I really love the look of flat-ironed hair

[Nevermore]

I like the way razored hair looks on very short haired people, also extreme colors that basically require bleaching are ones I love...on other people. Thankfully, my partner is a very patient and sweet woman who has a thing for short, spiked hair in random and unnatural colors on herself and says she'll let me do hers.

[peachy.pudding]

I love clipped hair, where it looks so sharp esecially shoulder length, just beautiful, i also like layers, fringes etc. Yes i love straight hair too, it all looks good, if my goals were only for bsl i would have a nice sharp cut flat ironed, maybe i will one day when i get over my goals

[Islandgrrl]

I'm not sure I actually know what razored hair looks like. I've honestly not paid that much attention :P

But I do love that sleek, straight look on other people. I'm not a big fan of it on myself.

[Eireann]

I like my hair when it's wavy, but when it's straight it looks longer, which, of course, I love. Still, I guess it's better to be patient and have healthy hair that looks long even when it's wavy.

(Cue G 'n R: "Just a little patience, aaaaahhh. . .)

[QueenBea]

I love the way my hair looks straightened--by itself. But when I look at pictures in the past with my hair flat ironed, it looks limp and doesn't flatter my face shape.

I've got to keep remembering that I was created with my given hair color, texture, face shape, skin tones, etc. because the Creator knew it all "went" together I just haven't always fully appreciated it Trying to . . .

Bea

[Just_Isabel]

I love my hair when it's straight, especially flat ironed. I don't do it often, but if the iron wasn't so damaging I'd probably straighten it every week.

[spidermom]

I also like the look of smooth, shiny straight hair, but I don't have to do anything. I mean they're everywhere on other people's heads for me to look, right? I don't see my own hair much anyway.

I've often thought about that when it comes to coloring one's hair. People say "I can't stand seeing this color" (meaning their natural color), and I wonder how much time they spend looking in the mirror evaluating the color. I don't spend much of my time in front of the mirror (most days). I see a lot more of the colors I like by being active in the world, looking at the color on other heads.

[Eireann]

I'm the converse of that. I color my hair to "decorate DH's world". ;-) I went grey early, and I look and feel younger than I am, except for my grey hair. DH likes me to look as young as I feel, and I am happy to oblige. There will be a time when I go grey naturally, but not this day! It might seem "unfeminist" to color my hair to please him, but I'm sure he wears tighter jeans than he would if it were entirely up to him!

[Nightshade]

No, it isn't. Sorry to be so blunt but it just isn't. Even on naturally stick straight hair, razoring is a horror. I think that Nightshade or someone has some microscopic photos of this.

Razoring my hair simply makes it look like it has breakage, flatiron or no. Even if there is no breakage and it's just the razoring making it look like that.

*chuckles* That's just begging for the horror show pics



This is a normal hair with the tip rounded from natural weathering.




This is the pic I think RiotCurl was referencing. A poor razor cut can leave a long curled tail on the end of the hair, which is only going to encourage breakdown on the end of the hair shaft.



To be fair, you get damage even if normal hair scissors are blunt.


Now! onto the flat iron pictures!



Bubbles in the hair formed by heating it too hot. The moisture in the hair turns to steam, which breaks through the cuticle in an attempt to get out of the hair, causing damage.


The resulting splits and breaks from heat damage:

The "white dot"


Split end close up.

Source


So, no, you're never going to get that super-sleek flat-ironed look without applying a heat appliance to your hair. You can try other methods, such as combing your hair straight when wet with a bit of aloe gel, and there's a method for wrapping hair around here that does it too, but it's never going to look like flat-ironed hair (which tends to look limp IMHO as others thought).

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the look of razored hair, and on some people it looks FANTASTIC. If I even went short short (which I never have and odds are at this point I never will) I'd love a razored cut.

My point here isn't that nobody should razor or flat iron their hair, but just that doing so isn't the most conducive to growing hair to extreme lengths ("extreme" here taken to mean society's definition, not the LHC definition, which is somewhat broken ).

If you can find that wrapped tutorial, give it a go. You won't get perfectly flat results, however, it may be a good compromise between doing nothing and doing something that can be inherently damaging if done more than once in a blue moon (though a too-hot flat iron can trash a hair if it's way overheated even if t's only done once.)

[spidermom]

I'm the converse of that. I color my hair to "decorate DH's world". ;-) I went grey early, and I look and feel younger than I am, except for my grey hair. DH likes me to look as young as I feel, and I am happy to oblige. There will be a time when I go grey naturally, but not this day! It might seem "unfeminist" to color my hair to please him, but I'm sure he wears tighter jeans than he would if it were entirely up to him!

Haha - sounds like a fair exchange to me!