Done with flat irons!

Recently I was flat ironing my hair(I haven't done it in a while), and during the process I thought to myself, "Why am I going natural if I'm still gonna make my hair look like I get a relaxer?". I'm also lucky that I don't have any heat damage either. That's when I decided that I will no longer be flat ironing my hair. For some reason I though my answer was going to be, "WELL TIFF GET A PERM THEN!" LOL.

I found some of the cutest little curls while flat ironing that just begged me not to straighten them! So I set those little babies free and cut the relaxed ends off and flat ironed everything but those 2 curls! My BF said I'm loosing my mind! HA! I have such a long way to go, but I'm not discouraged!


I guess I just needed to get that off my chest...

Congratulations on using less heat. I know using less heat works great for me too. I do still straighten from time to time because I like to rock all kinds of styles with my hair. I just do it less frequently because I am able to retain more length and less breakage with protective styling. some people choose to go natural to rid themselves of the chemical process and still like to wear their hair straight while other people vow never to straighten again. I am somewhere in the middle. I say do whatever suits you. You are the only person that can make yourself happy. If you want to toss out your flat iron then kudos to you.

I think I should correct myself...Yea I'll probably flat iron again, but not as often like before. Maybeeeee every 4 5 months. It's weird bc I had this sense of guilt when I did it recently. IDK...I sort of like you. Maybe I'm middle ground on the flat ironing thing. Truth be told I really like my hair when it's straight, I just like having healty undamaged hair better.

girl, I hear ya. When I started transitioning a couple of years ago the back of my hair was so overprocessed from relaxers that the nape was breaking really bad. I quit using heat for 4 months and did nothing but rollersets and my hair started growing out so healthy. I know I used the flat iron once a week when I was relaxed and combed it everyday. Now I go every 3-4 months in between using heat and my hair is a lot thicker and healthier.

Well the main reason flat irons can be horrible on natural is because our curl pattern is so tight so it takes more heat to iron.

So with permed hair your hair has been damaged from the chemical a bit and ironing is not a big deal provided you are moisturizing, but with natural hair your hair can be healthy but too much ironing will DEF cause damage form having to pull the curls out, etc. you should blow it out first always.

I love straight hair but it doesnt really last so I really dont see the point except maybe on a frigid winter day lol when it wont revert back.

I will continue to straighten my hair especially as I transition. Between weaves I will have my hair out for 2 weeks and flat iron it once a week. Just keep it conditioned and use protectant and a ceramic iron

In my case, constant flat ironing was not good for my relaxed hair either. This is because my hair was already chemically processed and the chemicals broke my protein bonds to form straight hair. Using constant heat on already processed hair broke my hair off especially in the nape portion. This is evidenced in my fotki where I first started my transition and my hair in the nape is completely broken off. You can receive heat damage on relaxed hair. You probably just don't realize that it is heat damage because the hair is altered to appear straight via chemicals. It is much easier to see heat damage on natural hair because the hair does not revert back to the natural texture.

Oh i didn't say you can't recieve heat damage with perm. but I didn't have any and it's less liekly to get it on permed hair thannatural hair since your hair is already straight. You have to deep condition a lot, use protectant but not TOO much (or hair will fry) and use a ceramic iron. If you do this and keep it at a low heat setting you wont get breakage or damage and I only did it once a week or once every two weeks. also you can't do it on hair that has product in it. So just wash, deep condition, and put heat protectant on.

And you really aren't supposed to put heat on your thinner hairs like nape and front unless it is very low. I notice in salons the beauticialn will want to put teh side of teh flat iron on my baby hairs. i 'm like um no. that is just askign it to fall out