Exploring Your Options - Ways to Achieve Straight Hair

I mentioned in this post that I used quite a bit of heat during my vacay to keep my hair straight for the sake of manageability and ease. By 'quite a bit' I mean 3 times! That may or may not seem like a lot to some, but for me it is. This is so because I rarely use heat during the course of a regular month. As a matter of fact I usually go 3 or 4 months without it.

Needless to say, I was very cautious during the process of creating straight hair. That is, I did a protein, used heat protectants, and used low heat with few passes, but that's a whole 'notha post. The point of this one, is to discuss ways to get your hair straight and keep it that way (at least for a while) while using heat.

1. The first and perhaps the most obvious way I got my hair straight is a blow-out + flat-iron, which I did the wash day following my relaxer. While many people avoid this like the plague, there are steps we can take to reduce, if not eliminate damage. This means (blow-out + flat-iron) is, in my opinion, the one which will get the straightest results, so if that is what you desire, this is the one for you. But if you feel that this is just too much heat for you, try one or a few of the following:

• Skip the blow-out altogether, or blow-dry on cool air.
• Additionally, the tension method and the comb (or brush) chase method are excellent for achieving straight hair without super high heat or too many passes.

                           

2. The next method I used is the roller set. This is an indirect heat method, and is less damaging to your precious strands. I did this twice, but since I'm not the best at roller setting, along with the fact that my hair is texlaxed, I found that my roots were too puffy and tangly-feeling. So I went in with my flat-iron and ran it through each curl-section. I did this from the root to about 1/3 of the length. I loved the results. 

Still too much heat? Don't wish to combine flat-ironing with your roller-set? Do a silk wrap. That is, after removing the rollers, apply a small bit of leave-in conditioner, and wrap your hair neatly. Apply cling-foil to keep the hair in place, then sit under your hooded dryer for 15 minutes. Remove the cling-film immediately after cooling, and take down the wrap OR wrap in a silk scarf. NOTE: leaving the hair wrapped in cling foil will cause it to become damp, possibly undoing all your efforts.

3. The third way is to skip the blow-dryer, flat-iron, as well as the roller set. Say what now? Straight hair without any of those tools? Yes. Simply apply your leave-ins after washing, and depending on your hair's length, you can either comb your hair straight down or do a wet wrap. For this, you can use a combination of air-drying and hooded dryer. If your hair is short, no manipulation is necessary. If however you have medium to long hair, run your fingers through your hair periodically to set it straight. NOTE: If your hair is texlaxed, your results may not be as straight as someone with bone straight hair using this method.

My favorite of the three methods is the roller-set/ flat-iron roots method. I tend not to like my hair too straight, preferring instead some loose curls or waves, and this method does that for me. I think I may become more into my flat-iron results when I get a different flat-iron which gives me more flow-y results. Then again, I used to get the results I like when my hair was about shoulder length (see below) using the very same flat-iron. I suppose I have some exploring to do...

achieved with my current flat-iron

How do you achieve straight hair?