Maintaining the perfect hairstyle can be rough on your hair. Blow drying, sun exposure and coloring your hair can lead to your hair breaking and splitting at the ends. Color treating your hair damages it each time. As your hair grows, the ends become more and more damaged and weak with each color treatment, often causing it to break. Cutting your split and broken ends is the only way to rid yourself of them once they have occurred. However, there are a few steps that can help you stop your hair from breaking after you've colored it.

Use a wide-tooth comb and wide, flat brush. Round brushes with stiff, plastic bristles and fine-tooth combs can cause your color-weakened hair to break.

Skip a day between shampoos. Shampoo can severely dry your hair, so don't shampoo more than once every other day. However, using a daily leave-in, spray-on conditioner can help prevent breakage .

Use semi-permanent color instead of permanent color. Permanent hair color is exactly what it says: color that stains your hair permanently until it grows out. Semi-permanent colors the hair well but will eventually wash out, so it doesn't cause as much permanent damage. For the first few weeks, semi-permanent color is indistinguishable from permanent color.

Reduce other hair stressors, like blow dryers, curling irons and tight up-dos. Coloring weakens the hair, allowing heat or harsh brushing to break the ends. Be gentle when brushing and keep your styles simple.