Poll: Whats worse, blow drying hair or straightening it ?

[stephy190]

I prefer straightening my hair to blow drying.. but I think thats worse!

[MidnightHowl]

I think straightening is worse. Higher temps and more concentrated on the hair. I blow dry with a diffuser every once in a while but I gave up straightening about a year or so ago because of the damage it was causing. I have so much less breakage now than I did back then.

[akilina]

Straightening. If you use proper technique with blow drying, and don't use scorching heat in my personal experience it's non damaging.
Do what you want though, if you flat iron it will cause some damage. Make sure you use a heat protectant and turn down the heat if you're going to do it. I still use a straightener once a week or so with no additional damage. My damage is from color.

If you do straighten, use your protectant, use the right heat setting for your hair (i use the lowest) section in thin sections and only do ONE controlled pass down the hair using a comb. I can not stand watching people using a flat iron like its a hair brush and straightening the same piece of hair six F&!?*%# times. Never flat iron your hair with coconut oil or any food oil on it, but do soak it in the oil of your choice whenever you feel necessary (I do it every night and wash in the morning).

[lapushka]

Straightening is worse. Air drying your hair, to then straighten it... no, terrible. Blow drying it on warm instead and leaving it alone is definitely *a* *lot* better!

[Jonathan S]

I'd say straightening is worse since you are doing both heat and mechanical damage to your hair. I never straighten my hair and I let it air dry most of the time.

[LAG93]

Straightening is definitely worse! If you use the cold setting on the blow dryer it can dry and straighten your hair, as well as defrizz. Now that kinda takes forever but not as long as airdrying. I have pretty straight hair already, kinda wavy but when I blow dry I use the hot setting for a couple mins, then switch to cold for the rest of the time, about 20 mins. It defrizzes and straightens my hair leaving it shiny and smooth and voluminous!( I do this rarely, when I'm going out and want to look extra nice, once a month maybe)

[Bellereena]

When I've been to the salon to get my hair bleached which in itself is very damaging (and something I'm trying to move away from now) depending on who would dry my hair I used to get it either blow dried smooth/straight medium heat or rough dried and then straightened with hot irons and every time I would have the irons on it I would get small hairs stick up my head from hairs that broke off due to the heat whereas when I just got it blow dried on a medium setting I didn't get breakage. At home I don't use straighteners and usually get my hair towel dry with a micro fibre turban towel and then air dry. I try to only use a hair dryer is if its cold and raining (I live in the UK so this is important if you don't want to catch a cold) but even then I just dry enough so that it doesn't make me ill shudder:

[RavennaNight]

Definitely straightening is worse. You really have to use lots of heat protectant if you do, but even then it's still pretty bad. Blow drying isn't great, but not as bad. I blow it out on a rare occasion.

[Firefox7275]

I prefer straightening my hair to blow drying.. but I think thats worse!

Different types of damage and depends how it is done. Blow frying: rpeatedly brushing when hair causes mechanical damage plus there is heat which may or may not be concentrated. Flat ironing is direct heat, but depends on the temperature selected and how dry the hair was to begin with ('bubble hair'). Either can cause irreparable damage in a single session.

[kidari]

Straightening is worse by far, however blow drying can be very damaging as well. If you blow dry to straighten really curly hair and you are taking sections and pulling it with force repeatedly with a round brush with the heat at it's highest and the nozzle is actually touching the damp hair, it is causes some serious damage.

[chen bao jun]

Different types of damage and depends how it is done. Blow frying: rpeatedly brushing when hair causes mechanical damage plus there is heat which may or may not be concentrated. Flat ironing is direct heat, but depends on the temperature selected and how dry the hair was to begin with ('bubble hair'). Either can cause irreparable damage in a single session.

I agree. Both are worse. However, as with everything else there are people who can get away with it for long, long time. Like George Burns with his cigar dying at 100 while Jim Fixx the runner drops dead at age 50 or so.

[jacqueline101]

Straightening is worse.

[Allychan]

Straightening hands down!:luke: (blow dryer vs hair straightener lightsaber fight) At least with a blow dryer you can use a cooler setting

[Flor]

Like someone said earlier, it depends what you're doing when blow-drying. If it's blowing air on cold setting simply to speed up drying process, it's one thing. If it's what they call "brushing", as in using blow-drying on maximum setting with nozzle touching hair while it's being stretched on dense round brush, then I'd say it's practically the same as using flat iron on it's lowest setting.

[AMD]

For me the blow dryer is worse. I have to do a lot more with my hair to get it to look decent while drying it. (It has no smoothing effect on dry hair). With a flat iron, I just air dry in braids overnight then do a quick one pass flat iron on a medium setting. And done!
I have 3c/4a tight curls.

[AmyBeth]

I don't know that either can ever be made undamaging to hair. Spray some heat protectant on your arm and then put your hair iron on it- didn't think so. I think I read somewhere that your goal is only BSL, so with regular trims and deep conditioning, you can probably do it and have reasonably healthy looking hair.

[FuzzyBlackWaves]

I would have thought straightening, because it's on already dry hair, meaning the only moisture to pull out is the stuff that's supposed to be there.

[jeanniet]

I'd say straightening. Just the idea of it makes my hair run for cover, lol. I diffuse dry my hair (about 75% on low-medium heat) and haven't seen any damage from it. I'm getting my hair cut regularly right now, so the ends are always fresh, but I haven't seen any splits.

[littlemonster]

To get it staight? For normal people, straightening.

For me, blow drying, because I can never get that smooth polished look, even with a round brush. Just can't do it. I can entirely tangle the brush in my hair while trying, then have to slowly free it though. I'm ok if I'm just drying it because I need it dry though, with a round brush. It just... doesn't go straight.



Personally, I never noticed any real damage from straightening - I sectioned, used the lowest heat to do it in 1 run, left it alone. I don't need hairspray to keep it straight either. But, I've done it to smooth and go to fairly straight, not to have my hair so straight it's a single sheet, so not as high/lots of passes needed for poker straight hair.

[goldenlady]

I blow-dry on cold with my dryer facing down to achieve straight hair.. I used to straighten everyday and I had severe damage which I had to cut off. My hair is so soft/strong/shiny with blow-drying so I do think it isn't damaging or is just as damaging as sitting outside in a breeze..