Will using heat damage your hair/stunt hair growth?

[lapushka]

Heat has nothing to do with growth.

A hot tool is not fine, but a blowdryer on cool/warm is. As long as you can hold your hand in the airstream for a *long* time without it burning your hand, it's *fine*!

[Beborani]

What is your hairtype? Following some version of curly girl (even if you are slightly wavy) may give you the 'styled' look you want. I understood your question to mean effective growth-- in most cases poeple can grow upto a certain length while using flat iron--but if you ever get the bug to grow to even longer lengths then you may regret the damage or at the point you can cut it out and regrow.

[molljo]

I'm curious about you mean by your hair looking "disgusting" without heat styling? This makes me think you have some curl or wave that you're trying to treat like straight hair, and if so, I agree with Beborani that you might benefit from some curly girl styling methods to work with your texture rather than against it.

[lilenz]

I'm curious about you mean by your hair looking "disgusting" without heat styling? This makes me think you have some curl or wave that you're trying to treat like straight hair, and if so, I agree with Beborani that you might benefit from some curly girl styling methods to work with your texture rather than against it.

My hair type is actually really hard to describe...the best I can put it is "generic witch hair" (I've had this hair type my entire life)... it's slightly frizzy (even though my scalp is oily) and it has a really bizarre cow-lick kind of wave to it....if that makes any sense. When my hair was long, it actually took on a nice wave sometimes; but now that it's short, it looks like I just got off of a windy/rainy broom ride, hahaha

[Qz]

My hair type is actually really hard to describe...the best I can put it is "generic witch hair" (I've had this hair type my entire life)... it's slightly frizzy (even though my scalp is oily) and it has a really bizarre cow-lick kind of wave to it....if that makes any sense. When my hair was long, it actually took on a nice wave sometimes; but now that it's short, it looks like I just got off of a windy/rainy broom ride, hahaha

Haha, that's exactly what mine does, and why I do blow dry and curl it a bit to tame it into submission when I want to wear it down for something special!

It helped me growing it out to take a scrunchie and tie it up in a loose bun when it was still pretty short, around collarbone length I think. Got it out of the way and sort of fought the frizzy wildness thing, and it is very simple to do, no pins needed. Now that it's getting fairly long I braid it a lot which tames down the frizzy thing too and at least keeps it under control.

[Betazed]

Have you tried heat-less styling? I know someone up there ^ mentioned heat-less curls, but there's also a way to do heat-less straightening. It doesn't turn out perfectly pin-straight like the effects of a flat-iron (at least, in my experience. It may be a technique issue on my part, though), but it can take out most waves. It's kind of a time consuming process and requires a lot of bobby-pins but anything is better than heatstyling, right?

Also, braids are always a good option. I couldn't have made it to hip length without the various braided styles I've learned from YouTube tutorials! (Thank you, TorrinPaige!! )

[wispywinnie]

I know exactly how you feel! What I've come to learn is that heat damage keeps you from retaining length because either: a) you need to constantly need to trim off a lot of damage or b) because the damage is so bad that your ends keep breaking. My hair was in-between CBL and APL when I cut it NL a few weeks ago, and I've just been putting it in braids all the time. I do two french braids and sometimes I pin the ends because my hair curls on the end and I don't want to look like a child!

Give your hair some good love, I'm sure it doesn't look disgusting without heat! It's been taking me a while to find my perfect heat-free look!

[lilenz]

I've actually tried a few heatless straightening styles, but because my hair is still kinda short, they end up just adding to my weird cowlick wave :P. But what's the way you were talking about? I haven't tried anything with a lot of bobby pins yet

YESSSS I love braids! They're sooo difficult to do when your hair is just below shoulder length though (with layers) but I absolutely love the way they look

[kganihanova]

You will have more splits but it won't stop growth

[Complexity]

I love braids! They're sooo difficult to do when your hair is just below shoulder length though (with layers) but I absolutely love the way they look

French/Dutch braiding should help keep the layering in better than your average English braid