Hair Essentials - Split Ends, Oh No!

Looking for a style for this birthday weekend and I'm going to do an old style I did in 09, but i was cocnerned about using rubber bands on my hair....you know to avoid splitting and damaging the hair. In my search, I found this wonderful site:

http://blackhairscience.com/splits_ends.html
"
When split ends are present, the hair:
       1.) does not move well
       2.) tends to get caught up on itself
       3.) does not hold a curl or straighten well with heat
       4.) varies in length throughout the head especially when slow, unchecked breakage is allowed to run rampant over time
       5.) shows clear areas of dullness or thinness (transparency) along your hair's hemline
       6.) shows an increase in overall hair breakage
       7.) is redder near the ends "

VERY INFORMATIVE. I need to get hair shears as well because the trims I complete on my hair, may be in vain because I have been using regular scissors. SO WRONG! and I may not always cut the hair straight across as is recommended. Please read, you'd begin making immediate changes to you're hair care.

Here's a pic of the style I'm thinking of doing in my hair (don't judge the pic, I was tryna crop people out, lol) Not sure how it's going to turn out this time around, but here we go!