How To Straighten Your Natural Hair Without Damaging It

There’s something magical and profoundly beautiful about women with voluminous, healthy natural hair. But sometimes, you may want to switch up your look to achieve a particular hairstyle or just because you feel like going for a straighter look.

Whatever your reason for stretching out your curls, it is crucial to treat your hair with tender loving care at every point—like a fragile ornament, if you will. To help you make the right choices, here is some cool advice to guide you on straightening your natural hair without damaging it.

Use a heat protectant: Think of your hair like a delicate piece of silk clothing. When ironing it, you don’t use the highest heat setting—you regulate the iron to the right temperature. If you don’t, the hot iron will burn right through. In the same vein, too much heat can alter your hair's keratin structure, leading to weaker hair that loses its elasticity and becomes more prone to damage.

Heat protectants act like a little blanket over the hair, so the heat has to go through it first before touching the hair. They smooth down the cuticle with a low conductive ingredient, giving you sealed-in moisture and tame frizz.

Straighten the traditional way: Some hairstyles can easily straighten your hair without using heat-straightening tools. This is the safest and healthiest way to achieve a longer, straighter look. Although it won’t come out bone-straight like with heat, it will leave your hair longer and softer.

To straighten hair, use cotton sewing thread (or any thread of your choice), double the thread for durability, part the hair into smaller sections if you want super-stretched hair, and thread each section firmly. After a few hours, take out the threads to reveal softer, longer hair.

Use a blow dryer: Many people opt for blow dryers instead of hot styling tools, which is understandable because blow drying involves holding the heat a few inches away from your head and blowing out your hair.

With flat ironing, the hair to sit between two hot ceramic or metal plates for a silk press. If you must choose, the blow dryer should be your first option as it is far less damaging. And if you do use a heat styling tool, make sure to get one with a digital temperature reader so you can set it to the precise degree. Don’t forget your heat protectant—it’s very important.

Become besties with aftercare: Aftercare is crucial once you've straightened your hair. Now that you’ve achieved your desired silky or blown-out hair, the journey doesn’t end there. Aftercare is vital because that's when hair damage can take effect. Blow drying and flat ironing can dry out your hair, leaving it delicate and brittle.

Your hair may look great for a few days, but it will surely start to break if you don’t care for it properly. The best way to prevent this is by being loyal to conditioners and protein treatments the week before and the week after your straightening session.

In conclusion, damage doesn’t occur just because you heat-straightened your hair. What causes damage is how you do it and the measures you take after the session. We hope this advice enlightens you on the right way to use heat on your hair—or maybe not use heat at all by opting for the traditional stretching method. If you follow the above steps and are careful with your regimen, you can probably get away with straightening your hair more than a few times per year.

Question of the week: What hair-stretching regimen do you use and why?