Split ends are incredibly frustrating when we're trying to grow out our hair. Even though our hair is resilient, it's still susceptible to breakage and splitting, especially at the ends. This is because the ends of our hair are the oldest and most prone to damage.

While split ends can make it challenging to grow out our hair because they cause hair to break at the ends—and ignoring them only gives them license to travel further up the hair shaft causing more loss of length—they can’t technically stop hair growth. Our hair growth originates from healthy hair follicles, which are responsible for about 6 inches of hair growth per year.

It’s also important to remember that at any given time, about 85% of your hair is in the anagen, or growth, stage. So new hair growth is almost always happening! As long as you keep up with your split end treatment (and we get into that next!), your hair growth goals can’t be thwarted by split ends!