It's tempting to hang on to dead, splitting ends for the sake of length, but trimming your bad ends will do wonders for the overall look and feel of your hair.

It's been six months since my strands last saw the scissors, and my hair is definitely screaming out for a trim. But it's not always easy to tell if your hair needs a snip. For example, an uneven hemline doesn't always mean you're experiencing breakage - sometimes it just means different sections of your hair are growing at different rates.

There are many types of split ends, some more obvious than others. The chart below shows the many varieties, but unless you're in bright light or have long hair where you can see your ends, it's not always that simple.

There are many types of split ends

So how else do you know if it's time for a trim? I've gathered together my top three tips to watch out for:

1. You suddenly start seeing little hairs on the floor, on your shirt or in the sink.
   Finding short hairs all over the place means your ends are breaking off. The ends of your hair are the oldest and weakest parts, and therefore are more prone to breakage. Get rid of those dead ends by getting a trim. It will improve the look of your hair and leave you with healthier, stronger ends.
   
   
2. You begin to dread wash day because of the dreaded tangles. Has your hair started tangling at the ends? When ends become old and tapered (as opposed to fresh and blunt), they're more prone to knotting with each other. Instead of spending hours untangling and risking further breakage, let's reach for those scissors!
   
   
3. You've been at the same length for a while. Hair is always growing, but while we're longing for length, it may not feel like it's growing fast enough. Sometimes though, we really do get stuck at the same length for an extended period of time. It's not that the hair isn't growing, it's that the ends are breaking at the same rate of growth, thus creating an illusion of plateau. If this sounds familiar, set yourself up for length retention by starting with fresh ends. To track your hair's length progress, be sure to snap a photo ever few months.