Do you ever brush through your hair only to find little pieces end up on your shirt shoulder? Split ends are known for being little pesky hairs that can snag and tangle easily and while we search for the instant fix to our frizzy, dull and unhealthy hair we tend to relate that these split ends are your hairs sign that it's in need of some restoration. Before we explore deeper into the root cause and prevention of split ends it is important for us to understand what’s causing them to appear in the first place.
What are split ends?
Our hair has an outer protective layer called the cuticle. In fact, the cuticle is so important that we don’t just have one, we have many layers of cuticle and its job is to protect the inner contents of each hair strand to ensure the inward health is status quo and important factors like hydration and nutrients are regulated. When your cuticles break down, weakening the hair strand, your strand starts to split into two, and sometimes three + ways causing a “split end.”
What causes split ends?
Several culprits can contribute to split ends like:
- Heat styling: Our hair’s bonds weaken anytime we use heat. Not only do they break away to reshape themselves but they also weaken your hairs defense system and when we choose tools at high temperatures we are burning the hair while we reconfigure that style. This causes the cuticle to weaken, moisture loss, brittle hair that leads to a breaking point where a split end will appear.
- Chemical treatments: Hair coloring, highlightning, or other chemical process that weaken and break down the hair structure will lead to damage, especially when higher levels of developer (hydrogen peroxide) are used to get your hair to the desired end results you are seeking.
- Environmental damage: Sun exposure, chlorine, wind/ heaters all take a toll on your hair. Different elements start to break down and chip away at the surface of your hair until it becomes fragile and prone to breakage points like split ends.
How to prevent split ends
- Heat styling with care: Ensure you are using the proper hair care that provides heat protection. These products are formulated with different ingredients at specific concentration levels to serve as a barrier between your hair and the heat. They can prevent your hair from retaining the temperatures your hair comes in contact with and can serve similarly to how an oven mitt protects your fingers from removing something hot from the oven.
- Limit chemical treatments: If you can spread out your chemical treatments you prevent an overlapping effect which is what typically causes the hair to split. However, it is always important to ensure you are seeing a qualified professional and expert in that chemical technique to avoid an over exposure limit to chemicals that would lead to split end damage.
- Deep condition: To prevent hair from over drying, becoming dull and brittle it is essential to have a nutrient dense, lightweight hydrating hair mask or deep conditioning treatment as a part of your regular at home maintenance.
- Trim/ hair cut regularly: Pre Book your trims or haircuts regularly to snip off those pesky split ends because there are no ways to unsplit them so its best to stay ahead of the damage and cut them off in their tracks. Otherwise they will continue to split up the hair strand.
How to tame split ends
Once a split end surfaces the only way to get rid of them is to cut above the split and prevent it from continuing to split your hair into two pieces. So if you are in-between hair appointments and need to tame these ends the best approach would be to find hair controlling products like a hydrating pomade stick like Goldie Locks® Flyaway Fix, that offers an easy to use pomade that temporarily seals ends down to prevent environmental factors from aggravating the damage further.
Another way to tame split ends is to use a heat protecting spray like Goldie Locks® Blow Dry Spray that will offer a high shine, heat protection that will also provide extended style memory. Having your end results last longer means you will not be styling hair as frequently and exposing your hair to high temperature heats becomes minimized.
Final Thoughts
Split ends happen. Whether you live in harsh climates or are addicted to styling your hair each day, we surround ourselves with elements that destroy our hair. However, the purpose of hair is to be our head's defense so its naturally occurring multi-layer cuticle is on purpose so that not just one cuticle layer has back up but several do.
What we do to minimize this damage is important to ensure that the length of our hair has integrity and our hair remains a vibrant reflection of our personality and style.
