Do Split Ends Stop Hair Growth - Natural Ways to Prevent Split Ends

Do split ends stop hair growth? No, they don’t.

The hair still grows out of your head, but you won’t see the length grow any longer as long as the split ends are continuing to break off.

So also yes, in a way split ends stop you from being able to see the hair growth.

Do Split Ends Stop Hair Growth- Explained

Split ends are usually the biggest question mark that is unexplained by stylists.

As stylists and barbers, we are responsible for educating our guests so that guests have the knowledge to have the healthiest and happiest hair you can have.

Educating Your Customers- Why It’s Important

What are “split ends”?

Why does my hair seem to always have split ends? Some people call it the ‘dead’ at the ends of their hair.

It’s so frustrating!

I know, dear reader, it is frustrating. But I’m here to help! Let me explain why it seems like split ends stop hair growth or even slow them down.

The end of an individual hair strand that has become damaged.

Each individual hair strand has a cuticle, like shingles on a roof, that lay over each other to protect the internal chemicals, structure, and overall integrity of the hair. When the cuticle is damaged this is a split end.

What Causes Split Ends?

There are many things that damage the cuticle causing split ends. And this may come as good or bad news to you, depending on how you see it. There’s nothing you can do to prevent split ends.

Some split ends are just from regular wear and tear.

Water from washing it
Wear from sleeping on it
Brushing the hair
Wearing your hair up too tightly
Being in the sun and wind

All normal and regular things that you should be exposing yourself and your hair to. It’s just normal wear and tear and you continue to maintain the hair. It’s easy.

What do Split Ends Look Like?

Sometimes split ends are obvious, frayed and tangly. Other times split ends look like white dots at the end of the hair strand.

The hair can break and have split ends not at the end, but in the middle. You can tell by the sharp angle and usually looks like a white spot in the middle of the strand, but not always white.

Have you ever been in line at the grocery store or the bank and saw someone with the most gorgeous waist-length hair? Have you ever noticed the knotty-ness at the end? Or even better, the long amazing hair is cut straight and even and looks even prettier?

Which one catches your eye and looks healthier?

How to Treat Split Ends

I am a visual person, so I like to describe split ends this way; Imagine frayed rope. Once frayed and broken and left outside in the elements, what happens? It continues to fray more until cut.

If you get the broken ends cut off the hair will have a nice fresh end and you will be able to see the growth better rather than the hair breaking off the same amount that it’s growing. And there’s nothing you can do to heal a split end once it becomes broken and split.

5 Tips to Prevent Split Ends and Keep Hair Growing

Deep Conditioning Masks

👉 Hydration is key to getting split ends to stop hair growth progress.

Keeping your hair hydrated is the best way to keep the split end from drying out and breaking further.

I highly recommend using shampoo and conditioner in the shower, as well as a leave-in conditioner after you get out of the shower. Most hair is naturally dry. Even in humidity, it is very easy for hair to dry out.

The more hydrated it is, the less brittle and split the ends will get. But again, keep in mind that regular wear and tear happens, washing it, sleeping on it, touching it with your hands, being in the sun, all of which are good things, they will eventually cause normal wear and tear creating some brokenness.

There are many recipes online for deep hydrating masks made with ingredients from your own kitchen!

25 Best Ingredients for Hair Growth – DIY At Home Remedies

My personal favorite hydrating hair mask for growth is the Flaxseed Gel Mask. I LOVE it and use it regularly.

Grow Hair Fast- Best Hydrating Mask for Every Hair Type

👉 Avoid Bad and Damaging Products

For the best hydration, you should use a shampoo and conditioner that are separate (no 2 in 1’s!). And I strongly recommend regularly using hydrating hair masks.

Is 2 in 1 Shampoo Bad?

Harmful, toxic ingredients to avoid in cleansing products and styling products that can dry out the hair and cause damage to the follicles.

❌ Dimethicone

❌ Cetyl dimethicone

❌ Cetearyl methicone

❌ Dimethiconol

❌ Stearyl dimethicone

❌ DMDM 5-dimethyl hydantoin

❌ 3-dimethylol-5

❌ Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS)

❌ Diethanolamine

❌ Isopropanol

❌ Phthalates (a type of artificial fragrance or perfume)

❌ Cyclomethicone

❌ Amodimethicone

❌Trimethylsilylamodimethicone

❌ Cyclopentasiloxane

❌ Formalin

❌ Methylene glycol

❌ Quaternium-15

❌ Ammonium lauryl sulfate (ALS)

❌ Propylene glycol

❌ Propanol

👉 Towel Dry and Avoid Heat

Using a towel to blot dry (not scrub or twist because that stretches the hair to the point of breaking) and avoiding the heat of a blow dryer will help keep the cuticle down.

Hair has a certain amount of elasticity, a tiny bit of stretchiness before it breaks. When the hair is wet it increases the elasticity and the hair will break off.

Heat lifts the cuticle, so a blow dryer with a heat setting on too high will lift the cuticle and will dry out the hair from the inside, also drying out the good parts of the hair, not just get rid of the water. And like we talked about above, hydration prevents split ends.

👉 Comb, Don’t Brush Wet Hair

Again, the hair is elastic, and when wet it increases how much the hair stretches and it’s easier to stretch it to it’s breaking point when wet.

When the hair is wet, comb the hair instead of brushing. A brush is too wide and will stretch wet hair too far. A comb is narrow and doesn’t stretch the hair to it’s breaking point.

(Have you ever looked in the mirror at your part and wondered why you have so many stray little frizzies up there that static just loves? It’s very likely because the hair was brushed when wet instead of combed.)

👉 Cutting Off the Split Ends Before They Even Start

Just because your hair is hydrated does not mean that it magically doesn’t rid of get split ends, or that the split ends have healed, the only way to fully prevent and stop split ends before they even start is to trim them off before they get worse.

👉 Protect your Hair at the Pool

Summertime, swim lessons, swim practice, hot tub relaxation… water with high chlorine content will buildup on the hair and chlorine itself will dry out the cuticle, making it more brittle.

Protect your hair before swimming by –

Wetting the hair and putting on protective oil before getting in the pool
Wearing a swimcap
Washing with clarifying shampoo

How to Remove Chlorine from Hair – 11 Tips from a Pro

How to Stop Split Ends

Get a Haircut or Trim

The simplest, cheapest, most reliable, honest, and straightforward way to treat split ends is to get regular haircuts.

You should be getting a haircut every 8-12 weeks. When you get regular haircuts within this time frame, you shouldn’t need more than a quarter of an inch cut off every time.

In 3 months, on average, for most people, the hair will grow 3 inches. So, for 3 months of growth, regularly cutting off the damaged two or three weeks worth of growth (quarter of an inch) you will still have over 2 inches of healthy growth that you can keep.

If you are one of the individuals that struggle with split ends in the middle of the hair strand, not just the end, I have another article coming for you. Be encouraged! It’ll be okay. That is a bit of a longer healing and cutting process but I’ll explain it later.

Use a Hydrating Mask

Split ends are a result of broken cuticle of the hair, right? The cuticle has a habit of lifting when the hair is dry to let in moisture from the air.

If split ends lift what’s left of the cuticle it will get caught on other hairs and break further. Hydrate and smooth the ends and the cuticle with a hydrating mask.

Use Less Heat

Ladies! Hot tools are amazing but using them too often will dry out your hair further, burn the driest parts (usually the ends) and encourage the breakage to creep its way up the strand.

When you use a hot tool, curling iron or flat iron, you MUST use a heat protectant spray! If you do not use heat protectant spray currently, but want to understand why it’s important please see Do I Really Need Heat Protectant For My Hair? -Ask a Professional

But there’s an easy fix!

Use hot tools less often, and wash less often, maybe once every 3 or 4 days. If this doesn’t seem possible to you because of uninvited greasiness the next morning, never fear! You can actually train the scalp to be less greasy!

Why does my Hair Get Greasy Overnight?

12 Tips How to Prevent Greasy Hair Overnight – Training your Hair to Not get Greasy

Use a Microfiber Towel

Squeezing instead of wringing the hair out and using a microfiber towel will help stop split ends because it won’t tear the hair.

Protect from Chlorine

Chlorine naturally dries out hair so when you go swimming, be sure to either wear a swim cap, or wet the hair beforehand and put an oil or conditioner on the hair so there isn’t any more room in the hair to soak up the chlorine water. And use a clarifying shampoo immediately after swimming to prevent buildup of chlorine.

Can You Mask Split Ends?

For a short period of time, yes. Through moisturizing masks and oils and deep hydration you can mask split ends temporarily but in the end you will need to trim the broken hairs off to get healthy hair again.

FAQs Do Split Ends Stop Hair Growth?

How Fast do Split Ends Stop Hair Growth?

Hair will continue to grow even when the ends are split. However you might notice a decrease in the amount of length because even with new growth the ends are breaking off at the same rate as the hair is growing!

Depending on the integrity (condition) of your hair and hair habits the how fast you see the split ends making it look like the hair has stopped growing can be anywhere between 8 weeks to a year.

If you have fragile hair, brush instead of comb it, wear it up too tightly, use bad hair products, or your hair is especially dry might speed up how fast you see split ends stop hair growth.

Can Split Ends be Repaired?

Unfortunately, no. Once the hair strand is broken and split there is no fully reversing the damage than to cut it off.

You can prevent the split end from getting worse before cutting it by increasing the amount of moisturizing masks and hydration you put on your hair.

How to Prevent Split Ends Naturally

Frequent Trims
Natural Home-made Moisturizing Masks
Don’t Brush Wet Hair
Use a Microfiber Towel
Be Gentle with your Hair

25 Best Ingredients for Hair Growth – DIY at Home Remedies

Does Damaged Hair Stop Growing?

No, hair grows from the roots, not the ends, so it will continue to grow. However, damaged hair does have a tendency to be more fragile and will break typically from the ends up.

So, if the ends are split and broken due to damage, the length will continue to break and can seem as though it’s stopped growing though in reality it is just breaking off the same amount as it is growing.

How to Grow Hair Fast

Hair growth increases with blood circulation. The more blood circulates to the follicles, stimulating them and washing away toxins that soak in from the scalp, the faster the hair will grow.

So… blood circulation increases with –

Scalp Massage
Stimulating products containing Tea Tree or Peppermint
Exercise
Brushing (only on dry hair)
Increase water intake

By using the Flax Seed Mask recipe below you can also eradicate free radicals on the scalp because of its strong vitamin E and B contents.

How to Grow Hair Fast – Best Hair Mask for All Hair Types

What Happens if you Don’t Cut Split Ends?

If you don’t cut split ends your hair will still grow, but the ends will continue to break and split up the hair strand unless it is cut off.

The outside of the hair strand is called the cuticle, it’s like shingles on a roof or bark on a tree. Once the bark on a tree is torn off or damaged it doesn’t regrow or heal, the internal branch stays exposed.

It’s the same for the cuticle on hair, once its damaged nothing can repair it except cut it off. You can always treat split ends with a hydrating mask or conditioner to keep the cuticle smooth but it will not miraculously repair or heal the broken cuticle. But it might help prevent further damage.

Will My Hair Stop Growing with Split Ends?

No, your hair continues to grow at the roots, but you might see less growth in length if the ends continue to break off the ends.

It is possible for the same amount of growth per month to break off the ends making it appear as if the hair stopped growing.

Is it Necessary to Cut your Split Ends?

Yes. There is no other solution to entirely treat and get rid of split ends except to cut them. This is why it’s important to get regular haircuts, by trimming the minimum amount off, say half an inch, occasionally you save inches of length you would have to cut off if you wait to get cut once a year or more.

Does Trimming Promote Hair Growth?

Trimming doesn’t help the hair grow more, because the growth happens at the roots. However, it helps maintain healthy ends so that it prevents breakage of the ends and you can see the growth in length.

Why Will My Hair Not Take or Hold Color?

Because of how breakage works, like discussed above, it is difficult for hair to take color and hold dye, artificial pigment, when there are split ends because the color molecules just rinse right out since the shaft is cracked and broken.

The protective outer shell of each hair strand is broken and thus does not protect the inside of the hair or encourage the color molecules to remain inside the hair.

My Hair Won’t Take Color- Why and What To Do About It

Is Splitting your Split Ends Good for your Hair?

No! Splitting your split ends only increases the split-ness and damage of the hair.

Only cutting the split hair off will get rid of the damage and prevent the split ends from getting worse.

Can Split Ends Cause Hair Thinning?

No. Thinning happens because of a number of other issues, but split ends only happens when the cuticle, or the outside shaft of the hair strand are damaged. It does not effect the growth at the scalp

Do Split Ends Stop Hair Growth – Natural Ways to Prevent Split Ends