WHat causes split ends?
In: Biology
With my hair, it’s the result of a hair snapping partway along. Kinda like bending a twig back and forth until it breaks – it doesn’t break cleanly. Then if it gets the chance, the rough broken end opens up along the hair and *voila*, split end.
Lots of things. Your hair cuticle is a bunch of scales overlapping each other. When those scales become damaged, the hair becomes comprised and will break leaving a jagged end, or a split end. Split ends tangle really easily and can sometimes split at the same rate or faster than your hair grows, giving the illusion that your hair isnt growing. The most common causes of split ends are:
-Hot tools (curling irons, flat irons, blowdryers, etc)
-UVA/UVB rays from the sun.
-Friction (bad quality pillow cases, putting your hair in a pony tail with a crappy elastic in the EXACT same place every single day, etc.)
-Bleach/high lift hair colors raise the scales on the hair to extract color molecules and can cause them to fall off if you/the colorist are not careful.
-Diet, hormonal changes, and medication can cause brittle hair which breaks easily. (I see this a lot with vegans and vegetarians. Eat healthy fats and protein such as avocados and beans/brown rice if you don’t eat meat)
Want to fix split ends? Get a haircut. Nothing can put that cuticle back together so just cut it off and start over.
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