BPBP: Nexxus Split End Therapy
Mar 8, 2011
When I went in for a trim last week, my hairdresser was furious with me. Circumstances had conspired to keep me away from the salon for eight weeks instead of my usual five weeks, and the delay wreaked havoc on my hair. Instead of losing just 1″ of hair, I ended up losing 2.5″. Not awesome. Desperate to repair the leftover damage and prevent any more, I started searching for an intensive split end treatment.
I tried deep conditioners, leave-in treatments and shampoo primers, but while they prevented new split ends from forming, they did nothing for the existing split ends. What could be done about my ragged looking ends except another drastic hair trim?
After searching the Internet for an hour, I found Nexxus Pro-Mend Split End Binding Treatment (Walgreen’s, $15). It is also available at the Chinatown Bed Bath and Beyond.
This is an overnight treatment, which kind of freaked me out. The last thing I wanted was to wind up with a pillow covered in conditioner. This meant that I had to wear a shower cap to bed. Suddenly, I was my 79-year-old Nana. But I hoped that wearing an uncomfortable shower cap would be worth it if the product worked.
The first time that I used the product, it was obvious that it had worked. The ends looked smoother and shinier than before. However, this effect wore off after a couple of days.
Also, I noticed that after using the treatment, my hair is a bit flat. I have very fine strands, so even though the product promises not to leave any residue, there’s clearly a flattening effect happening.
The product does leave your ends looking noticeably better than they did before, but the effect is only temporary. If you’re comfortable sleeping in a shower cap a couple of nights per week to maintain the effect, then it’s certainly worth it but I’m a fairly light sleeper so it’s not great for me. And I wasn’t thrilled with the flattening effect. But that being said, if you had hair of a normal thickness, I don’t think that would be much of a problem.
So what do I intend to do about my split ends? I’m teleporting back to the 1980s and investing in a few containers of V05 hair oil.
Try moroccan oil daily treatment. It softens hair, moisturizes dry ends and all without leaving an oil residue. As a former stylist, you should know that hair absolutely should be fine having a cut every 7-8 weeks if it is not a short cut. In that case, you need the cut to preserve the shape. If you hair has so much breakage that it has to be cut that frequently, maybe you should think about changing your daily shampoo/conditioner, changing how much heat you are using on your hair, or switch to a good brush that will pull the sebum (the natural oil everyone's hair produces) from your roots to your ends more evenly. I recommend Mason Pearson. Investing in good tools will save you a trip or 2 to the stylist each year and pay off in the long run. Also, the Nexxus product could be leaving a wax coating around your ends which will give the appearence of mending, but like you said, it wore off after a couple days. Unfortunately, doing this very frequently will have the same effect on your hair as not washing your face at night does to your pores, clogs the cuticle up and leads to further damage.
If you have major damage (namely chemical and heat) Emergencee is a GODSEND. Saved my hair a few times.
Thanks for the suggestions! I have split ends, too, so thanks!
I have used nearly every kind of store bought shampoo and conditioners and nexxus is the best. Start with emergencee one and get the 4 pack treatment tubes to use once a week. After using the tubes, shampoo and condioner, my hair has never been better, currently i moved on the the therapee and humectress s&c and i really havent had many split ends since my last cut nearly 6 months ago. You have to give your hair time to adjust to it so halfway thru the bottle you shoukd start seeing a difference. I only wash my hair 2-3 times a week and seriously my hair has never been better. But i did also stop using chemically stylers like hairapray and gels because they’reterrible for hair. I only use organic eden leave in condioner to style now so that helps too. Oh and the longer you let the shampoo and conditioner marinate the better they work!