We all know that moment… we’re straightening our hair and we see the frizzled little ends of our hair becoming thinner and drier with each pass of the flat iron. Or maybe it’s the moment when we get out of the pool after a refreshing dip and we attempt to scrunch our hair only to be met with the brittle hay-like texture of the dreaded split end. Not only are they a pain to manage and style, but with each day that passes, they take away oomph and pizazz from your overall hair. All of this is reinforced by society’s utter disdain for them: “Split ends are absolutely unacceptable!” Okay, okay… they gotta go! Let’s start at the beginning: where do these little scraggly things come from?

What is a split end?

Split ends are the frayed rope-looking ends of hair. This pesky hair occurrence comes from brittle, dry, and damaged hair. To ease your anxiety (kind of), know this: split ends are inevitable. Even if you do the BARE MINIMUM to your hair, you will get split ends. For the majority of us, though… we will wash, brush, dry, curl, straighten and do much more to our hair. Over time, that will cause split ends. When the hair has become brittle enough it will break and, effectively, cause the end of the hair strand to splinter and split.

Ditch the Split

Now it is time to ditch the split and get our hair back in shape. Unfortunately, once the ends of the hair splinters and fray, there is no way to un-do the breakage. Cut & run! The only real solution is to cut them off; a frequent trim will keep the split away! Your real friend is prevention.

Prevention is Key

Since the only real solution is to chop the ends off, preventing the split ends (or at least delaying them and their severity) is really the best path until the inevitable occurs.

  • To delay split ends, consider cutting back on using heat because straighteners, curlers and blow dryers can cause excessive damage to the hair. 
  • Brushing wet hair can be a contributing factor to your split ends. Even though your hair feels a million times better to brush wet, it can cause the hair to break due to the water absorbed in the hair strand.
  • Deep conditioning is a great way to keep split ends at bay. The brittle dry ends are what break so regularly dousing the ends with a deep conditioning routine can make a huge difference on split ends

Though you may not be able to do anything about the inevitable split end, you can delay their appearance and even mask the ones that you have! They’re not the end of the world, and everyone gets them – don’t sweat it!

LEARN MORE ABOUT BECOMING A DUVALL STUDENT