Heat Users! Tell me more.

[queenovnight]

I know that some of you still use heat, and it got me to wondering..


1. How often do you use heat?
2. What exactly do you use? Flat iron, hot rollers, blow drier?
3. Do you have a before/after 'care' routine?
4. How often do you trim?
5. Do you intend to ever put the heat styling tools away forever?

- Other info would be killer too!

_____________________________________________


For me:
I try to only use a blow drier 3 times a month. Sometimes less. I don't use any other 'heat styling tools' because my hair just can't take it. Before I blow dry, I deep condition and when it comes time to wash - I deep oil (coconut or olive) and then I S&D. And once or twice a month I dust my ends. - If I could cut out the blow drier, my hair would probably be much longer! I admit it. Lol. I don't see myself completely giving up the blow drier, but I have been using it less and less.

[florenonite]

I blow-dry on average once a week, though I'm not sure it qualifies as using heat, as I only use it on a cool enough setting that it's comfortable on my very heat-sensitive skin. I also only trim around once a year and rarely S&D, so I don't see any evidence of heat-related damage. I don't do anything special before/after; it's just what I do to help speed up the amount of time my hair takes to dry (without it it can take up to 9 hours to dry; with 5 minutes of blow-drying that time is halved).

I'd give it up if I move to a drier climate, or cut my hair ;)

[ErinLeigh]

I blow dry a few times a week. No additional heating tools except for maybe 2 times a year.
I wish I didn't have to blow dry but my current cut looks terrible air dried. I hope I can cut back as it grows but time will tell.

I use a warm setting with a lot of cool shot blasts. I don't find this damages my hair much but its cumulative so I wouldn't see it now anyway. I know there was a study saying blow drying on warm to cool is ok for hair (something about long air drying time being as damaging due to hair staying wet to long) but sometimes I worry about it sapping moisture from my hair. That part is proven. It does take moisture out that doesn't get replaced until hair is re wetted. I try to retain as much moisture as I can on other days, and on days hair isn't styled I keep it up, oiled and conditioned hoping to balance out the blow drying. I also try to air dry as much as I can before reaching for the dryer so hair is only slightly damp, not wet.

I worry about damage and such but not enough to stop at this time as I am not trying to achieve a super length. In my case I have to outweigh the lesser of the 2 evils. Do I want hair to look nice now or do I want to prevent what I feel is a moderate to small amount of additional damage?
I chose look nice now as my confidence is effected easily by bad hair days.

I trim about every 8 weeks and am currently wearing a short SL hairstyle so I am not much help on long term effects of blow drying long hair.

OP your hair is so beautiful. I think a few times a month is just fine. I don't see how that will add much more issue than daily wear and tear, but its good that you are prudent with it. You seem to have a good balance and it shows :)

[MINAKO]

I used to straighten once a month and kepp it sraight for like ten days. Occasionally i would do touchups or use a curling wand. Nowaday not so much, it's just gotten so difficult in the process that i would wear buns most of the time. But my hair doesn't really stay in it's most managable condition when i lay off the heat, kinda odd, i know. But the routine really helps me to prevent tangles and get it softer and shinier. Keratin plus heat has become such a big thing for me in the past 3 years, along with the flatirons i told you about earlier (cloud9 wide plate and L'oreal Steampod)

So basically im a COer, wash once a week, wear buns all the time and heavy LOC each time before putting my hair up.
When i intend to straighten i don't switch up much of that, i use my prewash oil molassses mix, a deep conditioner afterwards, make sure i detangle well, put a little bit of leave in on when its towel dry, then comes the heat protectant and some serum, i braid it with 2 big silk scarfs and the next morning i just use the iron with the tension method. Pretty much the same when i use an actual keratin treatment to straighten it every 3 months, just that im using the keratin instead of heatprotectant and serum.
My hair got so much better since i started doing this. My hair semm to handle a temperature of 210°C very well and it's not feeling dry or looking damaged at all. The texture is effed up to begin with, so i dont mind that the top half is meanwhile very wavy, while most of the bottom part is much more straight, since keratin does build up and increases the effect everytime i use it.
before i wash my straightened hair again i soak it in arganoil for one day and then aplly the prewash additionally on top of that.

[MINAKO]

Oh i forgot, i trim about every 6 months, but not much since i evened my hemline out.
I wouldn't like to have long hair if i couldn't get it straight, seriously, i would hate my natural texture enough to commit to a pixie otherwise.

[arr]

I blow dry on warm every time i wash my hair, which is 3 or 4 times a week. I mostly just blow dry the scalp area and back of head and leave the length to air dry. I feel i get better volume on top than if i let it all air dry. Maybe once a month if I'm wearing my hair down i will flat iron the ends on the lowest setting which is 300, one quick pass. I don't do anything special before or after using heat. Currently i haven't had a trim in one year, other than S&D, and i don't know when i will get one, since my ends are in pretty good shape. Once i reach my goal, i plan to trim twice a year. At that time ill continue the blowdryer as i am doing now, occasionally i plan to flat iron all of my hair as a special treat, a few times a year. Im not worried about damage, i will use the lowest setting, one quick pass, plus my hair isn't very curly anyway so it doesn't take much to get it straight.

[queenovnight]

ErinLeigh,
Thank you! You have lovely hair as well!

MINAKO,
I'm totally going to check out this could9 device! And honestly, I can agree on the "I wouldn't like to have long hair if i couldn't get it straight, seriously, i would hate my natural texture enough to commit to a pixie otherwise." - At first, I was growing out my hair to TBL so that my curls would be 'wearable' but the longer it gets, the more I change my mind xD I need to at least have three good hair days a month. At least 3!

[SnowWhite]

1. How often do you use heat? Two times a week
2. What exactly do you use? Flat iron, hot rollers, blow drier? Blow drier + diffuser on low setting! I feel it's less damaging because it 'spreads' the heat more. Like drying my hair sitting in the sun and the wind blowing in my hair... I never use flat irons nor hot rollers.
3. Do you have a before/after 'care' routine? Coconut oiling the ends AFTER blow drying... sometimes.
4. How often do you trim? Never. An occasional S&D
5. Do you intend to ever put the heat styling tools away forever? No. It's impossible with my hair. Especially in winter. My poor hair and I will freeze to death if I don't blowdry it. Because air drying takes forever.

[ErinLeigh]

So true about needing some good hair days a few days a month. Feeling really good makes a difference to my emotional health and to me its worth it. I need smooth sleek voluminous hair some days. I can't give that up :)

[HintOfMint]

Heat was one of the things that actually wrecked my hair years ago and caused the Great Chop of 2008, so I'm much more careful about it now.

I have a blowout done every time I get my hair cut (2 - 3 times a year) and occasionally in between, so about 6 - 8 times a year. I try to do a heavy oiling and then an SMT in my next wash for aftercare. I would never give up heat entirely, I absolutely adore how my hair looks and feels with a professional blowout. I just know that I couldn't maintain my length with more frequent use of heat.

[Nadine <3]

I blow dry my bangs on medium heat every time wash my hair. I was washing every 4 days, but now that it's getting warmer and VERY humid I need to at least rinse every day. I don't do anything special with them before or after. They get a small amount of leave in, put that's it. I figure, they're bangs. I trim them so often that the damage never has time to show up. If I ever decided to grow them out I would probably blow dry them until the reached chin, just because my cow licks won't stay down untl then. I look weird without bangs though so I don't see that happening.

[RainbowBowser]

I only blow-dry cool or warm so I don't technically "count" it. [it rarely happens anyway]
I limit myself to using heat 2-3 times a month, although there are months with no heat at all.
I only use the curling iron if I know an occasion is coming up and i can give my hair extra care before-hand.
I schedule a flat iron day because I still enjoy stick-straight hair, but I don't want it every day.
Before-care is simply being good to my hair, wearing hair up on high-risk days to prevent mechanical damage, no cones usually and frequent S&D sessions, trims are for managing taper for me.
I load up on cones before I use the heat, I condition with cones just before I get out, I let my hair dry with a coney leave-in, and then apply heat protectant beforehand.
After, I S&D, and my current plan (I flat-ironed saturday morning) is to clarify the cones off then deep condition (I'm thinking SMT) because cones aren't the kindest to my hair (can't let in moisture and my hair gets dry).

Will I ever give them up entirely? Who knows, but I don't plan to. I figure if I am wise about it I shouldn't have too many problems. It might affect how long my hair will grow.

[Weewah]

1. How often do you use heat?
Diffuse on low for like 5-10 minutes to help speed along the air drying process, almost every day. I blow dry my bangs on high with a round brush. I hope my bangs will be long enough some day to look good blended with the rest of my hair and I won't have to separately style them, but right now they're crazy.

2. What exactly do you use? Flat iron, hot rollers, blow drier?
Blow dryer only since joining LHC.

3. Do you have a before/after 'care' routine?
Before LHC, blow dry on high with paddle brush until completely dry. Then straighten my entire head with the flat iron.
After LHC, air dry as much as possible, but diffuse on low to speed things up. I quit straightening my hair and threw my flat iron in the garbage. Just trying to make my natural waves look as good as possible now without damage.

4. How often do you trim?
Sporadically, used to be every 3-6 months or so. But now I self trim, I'm part of the no trims for 2014 challenge but I'm really tempted to trim today actually.

5. Do you intend to ever put the heat styling tools away forever?
I can't put away the blow dryer, my hair takes like 4-5 hours to dry without it. I already put away the irons though.


Other info: I use large rollers whenever I feel like straightening now, but I wanna find some steam rollers because the Velcro ones I've been using are probably not good for hair. I still gotta try the damp bunning!

[Jonquil]

I use a blow dryer on warm setting and blast my hair upside down while gently brushing through with my wide tooth comb twice a week - currently this is the most I've styled my hair with heat for a few months. I used to be very careless with heated styling tools when I was younger and would use a flat iron almost every day without using any heat protectant and using a really high temperature. And it would be such a shock when I had to have my hair trimmed every few months because of the split ends. Ahh, the LHC-loving part of me cringes at the thought of those days!
Now I try to let my hair air dry whenever I can but I'm in the process of growing out some awkward layers and it looks weird. I definitely agree that having styled hair is important for confidence and it makes a BIG difference in how I feel about interacting with others at work if I have a smooth blow dried look vs. awkward half wavy and frizzy layers kind of hair day. The damage and frizziness I'm currently dealing with were mostly caused by using round brushes and high heat to blow dry my hair for about a year on end... compared to that, my current routine is awesome.

In terms of before/after care, honestly that's something I've only recently started paying attention to so I'm not sure if what I'm doing is what I'll be doing for the rest of my life. But it's working well. I do a thorough oiling on the scalp and along the length with emu oil and leave it in for as long as I can on wash day. The emu oil cuts down my shed for days whenever I use it so it's something that I always have to remind myself to use. Then I shampoo/CO wash or whatever I'm in the mood for. After leaving the shower I use a leave-in, the current long-time favourite being Garnier Sleek & Shine. It's been great for controlling frizz. Let it air-dry as long as I can stand, then blow dry quickly. Run a dab of emu oil along the ends and through the length and I'm good to go.

My last trim was 4 months ago. I need another one to cut off the damage from the vigorous round brush usage but hopefully I can stretch it out with S&D missions. Currently I keep my hair shears beside the computer so that I can do S&D while watching Netflix or something, haha. The worst is when you see a bad split end but don't have your shears handy, gah!

And no, I don't see myself putting away the heat styling tools for good. Cutting down their use, hopefully, but those really-nice-styled-hair days are not worth giving up :P

[Ambystoma]

1. How often do you use heat? Every couple of months more or less.
2. What exactly do you use? Flat iron, hot rollers, blow drier? Flat iron.
3. Do you have a before/after 'care' routine? No, nothing special. I use a styling heat protector spray but it's been debated as to how much those products actually protect.
4. How often do you trim? Whenever I feel like it, minimum of 4 times a year.
5. Do you intend to ever put the heat styling tools away forever? Nope! I have extremely resilient hair (all my pre LHC hair, that is, everything below around BSL ish looks and feels just as nice as the new growth, yet twice a week I used to blow dry, then flat iron and then half the time use a curling iron afterwards too, plus it's quite sunbleached :couch:) so I'm comfortable with the small amount of damage the styling will do. I'm only planning on maybe growing another 5 inches if I don't maintain here at Tailbone so my ends aren't too precious to me.

[MINAKO]

MINAKO,
I'm totally going to check out this could9 device! And honestly, I can agree on the "I wouldn't like to have long hair if i couldn't get it straight, seriously, i would hate my natural texture enough to commit to a pixie otherwise." - At first, I was growing out my hair to TBL so that my curls would be 'wearable' but the longer it gets, the more I change my mind xD I need to at least have three good hair days a month. At least 3!

I remember how i had to wrestle my hair with the first iron which was a remington, a nightmare. I was convinced my hair would just be the type that doesn't straighten well. But it was realy just a matter of finding the right tool. Apparently the GlamPalm is even better than the clod9, but i didn't get the chance to try that one yet. KQC might also be interesting, just to give some options to compare, basically any flatiron produced in southkorea, lol, they are really the best.
I'm still striggling tho because it still takes alot of time to get it as perfectly straight as i like to wear it, i do very small sections of hair. Always tempted to go for the Kiko Mizuhara cut, so i would be done in like half the time, hehehe, so length is really just the result of avoiding hairdressers in my case and then some day i noticed that it's still healthy and maybe i should go for more. I dunno, but as long as there is nothing like that pill L'oreal claimed to be developing, that is able to alter the texture, i'll have to tick to the iron.

[LadyCelestina]

1. How often do you use heat?
Kinda frequently nowadays,my hair is getting too much of a bother if left to air dry,so I blow dry it a bit when I don't feel like pottering around with wet hair for hours or when I'm in a hurry.I have bangs and the same goes for them,except that I am much rougher to them than I am to the rest of my hair.
2. What exactly do you use? Flat iron, hot rollers, blow drier?
Blow dryer,flat iron doesn't make my hair straight at all and hot rollers are kind of useless imo.
3. Do you have a before/after 'care' routine?
Just normal haircare routine.I like to oil/serum my hair after blow drying because I get some flyaways from moving around.
4. How often do you trim?
As needed.I'm growing out damaged hair so a lot depends on how much my ends get on my nerves that month.Also,I don't really *trim*,I dust.
5. Do you intend to ever put the heat styling tools away forever?
Probably if it breaks one day.The blow dryer I mean.

[umbrellabones]

I blow dry my bangs just about every time I wash my hair which is about three times a week. I also straighten my bangs sometimes on days when they get weird looking from sleeping or a head band. I use a heat protectant spray every time (tresemme at the moment) and I pull the rest of my hair behind my back and out of the way. My bangs are the only part of my hair that ever sees heat. They look much better with heat styling and since I trim them every month or two and have no plans to grow them out I'm not concerned with damage. they look healthy.

[faellen]

I usually wash my hair twice a week and blow dry on warm or cool. I hate sitting around with wet hair, and won't leave the house with wet hair either.
Usually about half of it will still be damp, but only the lengths - scalp hair must be dry!

[lapushka]

1. How often do you use heat?
2. What exactly do you use? Flat iron, hot rollers, blow drier?
3. Do you have a before/after 'care' routine?
4. How often do you trim?
5. Do you intend to ever put the heat styling tools away forever?

We use a diffuser on warm every week (hair is washed weekly). This is fine. It's not on hot with a roundbrush (which is the damaging way). As long as you can hold your hand in the airstream without it burning, it's totally fine! I see no damage, whatsoever. I just let my hair be in between shampooings. Currently I am going "no trimming" for the year, and haven't noticed anything bad (no split ends, no white dots). I don't intend to ever stop favoriting the blow dryer. IMMHO going without a blow dryer is pure and utter nonsense. It's not a "hot tool" per sé. If you use the tool correctly (cool to warm), it will incur no damage.

[anitacs9101]

I think my hair looks best down and completely straight, so on very rare occasions I will flat iron :) And if I'm in a hurry I will use a blowdryer but that's even more rare.

1. How often do you use heat? It's dwindled the longer my hair gets, but right now, I guess around once very two months?
2. What exactly do you use? Flat iron, hot rollers, blow drier? Flat iron and blow dryer. I actually curled the ends of my hair a few weeks ago, but I hadn't done that in years and don't intend to in the future :P
3. Do you have a before/after 'care' routine? Nope.
4. How often do you trim? When I think it needs it, or when I'm feeling bad about my hair/the urge to cut. Right now it REALLY needs it (my hair is really uneven at the bottom right now, not 100% sure why but I think it was because of a recent, very thorough S&D session) but I'm being stubborn :)
5. Do you intend to ever put the heat styling tools away forever? They're not a regular part of my regimen so it could certainly happen :) I may still use a blow dryer, but my hair is getting harder and harder to wear down, and without wearing it down there's no reason to straighten.

[RingletedManiac]

How often: Every few months, more recently I've straightened it once a week, every other week.
Heating tool:I use a Chi flat iron and the Chi heat-protectant serum.
But I do have a seriousquestion. Do heat protectants really protect the hair from heat as well as it should? I haven't noticed any visible heat damage to my hair, but I just want to be sure. I'd hate to damage my hair.

[meteor]

How often: Every few months, more recently I've straightened it once a week, every other week.
Heating tool:I use a Chi flat iron and the Chi heat-protectant serum.
But I do have a seriousquestion. Do heat protectants really protect the hair from heat as well as it should? I haven't noticed any visible heat damage to my hair, but I just want to be sure. I'd hate to damage my hair.
I don't want to scare you, but heat applied to hair is damaging. If people even use a glove to protect the other hand from burning while curling, then it's clearly damaging. Damage is cumulative and it is very rarely visible right away (unless you are using a microscope). Scientists have looked at hair after application of heat and found damage just after one application. And this video with a girl accidentally burning off her hair during her hair tutorial shows that even one heat application can be disastrous sometimes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh7GmDIKM5c
Heat protectants help a bit, by all means use them! But heat protectants cannot be physically applied to all of your hair surface, so some of your hair is still exposed.

Also, if your hair is even slightly damp on application of heat, you can get what's called "bubble hair" (water boiling inside the hair).
Bubbles formed within hair as a result of water boiling within the cortex:
http://pgbeautyscience.com/assets/images/twoh/Chapter%202/Damage%2019.jpg
http://pgbeautyscience.com/assets/images/twoh/Chapter%202/Damage%2020.jpg
http://pgbeautyscience.com/assets/images/twoh/Chapter%202/Damage%2021.jpg
http://pgbeautyscience.com/hair-damage.php

[RingletedManiac]

I don't want to scare you, but heat applied to hair is damaging. If people even use a glove to protect the other hand from burning while curling, then it's clearly damaging. Damage is cumulative and it is very rarely visible right away (unless you are using a microscope). Scientists have looked at hair after application of heat and found damage just after one application. And this video with a girl accidentally burning off her hair during her hair tutorial shows that even one heat application can be disastrous sometimes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh7GmDIKM5c
Heat protectants help a bit, by all means use them! But heat protectants cannot be physically applied to all of your hair surface, so some of your hair is still exposed.

Also, if your hair is even slightly damp on application of heat, you can get what's called "bubble hair" (water boiling inside the hair).
Bubbles formed within hair as a result of water boiling within the cortex:
http://pgbeautyscience.com/assets/images/twoh/Chapter%202/Damage%2019.jpg
http://pgbeautyscience.com/assets/images/twoh/Chapter%202/Damage%2020.jpg
http://pgbeautyscience.com/assets/images/twoh/Chapter%202/Damage%2021.jpg
http://pgbeautyscience.com/hair-damage.php

My paranoia's starting to kick in. Fortunately, I do dry my hair completely before I flatiron my hair, so I'm not experiencing this "bubble hair" crap.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

I use the hair dryer on a warm setting to take the worst of the wetness from my hair when I wash it in winter and it's too cold to sit around all day waiting for my hair to air dry. I don't use any other heat at all apart from washing my hair in warm water.

During summer I use no heat in any shape or form on my hair.

[MINAKO]

I don't want to scare you, but heat applied to hair is damaging. If people even use a glove to protect the other hand from burning while curling, then it's clearly damaging. Damage is cumulative and it is very rarely visible right away (unless you are using a microscope). Scientists have looked at hair after application of heat and found damage just after one application. And this video with a girl accidentally burning off her hair during her hair tutorial shows that even one heat application can be disastrous sometimes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh7GmDIKM5c
Heat protectants help a bit, by all means use them! But heat protectants cannot be physically applied to all of your hair surface, so some of your hair is still exposed.

Also, if your hair is even slightly damp on application of heat, you can get what's called "bubble hair" (water boiling inside the hair).
Bubbles formed within hair as a result of water boiling within the cortex:
http://pgbeautyscience.com/assets/images/twoh/Chapter%202/Damage%2019.jpg
http://pgbeautyscience.com/assets/images/twoh/Chapter%202/Damage%2020.jpg
http://pgbeautyscience.com/assets/images/twoh/Chapter%202/Damage%2021.jpg
http://pgbeautyscience.com/hair-damage.php

The downsides aren't as extreme all of the time, of course there's serious damage on hair that is *****ed to begin with, which is used for demonstrative purpose. But for me the degree of "damage" is worth it, straightening prevents my hair from tangling, frizzing, at the end of the day i have less damage, then i would have, if i would allow my hair to cause friction on itself. Heat protectans and deep treatments do work for me.
This bubble hair things is kinda poppin' up every npw and again. This would only happen to super porous hair that is wet, not fairly healthy hair that has a damp patch here and there.
I think this "all natural" movement favours to present things in an extreme way, but that's just not always the case. Kinda like soymilk vs. cowsmilk. I mean not everybody wants untouched hair and can deal with it looking like crap this way, me for example. Without the possibilities of correcting what i dont like, i wouldn't be growing my hair at all. Everyone who does use heat should keep an eye on it and find out what works best, but laying it off completely is not always an option. Educating ourselves on the matter is a good thing, but panic because a handfull of people where unlucky or literally asking for disater doesn't mean it's impossible to prevent those things. ;)

[queenovnight]

RingletedManiac (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/member.php?u=64945),


I think it depends on your hair. Like MINAKO said. Some of us can take heat, others can't.

I have healthy hair, but if I use a flat iron.. I'll see damage immediately.
My sister has dyed hair and uses a flat iron daily.. but her hair is in magnificent condition.
If you'd like to see a photo, I could post one.


So! Does heat damage your hair? After a period of time, yes. But some people will see worse damage than others. It also depends on what you use. A hairstylist will tell you that a blow drier is a better option, and if done right (and not frequently) will do little damage. - Just a note, it's also important not to blow dry your hair when it's dripping wet. You see less damage when done damp.

[SkyChild]

1. How often do you use heat? Every three days.
2. What exactly do you use? Blowdry on a cool setting. I will occasionally (once or twice a year for special occasions) Use a straightener or curling tong. Usually on the highest setting as I'm too lazy to prep properly and the heat sets it quickly.
3. Do you have a before/after 'care' routine? Not really. Sometimes I'll put a bit of coconut oil on after my wash and before blowdry.
4. How often do you trim? S and D only at the moment as I'm trying to get some serious growth in.
5. Do you intend to ever put the heat styling tools away forever? No. Because I live in sunny Scotland my hair freezes in Winter if I try to leave it to dry naturally. And TBH Summer's not much better, it makes my neck damp and achy in the bones and can give me earache, so it's just not worth it.

I do leave it to dry naturally if it's a sunny day and I'm not working. It tends to be softer if it air-dries and more glamourous-looking if I blowdry. No amount of heat protection spray makes a difference when I heat style, actually it tends to make ominous frying noises and gives off oily-looking smoke. So I ditched them.

My hair is a bit past shoulder and the longest it's ever been, but I'm not prone to split ends so I usually get away with it. I actually struggle to S and D because I tend to get slightly bent ends rather than actual splits.

If this changes as it gets longer then I'll consider changing my routine so I wash my hair at night and it dries overnight, maybe? On the whole I think heat-damage is further down my list of things to worry about than my hairdying and brushing (since I stopped ripping a brush through tangles and finger-combing to detangle I've noticed a vast improvement in the texture, softness and overall health of my hair - this is my number one best new tip)

[Rosa Harris]

For a while used iron with Flat-Out creme to help protect the hair and hold. Never sizzle it tho like we used to do. Just the quick sweeps down the strands and repeat allowing the hair to cool a second or two between sweeps. This was really rare - like for dress up special occasions that I wanted to not look like a frizz ball. Did it a bit more in recent pics after coming here because I wanted my hair to look 'pretty' in the pics. Never again and not letting Mom bother me into it for special occasions.

Edit: I have not trimmed since the hair started coming back.

[MINAKO]

The genetic hair quality, great tools and protection EVERY time, does make a difference. And yes, silicones are our friends in that case as well. I know quiet a few people who are well aware those products exist, but so freaked out on this all-natural-have-to-avoid-build up idea, that they would heat style their hair without anything in it.
Looking at scray or idealistic photos on the internet really isn't going to help, if we want to know what's going on with out hair i would always only trust my own expirience, might as well go that far to suggest buying a microscope to observe what happens after each step of a routine, cause anything else shows another persons hair.

I know plenty of girls who would slap on some box dye and use an iron/curler few times a week, they might have "only" waistlength hair but it sure doesn't look wrecked.
They will probably seldom end up talking about their hair on a forum, because they achieved their goal simply by maintaining it and not worry about a thing. :shrug:

[liadegrecia]

How often, well if blow drying counts, I guess every other day after washing my hair (air drying takes 6+ hours for me). Just drying thought, I never use any sort of brush to style it. No need, it comes out straight. My flat iron rarely gets used, since my hair is naturally straight. When I actually want to put an effort in styling it, I use my cone curler.. Yeah, I now it's bad, that's why I use it no more than twice a month, and always with a heat protectant. No more before or after hair care routine. About the trimming, well, it's been a while (7 months, which is a record for me) and the whole search and destroy method is something I haven't considered before finding this site (which was two days ago). To put the heat styling tools forever? Welp, the blow dryer no. I can't let my hair with humidity for long lengths of time, I always get a migraine if I do. The hair streightener maybe I could, since I don't really need it, but my curler no. Once in a while I really enjoy having curls, and since my hair is pretty persistant to damage, once or twice in a month can't really hurt, can it? It can??? Oh....

[ancilla]

I blow dry with a round brush once or twice a week. Always on warm (it isn't too hot for my skin, so I figure it's fine for my hair) with cool blasts here and there, and always when my hair is at least 60% air dried. My hair has no sign of damage, and I've been doing this for 6 months.

I just can't embrace my wurly hair. It would be one thing if it was actually consistent and laid nice, but usually it's just a mess. Sometimes I can wear it natural but it's rare. I try to give my hair a break every two weeks or so and let it air dry.

[Marron]

I use a blow dryer and flat iron regularly after having washed my hair.
I don't use a heat protectant since I don't really think it works. I didn't experience any damage until waist. Now I do have some split ends. But I think the damage is due to the bleach I used in the past since I only have damage in the parts that remain light and even won't get darker after having used permanent fair dye. I just bleached it to often.

So I think heat works fine for me. I stopped using bleach which reduces my sources of damage to 1. I think it is possible to have one bad habit and still long hair.

Other than that I mostly wear my hair up and deep condition it. I wash my entire hair seldomly and prefer scalpwashes.