Ask a hairdresser what actually goes wrong between appointments and you get the same short list, delivered with the patience of someone who has said it a thousand times.

You are brushing it wet, from the top. Wet hair stretches to about one and a half times its length before it snaps, so it is at its most fragile exactly when most people are dragging a brush through it from the roots down. Wide-tooth comb, start at the ends, work up in sections.

Your straighteners are hotter than they need to be. Most people are running 200°C or more out of habit. Fine hair does not need it, and the cuticle damage above 180°C is cumulative and permanent.

You are treating the roots and ignoring the ends. The ends are the oldest hair on your head. They have been through every wash, every dye, every hot tool, for years. They need the most and get the least.

You are doing something intensive occasionally instead of something modest regularly. This is the big one. A treatment twice a week, kept up month after month, does more than one heroic salon appointment, and it costs less than a fringe trim per use.

You booked the cut too late. Once ends have split, nothing seals them permanently — products can make them look better temporarily, but the split travels upward. A trim every ten to twelve weeks keeps more length than skipping it does.

None of that is a sales pitch. It is just what they would tell you if you asked.