Fab Beauty!

When thinking of straightening your natural black hair you must first understand that straight hair is just another hairstyle. People with naturally straight hair will always want to add curls and people with curls will always want to straighten their hair occasionally. It’s human nature! Learning to care for your hair in its natural state should make up the bulk of your hairstyles with straightening only being one of them. This mindset will greatly improve the overall health of your hair!

Now that you have made the decision to straighten your hair, you must be prepared. Any styling that involves applying heat to the hair can be damaging but it’s not all doom and gloom! There are certain ways you can arm yourself against heat damage and give you the sleek style you want for that special event whilst not compromising your lovely kinks and curls.

Here’s how:

•First things first, pick the best straightener for your needs, a tourmaline ionic one would be the best but a ceramic one will do just as well.

• Before attempting any straightening, the hair should be completely clean and freshly deep conditioned. Deep conditioning gives hair that added bit of moisture so that it doesn’t dry out completely during the heat styling process.

• Apply a leave in conditioner as well as a good heat protectant and comb through the length of the hair to evenly distribute the products. A silicone serum heat protectant is ideal because silicone redirects heat away from your hair.

• Black people have a variety of hair textures which can be straightened in different ways depending on the thickness and the degree of curl. Loosely curled or coiled hair can be straightened and smoothed out with just a roller set on large rollers (Read the article ‘How to cheat at roller setting’). Thicker hair will require a bit more attention and heat.

• It is important to ‘pre – stretch’ the hair before straightening as this gives the best results. For the sleekest results it is best to blow dry the damp hair in sections as straight as you can get it on a medium temperature. There is no need to use high heat as this can be damaging to the hair and never blow dry when the hair is dripping wet. You can also pre-stretch the hair by air drying it in large braids or twists but the final results will not be as smooth and you may end up losing more hair to breakage when you come to flat iron the air dried hair.

• Now that the hair is dry and stretched, you can move on to flat ironing or pressing. At this stage you can apply a little more heat protection serum. You must always use a temperature controlled appliance for this part of the straightening. This is why stove heated pressing combs and irons are not recommended as the temperatures can get quite high and literally burn the hair!

• Set your flat iron on a medium temperature (around 315°F/157°C) and beginning from the back in small sections, begin to flat iron or press the hair. Raise or lower the temperature of the appliance slightly as needed and only pass over each section twice. Use the lowest temperature at which you are able to get good results. You want the hair to be straight but left with a bit of body and bounce.

• You will find the ‘comb-chase method’ particularly useful for straightening natural hair leaving you with sleek straight hair from root to tip. What you do is take a small section of hair and run a fine tooth comb or brush down the section using one hand while ‘chasing’ with the flat iron held in the other hand. Be warned, this requires an ability to use both hands at once! Otherwise pick a straightener like the instyler which has polishing brushes as part of it’s design which makes things much easier.

• Straighten the rest of the hair in this manner then apply a small amount of an anti humectant pomade to keep your hair from reverting before your next wash day. A good one is Aveda Brilliant Anti-Humectant.

• To get your hair super flat wrap it around your head (using your head as 1 big roller) applying bobby pins where necessary to hold the hair in place. Cover your hair in saran wrap (cling film) and sit under a hooded dryer for 10-15 minutes. This is called silk wrapping. Alternatively, wrap your hair overnight in a silk scarf to remove some of the volume.

To save the style at night, you can wrap your hair again or tie it into a loose ponytail or pin it up and cover with a satin scarf or bonnet. Be sure to moisturize your ends daily with a good moisturizer to keep them healthy until your next wash.

Quick tip – If you like the extra sleek (relaxer straight) look then all you have to to is add a bit of coconut oil before flat ironing instead of serum. Remember, your final results have less to do with the temperature of the heat you use than your technique, styling tools and products and this goes for even the kinkiest of hair types!