Naturally Kinky

So I went wild and flat ironed my hair. I don't know if it was the pregnancy hormones or what, but I did it. I have no regrets, OK I lie. I get nervous about putting heat on my hair. I only do it once or twice a year so it isn't a big deal, but still kind of scared about possible damage. Now I'm going to list the pros and cons of flat ironing my hair, and what I do to protect my hair from damage while flat ironing.

First I will talk about what I used and did to flat iron my hair:

I used a ceramic flat iron, using a medium setting, not the high setting to help prevent damage. I use a JRS Superstar Flat Iron. The Iron is literally 8 years old. I am embarrassed to say this, but I discovered it watching a Maury Povich make over show. It works well, but I really want a Maxiglide.

To protect my hair I used TRESemme Thermal Creations Straightening Gel. It is supposed to style and protect, and it seems to work ok. I used it on dry hair. I washed my hair the night before, braided it up into six sections, and in the morning I blow dried my hair with my Vidal Sassoon Ionizer on cool air a section at a time. Once the hair was dried, I applied the straightening gel to each section and combed it through with a big tooth comb.

Once I dried my hair and applied the heat protecting gel, I used my flat iron, combing small sections, then brushing them, then applying the flat iron. It took about two hours to flat iron my hair, which explains why I do it only once a year.

I have had the style for a week, and I have been conditioning it daily with Monoi de Tahiti oil, which is my new love. I've used my Jasmine and Ylang Ylang so far, and it is a great conditioner on dry hair. It is also great for your skin, and it smells really good. The Jasmine was a bit strong for me, but the Ylang Ylang was very nice. It's also good for hot oil treatments for your hair. It is essentially scented coconut oil, so if you don't want to spend the money on that, just go to the grocery store and get regular coconut oil, it works just as good.

The Pros:

I got a new hair style, something different.

I shows off my length. My hair now touches the top of my booty. I forget how long my hair is because I see it curly all the time.

My hair still feels soft.I attribute that to the Monoi de Tahiti oil.


The Cons:

It's time consuming to straighten your hair.

There is a possibility of damage.

My hair does not stay bone straight. After a day or two it will start to get a bit poofy and curl, as noted in the picture I took, four days post straightening. It takes away from the length of the 1st day.

You have to wrap your hair at night at my length, the silk pillowcase alone will not work. I use a L.B. Soc and my hair still peaks out the ends.

You have to comb your hair everyday, a quick fluff will not suffice.

With that said, it freaks me out when I comb I get a few strands of hair in it, probably from normal shedding, but it still freaks me out.

When you hair is straight, it isn't as even, because I normally cut it when it is curly and there are different lengths to different curls, so even though it looks all right curly, it isn't the blunt even cut on the ends I normally liked when I wore my hair straight.

To me, it is just more maintenance to maintain and care for straightened hair.

Overall:

If I ever get a maxiglide or some steam rollers, I might do this a bit more often than once a year, as long as there isn't much damage. I will probably continue to stay curly though, as my husband actually misses my curls and prefers them to the straight hair.