How often can you flat iron curly/textured hair?

[blackgothicdoll]

And is it still possible to grow curly hair long while using heat styling?

Is there anyone here who uses heat frequently and is able to retain length?

[Dark40]

Me here. I have wavy/curly textured hair, and I use heat on it 3 times a week, and my hair is still getting longer. I wouldn't recommend using heat styling on a daily basis even with naturally curly or wavy textured hair though.

[AmaryllisRed]

In college, I used to wash, blow dry, and iron my hair EVERY DAY. I wasn't actively trying to grow it long, still getting it cut around twice a year. It wasn't longer than waist.
I imagine how long I could have grown it with that routine would have depended on my growth rate (a little faster than average), and my hair's resilience. My strands are very fine but my hair tends to stretch rather than break. I probably could have gotten to waist length or thereabouts, but I doubt I would have been able to grow to mid-thigh. If for no other reason because what a pain in the rear it would be to wash, blow dry, and iron thigh-length hair daily!

(An interesting anecdote: while I was in college, I went to a hairdresser who cut my hair dry and curly and she put layers in it and it was the best haircut I ever had, and I stopped ironing my hair after that because it looked better without. My roommates were grateful for the change because I got ready to go places much faster!)

[ZoeZ]

AmaryllisRed, it's interesting that you mention dry-cutting hair - I've always been more successful cutting my own hair (after numerous salon disasters forced me to do so in self-defence) when it was dry - I could follow the styling much easier and it looked great. I've always wondered why hairdressers don't do that - wouldn't they be able to see the 'lay' of the hair better, and shape it better, when dry?

BlackGothicDoll, there seem to be quite a few people here who iron their hair and grow it long - I used to do that in my younger years, but I never had very long hair - BSL at most, although it did seem to grow well enough and the ends were always fine. I don't bother nowadays though.

[ynne]

Back then when I flat ironed my hair, it was around... hm, I'll actually look at photos. Stretched, I think it reached around BSL, all photos show it wavy at APL+. I combed it dry, bleached a lot of it (Olaplex wasn't a thing and I did it at home anyways), blow dried it sometimes and flat ironed it pretty regularly (at least weekly). I didn't flat iron it to complete straightness, just to make it lay flatter, wavier. I did not like my hair at the time and it felt dry, but it's still naturally dry now when I don't touch it with heat so it's hard to compare. I still needed haircuts to maintain it around that length, so while I can't say how close to its breaking point it was, it definitely survived. :)

I think this will be highly individual.

[ExpectoPatronum]

It'll depend on your hair but I used to heat-style (flat iron!) every day too, and my hair only grew to around BSL. If I can grow to BSL with flat-ironing daily, you could probably grow longer by ironing less - maybe once a week? Of course, YMMV :flower:

[GordonMurphella]

I have baby bunny fine hair (but enough for a family of 5) and any direct heat is too much for it. Direct meaning flat iron or curling iron, or frankly even a brush (don't own one, nor have I for many years). So YMMV of course, but some types of hair it's a fair guess that any at all is going to impact your growth.

Last time I used a flat iron was probably 15 years ago.

[GoddesJourney]

The people I've known the flat ironed regularly and still had decent hair at BSL to Hip length hair all had M/C range hair and used protective products while heat styling.

[Bri-Chan]

When I was 13/14, I used flat iron twice a week. Keep in mind I have very strong hair. On me, heat is the only thing that actually makes my hair split. At that time, I do had split ends but I wasn't growing my hair, I keep it from APL+ to MBL trimming at least 3 times a year (layered hair cut + bangs). Other than that, in more recent times (3 years ago) I started again using flat iron twice a week and I stopped because I noticed split ends after about a month.
So to me on me is a huge no, since I'm growing my hair. I use flat iron for special occasions, few times a year. Speaking from other people, I've not experience since my friends use flat iron like I do. But I suppose if you're hair is resilience to heat and you're not aiming for long lengths this could be possible.

[lapushka]

I think it also depends on how textured/curly your hair is and how fine the strands of your hair are. The curlier, the more you need to pass over it, or the more heat it needs to be really smooth, and so I totally would not recommend this for tightly coily hair!

[Fimu]

When I used to flat-iron my hair all the time, I couldn't grow my hair past underboob because the ends got scraggly quickly. But it must be noted I had no clue about heat protection and protein treatments and just used wax or a coney serum for flat-ironing. Since I stopped flat-ironing, I could grow my hair towards waist, but it took me 2 years of maintaining my ends. However, due to (past) nutrient deficiencies and products mismatches, I feel my ends aren't much healthier than when they used to to have heat damage.

I'm itching to revisit henna, though. but a pure one instead of a herbal mixture -- I wonder if my yearly henna treatments have helped me retaining length.

[sky-]

I used to flat iron my hair once every 2 or 3 weeks for a few years and it still got super long. The rate of growth didn't really change when I stopped heat styling, although it does look a lot healthier now