To Blow or Not to Blow?

I'm going to a 70s party this weekend. And I was contemplating blowing my hair out for an afro. I have not used heat on my hair since I have been natural and I really don't want to cause any damage. I was already nervous, and my grandmother made me even more scared today. She doesn't even like natural hair and isn't really familiar with it, but even she advised me against it. If I do decide to do the blowout I would use the cool setting and still use a heat protectant. Is it possible to still damage your curls even if you take the necessary precautions?

i think its a risk of damaging your curls no matter what but blowing it out on low is less of a risk than flat ironing it. if you do it please please please use a heat protectant and dont go over the same section a million times...also maybe you could put your hair in some big twists and let it dry first and then once its dry run the blow dryer thru it real quick on low...or pick/comb it out and you might not even need heat... im personally too paranoid to do something like that, atleast right now but i wish you all the best

I'm paranoid too Iri. I'm just worried that the risks outweigh the benefits. That's why I want to see if anyone else had problems with this.

I think you can probably get the same look from banding for a few days.

Here's a pic of A's hair after being banded for a few days: (criss cross cornrow headband in front, more info on the blog)

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Not sure of the exact look you're going for but IMO, A's hair looks like she had a blowout. (btw- I have plenty more pics)

But, I think if you take all the proper precautions you should be fine. Cool setting, heat protectant, don't go over the same section more than 2-3 times, and don't go super slow over each section. If possible, stretch the hair from braids/twists/banding first, not sure if you planned on doing this on wet hair or not.

FYI, kcurly recently did a blow out (and flat iron)
http://newlynatural.com/blog/2010/04/todays-straight-hair/

Not sure how much that helps but I thought I would share the link anyway!

You should be fine with a blow out hun.

I considered getting a blowout done just to do a length check but because I'm newly natural, heat damage is my biggest concern. I may just consider the silk wrap instead because a Dominican blowout is brutal.