20 Top Split Ends Treatments: Expert Guide to Healing Your Hair

Last Update: January 19, 2024

Split-end treatments began with simple, single-use sachets of conditioner about 50 years ago, when the first plug-in, electric hair-curling tongs started taking over from plastic rollers.

And today there are hundreds of different, specifically-targeted products to help with this universal hair problem for women!

Different Types of Split Ends and What They Mean /Marie Claire

So although there’s no way to re-combine split-ends, there is a lot you can do to prevent and improve them.

Using one or more of these Top Split-End Treatments, you can keep your hair in better condition and avoid the damage that hot tools and bad treatment wreak on your hair!

How to Prevent Split-ends naturally: 8 Great Ways to Prevent Split-ends

what causes split ends — causes split ends

1. Don’t Rub Wet Hair with a Towel

Wet hair is very weak and elastic, so any rough treatment will create damage that soon becomes split ends.

The safest way to dry your hair is to use an extra-absorbent micro-fiber towel to wrap around your hair, then gently press and squeeze to blot the water out of your hair, instead of rubbing it.

Try one of these towels and you’ll see the difference in your hair’s condition!

Volo Hero Micro-fiber Hair Towel
Turbie-Twist Micro-fiber Hair Towel Wrap
Youlertex Micro-fiber Hair Towel Wrap

2. Use a Hair Dryer Correctly

First of all, never start drying your hair when it’s dripping wet.

You should towel-dry hair and blot out as much moisture as possible – up to 90% – before switching on your dryer.

Avoid pointing the dryer at the ends of your hair and instead focus on the roots and mid-section, with the nozzle moving swiftly to give an even application of heat.

Best of all wash your hair in the evening and leave it to dry naturally as often as is practical or dry your hair with cold air.

Always apply a heat protecting product first and use one of the modern hair dryers that are designed to help protect hair from heat damage.

For example:

Bumble & Bumble Hairdressers’ Invisible Oil Heat & UV Protective Primer
Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer review

The Dyson dryer speeds-up healthy hair-drying in a way that increases shine and stops frizz appearing.

3. Apply Safe Hair-Straightener Temperatures

Using your hair tools on the highest temperature isn’t the way to straighten or curl your hair any quicker!

Hair reaches maximum moldability at 180 degrees, so if you use any temperature higher than this, you are just damaging your hair and the curl/straightening will not last.

Keratin creates strength, softness, shine and manageability, but if you use high temperatures you are directly destroying the keratin core.

So please don’t spoil your hair by using temperatures over 180 degrees.

Use one of these two top-rated heat-protection products before you apply straighteners or tongs:

GHD Platinum+ Styler Hair Straightener
Dyson Corrale Hair Straightener – Sephora.com

4. Correct Hair-Brushes to Protect Hair

Wet hair is weak and easy to damage when it’s wet, so a paddle-brush isn’t suitable for brushing wet hair.

If you must style your hair when wet, use a special, wide-toothed comb and start combing at the ends and gradually move up to the mid-sections and roots.

If your hair is dense and curly, divide it into sections before brushing.

Try one of these expert-recommended brushes:-

Manta Hair Fully-Flexible Hair Brush
Wet Brush Hair Brush Shower De-tangler
Wet Brush Baby Brush Snag-Free De-tangler

5. Use a Repairing Shampoo or Conditioner

No shampoo or conditioner can remove split-ends, but special products full of extra-moisturizing ingredients will help improve the appearance of split-ends.

Good shampoos/conditioners protect and strengthen your hair and will help it withstand the damage caused by bad brushing and chemical dyes etc.

Try one of these excellent shampoos to improve your hair’s moisture content:

Seven Kente Bond Shampoo
Philip Kingsley Re-Moisturizing Shampoo – Dermstore.com
Mon Shampooing Natural Shampoo with Vegetable Keratin

6. Get a Keratin Treatment

Keratin treatments work well and are well-worth the investment, particularly on frizzy, dry split-ends.

They reinforce delicate hair strands by infusing a large dose of the key proteins, especially the keratin that healthy hair needs.

Keratin is like poly-filler and it fills in missing sections in hair strands to make them fuller and smoother.

When done correctly, keratin treatments give mirror-shine to hair and make your hair much easier and quicker to style.

And one keratin treatment lasts for several months:

Try one of these home keratin treatments:

Chi Keratin Silk Infusion
L’Anza Keratin Hair Treatment Healing Oil
Nexxus Keraphix Gel Treatment or Ulta.com

7. Eat a Balanced Diet with Vitamins & Minerals

Never underestimate the importance of a healthy, balanced diet to having good skin and healthy hair.

Eat plenty of natural foods, especially fruit and vegetables and avoid any processed items, which are full of salt, fat, sugar and chemicals that actively harm your hair and skin.

If necessary, try these vitamin supplements to tackle your split-ends with good nutrition:

SugarbearHair Vegan Gummy Hair Vitamins
Nutrafol Women’s Hair Growth
Viviscal Women’s Hair Growth Supplements

8. Sleep on a Silk Pillowcase

This is an excellent way to prevent damaging friction that happens when your hair rubs against a cotton or cotton/polyester pillowcase for hours each night.

You can also wear a silk scarf to protect your hair, if you don’t want to buy a pillowcase. Charity shops often have cheap silk garments you can buy and cut up to make suitable, silk head-wraps.

Try one of these excellent silk pillowcases:

Silk Queen Pillowcase
Fishers Finery 100% Pure Mulberry Silk Pillowcase

20 Top Split-End Treatments

Gently massaging natural oil onto a dry or damaged hair strand provides necessary amino acids that nourish your hair and greatly improve the look of split-ends.

1. Coconut Oil Split-End Treatment for Strong Hair

Coconut oil is one of the best treatments for skin, nails and hair, and can be used to improve the appearance of split-ends and moisturize your dry hair.

Coconut Oil Treatment for Strong Hair & Iherb.com

2. Combined Oils Split-End Treatment

Both almond and argan oils are extremely moisturizing and do an excellent job of treating and preventing split-ends.

PRZ Almond & Argan Oil for Split-Ends

3. Everyday Split-End Oil Treatment

As a preventative, many hair experts recommend daily hydrating oils as one of the best ways to avoid your hair ends splitting.

These products are silicone-free and non-greasy, making them an excellent way to stop frizz and split-ends, especially on strong, curly hair and they smell wonderful, too!

Bread Beauty Supply Hair-Oil for Daily Split-End Treatment & Sephora.com

4. Deep Split-End Treatment Session

Jojoba oil has been a popular hair treatment for many years and it delivers constant, reliable results.

It’s especially good for hair that is flyaway, and provides a hefty dose of extra moisture for regularly dyed or permed hair.

It’s also highly recommended for protecting hair from damage done by the sun and salty, sea-water.

Deep Split-End Treatment Session with Jojoba Oil & Sephora.com

5. Heavy–Duty Split-End Treatment Oils

Olive-oil and castor-oil are excellent for use on thick, coarse hair that needs constant moisturizing to prevent and treat split-ends on dry hair.

Both of these natural oils are perfect for nourishing and treating damaged hair. And you can massage a little of these oils directly into your hair before blow-drying or ironing straight!

Olive Oil – Buy any brand locally
Castor Oil Heavy Split-Ends Oil Treatment – Iherb.com & Amazon.com

6. Rebuilding Damaged Hair – Leave-in Serum

Leave-in serum treatment products are designed to penetrate deeply into the hair-shafts and rebuild the core, for long-lasting improvement.

Look for hair serums that have peptides and other effective ingredients, which usually only appear in expensive skin-care items.

For example:

Split-End Hair Rebuild with Leave-in Serum , Sephora.com & iHerb

7. Treatments for Damaged Hair – Leave-in Conditioner

Use gentle conditioners that have natural ingredients like, nourishing silk proteins, keratin molecules, coconut oil and cocoa butter.

With regular use, leave-in conditioners can make a vast improvement in your hair’s condition, and help in the long-term prevention of damaged hair and dry tips.

Damaged Strands Treatment Leave-in Conditioner – iHerb, Amazon.com & Sephora.com

8. Nighttime Hair Treatment for Split-Ends

Overnight hair serums are also very effective in improving the appearance of split-ends.

Choose one that contains keratin and natural oils, as when mixed together these two ingredients feed and hydrate your hair perfectly.

The long leave-in period, coupled with gentle warmth from your scalp, leave hair strands stronger, softer and less likely to break.

Here’s a great nighttime serum to try:

Night Split-End Treatment – Night Serum – Sephora.com & Amazon.com

9. Instant Hair-Repair Serum

If you have greasy hair, choose a serum that has a light consistency and apply it to wet hair only, just after washing.

Lightweight hair serum works equally well on dry hair-types, but in this case you need to apply it undiluted to your hair when it is dry.

Try:

Instant Hair – Split-End Repair Smoothing Serum – Sephora.com & Amazon.com

10. Anti-frizz Treatments for Thick Curly Hair

These anti-frizz treatments have revolutionized home hair-care for women with dry, curly hair!

Anti-frizz products seal the hair cuticle, locking moisture in and keeping humidity out.

You can apply an anti-frizz product on damp hair from a sprayer, or use it on wet hair that’s just been washed and conditioned, if you have a serious frizz problem.

My favorite anti-frizz treatments include:

John Frieda Frizz-Ease Extra Strength Serum for Thick, Coarse Hair
Dehydrated Broken Ends Treatment Anti-Frizz Conditioner – Sephora.com & Amazon.com
Day-long Frizz Protection Anti-frizz Spray – Ulta.com, Sephora.com & Amazon.com

11. Broken-Ends & Curl-Repair Masks

Moisturizing hair-masks are also a great way to nourish dry hair-tips.

They tend to offer deeper hydration and work well on damaged, dried-out hair types.

Some ingredients to look out for include coconut oil, hydrolyzed soy protein and cupuaçu-seed butter, which all help strengthen and moisturize split hair.

Reparative Hair Mask – Sephora.com, Amazon.com & Ulta.com

12. DIY Avocado Hair Mask – Deep Hydration Split-End Treatment

Avocado hair treatments are still one of the best performing hair hydrating and nourishing products.

And this is something you can easily make at home, too.

Mash up an avocado and mix it with a raw egg to make a creamy paste.
Add a little olive-oil until you get a consistency that’s a little thicker than conditioner.
Apply the mask to your hair with most mixture going on the ends, where hair is driest.
Leave on for 30 – 40 minutes, with a plastic bag over your hair to help create gentle warmth that aids penetration.
Rinse well with cool to warm water, never hot water or the egg will ‘scramble’.

The results are always excellent and leave hair soft and shiny!

This mask contains 3 fatty acids, Vitamin K and E to soften, feed, moisturize and help repair damaged hair. Or you can buy this easy-use mask:

Deep-Hydration Split-ends Treatment Avocado Hair Mask – iHerb.com, Ulta.com, Amazon.com & Sephora.com

13. Keratin Split-End Treatment Hair Mask

In addition to avocado hair masks, you should also use a Keratin split-ends treatment.

Keratin penetrates to the core of hair-shafts to help replenish the keratin that keeps hair strong and resilient.

And if you don’t like mess or are short of time, a keratin mask only takes 5 minutes a couple of times a week!

This is one of the Keratin masks I love to use:

Keratin Split-ends Treatment Hair Mask – iHerb.com, Ulta.com, Amazon.com

14. Greasy Roots with Dry Tips – Damage Repair

Anyone with greasy ends and dry tips knows it’s difficult to choose the best conditioning product.

However, there are some excellent hair masks for this condition, which have natural ingredients like almond milk and goji berries.

They are more expensive than the usual hair mask, but if you use heat tools or have brittle, dry hair sections, they are certainly worth the investment to rescue scruffy-looking hair!

This deeply nourishing hair mask rescued my hair after it was dried-out from leaving perm lotion on for too long.

Deep Nourishing Hair Mask – iHerb.com, Ulta.com & Sephora.com

15. Hair-Dye & Bleach Split-End Protection & Treatment

Hair coloring chemicals are a major cause of dry, brittle hair, so you should be using a color-protecting shampoo and conditioning product all the time, if you color your hair regularly.

Color-protection conditioners restore the external cuticles of the hair and bring back healthy shine by smoothing and softening hair-shafts.

Try this excellent conditioner:

Color Protect Conditioner for Preventing Split-Ends – Sephora.com, Amazon.com, iHerb.com & Ulta.com

16. Hair-Color Protection for Fine Hair

In addition to this, I must recommend Olaplex hair-care products, which are more expensive, but are extremely popular for their excellent restorative properties.

Many international hair salons use Olaplex as a matter of course when using hair-dyes and bleaching products.

Olaplex is a damage-prevention treatment that is applied to wet hair before you shampoo or condition it.

And you can mix it into your hair-dye product, too, which gives your hair a really good protective barrier – especially if you have fine or thinning hair.

So take a look at this high-end, effective split-end prevention treatment:

Olaplex Hair Perfector – Sephora.com & Amazon.com

17. Dry Hair/Split-End Shampoo Treatments

In addition to conditioners, you can also use a special, gentle shampoo to help you improve the appearance of split-ends.

Look out for nourishing and strengthening shampoos, which improve the health of your hair and scalp for more flexible, less brittle hair.

Experts recommend shampoos with natural ingredients like honey, bee propolis and royal jelly.

And shampoos with hyaluronic acid and vitamins are also an excellent dry-hair treatment.

With a gorgeous fragrance, a good dry-hair shampoo will guard against color damage and leave your hair silky and smooth.

Dry Hair Shampoo iHerb.com, Sephora.com & Ulta.com
Shampoo for Hair Damage and Split-Ends – Sephora.com, iHerb.com, Amazon.com & Ulta.com

18. Hair-Follicle Treatments with Collagen Booster

Taking a collagen supplement is the best internal way to boost the health and repair damaged hair.

And externally, you can help hair produce more collagen with a DIY hair-mask of honey and olive-oil.

Olive-oil is a completely natural, moisturizing oil that beauty experts all agree is still one of the best hair treatments you can get!

It feeds, hydrates and nourishes the hair and scalp with its high oleic-acid content.

And honey is a humectant, which draws in moisture from the air around you to stop hair from drying out. Here’s how to make a honey and olive oil mask:

Mix 3 tablespoons of olive-oil with 2 tablespoons of natural, raw honey
Apply the mixture to hair after shampooing and towel-drying and leave for 30 minutes
Rinse out carefully and wash your hair with a mild, treatment shampoo to suit your hair type

Collagen supplement & Vital Proteins.com

19. Heat Protection Products to Prevent Split-Ends

As hot hair-styling tools are one of the worst causes of hair damage, blow-dry lotion and thermal-protection products are essential to keep your hair in healthy condition.

Oil-based heat protection products are the best way to keep the keratin in your hair from being damaged by heat and the best-quality ones contain papaya-seed oil and coconut-oil.

And if you prefer the scientific approach, look for thermal products that contain hyaluronic acid and fig-extract, which prevent frizz.

Try this wonderful hair protection and repair treatment:

Thermal Protection Treatment Heat Protectant , Sephora.com & Ulta.com

20. UV Protection & After-sun Split-End Treatments

We know that we should be using UV skin protection every day of the year to protect the skin from collagen-destroying rays, but are you also protecting your hair?

If you spend time out-of-doors or just live in a very sunny location, you probably know that sunshine dries out your hair and bleaches the color from the top section.

So whatever type of hair you have, make sure your hair doesn’t get sun-burnt by using a UV blocker.

Gentle, organic formulas with natural ingredients like avocado-oil, black cumin-seed oil, sea-buckthorn and rose-hip can protect and add moisture to your hair in dry conditions:

Sun UV Radiation Hair Protectant & Sephora.com

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The long-lasting trend for long hair in straight or wavy styles has caused a rise in the use of heat tools on hair, because we all want the opposite hair-type from the one we were born with!

Those born with curly hair love to straighten it with hot-tools and straightening perms, and those with fine, straight, hair – like me – use perms and hot-tongs to curl it. LOL!

And this has meant our general hair condition has suffered, especially as bleached balayage and hair-dyeing have also gained popularity.

Long-hair is already vulnerable to split-ends as the further it grows away from the roots, the less natural oil reaches the tips.

So I hope this list of the best, lab-tested, split-end treatments, recommended by hair-care consultants around the world, will help you find the perfect solution to your split-end problems!

And if you’re facing a tight budget this year, the best, traditional hair-repair treatments are still olive-oil, avocado, castor-oil, honey, eggs and coconut-oil!

So there’s something cheap and effective to help every one of us have shinier, healthier, gorgeous hair!

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