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snowyx
May 15th, 2014, 01:53 PM
Oh. My. Gosh!
My friend/coworker told me this today. She said "My hair likes when I use heat. It's so smooth and shiny. If I don't use heat, my hair is rough and dry like sandpaper."

Wow I was honestly too stunned to reply. After a while I asked her how many times she uses heat on her hair, to which she replied "everytime I wash it".

I wonder if she ever thought that her hair is damaged BECAUSE of the constant heat? Hmmm. :confused:

robijntje
May 15th, 2014, 02:14 PM
horrible isnt it? i know girls who tease their hair 3 times a day and then blow dry and tease again and so on... and no, they will not know that it is damaging ahhaha. :rolleyes:

mira-chan
May 15th, 2014, 02:26 PM
Silicone ans straighteners will make hair feel smoother which is apparently the default for healthy, they are not used to their hair's natural texture, heat or not. My hair feels rough a lot because it's coarse and wavy. No amount of treatment will make it smooth like a straightener would, not that I have ever used one of those. :silly:

Laurenji
May 15th, 2014, 02:28 PM
Well, to someone who doesn't know about LHC-friendly methods, it probably does seem like her hair likes heat. I mean, like she said, it's all smooth and shiny afterwards, and dry beforehand. She's probably never felt what her hair would feel like undamaged by heat and properly moisturized.

MINAKO
May 15th, 2014, 02:34 PM
Technically i do like a tiny bit of heat damage to loosen my texture as well, But i wouldn't recommend doing it several times a week. My hair is naturally dry and resistant, bit i feel that if i get the damage just about right it's enough to make treatments penetrate better.

Nadine <3
May 15th, 2014, 02:36 PM
I used to think that...my hair felt so much better blow fried. I didn't get it lol

queenovnight
May 15th, 2014, 02:41 PM
Wellllll. I gotta say, her hair could actually be naturally dry. So, of course she'd prefer the look of it flat ironed, and confuse that for her hair 'liking heat.' It's just a bit of confusion.

Simone_Fatale
May 15th, 2014, 03:27 PM
Once you stop using straighteners, hair tends to seem more damaged for some time as there is no heat to smooth down the cuticles, creating an illusion of shiny, smooth hair. That's why many people think heat is actually good for their hair.

SleepyTangles
May 15th, 2014, 03:44 PM
Heath is a vicious circle: more you damage your hair, more you need it to make it look acceptable. Or at least so was for me!

Paranda Belle
May 15th, 2014, 04:02 PM
If only her hair could talk and tell her otherwise :)

Weewah
May 15th, 2014, 04:19 PM
Ahh! Yea, I used to straighten every day and now that I stopped you can see and feel a clear difference between my healthy hair and my damaged hair. Her damaged hair likes heat so it can look decent, but if her hair was healthy she wouldn't need it. Unfortunately a lot of people don't have the time or patience to figure out their hair, it really is a journey, so they're happy with their trusty heat tools and frequent trims.

MINAKO
May 15th, 2014, 04:26 PM
Once you stop using straighteners, hair tends to seem more damaged for some time as there is no heat to smooth down the cuticles, creating an illusion of shiny, smooth hair.


Well, so does an ACV rinse. Heat is not damaging per se on every type of hair. As for blowdrying, i find the mechanical damage it does much worse than the heat of an iron. It effs up moisture levels which need to be restored, but i don't see it doing anything major to my cuticles.

Tall Blond(ish)
May 15th, 2014, 05:27 PM
It would probably be more accurate and less confusing if she had just said, "I like the way my hair looks when I use heat." And that's probably true. If she's not trying to grow her hair very long, and is happy with the results she's getting, no problem, right? I'd just be curious if she thinks her hair likes heat, but then complains about the damage without realizing that heat could be the culprit.

meteor
May 15th, 2014, 06:01 PM
Heat is not damaging per se on every type of hair. As for blowdrying, i find the mechanical damage it does much worse than the heat of an iron. It effs up moisture levels which need to be restored, but i don't see it doing anything major to my cuticles.

The kind of heat used in flat-ironing and curling is damaging to hair keratin, so all human hair suffers from high heat. There is enough research that shows that even one quick application is enough to see changes in hair cuticle. But if by heat you mean just some warmth for a deep treatment or increasing oil penetration, sure it can good.

Of course, damaged hair can be pretty too. Not many people care what hair looks like under a microscope anyway. And heat styling can hide damage very well - that's probably why it's still popular.

Simone_Fatale
May 15th, 2014, 06:46 PM
Well, so does an ACV rinse. Heat is not damaging per se on every type of hair. As for blowdrying, i find the mechanical damage it does much worse than the heat of an iron. It effs up moisture levels which need to be restored, but i don't see it doing anything major to my cuticles.

Yes, some hair types are coarser and more resistant to damage, but the heat used by irons is high enough to damage any type of hair over a certain period of time. Especially if the temperature setting is high enough to make the hair moisture boil and evaporate. I flat ironed my hair for a year but the damage showed only when I stopped using the iron. It was the darkest period of my life lol. Blowdrying on cool causes virtually no damage to my hair, except some slight frizziness. Lesser of two evils, I guess :)

kganihanova
May 15th, 2014, 07:39 PM
yeahhhhhh my hair looks worse ironed or blowdried...

Jumper
May 15th, 2014, 07:57 PM
I kind of like the look of my hair straightened. Not enough to do it more than like, once a year. But it's kind of fun.

I think it's odd when people think it's good for hair though. Or when they think flat ironing it when wet is good for it.

FallingDarkness
May 15th, 2014, 08:59 PM
I USED to flat iron my hair when it was wet. *shudders* It made the frizzies go away, because back then my hair was MONSTROUS and POOFY. My mom was always on my case about how straightening it would make it look better, so I did... And with my thickness I didn't have time to blowdry/wait for it to dry AND flat iron, so I just flat ironed. Luckily I chopped off that damaged hair a long while ago and now my hair is healthy and not being tortured by heat. LOL.

Now I get to laugh and shake my head at all the fools who damage their hair with heat! :P Muahahahahah

meteor
May 15th, 2014, 09:22 PM
My mom was always on my case about how straightening it would make it look better, so I did... And with my thickness I didn't have time to blowdry/wait for it to dry AND flat iron, so I just flat ironed. Luckily I chopped off that damaged hair a long while ago and now my hair is healthy and not being tortured by heat. LOL.

Now I get to laugh and shake my head at all the fools who damage their hair with heat! :P Muahahahahah

Yes, I'm always baffled when I hear some people say that heat-styling makes their hair "better", or how a flat iron "seals in deep treatments, moisture and oils" and makes hair "healthier". :rolleyes:
Like I said, trichologists don't even argue that high heat is bad for hair - it's already taken as a given in all hair-related research I've ever seen.

In terms of popularizing this information, I just came across an excellent LHC article by Nightshade on "Damaged Hair": http://web.archive.org/web/20120125071723/http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79. I'd highly recommend it to all people who are new or who are wondering what exactly damages hair and how to deal with it.

Here are her excellent points on heat:
"Heat Damage
I know you love your flat iron and hair dryer. They make your damaged, frizzy, flyaway hair lay nice. But for damaged hair it's like putting a Band-Aid on a sucking chest wound. You're not helping the problem, and in fact, you're making it worse. Even healthy hair cannot stand the abuses of heat damage long without showing significant wear and tear.

The main problem with heat appliances is that warmth, in general, opens the cuticle of the hair, which is why on a hot and humid day hair will frizz out to no end. The second problem with heat appliances is that often they are way too hot. Hot enough to actually physically BOIL the moisture within the hair, and that water, now steam, will try to escape the cortex of the hair, rupturing the cortex and the cuticle on the way out. Now take that uplifted cuticle, add steam escaping and compound it with the mechanical damage of the round brush with the hair dryer, or the abrasive action of the flat iron scraping along the hair (no matter how much "protective gel" you put on there, it still happens). Big problems:
http://web.archive.org/web/20120125071723im_/http://www.pgbeautygroomingscience.com/assets/images/twoh/Chapter%204/Bubble%202.jpg
http://web.archive.org/web/20120125071723im_/http://www.pgbeautygroomingscience.com/assets/images/twoh/Chapter%202/Damage%2024.jpg
Here is a case where the hair has been overheated to the point where the moisture inside has started to boil, permanently damaging both the cortex and the cuticle. Eventually the hair will break down and split, sometimes into a "white dot" which is just a split in the center of the hair. The second picture shows
a case of trichorrhexis nodosa (white dot), where the cortex was disrupted by an overheated hair dryer.

The problem with all these types of damage is that your hair is often exposed to more than one of them, and the trick is to minimize it as much as possible. There's often the argument of, "But my hair is shoulder length and looks great!" At shoulder length I'm sure it does. But keep in mind that your hair currently at shoulder will be at your waist, at tailbone, at classic or longer, three, five, seven or ten years from now. What you do now to your hair is only compounded by time, and by weathering. Unlike skin, hair doesn't heal. You can minimize the damage already done, but there's no putting those cuticle scales back on once they're gone. Period. "

spidermom
May 15th, 2014, 10:34 PM
What she's really saying is "I like the results of heat styling."

woodswanderer
May 15th, 2014, 10:37 PM
Eek! That second pic is horrible!

ErinLeigh
May 16th, 2014, 01:23 AM
The kind of heat used in flat-ironing and curling is damaging to hair keratin, so all human hair suffers from high heat. There is enough research that shows that even one quick application is enough to see changes in hair cuticle. But if by heat you mean just some warmth for a deep treatment or increasing oil penetration, sure it can good.

Of course, damaged hair can be pretty too. Not many people care what hair looks like under a microscope anyway. And heat styling can hide damage very well - that's probably why it's still popular.

I care I care! lol
It's funny though, I kind of said this up until even a few days ago actually. I always thought my hair like blow drying. It would be smoother, less tangled, shinier etc. I would read articles on how blow drying on warm isn't really any more damaging than air drying. I was strong advocate for some heat is good! What I failed to realize is that while maybe some light heat may not be as damaging as high heat, heat still saps moisture from hair, and from what I just learned, this moisture isn't replaced from humidity or light moisture, only full rewetting (soaking) brings it back. SO, in a way I was still damaging my hair more than I realized by taking away some much needed moisture retention. For me personally, that moisture loss is damaging as my hair is super dry. Yet here I sat thinking I how much my hair just loooved some heat. I even told myself maybe the small amount of heat was helping my oils and leave in conditioners penetrate better.

Now will I stop? Not right now, still need it as I am one of those in that catch-22 still. But at least my eyes are open to what is accurate and I am not fooling myself, and now I know to reduce any opportunity possible. I guess I can see how people can think these things. I know an iron is way more obvious of course but thought I would share my smaller scale ignorance.