Nothing ruins a good hair day like brittle ends. Often times, the natural aging process first shows itself through changes in your hair’s texture and appearance. You may notice your tresses are drier and frizzier than they were just a few years ago. Don’t lose hope, your ends may be salvageable. With a few tweaks to your hair-care routine and some serious TLC, you can bring dry strands back to life. Continue reading for the best tips to get rid of dry ends after 40.

Why Do Ends Get Drier with Age?

Like many other parts of our body, our hair texture changes with age. Textural changes may be more extreme depending on life circumstances, such as whether you’ve had children, experienced extreme emotional stress or suffered from a medical condition. But generally speaking, the hair becomes finer, drier and grey in color with age. The scalp is covered with sebaceous glands that secret an oily substance, called sebum. Sebum is responsible for nourishing, moisturizing and protecting each strand. As we age, these sebaceous glands shrink and oil production slows, which inhibits oil from reaching the hair as it should. The decrease in natural oils may result in dry, lackluster strands.

Additional factors that can cause dry hair include environmental conditions, poor hair-care habits and physical health.

Environmental conditions that can cause dry hair include:

• Swimming in chlorinated or salty water
• Excessive sun or wind exposure
• Living in a dry climate

Some hair-care practices that may contribute to dry hair include:

• Using chemical-heavy hair products
• Dying your hair
• Excessive use of straighteners, curlers and blow-dryers
• Washing hair too frequently

Health conditions that affect your hair include:

• Hypothyroidism
• Alopecia areata
• Cancer treatments
• Iron deficiency
• Poor nutrition

How to Get Rid of Dry Ends After 40

The good news is there are plenty of remedies to snap thirsty ends back into shape. Below you will find tips to replenish dry ends for strong and shiny strands.

Schedule Routine Trims

Give your ends a fresh start by getting a quick snip at the salon. It’s not always easy to part ways with your tresses, especially when you’ve been waiting for them to grow out. Instead of waiting months to cut your hair, get routine dustings every six to eight weeks. Regular trims will maintain your length, while still snipping away split ends. It is important to get rid of your split ends before they split further up the shaft and cause more extreme breakage. Frequent trims are the easiest way to prevent dry ends from occurring.

 Don’t Skip the Conditioner

A good conditioner is a nonnegotiable product needed in a hair-care routine for dry tresses. Skimping on the conditioner will cause dehydrated hair to become excessively dry. Conditioner is formulated to moisturize the hair, as well as improve its appearance and manageability. The moisturizing product reduces the friction between strands, making hair smoother and shinier. Consider choosing a conditioner, like the one from Best Hair Care Solutions for Women By Better Not Younger, which is packed with ceramides, rice bran protein and argan oil to revitalize brittle ends.

In addition to your regular conditioner, try using a leave-in conditioner to moisturize and protect your strands throughout the day. As the name suggests, a leave-in conditioner is a no-rinse formula that makes detangling less of a hassle, while also locking in moisture and dousing your strands in nutrients. Spritzing your hair with a leave-in conditioner will give your dry ends the extra love they need to become soft and silky.

Mask It Up

A great at-home remedy to combat dry ends is a deep conditioning mask. A deep conditioner is spiked with essential oils and natural butters to deeply penetrate the hair shaft and provide long-term moisture. Deep conditioners go above and beyond to deliver nutrients to your follicles that revive and rehydrate your strands. Incorporating a deep conditioner into your hair-care routine on a regular basis will help reduce breakage and split ends. After a few months of deep conditioner, you should notice an improvement in your hair’s elasticity and shine.

Turn Down the Heat

Hot tools are harsh on healthy hair, which means it’s even worse for dry, damaged hair. It’s tempting to reach for the straightener as soon as we see frizz in the mirror, but avoid heat styling if you can. Applying heat to dry hair may actually make it look more brittle and exaggerate split ends. Prolonged heat exposure degrades the hair’s protein structure and causes cuticles to lift, leaving your locks prone to damage. Give your tresses a break by showing off your natural texture or experimenting with no-heat hairstyles. On days where you can’t forego the heat, be sure to use a gentle heat-protectant spray and don’t exceed a temperature of 350 degrees.

No More Daily Washing

A popular debate in the hair-care industry is how often you should wash your hair. Many hair experts agree that the frequency of which you wash your hair is dependent on your hair type. For those who struggle with dry hair, it’s best not to shampoo every day. The sebaceous glands on the scalp produce sebum, which provides a protective layer for the hair and keeps it moisturized. Too much shampooing strips your scalp of its natural oils, which may leave your ends dry. A break from cleansing your hair every day will help dry ends hold on to moisture more efficiently.

Choose a Mild Shampoo

Mild shampoos contain gentler and less harsh cleansing agents compared to other shampoos. Many hair products contain chemicals that act as detergents to help remove oil, dirt and product buildup from the hair. Harsh chemicals can leave the hair rough, brittle and prone to tangling. Sulfates are commonly used in shampoo as cleansing agents, but strip too much natural oil from the scalp, leaving strands dry. Mild products include gentle clarifying and moisturizing agents like essential oils and botanical extracts to keep the hair soft. The gentle ingredients used in a mild shampoo won’t irritate your scalp or worsen the condition of dry hair. Mild shampoos will clean greasy roots without removing too much natural oil from your scalp.

Nourish Your Ends from the Inside Out

Beyond good hair-care habits and using gentle products, it’s important to pay attention to what you’re putting in your body. The condition of your hair may be one of the first signs of a vitamin deficiency. Your hair follicles require certain nutrients to support a healthy hair growth cycle. Consider including hair-strengthening vitamins like iron, B vitamins, vitamin C and omega-3s into your diet. In addition to these essential vitamins, drink water to hydrate your ends from the inside out. Your roots soak up water from your body to hydrate your locks. Water also contains crucial minerals that nourish the hair follicles. Stay hydrated by observing your daily recommended water intake and eat foods with a high-water concentration like melons, oranges, celery and cucumbers.

Conclusion

Dry ends don’t necessarily scream hair goals. With age, our scalp’s oil production slows, which contributes to changes in the hair’s appearance and texture. By scheduling routine trims, using natural, moisturizing products and practicing better hair-care habits, you can say goodbye to dry ends. Try a few of these tips to achieve long-term hydration for a healthier, stronger mane after 40.

Author: Cassidy Kolczun