How much damage does heat straightening once a year?

[glitterbug]

Hi all :)

I have waist length hair some strands are fine and some are thick, I have been taking great care of my hair, I last straightened my hair last September.

If I straighten it this september, how much damage will be done to my hair? As in is it a great deal that my hair will behave differently and dry out or will it recover and get back to normal? How much will that heat straighening do, if I do it once a year?

I want great hair, but some times I want to straighten it too.

[Leeloo]

I think it greatly depends on the condition of your hair, the heat style equipment you use (ceramic ones are more even in heat then others), the amount of heat you warm the equipment to and the amount of time you spend keeping it on your hair. So basically I don’t think anyone can tell exactly how much damage it will do. So you might not even notice it or it might fry your hair. Hair does not recover, you can do some treatments that would cover up the damage until you cut it off though.

[chen bao jun]

Depends on your hair.

I used to always straighten mine (on top of having a chemical straightener in it) and I was happy, but I was not trying to grow. APL hair was fine with me, so I didn't notice the issues with straightening.
However, after I was on LHC for about six months, I flat-ironed for a length check. My hair was in vastly improved condition and since I had always done it all the time, I thought, no sweat. I used heat protectant and did everything you're supposed to, and I was a practised flat-ironer, had done it for year. I couldn't believe afterwards how my ends were visibly breaking off, short pieces of hair all over the bathroom, my pillow, my clothes, like rain. I don't know if that always happened and I just had never noticed before, or it was so severe because my my hair had grown and my ends were older. But i washed my hair and did protein treatment and luckily it recovered after a couple of washes and conditioning treatments. But since then I swore NO flat ironing, not for length checks, or for checking thickness or anything. It's a bit irritating as i have to pull my hair downwards in several different places to try to tell how much its grown (its obvious its grown a lot, but I can't tell how much, as I easily could if it was flat-ironed) and I also can't do a proper thickness check. But thsi is best for ME.
You mayhave stronger or less damaged hair. there's people on here who flatiron and swear they have no effects. so I guess the answer if, yes, its definitely damaging, but some people do get away with it a certain amount of the time and you might be one.

[ravenreed]

No one can predict for you what damage will be done, if any, by straightening your hair occasionally. You have to decide whether you want long hair no matter what, or whether you want to enjoy your hair no matter what. I prefer to enjoy my hair, so I occasionally use hair spray, or a blow dryer, or wear it down and deal with the massive tangles. However, if your goal is hair as long as possible as fast as possible, you might want to hold off on the heat styling.

[CurlMonster]

Id recommend trying a no-heat hair straightening method to get your hair mostly straight to start off with. Then you wouldn't have to straighten every piece of hair, just whichever ones got little kinks or didn't end up as straight as you wanted. And then even if a bit of damage shows up, it won't be as bad as if you had straightened your whole head.

[HollyG]

As everyone says, it depends.
If you've used heat before i would go by that and try and work out you think one time would work.

I think you would generally be ok if it's on a lowish heat with heat protectant. I use heat on my hair about once a week and it's fine (but that's a hairdryer not straighteners - to straighten i use the Babyliss big hair)

[Firefox7275]

Hi all :)

I have waist length hair some strands are fine and some are thick, I have been taking great care of my hair, I last straightened my hair last September.

If I straighten it this september, how much damage will be done to my hair? As in is it a great deal that my hair will behave differently and dry out or will it recover and get back to normal? How much will that heat straighening do, if I do it once a year?

I want great hair, but some times I want to straighten it too.

Depends how it's done, you can completely fry your hair in one session if you use too high a temperature or have even slightly damp hair. Use proven heat protectant ingredients, ensure your hair has been washed and dried the day before, keep the temperature low and your hair should recover.
http://www.pgbeautygroomingscience.com/bubble-hair.php
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2009/05/straightening-factshow-hot-is-too-hot.html

[Simone_Fatale]

Once a year? You'd probably get virtually no damage with the right heat protect product and low-to-moderate temperature. I used to flat iron my hair daily and it took about 7-8 months to even get some tiny clues of damage. I did have a lot of small trims because my tips would get ratty soon, though, but as I was in the awkward phase, I'd have to trim anyway to get it into some sort of shape. So, yeah, if you take care of the whole process of straightening, and do it once a year, your hair won't even notice it.