Straightened for one day and I feel the damage

[Bookloverlori]

Decided to straighten my hair the other day, just to see how long it is. I haven't done that in over a year. I used a hair dryer and hair spray. It was beautiful. My kids loved it. My Hubby loved it.

Now, 4 days later, two conditioner washes with vinegar rinses, lots of coconut oil... and my hair still fells dry and straw-ish. Ugh! I guess I didn't realize just how damaging it is to my delicate hair. Going to be extra careful with my uber-dry locks for the next few weeks.

[melusine963]

I haven't used straighteners in over two years now, and I've only recently felt I got rid of all the damage years of neglect have caused. I'd always thought it would be ok to go back to straightening very, very occasionally for special occasions. This post is making me reconsider that. It makes me a little sad, since my hair looks so much better straightened. Oh well. :wail:

[Henrietta]

I thought it's impossible to ruin hair in one day until I went to an evil hairdresser a year ago. For a deep treatment! But she brushed my hair with a plastic brush while it was wet ( :wail: ), blowdryed it using the same brush and keeping the dryer in such a way that it was touching my hair ( :wail: ) and then she straightened it for whatever reason ( :wail: ). And told me that my hair is ugly and damaged (?!) and applied a ton of serum saying "now it's better".
I wanted to say "When you brush 2b hair with an ugly brush then yes, it looks damaged, you..." Ugh!

Stay calm, though. I managed to get my hair back into good shape after a few washes and deep treatments. Maybe it disturbed your hair a bit, the heat I mean. It will calm down. It's not a damage of this "forever" kind. It's more about irritated hair.

[Mya]

Hey girls! Throw the blow drier and the straightener away, hair wrapping is your friend!

[dawnss]

Yeah I would try hair wrapping. I am curious though, how did you straighten your hair? Did you use a very moisturizing deep treatment before you straightened?

[Ambystoma]

I noticed the same thing after one very gentle low heat flatironing a little while ago. I fixed it with a bunch of deep conditioning though so nothing permanent but I was a bit worried for a while there. Wrapping is pretty great but I still can't get that 1a look from it like with heat but it gives me a nice 1b/c look for when I feel like a change. I guess I just need more practice!

[Mya]

I can't tell if a 1a look can be accomplished with hair wrapping because my hair is too rebel anyway to keep that look, even with flat iron (unless I destroy it completely, I guess). All I can say is that, in my experience, a look accomplished by letting wet hair dry naturally (or by blowing it with cold air) lasts longer and better than a look accomplished with heat, especially if it's heat on already dry hair.

[Henrietta]

Hey girls! Throw the blow drier and the straightener away, hair wrapping is your friend!

Oh, I didn't even want the blowdrying or the straightening. I've been heat free for years. Apart from that one visit in hell.