How Often Should You Get Your Hair Cut?

I have been trying to grow my hair out for the longest time. Although it is long now, it is fragile and weak. How I even have some healthy hair left I have no clue. All the bleach kills it, but my mentality used to be that since my hair is so damaged, I could at least keep it long to curl the ends. But I recently got my roots colored, and my hairdresser told me I need to get my split ends cut badly, yet I still refused.

Split ends make your hair look busy and damaged, often leading to you using a flat iron and damaging your hair more.
(Photo: Shutterstock)

It wasn’t until I actually read about what a split end is that I decided I am going to run to my hairdresser first thing in the morning. Apparently a split end if left uncut travels up the hair shaft leaving two strands of breakage instead of one. It also takes out more hair because the hair ends up getting tangled into knots and breaks off. Split ends happen to everyone. Through natural wear and tear and your daily hair habits, your hair will get split ends so there is no way to avoid them. The key is to get them cut regularly so you can keep your hair feeling and looking great.

The rule of thumb is to get your split ends cut at least every six weeks. If you get your hair colored, then you should get it cut every four weeks, and if your hair is extremely damaged then every two weeks. The last time I got my split ends cut was two years ago so I am in dire need of a trim, haircut or even a bowl cut at this point to simply get rid of all those dead split ends.

For fine and thin hair, you should try to always wear pony tails with coiled hair ties that look like telephone cords (I wrote about these before) so you can avoid breakage. According to my hairdresser, people with fine hair should get their hair cut at least every five weeks.

Coiled hair bands do not break your hair like a tight elastic does leading to fewer split ends. (Photo: Anthropologie)

If you have crimpy/wavy hair like mine, you can wait up to six weeks. But since your hair is crimpy, you probably use a flat iron every day. To let your hair breathe and keep it healthier, it is recommended that you sleep with silk curlers so that your hair’s fizziness can be tamed naturally instead.

If your hair is chemically processed and damaged like mine, get your split ends cut every two weeks until your hairdresser tells you that you can cut down. Go obsessively because that hair has got to go or you will lose all your hair, which is probably why my hair has thinned out so much. It is also good to use a shampoo like Nexxus Promend for Hair Prone to Split Ends.

Remember, the key to healthy hair is cutting your ends before they actually split. Avoiding this and hoping that long hair will mask any imperfections is no good, since in reality your hair is even more prone to breakage due to tangles and knots.