The one thing that all people with healthy hair seem to have in common

There's something that I've been pondering on deeply over the past few weeks.  I travel almost weekly and, lately, I've been taking advantage of the idle airport time by doing something constructive.  So instead to catching up on emails, or making follow up calls, I've decided to stare at the various heads of hair as they walk by.  What I've been looking for, as I stare at these random strangers, are commonalities that can give me clues into achieving healthier hair.

I'm happy to report that all of my intense observations has revealed a commonality so obvious, that I'd be a fool to ignore.  You see, in my purposeful people watching, my objective to was see what people with thick, healthy hair seem to have in common.  The secret to their thick, healthy hair, from my observation, seemed to be connected to well trimmed ends.  As a matter of fact, the more blunt of a cut a person had, the more thick and lush, their hair would appear.

I began to wonder.  Did these beautiful haired women just receive a fresh cut prior to going on their trip or was receiving a trim a regular part of their routine?  So then I also observed strangers in regular, every day environments and what I say in the real world version was not different than in the airport.  Without having interviewed these women, I had no other choice then to come to the conclusion that maintaining trimmed ends, is correlated to thick hair that appeared to be healthy.

I have to admit that this really isn't earth shattering news. But what's new for me isn't the fact that we have to trim our ends. We all should know that by now.  I bet that if I had stopped some of these random women and asked them about who often they trim, it would be quite frequent.  Some of us might be thinking "they trim all the time because their hair grows so fast."  Sure, that may be true. But it may also be an excuse we create for our selves so we don't have to trim as often.  That's kinda like saying "of course Kelly Rowland does 200 situps every night, look how flat her stomach is."  So to that statement, I respond, "does she even need to do sit ups because she has a flat stomach or does she have a flat stomach because she's consistent with her situps?" I also observed people who's hair didn't appear as thick and healthy.  These folks were more likely to have less than desirable ends.  So I have no choice but to think that well maintained ends are directly linked to perfect hair in some way.

So then I started to think about my own hair journey and realized that this was one area that I've paid little attention to.  Sure, I have invested in obtaining a quality pair of trimming scissors made to fit comfortably in my left hand.  But, to be honest with you, I haven't used these scissors to their maximum potential.  So now I'm ready to try something different.  I figure I have nothing to lose since I'm familiar with the results I get from what I've already been doing.  For the next year or so, I would like to maintain my ends by trimming several times a year.  I'm thinking every 3 months or so.  My end in mind is to keep the look of well trimmed ends.  This means that I'll be trimming my hair as a proactive strategy to maintain healthy hair versus a reactive way to deal with thin, breaking ends.  This may mean trimming more frequently than 3 months, who knows.

Some might be wondering, "won't this mess with my length and retention?"  I also thought the same thing. I will counteract this with a focus on growth during this time (with healthy eating, scalp massages, silica, etc) while I am maintaining well trimmed ends.  For someone like me, who is always manipulating and doesn't do much protective styling, having well maintained ends should be a huge plus.  I suspect that if I do this for at least a year, I'll receive more benefits than drawbacks.  My desire is for this to become a new lifestyle change for me rather than to be a gimmick or flavor of the month that will lead to my hair goals. I'm hoping by doing this one thing different, I will experience different results long-term. Perhaps I'll go back to using the full moon phases as my trimming guide.  For those of your who are interested, here are the dates for 2012 according to the Morrocco Method website.

Best Days for Beneficial Haircutting in 2012:

March 20-21 - Spring Equinox — are the best dates to cut for spring and the ultimate dates for shaving one's head.
June 20-21 — Summer Solstice — are the best dates to cut for summer.
September 23-24 — Fall Equinox — are the best dates to cut for fall.
December 19-20-21-22 — Winter Solstice — are the best dates to cut for winter.