BEAUTY | Keeping it Straight

After spending most of this Summer in protective two-strand twists, I was eager to straighten my hair for my wedding. After getting back to NYC, I realized I wasn’t quite ready to go back to wearing twists every single week, so I’m planning on keeping my natural hair straight for now.

Heat styling makes most of us ladies with natural hair pretty nervous. There’s a risk of irreversible heat damage and natural texture loss from using too much heat. Blow dryers evaporate the moisture out of our already dry curls. And on top of that, flat irons and curling irons can also create split ends as they flatten out our curly strands. The key is to protecting natural hair when styling is to prepare your hair in advance by using really good products. That’s why I switched up my regimen for straightening my hair this past weekend.

My friends who do a lot of heat styling swear by Wen Cleansing Conditioner, so I decided to try it too. Wen made my hair feel clean and soft, not stripped, and not weighed down with moisture. I don’t like heavy, straightened hair, so I was pleased to see that my hair felt so nice and light after I was done washing. Then I liberally sprayed my damp hair with a heat protectant, Living Proof Restore Instant Protection. I’d never used it before, but it had great reviews (other than the scent, which I agree is pretty terrible, but doesn’t last!) What ultimately made me by the Living Proof heat protector was that it was a good protectant and also silicone-free. I’ve been using Fantasia IC Heat Protector Straightening Serum for YEARS, but I don’t want to use a heavy, silicone-based serum in my hair anymore. I felt like the silicones were keeping moisture OUT of my hair, making it really difficult to keep my hair straight and feeling moisturized.

I used my modified Denman brush to smooth out my hair as I blowdried it. It felt soft (not sticky) after I was done, thanks to the Living Proof heat protector. I then sprayed my blowdried hair with some more of the heat protector and proceeded to flat iron it with my HANA Professional Elite flat iron (it’s the best flat iron I’ve EVER used, but I can’t seem to find new ones for purchase anywhere, so it had better last!)

I flat iron my hair in really tiny sections, so it takes me a while. I do spend most of my time on the roots so that my hair moves. I set the temperature to about 400 degrees, and I pass the flat iron over the length of my hair ONE TIME. That’s all it takes to get my hair really straight.

After I straighten my hair, I usually wear it “bone straight” for about a week. To keep my hair straight, I just wrap it at night. Then I like to use a little heat to give myself some waves (I’m trying to master this look). I use pin curls to maintain the curls while I sleep so that I don’t need to use any more heat. Then for the next week or two, I roller-set my hair. Right now the green perm rods are my roller of choice (I’ll do a post on my roller-set in a couple weeks!)

I’ve been getting a lot of straight-hair inspiration from Pinterest and YouTube (especially Big Hair Bettyy! She’s so cute and I absolutely love her approach to styling her straightened natural hair). Experimenting with straight styles is going to be a lot of fun.

Any of you ladies going straight this season?

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