Hair Care Blog Archives

Split ends are the bane of your hair’s existence. They can turn every day into a bad hair day, making it hard to keep your hair looking its best. Split ends can make your hair feel dry and crunchy, preventing it from holding style. The longer you go without taking action, the further the damage travels up the hair shaft, affecting not just your ends but the rest of your hair.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to keep your hair healthy and free from split ends. The style experts at Therapy Hair Studio have the tips and tricks to enhance your look and maintain a full and healthy head of hair.

What Causes Split Ends?

Before understanding what causes split ends, you must understand human hair’s general makeup. Hair is primarily made up of keratin, a specific type of protein. It also contains trace amounts of water, minerals, lipids, or fats. There are three layers of hair: the inner medulla, the middle cortex, and the outer cuticle, or the protective layer that covers the cortex and medulla. Combined, these layers give hair its color, structure, and strength.

Split ends occur when the hair’s cuticle, or protective outer layer, gets damaged. This frays the hair and causes the inner core of the strands to start splitting. This damage can continue, splitting the hair further and further up the shaft. Left untreated, split ends will impact not just the ends of the hair but eventually nearly the entire length of the hair.

Split ends are most often the result of heat damage and chemical treatments. One of the leading causes is excessive heat from constant use of hair dryers, curling irons, and straighteners. Heat weakens the hair shaft, over time causing damage to the cuticle and split ends. Chemical processes such as bleaching, coloring, relaxing, and perming also strip hair of its natural moisture, breaking down proteins, and damaging the hair. For chemical treatments to work, most must penetrate the cuticle and reach the cortex. In the cortex, chemical reactions alter the hair’s structure, which gives you a different color or a new curl pattern.

Other causes of split ends include mechanical stress, rough brushing, and poor hair care habits. The environment can cause split ends from UV exposure, pollution, and chlorine from swimming pools. Lifestyle can also contribute to split ends via poor diet and nutrition.

How to Prevent Split Ends: 10 Practical Tips

Split ends don’t have to give you a bad hair day. There are ways to help prevent damage to your hair and keep it healthier for longer. Ten practical tips for maintaining hair health include:

• Get regular trims – Investing in regular trims is the number one tip for maintaining healthy hair and removing emerging damage. Trims are the only way to remove damage before it travels up the hair strand.
• Limit heat styling – Try to use heat styling sparingly. When using hot tools, apply a heat protectant to limit damage.
• Be gentle when brushing – Go easy on your hair, especially when wet and most vulnerable. Use a wide-tooth comb to detangle gently.
• Add moisture – Keep your hair looking and feeling its best by adding moisture when needed. A deep conditioner or hair mask can restore moisture and elasticity.
• Find protective styles – Protective hair styles can limit heat styling and protect your hair. Buns, loose braids, twists, and colorful hair scarves are fun ways to experiment with your hair while protecting it from split ends.
• Protect hair while sleeping – Wear a head scarf or silk pillow case to reduce friction and breakage.
• Limit chemical treatments – It is hard to resist a new color or curl patterns, but try to minimize chemical treatments that can damage hair due to over-processing.
• Dry hair right – While nothing can replace a good blowout, be gentle when drying your hair. Avoid rough friction and use a microfiber towel to soak up moisture.
• Protect hair from the elements – When outdoors, wear a hat or use UV-protectant sprays. If swimming, coat hair with conditioner first to help prevent chlorine and chemicals from deeply penetrating it.
• Nourish from within – Maintain healthy habits like drinking plenty of water and eating nutrient-rich foods with protein, omega-3 fatty acids, biotin, and collagen to help protect hair.

Best Hair Products to Help Prevent Split Ends

Some of the best products that help prevent split ends include:

• Heat protectant sprays
• Deep conditioners
• Conditioning masks
• Hair oil
• Bond maintenance shampoos and conditioners
• Silk pillow cases and head scarves

Choosing the right product from crowded beauty store shelves can be challenging. Talk to your stylist, who can help you find the right products for your hair type and daily routine.

Freshen Up with a Cut and Style from Therapy Hair Studio

Not only does a haircut rid you of split ends, it can also freshen up your look and make your hair look and feel fantastic. A professional stylist at Therapy Hair Studio can also direct you toward the products and services that can help you maintain your style with minimal damage.

Contact us today and schedule your next appointment!

Winter is here, so the weather is colder, the nights come sooner, and your hair will likely get dry and brittle. If your hair is already dry or prone to breakage, you may panic about caring for it during the colder months. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered. Here’s Therapy Hair Studio’s list of 10 invaluable winter hair care tips to keep your hair healthy this season and year.

Moisturize, Moisturize, Moisturize

Winter air is arid and crisp, leaving even the healthiest hair feeling dry and brittle. Regularly moisturizing your hair with an argan oil-based product will protect your hair from the harshest of the elements. You can also use a lightweight post-shampoo conditioner as a leave-in after your shower (make sure it isn’t too heavy, or your hair will look oily) and apply your favorite hair oil to the tips when you feel your ends splitting.

Don’t Go Out with Wet Hair

In today’s grab-and-go world, it’s easy to rush out of the house with wet hair as you make your way to work while beating the rush-hour traffic. But going out with damp hair during winter will leave it vulnerable to freezing and breaking. While air-drying your hair is always best, you can set your dryer to low heat before heading out the door.

Wear a Hat or Scarf

Hats and scarves are your best friends during the chilly winter months. Not only will they keep your head warm, but they will go a long way in keeping your hair protected. Hats work best for fine, thin hair, while scarves lock in moisture for thick, coarse, and curly hair. You can even style your hair in a braid or a bun and tuck it under the hat or scarf for extra protection.

Don’t Wash Your Hair Every Day

We get it: washing your hair makes you look and feel good. But unless you lead a very active lifestyle that drenches your hair in sweat, cleaning it daily will strip it of the protective oils that keep it moisturized and protected from the elements. During the winter months, your hair needs all the moisture it can get, so try washing it only once or twice a week, depending on your hair type and texture.

Don’t Blast Your Hair with Hot Water

On the days that you wash your hair, don’t use piping hot water. Hot water strips your hair of protective oils and moisture, leaving it looking dry and brittle even after thorough washing. Instead, rinse your hair with room temperature or cold water to lock in the moisture and keep it looking clean and neat.

Start Doing a Weekly Hair Mask

During the winter months, scheduling a weekly hair mask will go a long way in keeping your hair moisturized. Doing a weekly hair mask will reverse the damage that the extreme cold (and heat from styling) can wreak on your hair over time. Imagine having something that can “wash away all the sins” of your hair styling past!

Schedule Regular Trims

You don’t have to cut your hair every week or every other week to make it look stylish and neat. But getting a regular trim, where no more than one or two inches are snipped off the bottom to eliminate “split ends,” will go a long way in keeping your hair looking great during the harsh winter months.

Invest in a Humidifier

Cold air is arid, and the air, by design, needs to leech its moisture from somewhere. Your hair, therefore, becomes an easy target. Avoid this by investing in a humidifier for indoor air. This will keep moisture in the air and your hair.

Eat a Balanced Diet

Good-looking hair isn’t just about what’s on the outside – it’s about what’s on the inside, too. Your hair will never be healthy and quenched if you don’t eat a healthy, well-balanced, predominantly plant-based diet.

Don’t Brush Your Wet Hair

Finally, but no less important, don’t brush or style your hair while wet. Doing so will leave it prone to breakage, flyaways, and dryness, especially in winter. For more winter hair care tips, follow these simple steps.

If you’ve found it impossible to keep your hair moisturized and healthy in the winter months, let the hair care experts at Therapy Hair Studio help. We’ve been serving the greater Houston area since 2008 and have helped hundreds of clients get the hair of their dreams. Contact us today at (713) 355-4247 and discover why we’re Houston’s premier hair care specialists.

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You have definitely heard about split ends and may have even experienced them. Split ends are generally caused by a weakening of the bond between the cuticle and the cortex of the hair shaft. If your hair has split ends, you may have questions about what you can do to fix them and prevent them in the future. Here is some vital information about different types of split ends.

What Do Different Types of Split Ends Mean?

First off, there isn’t one way that damaged hair splits. Some common types of splits include partial splits, double splits, fork splits, and tree splits. Here are some reasons why each of these different types of split ends occurs and what they mean.

Partial Splits

These types of splits are probably the ones you’ve seen the most. This is a small-scale split and isn’t serious. They usually happen when your hair is dry and sustains damage, causing one part of the strand to break away from the main part. When your hair starts to have partial splits, sometimes called an incomplete split, it just means it is dry and overexposed to heat.

Double Splits

While these can look like larger partial splits, the dreaded double split is the easiest to recognize, if you see your hair split in two from the tip, creating a y shape, it is damaged by friction or over-styling your hair.

Fork Splits

While a little less common than the other types of split, a fork split happens when your hair follicle splits into three parts. This shape ends up looking like a fork. When you see this damage, it means your hair isn’t receiving proper hydration.

Tree Splits

If your hair damage has split ends coming out of various places of the follicle, you’re experiencing tree splits. If you see this damage, it means you must receive proper hair trimming because your hair is damaged.

No matter what type of split end you notice, you want to act quickly to prevent more damage. Split ends can signify health problems and ultimately cause further damage to your hair.

What Causes Different Types of Split Ends?

There are many different health factors and habits that can cause damage to the hair, often resulting in split ends. Here are some common causes:

• Over-brushing your hair

• Not using the right shampoos and conditioners for your hair type

• Towel drying your hair

• Heat styling your hair, like with a blow dryer on a high setting, frequently.

• Brushing out hair after a shower while it’s still wet

• Wearing tight ponytails, buns, or other high styles frequently

• Over-exposure to harsh chemicals or chemical treatments, like in swimming pools or hair bleach

Your hair is also affected by everyday wear and tear; some hair types are more prone to splitting than others.

How Do I Fix Different Types of Split Ends?

Before cutting off your hair, treat the damage first. Different hair types require specialized treatment for different types of split ends. Preventative hair care can go a long way toward keeping hair hydrated and healthy. For instance, if you have curly hair, staying hydrated may require a deep condition since it takes longer to absorb the conditioner. The right hair mask can achieve this process.

If you have fine, straight hair that suffers from excessive heat damage, consider getting a heat protectant spray and applying it to your damp hair. Preparing your hair for exposure to heat helps prevent split down the line and keeps the necessary moisture in your hair.

Schedule an Appointment with an Expert Houston Hair Stylist Today

Sometimes, home treatments aren’t enough to help reverse your hair’s damage. You may need to work with a professional to fix your dry and damaged hair. The right hair stylist can help assess the level of damage to your hair and use a suitable treatment. At Therapy Hair Studio, we’ll work with you to ensure your hair gets the treatments and care it needs to recover. We can even help you schedule regular trims to prevent split ends in the future.

As Houston’s expert salon, we’re prepared to help address your hair’s health through specialized treatments, regular trims, and personalized hair care advice. Let us help support your hair care and help you maintain healthier, split-free hair so that you can feel confident. So what are you waiting for? Contact us today at (713) 355-4247 to book your appointment!

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