• Physical damage

“The main cause of split ends is heat,” says Michele Antiga, signature colourist and stylist at London’s Gielly Green Hair Salon. “Overdoing it with hot tools and over blow-drying hair can seriously damage it, especially if your hair has been sensitised by colour or bleach.” Not using a heat protectant only intensifies this damage.

Physical damage can also occur as a result of aggressive brushing or rubbing hair dry after washing. Too-tight hairstyles, secured with elastic bands, can also cause hairs to split, whether it’s on the crown from a high ponytail or the ends (e.g with braids).

Something as simple as a lack of moisture in the hair, caused by intense sun exposure in the summer or blasts of central heating in winter, is also a culprit.

• Chemical damage

This is the result of colouring your hair and using relaxing or perming treatments.

How to get rid of split ends

First, the bad news: the only way to put ravaged, spindly ends out of their misery is with scissors. “You can’t repair ends that are already split,” says Michele, “you can only trim them in order to prevent the split from travelling further up the hair shaft.”

But the good news is that split ends can travel up to four inches up the hair shaft, so a trim will prevent them from causing breakage and making your hair shorter.

There is also a sweet spot for the scissor-averse. Rather than wait for the damage to be done, which involves more inches being cut away, Zoe recommends DIY ‘hair dusting’ – a technique that involves tightly twisting small sections of dry hair. After fluffing up the tips, only snip away those that have split in two.

Alternatively, visit your hairstylist regularly for smaller trims every couple of weeks. This is especially true for two hair types. According to hair stylist Charlotte Mensah, Afro hair needs to be trimmed every six to eight weeks to keep the curl pattern in tact. The same is true for fine hair, which is thinner in diameter and more prone to damage.

Photographer: Ellyse Anderson/Hair Stylist Masahi Konno/Makeup Artist: Megumi Matsuno

How to prevent split ends

While nothing beats a good haircut for dusting off split ends, prevention is better than cure – and there are simple ways of minimising the damage our styling habits wreak on hair:

1.Use a sulphate-free shampoo

Healthy hair starts with the first product in your routine: your shampoo. Yes, it should cleanse your scalp and lengths. But if you’re suffering with dry, damaged hair, take a break from shampoos containing sulphates, particularly sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulphate (SLES). These create a cloud of lather but can also strip away the hair’s natural protective oils, which may lead to split ends.