If you’re interested in hair care and devoted to keeping your hair long and healthy, split ends are probably among your biggest enemies. Typically, people deal with them in many different ways: for instance, by using conditioners, masks, special oils, and treatments, to name just a few. All that in order not to get their hair cut and be able to grow their locks longer.
Unfortunately, although the idea of treating split ends and repairing them seems so tempting, it doesn’t work in the long run, and reaching for those hair thinning scissors might be inevitable. Even though it’s widely promoted by hair product companies, in reality, treating split ends is a utopia that you shouldn’t fall for. Keep on reading to find out why.
What Are Split Ends?
As you probably already know, split ends (also known as broken ends) are the last inches of your hair. As time passes, they become wider and wider and eventually break off. This is an inevitable natural process, but ends can break earlier due to the many external factors, such as excessive heat, chemical treatments, or improper hair care. Untreated split ends lead to serious damage to your hair: they cause it to be thin, frizzy, and hard to manage.
The Split End Myth
One of the main reasons why treating split ends is a utopia comes from the fact that split ends are merely a result of your hair being damaged rather than its cause. The process of getting split ends can be long or short: for instance, if you colour your hair on a regular basis, it can take up to 2 years for your hair to appear split. However, if you constantly use heated styling tools, your hair can show signs of split ends in only 3 months.
Popular Split End Treatments
In order to understand why treating split ends is a utopia, it’s important to understand that you shouldn’t treat split ends but rather fix the causes behind them. This is the only way you can have healthy and beautiful hair for years to come.
Let’s see what the most popular reasons for getting split ends are and what you can do to get rid of them:
Chemical Treatments
Chemical treatments are one of the most common reasons for getting split ends. They have a bad reputation for being incredibly damaging, but they are very effective in treating frizzy hair or changing your hair colour. Thus, it’s important to do everything possible to prevent chemical treatments from becoming your enemy: this means trying to avoid having them as often as possible.
If you have already had a chemical treatment, don’t panic: it doesn’t mean you have to stop having them altogether. The best thing you can do is to make sure you properly care for your hair after a chemical treatment. This means using certain hair masks or treatments to help you overcome the damage caused by the treatment and repair your hair without applying another one shortly after.
Heat Treatments
The second most common reason behind split ends is using heat styling tools such as straighteners or hair dryers. Let’s face it: we all love the idea of having gorgeous straight hair or wavy curls every day. But unfortunately, using heat styling tools daily can be incredibly damaging for your hair and even cause split ends in mere weeks.
It’s important to avoid using heat styling tools as much as possible: if you’re a big fan of them, try getting a good quality flat iron with ceramic plates and won’t damage your hair as much as the traditional ones do. Additionally, try putting some argan oil or olive oil on your hair before using any heat styling tools: this will help you protect your locks from heat damage and give them more shine.
Hair Care Products
Another common cause of split ends is the use of bad hair care products. Even if you don’t use heat styling tools every day, it’s very likely that you use hair masks, hair oils, or even shampoos that aren’t nourishing enough for your hair. Unfortunately, even those products that claim to help you get rid of split ends can actually make your hair even more damaged.
The best way to find the right hair care products for you is to experiment with many different products until you find the perfect ones. You should pay attention to the ingredients of any products you’re considering buying: if you don’t understand certain ones like protein, ceramide, alpha hydroxy acid, or anything similar, don’t buy the product. It’s also important to buy a product that is made for dry or damaged hair: silicone and alcohol are not good ingredients for keeping your hair healthy and shining.
Final Thoughts
The idea of treating split ends present in many hair products is based on the fact that split ends are unsightly and annoying to look at. They make your hair look “frayed” and “unmanageable.” But there’s a huge problem with that reasoning: people are led to believe that if they treat their split ends, they can “repair” their hair and make it look healthy again.
Unfortunately (again), this doesn’t work in reality. The process of “repairing” your hair with special products is just putting a band-aid on a broken leg. And unfortunately, once you rip it off, the wound will just get worse. This is exactly what happens with split ends: using special treatments and products can temporarily hide them but will not help you get rid of them.
