straight hair for men

[cepi300]

Hi everyone

I'm a man with short, super thick, somewhat curly hair. I want the opposite. I want long, straight and thin hair. I tried growing it out before and i loved it when it was wet...but when i dried it was like a crazy afro. I'm willing to try all sorts of things. I was wondering if anyone knew how i could achieve the hair i want....hair extensions? japanese straightening? (estimating pricing would be most appreciated =)

J

ps just to give you an idea of what i'm going for:

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb249/amy_qb/kalifornia2.jpg

and

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,6046816,00.jpg

[Speckla]

You want to look like Juliette Lewis?

Ok, I looked at the 2nd photo. :)

Have you ever tried blow drying and using a round brush?
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[wintersun99]

2c / C / iii cannot become 1a/ f/ i

[freznow]

2c / C / iii cannot become 1a/ f/ i

'Tis true.

You may be able to flat iron it to a similar straightness, though, and with the lengths you are aiming for, damage won't be apparent. (Many people here are shooting for waist or knee length, meaning that many people embrace their natural hair type and stop all the damaging stuff to change it, so you're not going to find a great number of people who have tried japenese hair straightening or whatever. But anything above shoulder tends to handle abuse well.)

Hair extensions probably would not work (that'd just give you more hair, right?), but you may be able to get some thinning done at the salon, and you could blow dry and straighten or something like that. Either way it's going to cost more in repetitive visits to the salon than you may think. (Even if I could give you an estimate, it's hard to tell if you'll have to go to the salon every week or every other month, but either way it adds up.) Trying to change your hair sure can be expensive and/or time consuming. How much are you willing to put into this?

[Gingevere]

2c / C / iii cannot become 1a/ f/ i

That's all there is to it. I know this doesn't help much, but my only advice to you is to just embrace your natural hair type. Using harsh chemicals and styling tools to change your hair's texture almost always results in damaged hair. I speak from experience!

Besides, do you know how many men (and women!) would kill for a head of thick, curly hair? I suppose the grass is always greener on the other side, though. Good luck!

[GlassEyes]

Actually, it CAN.

It's called thermal straightening, and though damaging, there are certain kinds that do work with a minimal of it. Japanese hair straightening, for example.

It IS expensive, however, and you have to get touch ups, but it wil make it permanently straight for as long as it's on your head.

[rockkcor]

Why worry?
Just patience! It makes miracles – and long hair is all about patience and commitment…
Sometimes my hair curls too – and I was always annoyed by curling – but at one point it got to the length that I just don’t care – may it curl or not
Less you intervene the better!

[Moiraine]

Hi Cepi, the only way you will get bone straight hair is with chemical straightening but this is very danaging to the hair. I know because I spent years doing this in the 70's and 80's when having straight hair was the style.
You can have the cream style (which I remember burns the scalp! and the hairdresser has to know what she is doing because you could end up with breaking hair.
Another straightening I had done was called a "reverse perm" which is regular perm solution for curls just combed in no rollers and the hair dresser has to comb comb comb it straight until the waves are relaxed. This is less damaging than the old straightening cream but in the long run all this does is kill your hair. While I kept my hair short and cut in a style this worked because the damaged ends would be cut out all the time. As your hair grew in curly, you had to have your roots "touched up" to keep the whole process going.

The last time I had this done was 4 years ago and when I decided to grow my hair I had a lot of damaged and broken hair cut off into a very short do which I have painstakingly grown out layer by layer. My hair now is all natural (except the colour) and air-dried and kept in braids when I sleep and when I am not going out.

Here is a link if you want to check out the chemical straightening:
http://www.hairboutique.com/tips/tip086.htm
I am only putting this in for your information not because this is ok for your hair. I know from experience that chemical straightening is no good for your hair and my advice would be to work with your natural waves just like everyone said here.
You never said how curly your hair is. Sometimes just a blowdryer and straightening balm would give you a temporary straightness but heat damages hair as we all know around here. eg my hair is 3a/b and medium to thick, thickness. Hope this helps some

[drquartz1970]

I am a guy who had his hair permanently straighted nearly 6 months ago. I did a lot of research and went for a thermal jap straightening one which was the less harsher one out of the options.

If you do go down this road - only use a professional hair salon with a good reputation where the stylists are COMPETENT, EXPERIENCED and QUALIFIED. Always ask prior to treatment how long the hairdresser has been doing straightening and if possible see pictures/photos of their work.

It cost me AU$400 (about US$275) and took 4 hours to do. I think the money was very well spent in my case and it was the first time in 20 years that i had been in a hairdressers.

The bad news is that with any straightening process the hair will be damaged to a degree. For limiting the damage risk - have virgin unprocessed hair prior to the process and NEVER colour your hair at all once it is done. Also the hair is more fragile afterwards so treat more gently then you did before like it was antique lace.

I had to trim half an inch off the ends as it was fried afterwards, other then that and in the 6 months since the hair has been in excellent condition with very little split ends through treating it very carefully with extra special care which you will have to do if you go down this road. You may have to condition/oil your hair more frequently as a small price to pay.

This process doesn't always work with every persons hair and it does carry some risk. In my case it worked out really well -good luck!