Self-care for your hair: how to manage split ends

It’s been four months since I’ve set foot in one of my three favorite hair salons. Cole Stevens is the all-around fav in DC for hair health and styling, and I was a semi-regular with Precious before COVID-19; Fana at Bubbles gave me bi-monthly Olaplex hair conditioning treatments that I have faithfully gotten since 2015, and when I had a traumatizing issue with severe hair loss after an illness, she comforted me as I cried and conditioned my hair back to health, the healthiest it’s ever been. And I also am good for a quick and easy blowout from Senni at Drybar, because sometimes you need to be in and out in an hour, with champagne as a plus.

All that to say, I’m no stranger to a hair salon and certainly don’t trust my own abilities…until now! Without the ability (or comfort yet) to go to a hair salon, my split ends still needed to be cleaned up. I got some good guidance from a stylist about how to help maintain my ends while I am at home. I gave myself a simple split end clean-up and I must say it was easy, I didn’t give myself an accidental mullet and I’m happy with the results that will hold me over until I can go to a salon.

Here are the easy steps:

• Buy a good pair of haircutting shears. Here’s what I use.

• Part and separate a small section of your hair, about the size you’d use to curl a section of your hair.
• Lace a small section of your hair through your fingers.

• Very slowly, slide your fingers down your hair shaft, and cut the small frayed ends that pop out until you get to the very ends. More strands pop out the closer to the end of the shaft as that’s where the most split ends are.
• As a double check, take that section of hair and twist it. See if there are any tiny strands that pop out of the twist, and trim those as well.

That’s it! Again, I do not advocate for ditching your hair stylists, because I certainly will not. But this hair hack has been clutch in not letting my ends get out of control before my next salon visit, and it feels good to be self-sufficient in managing my hair health in this way.