Hot take: quitting the flat iron for 3 weeks on my trip to Austin did more than any serum
I stopped heat styling for 3 weeks and my ends went from crunchy straw to actually soft, so now I'm side-eyeing every frizz serum in my bathroom, and honestly I want to know if anyone else saw this big a change just from dropping the iron or if I'm giving up the flat iron for nothing.
Austin humidity probably did half that work for you, since wet air keeps hair from drying out the way it does back home. Three weeks is just long enough to grow out the damaged tips too, so a trim when you got back might be doing more than the serum ever did.