Split-End Menders 101
What Every Stylist Should Know About These Promising Products
As a stylist, you’re used to making your clients’ hair dreams come true. Right?
Most of the time, you’re not dishing out any of the bad news–you’re fixing problems, accomplishing stunning styles, and helping your clients get where they want to go.
Sometimes, though, you gotta be the bearer of bad news–and sometimes, that bad news is all about split ends.
Here’s the tough truth about split ends that you must share with your clients.
You can’t entirely get rid of them or *heal* them without getting a trim.
Sorry, it’s science!
So, when a client comes to you desperately begging for a split-end treatment that doesn’t require trimmers, well–that’s likely not something you can promise.
What can you do? Educate them on split-end treatments that can help reduce the appearance of split ends and strengthen hair to prevent new ones.
Of course, there are plenty of products and techniques out there that claim to either get rid of them altogether or magically fix hair somehow. No, this isn’t the case and you can’t promise your clients something that won’t happen.
So, you need to make sure you’re being clear about the results they’ll get, what the benefits of these treatments are, and what they should expect versus what they’re promised.
How can you do that?
By being as educated as possible about the existing options out there.
Let’s dive into a few of the hottest trends in split-end menders to layout a dose of reality and help you decide what you should recommend and what you can advise your clients to avoid for split-end treatment.
What Are Split-End Menders?
First, we’re going to repeat ourselves–split-ends cannot be permanently repaired. Unfortunately, nothing will solve a split-end problem except a good pair of shears and an understanding stylist who takes a clients’ “just a trim!” wishes seriously.
With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s talk about split-end menders.
Some products, called split-end menders, can help to “glue” split ends together to help give the illusion of a healthy hair strand.
Mostly, this makes split-ends less noticeable and helps to strengthen and protect brittle pieces of hair from splitting further or progressing.
There are a lot of different types of products and techniques out there that “mend” split-ends this way, and they come in a lot of different mediums, like:
- Hair serums
- Smoothing balms
- Blowout treatments
- Leave-in conditioners
- Lotions
- Bonding agents
That’s just the start of the list, too. There are a lot of things out there that claim to mend split-ends–so, which can you trust to recommend to your clients?
A Few Split-End Mender Details Every Stylist Should Know About
There are a lot of different products and techniques out there that claim to help split ends–but being sure about what works best can be tricky. And as you know, a lot is on the line when you recommend something to your clients.
You want to be sure you’re getting it right? Do a little research on what works and what doesn’t. Here, we’ll start you off with a few split-end menders you should know about.
End Sealants & Sealer Treatments
Most end sealers and sealing treatments promise to use chemicals that help to mend hair, reduce the look of split ends, and act as a glue that keeps already-split hair from appearing split.
Ideally, an end sealer product will work in conjunction with another purpose (like a color protectant) and will help to bind hair at the shaft to prevent any further breakage from moving upward. Other benefits can include things like:
- A boost in moisture
- Enhanced shine
- Protection against heat
- Prevention of natural keratin deterioration
Bonding Agent Split-End Menders
Bonding agents are all about making hair smoother and shinier, which, helps to reduce the appearance of split-ends and prevent new split-ends from forming.
Bond building technology in hair is all about using a certain type of active ingredients to locate and target the broken bands that are responsible for hair strength, then work to link them back together to help reduce further breakage.
In other words, it can reconstruct the structure of hair to help give a smoothed, shinier appearance. This treatment works best on hair that’s dealt with chemical and thermal treatments.
Brazilian Blowout Split-End Treatments
There are a lot of different products and techniques out there that incorporate this idea and not all of them are identical, but the general concept is the same.
Typically, this split-end mender will work best on chemically treated, porous hair.
The idea is simple: a heat-activated protein is used post-treatment or post-color to help create a protective layer around the shaft of the hair, improving the appearance and concealing breakage.
This treatment typically smooths damaged cuticles, eliminates frizz (which can make hair appear more damaged than it is), and prevent future or progressive breakage.
Restorative Hair Masks
You’ve likely used hair masks on your clients to offer deep conditioning treatments that help to restore moisture directly to the shafts of hair–for this reason, the right hair masks can make for phenomenal split-end menders.
No matter the product, the general idea is that the mask will help glue sends together, improve the overall appearance of your hair, and conceal any breakage you might have.
At the end of the day, the only real fix for split-ends is a visit to your chair–but that doesn’t mean your clients can’t reap the benefits of these products and techniques while reducing the appearance of split ends.
Right?
Remember, no matter how well your clients care for their hair, split ends are going to happen.
So be a resource to your customers and let them know there are options to help reduce the appearance of brittle, damaged hair in between their salon visits.
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