Facebook keeps advertising me potential-scam hair products (who knows maybe they work but I’m super skeptical. If there was truly a way to grow your hair super fast my industry would have snapped it up and made it only available in salons like we do with everything else good)1/17

Anyway this particular advertisement says “my hair is healthier than ever and all my split ends are gone” and I’m like “I am a hairstylist. I am literally looking at your split ends right now.”
2/17

Guys, hair strands are dead. Only the root is “alive,” where the hair grows from. A split end is physical breakage in the hair. Once it splits, it is SPLIT, there is no way to undo it. You can use products to smooth it down a little, but no product will “mend” a split end. 3/17

More importantly, splits will travel UP the hair strand, causing more breakage, making your hair more brittle and prone to tangles, and overall impacting the health and appearance of your hair.

The ONLY way to rid your hair of split ends is to CUT them COMPLETELY off. 4/17

And the longer you wait between cuts, the worse it will get, and the more you will have to cut. I NEVER cut more off than my client asks, no matter how badly they need it, but I am always honest with them. Most people who wear their hair long aren’t taking care of it properly5/17

There’s a very common story in my business. Client with WAY long hair sits in my chair. Tells me “JUST the splits, last time I told them just the splits and they took like five inches off and I cried and haven’t been back in months.” 6/17

Inevitably, these clients have 4-5 inches of split ends. The cut the time before WAS “just the splits.” Split ends do not stay in the bottom inch of your hair.

How often should you cut your hair?

Everyone is different, but ON AVERAGE hair grows about half an inch a month. 7/17

If you trim your hair every other month, and you’ve kept on top of it, you should only have to take a centimeter or two from the bottom.

(Caveat, I understand that not everyone can afford frequent haircuts, in which case your best bet is to discuss with your stylist) 8/17

However, I have noticed that people are not very good at figuring out how far up their split ends go.

Your best bet is always to ask your stylist and then figure out from there where you’d like to go. Not all stylists are created equal. Find one you trust and KEEP them. 9/17

Why should I cut my split ends? Why does it matter?

Split ends will travel upwards if left unchecked, as I said earlier. They also create problems with frizz, make hair harder to detangle and harder to style. And they just look bad. 10/17

Half the time the answer to “why is my hair so impossible to brush” is “cut out those horrible splits” (the other half is “condition better”).

In addition, while hair grows from the ROOT and not the end, split ends still impact hair growth. This is because of the breakage. 11/17

Split ends break off. Hair that is PROFUSELY split will start to break more at the bottom. This creates the illusion of thinner hair (never in a good way no matter how thick you started out), while the breakage makes it seem as if your hair isn’t growing at all. 12/17

For every half inch your hair grows, the split ends create more breakage. If your hair seems to grow incredibly slowly, it’s entirely possible that’s just how your hair works... but you should ask your stylist about split ends, just in case. 13/17

My mother’s splits were so bad thst the end of her hair came to a teeny tiny tail because everything else was broken off. She was upset because she’d grown her hair so long and it wouldn’t get any longer. She has since cut it and has beautiful healthy LONG hair. 14/17

A caveat: everyone’s hair is different. Some people damage easier, some damage less. Some people have hair that really does grow SUPER slow. This thread is for the “average” person, IE, most of you. This advice should work for the majority of the people reading it. 15/17

And you’ll notice I didn’t mention any product (except a passing nod to conditioner) or try to sell you anything (even though I definitely know some great product). This is because a huge part of caring for your hair is physical. Brush gently. Start from the ends. 16/17

Trim when needed. All of this will help.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Always do more research on Facebook hair care than just the person selling it or the site itself. SOME companies I won’t name have some pretty horrific lawsuits. 17/17