will help to decrease your split ends. Unlike Single Strand Knots or ______, there is no remedy for split ends beyond trimming the affected hair. Some shampoos claim to heal split ends by temporarily  sealing the ends back together.

Can You Spot them? Bottom of Form

How to Detect Split Ends? What to look for?

 Look for Little “Y” Shapes at the ends of your hair, these are split ends.

There are different types of split ends…. I have had a variety  of these.

The Regular Split End This is the most common form of split end, where there is just one split at the end of a strand

Triple/ Multiple Split looks like a regular split, but there could be three, four, or even five splits on the same end.

Feather / Tree Split ends that appear all over a strand of hair, either all on one side or switching off like in the image.

Double “Y” Split This is when a split forms into another split.

Deep Split  If you haven't detected a regular split in a long time, then one end of the split just  keeps on growing.

Baby Split            The beginning of a new split. These will get worse.

Tapered Split        These are regular strands but then begin getting thinner and thinner towards the end.

White Spot Splits Pieces of a stand of hair tapered in and then tapered out (and repeated).

Thickening Splits As in the photo, the split has formed but the ends aren't separated yet.

Incomplete Splits. The split has formed, but then joined together at the end and kept on                                               growing.\

“What Are those White Dots?”

Other types of “split” ends are small breaks in the hair shaft known as TRICHORREXIS NODOSA these are areas where the actual hair cortex has swollen and actually exploded within the shaft. You can tell these types splits by the white dot or node, commonly at the very end of the hair shaft. They can also occur mid-shaft where they will appear as a hairs that bend in hard, unnatural 90 degree angles– ready to break fully away. They often appear as pesky fly always when hair is straightened.

Save Your Strands

 Remove the split ends. Get the scissors and cut depending on how bad the split ends are. Keep your kinks well-conditioned and regularly trimmed to reduce the likelihood of new split ends.

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