Straight Hair Suggestions

[helynhighwater]

I'm going to be at an anime convention next week (Anime Central) and am planning to cosplay (dress up as) a character with straight hair. Now, as myself, I'm quite happy with and normally encourage the natural wavy texture of my hair, so it's not really worth it to me to by a flattening iron for the scant handful of times I'd be using it. My hair is not tremendously wavy, and at hip-length it's got enough weight to it that it can probably be gently talked into straightening up rather than bludgeoned. Any ideas?

[Tangles]

Try wrapping your damp hair overnight and then, in the morning blowdrying on a cool setting for 5 minutes. If you don't have a hair dryer, you can put your hair over a space heater for a bit just to get it to "set."

[Angellen]

If you have a BBB, that should help to straighten it, at least some. More if you mist, so it's a little damp. My mother (who had hip-to-tb length shiny 1a/C/iii hair when she was my age) loves when I do that--it's nostalgic for her. :)

[anna1850]

This thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=4313) has some good suggestions :)

[helynhighwater]

Now how did I miss that thread? Thanks, anna1850 and everyone else! I'm a vegetarian, so no boar bristles for me, but I could carefully try with my regular brush when it's wet and see how it goes. Hair wrapping sounds interesting, but not too sure it would work for me. Only one way to find out, though. I'll just have to spend the week experimenting.

[n3m3sis42]

I'm going to be at an anime convention next week (Anime Central) and am planning to cosplay (dress up as) a character with straight hair. Now, as myself, I'm quite happy with and normally encourage the natural wavy texture of my hair, so it's not really worth it to me to by a flattening iron for the scant handful of times I'd be using it. My hair is not tremendously wavy, and at hip-length it's got enough weight to it that it can probably be gently talked into straightening up rather than bludgeoned. Any ideas?

I have no idea if you are willing to use a blow-fryer or not. If so, this might work for you since your hair seems to be somewhat similar to mine in texture. I used to be able to get my hair completely straight by letting it air-dry most of the way, then combing it and drying with a blow-fryer.

I generally used "warm" rather than "cool", so I'm not sure if it would work on "cool" or not (although I think I may have done it on "cool" successfully at some point). I generally dried my hair upside down by bending forward and using the blowfryer on the bottom part first. Then when that part was completely dry, I'd comb out my hair and just dry the top briefly and it would be done. I really only spent about 5 minutes or so using the blow-fryer using this method (even when I had waist length hair).

I realize this isn't the healthiest thing in the world, but if I wanted straight hair for a day again, I'd probably still do it. :)

[helynhighwater]

I generally don't like to blow-fry, but once in a blue moon like this shouldn't hurt anything. I'll give it a test run tonight and see how it goes.

[Riot Crrl]

You might be able to do it without a blow dryer if you have the time to keep it combed out as straight as you can while it dries, and try not to move around too much. Adding something like heavy clips on the ends could help. (And it will probably help not shake it around too, you won't want to with that on there.)

[n3m3sis42]

I generally don't like to blow-fry, but once in a blue moon like this shouldn't hurt anything. I'll give it a test run tonight and see how it goes.

I know, and I sort of feel bad even suggesting it. Maybe you could try some of the non-blow-frying suggestions first as test runs, and then try the blow-fry if those don't work? :)

[Silver Strands]

Maybe you could use some heavy cones to help
silken and smooth things out along with the other
suggestions.

[florenonite]

I like to wet-comb my hair and mist the ends frequently, so that the weight of them wet pulls down the rest of the hair

[teela1978]

Constantly fingercombing my hair with some gel while it's damp works well for me. Constantly might be an overstatement, more like every 10 minutes or so. If there's a little gel in there it works even better. Aloe will work, but some real "product" tends to work better. Not sure if it's in the other thread or not. HTH.

[helynhighwater]

You might be able to do it without a blow dryer if you have the time to keep it combed out as straight as you can while it dries, and try not to move around too much. Adding something like heavy clips on the ends could help. (And it will probably help not shake it around too, you won't want to with that on there.)

At home, I definitely could try doing it that way, but I don't know if my schedule will premit it at the con. It's a great idea, though. :thumbsup:

[helynhighwater]

I know, and I sort of feel bad even suggesting it. Maybe you could try some of the non-blow-frying suggestions first as test runs, and then try the blow-fry if those don't work? :)

I will try out several suggestions but will probably end up blow frying if it works purely because of the quickness of it

[GlennaGirl]

I agree on the wrapping!!!! Between my 20s and now my hair completely changed its type. I used to be about a 1C or thereabouts. It was way wavier than it is now. Sometimes, I would wrap it in a very loose bun (non-twisted, just wrapped around itself fairly large but not too loose) and wear it overnight and in the morning it would be very sleek and very straight.

I'd recommend trying that and these other suggestions ahead of time to see what works for you. What fun, an anime convention. Hope you have a blast.

[GlennaGirl]

I will try out several suggestions but will probably end up blow frying if it works purely because of the quickness of it

Oh, well yup, if that's what you decide, surely it would work for the one day or a couple of days. I used to blowfry once in a great moon (maybe every few months? I don't know) and once in a great while shouldn't hurt.

[helynhighwater]

Well, I tried the blow-frying and am not impressed. Ditto with brushing it wet, as it just tangled and frizzed enough to offset any straightening it did. I'll have to give wrapping a shot next wash and pull out some of my old leave-in with -cones in it and see how that goes. Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

[sapphire-o]

If I blow dry my hair it wouldl generally become very poofy. However after sleeping it would become flat and straight by itself. All you need to do is wash and blow-dry at night, sleep with it loose and just comb it out in the morning. It will be a natural looking kind of straight, not flat-iron kind of straight. :)