The ends of your hair, being the oldest parts of the hair shaft, have the highest likelihood of losing their protective layer exposing them to dryness and inevitable split ends.
It’s no wonder they feel dry and rough to the touch even though you regularly moisturize your hair.
Here are some of the most common reasons why your hair is dry at the ends.
1. Split ends
Your ends are dry because they are probably split.
Split ends refer to the ends of your hair that have split into two or more parts. They can be caused by a myriad of reasons, from heat damage to chemical damage and also over manipulation.
If they are not taken care of early enough, the hair shaft continues splitting upwards.
These split ends cause your hair ends to frizz and become dry as it is a sign of your hair shaft being damaged.
2. Heat Damage
Heat damage occurs from excessive use of heat while styling hair. The heat saps moisture out of your hair leaving it dry, brittle, and weak.
It also damages the outer and inner parts of your hair (cuticle and cortex), making it difficult for the ends to hold moisture properly even if you try to moisturize it.
3. Chemical Damage
Dry ends may also be caused by chemical damage
When you use relaxers, bleaches, and dyes excessively, the result is chemical damage. These chemicals often penetrate your hair strands or alter the structure to do what they’re meant to do.
This allows them to wreck damage to the layers of your hair strands causing them to dry up and become brittle.
The ends of your hair suffer the most as they are old and have lost their protective cover, therefore drier than the rest of the hair shaft.
4. Skipping trims
I know what you might be thinking; I want my hair to grow long why do I need to trim it? You need to trim your hair ends to get rid of the dry ends, let me explain.
Split ends, not only are they bad news for your hair, are very difficult to prevent.
Trimming the hair is one of the best ways to keep the split end at bay and to prevent further damage further down the hair shaft. Trimming also stimulate growth, makes the hair more manage and reduces the chances of severe tangling.
Therefore, skipping trims only makes things worse resulting in dry and brittle ends.
5. Over-washing
You might think that washing your hair often will keep it clean and healthy. On the contrary, it leads to the opposite, dry ends, hair loss, and brittle hair.
Natural oils from your scalp find a hard time getting to your ends, causing them to already be dry. Too much washing especially with the wrong products worsens the situation.
Furthermore, exposing your ends to over-manipulation and shampoos often dries them up.
6. Focusing products on the scalp alone
As we saw earlier, the ends of your hair are the second most fragile of your hairs, second to your edges.
This is because they are the oldest parts of your hair shaft.
Natural oils from your scalp find a hard time getting to your ends due to your curl pattern, creating a moisture deficit.
Focusing products on the scalp alone ends up getting your ends dry. One, the products won’t be able to flow down to your ends and two your ends don’t get the attention they require due to their fragile nature and moisture deficit.
7. Exposed ends
When your ends are not protected, it means that they are out in the open exposed to all sorts of things.
The constant touching and manipulation of your ends as you style your hair may sap moisture out of them leaving them dry.
Your strands being exposed to harsh climatic conditions such as the harsh sun and sometimes the cold weather might also be causing dry ends.
8. Towel drying
What you use and the way you dry your hair has a huge effect on your ends feeling dry. Using your usual towel to dry your hair, might seem like a normal thing to do.
However, it’s actually not. When hair is wet, it is very fragile, the ends being the most fragile. The texture of your usual towel is rough and when used to dry your hair may be abrasive.
This abrasion destroys the ends of your hair making it hard for them to retain moisture, leaving them dry.
9. Over-manipulation
Constantly styling and touching your air may wreak havoc on your lovely strands. You may want to switch up your hairstyles often to remain trendy, but your ends are suffering in the process.
Don’t get us wrong, your hair needs to be cared for to keep it healthy, but don’t overdo it.
Bottom-line:
To wrap things up, the ends of your hair are dry because of:
- Split ends
- Heat damage
- Chemical damage
- Skipping trims
- Over-washing
- Focusing products on the scalp alone
- Exposed ends
- Towel drying
