Achieving Healthy Ends

Have you ever looked in the mirror and despaired at the way your hair end looks? Some are shorter than others and the whole bunch of it is just ragged. How did it get that way and why did you let it? Better yet, you ask yourself, does my hair look good with all these straggly ends? 



The truth is, there are straggly hair ends, which may look good after a little TLC and then there is chewed up looking ends which just look like you are desperate for hair length. My hair was in the chewed up category last month. I had to cut off three inches of it. There comes a time when you just have to say goodbye to dry looking ends. 
How does the hair end, which is the oldest part of the hair get to look so ugly after a while?


Reasons For Unhealthy Hair Ends
1. Age
It is the norm for the oldest part of your hair to look a little worse for wear after a while. The longer your hair becomes the thinner the ends will seem, some of the hair ends you are looking at, especially for ladies with very long hair, can be three to five years old, they are very far from their younger, fresher days near the hair root.

2. Heat Use
It is stressed that direct heat is not such a good thing for your hair as it damages the cuticle layers of your hair and prevents the hair from absorbing and retaining moisture. Your hair ends are at even greater risk of heat damage because it is usually the driest part of the hair. Have you ever noticed that after using a curling or flat iron your ends feel extremely brittle? The heat just sucks up the moisture. Lack of moisture equals breakage and wreaks havoc on your ends.


3. Chemical Damage
Your ends are to be protected from chemical damage when relaxing hair even if the relaxer is not placed directly on them. Why? Because when the relaxer is washed out of the hair your delicate ends are given a touch up. So while the hairdresser may pay attention to your newly relaxed hair and gives it the TLC it deserves, your hair ends will absorb some chemicals if not protected and this makes them drier. To counteract this reaction, oil your processed hair before getting a retouch from the demarcation line to the ends or add some deep conditioner especially to your ends before relaxing the hair.

4. Rubbing
Your hair ends are very easy to be roughed up by the rubbing action of certain materials like cotton or wool. Whenever your ends are out and they rub against these materials it is quite likely that you will rub off all the moisture from this part of the hair. These materials are bad news for your ends because they rough up the hair cuticle, which can lead to breakage. So even though you may like wearing your hair down, choose carefully the days when you do this and the outfit you may be wearing.

5. Combing
The issue with the ends of the hair and combing is that sometimes we comb the hair the wrong way and get tangles at the ends and end up yanking on them. The best way to comb hair is to start at the ends (with your big tooth comb) and then work up the length of your hair strand to the root. In other words, don’t leave all the knotted part of the hair for the ends. Use a detangler or a moisturizing leave in conditioner when combing out tangled hair for best results.



6. Lack of Moisture
Everything comes back to moisture for black hair and this is especially so for your ends. If the ends are dry they will get brittle and break. If your hair ends are dry, moisturize them daily and moisturize them first. Be generous with the moisture on your ends whether you are using a deep conditioner or a leave-in conditioner or an ordinary water based moisturizer, give your ends special moisturizing care. Remember to seal in the moisture when you are done with a carrier oil. If you want to preserve a certain hair style (say a curly one) it is easy to redo it when your ends are slightly damp and moisturized.

How To Achieve Healthy Hair Ends
1. Trim It!
If the hair is damaged or terribly thinned out or just looks ugly- trim it. You can do it in one setting or gradually. Combing through bluntly trimmed hair ends is much easier than combing through uneven layers of straggly hair because each hair moves freely and there are less tangles. Trim it yourself if you do not trust anyone else with your hair and you can control the length that you trim off.

2. Protect the Ends
There are several protective styles that can protect the ends of the hair; you may have to wear these more frequently rather than letting your hair out especially in adverse weather conditions such as sun or winter conditions.

3.  Avoid Heat
Heat will fry the ends of the hair so avoid direct heat on your hair ends. The overhead dryer is a better option than using a blow dryer or a flat iron.


4. Bag It
To get your hair ends super moisturized, pull it back in a loose ponytail, bundle your ends together and moisturize the hair thoroughly. Thereafter, put a plastic bag on the ends. Leave on for an hour or more or even overnight and then seal with an oil.

5. Protect Your Ends From Chemical Processes
The more often you relax your hair, the greater the likelihood that your ends will be given a touch up, protect them before going into a chemical treatment. You can coat your ends with conditioner.


Culled and edited. Images: Google

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