Changing your curly hair into straight hair is a great way to change your look but can be difficult to do in this article we try to simplify it by telling you the best ways to straighten curly hair, how to straighten curly hair at home, what is keratin treatment for straightening curly hair and tips to maintain straight hair.
Best Way To Straighten Curly Hair
The best way to straighten curly hair is to either use a blow dryer or use a flat iron where a flat iron is more suited for you if you have more defined curls while a blow dryer is suited for you if you want a thick, bouncy and full of volume hair. Sometimes just a hair straightener is not enough and you will have to use the chase method to straighten your hair which involves the use of rat tail combs and a flat iron hair straightener.
How To Straighten Curly Hair Without Causing Heat Damage or Frizz
Step 1 Wash Your Hair with Shampoo & Condition It
Before we start the hair straightening process it is important to wash your hair with a smoothening shampoo and a conditioner so that your hair is moisturized. You can replace the conditioner with a hair mask if your hair tends to be very dry. It is important to protect your hair from heat damage and to do that you have to add moisture to your hair so that your hair becomes elastic and it can handle the damage caused by heat. It is also important to ensure that moisture is locked inside your hair cuticles by conditioning your hair and then rinsing it with lukewarm or cool water that will in turn make your hair cuticles flatter and retain moisture. Moisture retention will also reduce the frizziness in your hair.
Step 2 Use a Leave-in Conditioner to Hydrate your hair
This step is optional and is only needed if your hair still feels dry in which case you should apply a leave-in conditioner in order to hydrate your hair. You can use hair milk or a hair smoother also for the purpose.
Step 3 Detangle & Towel Dry Your Hair
Use the method outlined to towel dry your hair correctly and then use a comb with wide teeth to detangle your hair. Apply the Comb from the bottom to the top of your hair strands gently in order to remove all knots from your hair. This step is important because if you have curly hair and it loses moisture it will start getting tangled up and messy so it’s better to sort it when your hair is damp.
Step 4 Apply Heat Protectant on Your Hair
Before straightening your hair apply a heat protectant to your damp hair to protect it from damage caused due to heat and to keep your hair elastic as well as prevent your hair from getting frizzy. Take care to only apply it in limited amounts as too much heat protectant can make your hair sticky and feel limp. After applying the heat protectant part and divide your hair into sections and clip them so that you can straighten your hair section by section.
Step 5 Use Flat Iron or Blow Dryer to Straighten Your Hair
You can pick whether your want to use a blow dryer or flat iron to straighten your hair or even both of them
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Blow Dryer to Straighten hair
Take your Blow Dryer and a round bristle brush and start brushing your hair from the bottom to the top while using your blow dryer on low heat settings and keeping your blow dryer a couple of inches away from your hair. Make sure you work section by section and after you have dried your hair move to the next section.
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Flat Iron to Straighten hair
Take Your Flat Iron and move it from the roots of your hair and go towards the ends of your hair while moving section by section. Make sure you don’t use the flat iron on damp or wet hair as it may cause damage also make sure that you don’t over-iron any part of your hair as that may also cause hair damage.
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Chase Method to Straighten hair
In this method, you use a hair straightener with a rat tail comb and gently keep the comb with a rat tail a couple of inches below the roots of your hair with the flat iron just above and move the flat iron plates and the comb through the hair at the same time. In this method, you are able to control the heat you apply on the hair and also straighten the hair in one go by keeping the hair in the comb while applying heat. This method should be used to straighten hair if just using a flat iron hair straightener has not worked for you.
Step 6 Finalize your Look with a hairspray
You can finalize your look by either using hair oil and applying it all across the hair to give it some shine or using a hair spray especially if you have a flyaway or the day is humid. You can use a
Tips for Straightening Curly Hair & Maintaining It
- Take care to ensure that while you are blow-drying your hair you do it in the correct direction starting from the roots of your hair and then moving to the rest of the hair not doing so will lead to loss of volume in your hair. When straightening your hair using a blow dryer your hair is pulled upwards so that volume is created at the roots and the way you blow dry will ensure that volume is maintained.
- With your straightened and styled hair don’t sleep on a cotton pillow. Instead of a cotton pillow, you should sleep on a satin pillowcase that will help reduce frizz in your hair as well as hair breakage.
- If your hair starts showing frizziness apply hair serum on it and to preserve the straightened hair look stay away from water and moisture in your environment by using a shower cap in the bath else your hair may revert to its naturally curly self.
- Always try to air dry your hair or towel dry your hair to maintain your straight hair look.
- Before straightening your hair don’t apply any other hair product except heat protectant and when using a straightener on your hair try using the heat settings on the lowest.
- If you are not able to get your hair as straight as you wanted try reducing the size of sections of your hair that you are running flat iron on as running flat iron through a large chunk of hair may get your hair done quickly but will not give you the right set of results.
How Long Does It Take to Straighten Curly Hair
If you are straightening hair that is of medium length it will take 1 to 2 hours while for longer or thicker hair it can take much longer 3 to 4 hours.
Does Keratin Treatment Straighten Curly Hair
Yes, a keratin treatment can straighten curly hair temporarily and works well for 12 weeks to 5 months, and is a good alternative for straightening your hair at home. Brazillian blowout is the most famous keratin treatment used for this purpose and usually takes 1 to 2 hours in a salon. Keratin treatment has multiple benefits including shortening the amount of time it takes to blow dry your hair by 50% and also taking away the hassle of straightening your hair for a long period of time depending on hair type and care.
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