If, no matter how hard you try and how much TLC you give to your thirsty tresses, your ends just keep on splitting, this is a post you'll want to read. For those of us who use straighteners and curling irons on the daily and spend the extra hours trying to shield our hair with all the right products, it can still seem like the battle of the split end is one that we will never win.
But when desperate times call for desperate measures, spending more money on yet another expensive product isn't likely to do the trick. Instead, it can help to address the preventative aspect of hair care — by taking a closer look at how you handle your daily styling routine.
Avoiding split ends might come down to fixing these common styling mistakes:
1. Learn to work second-day hair
I am 100 percent positive that the importance of hygiene can go unsaid. Of course we want you to shower! But, sometimes tossing your hair in a bun on top of your head and just hopping in for a quick body shower is perfectly fine and actually very healthy! Washing hair every other day allows the body to repair hair with its own natural oils — leaving your hair silky, smooth and protected. You might even be surprised to find that some styles will work better with second- or even third-day hair.
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Erika McKellar and Elisa Hills, co-founders of a line for damaged hair, BLNDN, couldn't agree more, saying, "Stop washing so much! Just stop. Over-washing = over-drying. It's a hard habit to break, but once you incorporate a great dry shampoo into your routine, your hair will stop producing so many oils that are stripped away due to washing. When you do finally wash, replenish. Treat your hair to some antioxidants and emollients. Replace those nutrients lost due to harsh sun exposure, the air and styling. Your hair will thank you for it."
2. Brush wisely and correctly
First, pick the type of brush you use wisely — for daily brushing, choose a cushioned paddle brush with flexible bristles. This will work with your hair to detangle with ease. Be careful — hard plastic brushes and bristles will tug and rip your hair apart if used for normal daily brushing on knotted hair. Next, use it correctly — absolutely do not pick up your brush and tug it down your hair from root to tip on your first pass through! Doing this will instantly push every nominal crisscross down into a tangled clump at the ends of your hair!
Now your delicate ends are forced to take on the heat of a brush yanking through thick, concentrated knots. This is an incredibly easy way to damage hair! Instead, work from end to root. Carefully brush through your ends first, then slowly work up to the midsection. In a final stroke, you can pull your brush through the entire length of your hair.
3. Shampoo only your scalp
Do not clump all of your hair into a big pile on top of your head and begin to scrub. This unnatural bending and rubbing of your hair will aid the development of split ends. Instead, let hair hang down normally and simply lather shampoo onto your scalp, then let the ends of your hair experience the “second hand suds” as you rinse the shampoo through your hair and away down the drain.
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You'll be hearing this a lot from the hair care pros, but McKellar and Hills urge us to keep it simple to keep hair healthy and intact, "You need four to five essential things. Less is more, and you are more likely to keep up if you have less: one gentle cleanser, one replenishing conditioner, one lightweight leave-in conditioner, one dry shampoo and one deep mask. We obviously love BLNDN for its damage reversing and treatment properties." They continue, "Healthy hair is soft and lustrous. Use a shampoo or cleanser that is paraben-free. Shy away from sulfates as much as possible, as those suds are drying to the hair. Instead, use something that is gentle and lightly cleansing. Natural ingredients and emollients are expensive and hard to extract but worth every penny if it means you have radiant, healthy hair."
4. Condition your ends
Always use conditioner! Be sure to apply conditioner directly to the ends of your hair, and then give it a couple of minutes to soak in. When you rinse your hair, don't completely rinse it dry of the conditioner. (Of course rinse most of it out — we don't want so much left that hair has a greasy feel.)
As McKellar and Hills just explained, regular product use is non-negotiable if you want to keep ends from splitting, especially when it comes to styling with heat (more on that later). "Always use product! When heat styling make sure to use a thermal protectant. When air drying, using a leave-in conditioner or moisturizing oil will help nourish your hair and also create a barrier to protect it from the elements," says Senior Stylist Jill Franchi at Pyara Spa & Salon.
5. Towel drying
Do not scrub and rub a towel every which way on and through your hair! Those wet and vulnerable hairs are then forced to crease and twist in many unnatural directions, thus promoting more breakage. Instead, wrap a towel around hair and simply squeeze different areas to draw moisture out.
Next Up: Wide-tooth combs with wet hair
6. Wide-tooth combs with wet hair
As we know from tip five, wet hair is very vulnerable to damage. Unfortunately, brushing it is usually inevitable if you plan to incorporate any styling. To pay the highest kindness to your sensitive locks, invest in a wide-tooth comb for use on your shower-fresh hair. As opposed to a normal brush with a thick head of bristles, the wide-tooth comb will lightly glide through hair and loosely manage your locks without causing as much breakage.
7. Blow drying: Know your purpose
Purpose: Blow drying to achieve an end result and style.
If your blow dryer is to be the only heat styling tool used, do your best to avoid placing direct heat on hair ends until absolutely necessary. Once the roots and upper lengths of your hair are dry, then lead the blow dryer through your ends with a brush.
Purpose: Blow drying as just one step in the styling process.
If another form of heat styling will follow your blow drying efforts, do your best to avoid direct contact with your ends altogether. Instead, concentrate most drying around the roots and upper lengths of hair, allowing ends to catch the “second-hand heat” of the air blowing through them.
Franchi says, "Make sure your hot tools (flat irons, curling irons, blow dryers, etc.) aren't too hot! Most quality irons will come with an adjustable heat setting. Unless you have really coarse hair, there is no need to use a high setting. Set tools to the lowest possible temperature that will still give you the results you are looking for."
8. Straightener
While straightening hair, always use a brush or comb to guide. Pick up the portion you are ready to straighten, run a brush down your hair and follow with your straightener placed directly behind the brush. This aligns hair in one direction and reduces the risk of straightening a strand of hair in a creased or bent position, which could instantly break it off or cause damage and split ends.
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And if there's any chance you can go without, skip the straightener when you can. "Try and avoid the flat iron at all costs, this is the worst thing for split ends," says Sheenon Olson, Celebrity Hairstylist and Creative Director at Atma Beauty.
9. Curling
Instead of beginning the curl at the ends of your hair and winding all of the way up, begin at your roots and guide hair through the curling iron as you twist up. Starting at the very end makes the most intense heat sit on them for the longest amount of time. However, beginning from the root and twisting hair through constantly shifts the portion of hair receiving direct heat, and roots are last to experience the heat. This way, ends will only take in as much heat as needed to hold the style. Again, Olson reminds us that less is more when you want to minimize split ends. He says, "If you can, I recommend taking a break from heat styling altogether for as long as you can."
McKellar and Hills add, "Stop over-styling. Give your hair a break. Say hello to that beautiful curl or lovely wave. 2016 is the year of embracing your natural texture. It's all over the runway and magazines."
10. Trims
Even when the ends of your hair are splitting left and right, all hope isn't lost completely. "Part of preventing split ends is managing the split ends that are already there," Olson explains. "Often, I recommend that my clients take Nutrafol, a supplement that aids in hair growth so that they can continuously go into the salon for micro-trims to remove the split ends while retaining length. My clients have had a ton of success with this product."
Inevitably, a trim will be needed at some point to regulate split ends. If handled with care, you won't have to get these as often. Proper care will allow you to stretch trim appointments to every six to eight weeks — maybe longer. To prevent the split, this regular maintenance is key, says Franchi. "Get your hair cut regularly! This one may seem a little obvious, but the real trick to keeping your hair looking healthy is to cut the ends off before they become split. Every head of hair in unique, so consult with your stylist about how often you should be coming in for trims. I can tell you this though — you should be getting your hair cut at least four times a year."
Updated by Bethany Ramos on 3/28/2016