Soft Ends Thread

[aenflex]

I am always nervous about starting a thread. I searched beforehand and didn't see any threads devoted to achieving soft ends, so I thought this was worth a shot.
My least favorite thing about my hair is my ends. I rarely get splits, I trim too often and just don't maniplulate my hair too much, but I my ends are always dry and crinkly. Literally I can pinch them, bring the clump near my ear, move my fingers and hear the snap, crackle and pop!
I know that clarifying helps overall. I also of course use Coconut, Grape seed, Avocado, Amla, Sweet Almond and other treatments on my hair routinely. I haven't used heat in a long time.

I'm just wondering what you all do for your dry ends? Please share your tips and tricks with me.
Thank you :poot:

[HereIGrowAgain]

I'm going to guess that you haven't grown out all the damaged bits yet. Are there any parts of your hair that were never heat treated? Do they crunch too?

It sounds like you are doing well moisturizing. Can you gather into an updo yet? You might need to just pin it up and forget it (to keep you from listening to your ends), and keep up with the microtrims until the damage is gone (if you decide that damage is the culprit).

[RachieBaby]

I CWC but use a much thicker more creamy conditioner the 2nd time and target my ends mainly which helps a lot on keeping them soft. I also use coconut oil on my hair and make sure I definitely get my ends with that. I stopped using heat tools a while a go and thats made a huge difference also :)

Im not sure if thats much help but thats my trick :)

[Jenn of Pence]

I occasionally try to listen to my ends. ;) It reminds me of that Dove shampoo and conditioner commercial a few years ago with the hair model crunching her ends in a microphone before and after the shampoo (obviously it didn't make any noise after their product was used ;)). My ends can tend toward the crunchiness since most of the length has been heat styled occasionally for many years. Overall, my ends are in fairly good condition considering, but they do require some S&D and babying. Oils don't absorb super well in my hair, but a deep treatment with jojoba makes them super soft (and quite limp ;)). In my pre-LHC days, chronic dry ends were the cause of all my trims. When they got "velcroey" they got chopped off. I now think it was due to buildup, and since I've been clarifying, avoiding protein, and making an effort to treat the ends nice, I'm fighting them off and still don't need a trim!

[Bene]

If it's not damage, then trial and error to see what your hair is wanting.






If it IS damage, then there are 3 ways to go about making them soft.


Hardcore way: Clarify, moisturize, then snip off the damaged bits if any remain. Take really good care of what's left.

Moderate way: Clarify, moisturize, then snip off about half an inch (or less) every few months. Take really good care of what's left.

Lenient way: Clarify, moisturize, hang on to damaged bits, baby your hair as best as possible until you reach your goal, then start dusting or trimming every so often.


Any way you go about it, damage is damage. You can hide it, you can pretend it's not there, you can live with it.... or you can get rid of it and start fresh. The only way to really deal with it is to trim it off and then make sure it doesn't happen again. When you get down to it, all the oils, moisture products, deep treatments are really only effective for maintaining health and preventing damage, or for hiding damage.

[swivelhop]

I don't trust the noise test.;) My hair is noisy from root to ends, even the baby fine sections. I only ever trim/treat if the ends are not smooth when running my fingers down the hairs.

[aenflex]

Yeah damage is the 1st thing that naturally comes to mind. I don't consider my hair or ends damamged. I mean I guess the hair could be damamged, though I don't use heat, I don't brush, and I just had a good half-inch trim back on 8/27/10. There is a recent pic I posted on my blog and also in another thread, and I was acutally pleased to see how nice my ends looked from the back :) They are just perpetually crunchy. I guess I should listen to swivelhop and ignore them...

[Gvnagitlvgei]

Aphogee treatment followed by Nexxus. Then deep condition with a good moisturizing one containing butters/oils. That should help somewhat. Daily application of jojoba with rosemary.

[Anje]

Like others, my recommendation for sad ends goes something like this:

Clarify, moisturize, reassess. Clarify again, moisturize, oil, reassess after next wash. S&D or trim any obvious damage.

Rough, weird ends without obvious damage and a history of protein exposure get a few consecutive days of SMTs before trimming should be considered. Folks who have lots of salt water or chlorine exposure need to add a chelating shampoo treatment into that whole mix.

Best of luck!

[Chestershire]

my ends don't break either, but they can act all dry and crunchy too. And on other days, they're so terribly soft :D my hair likes to scare me, I guess

[Dragon]

I get the same and my ends are not damaged. I oil the ends every day which helps but doesent solve the problem.

[Harriet]

ACV rinses make my ends really soft!

[FrannyG]

I do several things to keep my ends soft:


Clarify when necessary, then do a deep moisture treatment (usually 1 part honey to 4 parts conditioner).
ACV rinse after every wash, dipping my ends into the ACV mixture before using it to rinse.
I use a very tiny amount of conditioner on my ends as a leave-in (about half the size of a pea)
I use 3 drops of jojoba oil on my ends when my hair is about half dry--1 drop on each side, and one on the back.
I trim 1/2 of an inch off of my ends 3 or 4 times a year. I know that not everyone believes in trimming, but for me, it's essential.

[JenniferNoel]

I almost always have some kind of conditioning going on with my ends, my hair is always up, and if it's down, no difference. I keep them protected and moisturized at all times.

[Henrietta]

I cannot wait to trim them. They are so... dry. I don't have much split ends. They are just dry.

And they are so good actors! You have no idea! The trick is in an updo. They have fully rolled sock bun. They are yelling at me, literally. But after a whole day in a braided, smoothly wrapped cinnamon bun... They can pretend really well. It's like a poetry. My ends are so smooth and shiny, there's no difference between them and the rest of my length. Any kind of braid put up will do. Braided crown, clipped up braid, braided cinnamon bun... Just don't let them hang down and don't make any buns that would crumble them, like fully rolled sock bun which I miss enormously. This is a good way to ignore them and to wait the trim finally.
Of course I can see the dryness in all it's glory just after washing. Ends are always first to dry and I have to look at this disaster, waiting for the rest of my hair to dry.
But then I can braid and the next morning everything at least looks smooth;)

[Demetrue]

I found that coconut oil made my ends feel crunchy. I had better luck with jojoba oil insead.

[aenflex]

Thanks all for the ideas and posting your stuff. FrannyG especially, sounds like you have a system of control in place and I might have to just be come that vigilant. It's also nice to see that some others have inexplicably crunchy dry ends that are here one day and gone the next. Sometimes my ends are soft, although not lately. I wonder if the cut has anything to do with it? My ends are sort of blunt and my hair is all one length and nort long enough to have thinned a bit yet. If I were to pluck a hair, it would be the same thickness from one end to the other (for now of course). I wonder if my own ends just grate at eachother and rob moisture from each other? Nah...that might be stupid but I'm stumped so I'm taking all of your advice. :)

[Henrietta]

Thanks all for the ideas and posting your stuff. FrannyG especially, sounds like you have a system of control in place and I might have to just be come that vigilant. It's also nice to see that some others have inexplicably crunchy dry ends that are here one day and gone the next. Sometimes my ends are soft, although not lately. I wonder if the cut has anything to do with it? My ends are sort of blunt and my hair is all one length and nort long enough to have thinned a bit yet. If I were to pluck a hair, it would be the same thickness from one end to the other (for now of course). I wonder if my own ends just grate at eachother and rob moisture from each other? Nah...that might be stupid but I'm stumped so I'm taking all of your advice. :)

This is the main issue. I don't know which version is the true one: I have soft ends but sometimes (after washing) they look damaged OR I have damaged ends but sometimes they look like healthy ones.

[virgo75]

My ends do the same thing - feel all hard and crunchy even when I know they're basically healthy. I've trimmed them thinking there was something wrong with them, but then after a couple of days they're hard again. lol So now I've stopped trimming.

I've found that shampooing then doing an SMT seems to help quite a bit.
Jojoba oil also keeps my ends softer than coconut oil. Except for Parachute coconut oil, which makes my hair softer than the stuff I buy from Whole Foods.

[Balenciaga]

I've just had my first clarify and it seems to have worked like a charm. I've put a teeny amount of coconut oil on it and now I'm going to do put it up in mini Princess Leia buns to let it dry. Thanks for the advice everyone :)

[WaitingSoLong]

Good thread. :agree:

I have pretty healthy ends, especially after my dusting to remove the tips where there were a unch of splits (but few, if any deads).

I agree with the post that mentions ACV rinses. I think my dilution ratio is like 1:10 vinegar/water. And I rinse the rinse out or I smell like vinegar for days, well, until my next wash.

Honestly, my ends are the SOFTEST after I have blow dried my hair, which I rarely do. My avatar? That is blow dried. My hair is not nearly that straight and silky looking most the time. It is usually wavy and sticks out at odd angles because of whatever bun I had it in that day. Anyway...

My magic combo for super silky soft hair and ends is: Clarify (I use Pantene:run: ), ACV, rinse then condition and rinse. Use a teeny amount of conditioner as a leave in. I use Biolage Conditioning Balm (cone free).

Of course, everyone's hair truly is different.

I haven't, as of yet, been able to go cone free completely. And my hair doesn't seem to like oils, but I still use them to hold buns/tame flyaways, however I find I have to clarify a lot. I use(d) coconut oil. I am not using any oils right now due to an allergic reaction to substance unknown. Also, I haven't been able to go sulfate free either (obviously not when clarifying).

Oiling makes my ends crunchy feeling but I don't care.

I have NEVER listened to my ends? That sounds a bit odd! lol

Damaged ends are damaged ends. Patience and trims at some point are the only remedy. I will stop before I reitterate everything else that as said.

[ilovelonghair]

Joining this thread! After moving I got dry ends again. Yes in just a few days time. What can that be?

[jojo]

I lightly oil daily before putting my hair up, morrocanoil seems the best in summer and mustard seed oil in winter. I have always soft ends and I also clarify fortnightly too which i find helps a lot.

[Henrietta]

Joining this thread! After moving I got dry ends again. Yes in just a few days time. What can that be?

Different water maybe?