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The hair tips, advice and recommendations given on this blog are given based on the experiences of the authors. These tips may not work for everyone and every hair type and it is important to acknowledge this since we are neither hair specialists nor trichologists.


Also many pictures on this blog belong to the authors but there are others that we do not have ownership for and thus we do not claim ownership of the ones that do not belong to us.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

I straightened my hair

Yesterday I went to the hair salon and straightened my hair. Oh boy!

I washed my hair, put leave-in conditioner and my O'Naturals Cocoa-shea hair butter. Then I stretched my hair with thread. I felt that I should "help" the straightening process by stretching out my hair a bit. Then I went to the salon and said *drum roll* "I want to straighten my hair". The stylist opened her eyes widely and I grinned sheepishly. This stylist has styled my hair before so we have history. I sat down in the chair and still kept asking myself whether I should not just twist my hair and call it a night. I forged ahead.





I took my own serum because I guessed (and rightly so) that there would be none at the salon. I instructed the stylist on how to use the serum and, to her credit, she took the instructions well and used the serum well. When I saw the smoke coming out of the flat iron I almost jumped out of the chair! Meeeeen! Then she started to straighten my hair. Every time she ran the flat iron over my hair there was this evil hisssssss that could be heard. I could hear my hair strands crying "Whyyyyy? Why do you torture us so? Whyyyyyyyy?" After straightening about 3 sections at the back of my head,  I asked her to stop. I took a deep breath and we continued. When we were done my hair looked straight. Well, not too straight because I told her to chill on the straightening. It also looks very full.




I must be honest, it was traumatic for me. *Yes I am a bit of a drama queen* That amount of direct and high heat on any texture of hair cannot be good. Yes I could see some of my real hair length and my hair was bouncy but at what cost? I got home and put more hair butter on my ends.

One thing that is very important when applying any form of heat to your, is the use of serum. Use a serum. Use a serum. The serum will protect your hair from heat damage. Regularly applying high heat directly to your hair is not a healthy hair practice because the hair is exposed to heat damage. If you must, try to space it out a bit and give your hair a bit of a break between each straightening session.

So will I do it again anytime soon? Nah. This kind of trauma takes time to heal.

Keep it natural!

Omozo

9 comments:

Geri said...

You've been taking such good care of your hair regularly, so hopefully the hair gods will protect your strands lol. Straightening my hair freaks me the hell out too. You're not alone.

Josephine Mokonogho said...

Nice post! I rarely use heat myself, perhaps once every 3 months or so. What serum do you recommend?

Omozo said...

@Josephine: I used Motions brand. You could start with that and move on if that does not work. Serums should be used for blow drying hair too.

Natural Girl said...

You are very brave...

I planned to straighten it in May (chickened out)
Im still trying to gather liver to do it. The funny thing is dat everyone says it will revert.

I will try again in December sha, after all its just hair.

Natmane said...

Lol at Geri ^_^...Don't worry my Sister; nothing spoil. I used Coconut oil and I loved the results.Since I went natural, I've only used a hot iron twice and like I said before nothing spoil. No worry o, the coils and frizz will be back once water touch am:)

naturealrox said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7M2imtfdVE

This video may give some insight for those/ if you decided to do this in future. Her hair did not sizzle while being straightened.

yeva said...

your hair looks really healthy...
so jealous....
btw.... since were talking about straightening.. i tried to straighten my hair like 2 weeks ago and it waz a total waste of my time...
my hair refused to straighten.. when i left the salon, it was as if i went there to wash it sef.
pls is this normal.

Ore said...

Your hair looks healthy. The last time I had my hair straightened was before I braided it and the smoke from the hairdryer filled the room so much that the windows had to be opened and other customers complained of being choked to death. LOL!!

I can only imagine what it was doing to my hair. So I am staying away from heat from now on. I'll look for stylists who don't need to straighten my hair before they braid it.

Straightening my hair to wear it out in a bob doesn't tend to work for me, because within hours, my hair starts to shrink. One time, it started to frizz up as soon as soon as I stepped out of the salon. By the time I was home, it was no longer hanging down my shoulders, but was a soft ball of hair.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ore, I think you should braid your hair while damp and moisturised with leave in conditioner. it works for me