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chopandchange
March 9th, 2011, 05:40 PM
Someone in the mainstream media has been spying on LHC!

Straighteners are bad. Heat protectants are a myth. Silk pillowcases are good. Deep conditioning is good. Natural waves are in.

Read about it here (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1364670/The-hair-raising-truth-straighteners-They-make-hair-fall-out.html).

krissykins
March 9th, 2011, 05:41 PM
I think our way of life is slowly being leaked into the mainstream. This is good :twisted:

HintOfMint
March 9th, 2011, 05:49 PM
Except for the part where he says that high end straighteners can seal in moisture. Yes, high end straighteners work better, but they do no such thing as "seal in moisture."

Cirafly24
March 9th, 2011, 05:57 PM
I love it!! I would be so happy to see more healthy natural hair around :D

Jenn of Pence
March 9th, 2011, 06:13 PM
Vicious cycle of frizz, yes! Turning down the heat is not as horrific, yes! Heat protectants are not that useful, yes! I agree with lots in this article. My only problem with higher-end straighteners is that most of them are high heat without much option to turn it down to those slightly better temperatures. And it's too bad that even though straight hair may be out and waves are in, most of those waves are going to be curled and blow-dried. ;)

pepperminttea
March 9th, 2011, 06:32 PM
Really good to see some of this info out there (albeit with a couple of bits I'd like to change), but the last sentence did niggle at me: "... say goodbye to poker-straight hair and instead embrace beautiful healthy hair with movement." Poker-straight hair can be beautiful, healthy hair with movement; the 1a's here atest to that. Not every person with straight hair uses a straightening iron. That said, it is nice to see the fashion industry using something other than straightened hair on every single model, but I guess it'd be too much to ask of such a transient trade to promote accepting your hairtype and loving it for what it is.

krissykins
March 9th, 2011, 06:40 PM
Vicious cycle of frizz, yes! Turning down the heat is not as horrific, yes! Heat protectants are not that useful, yes! I agree with lots in this article. My only problem with higher-end straighteners is that most of them are high heat without much option to turn it down to those slightly better temperatures. And it's too bad that even though straight hair may be out and waves are in, most of those waves are going to be curled and blow-dried. ;)

The only high end brand I can think of without the option to turn down high temperatures is CHI, and I think they may have started adding a few temperature options. Correct me if I'm wrong though; I thought the majority of high end flat iron had more accurate temperature gauges. :p


Really good to see some of this info out there (albeit with a couple of bits I'd like to change), but the last sentence did niggle at me: "... say goodbye to poker-straight hair and instead embrace beautiful healthy hair with movement." Poker-straight hair can be beautiful, healthy hair with movement; the 1a's here atest to that. Not every person with straight hair uses a straightening iron. That said, it is nice to see the fashion industry using something other than straightened hair on every single model, but I guess it'd be too much to ask of such a transient trade to promote accepting your hairtype and loving it for what it is.

Agreed. But there are still lots of straight haired women who flat iron. :confused: It's a strange phenomenon. Maybe now they'll stop.

Nae
March 9th, 2011, 07:18 PM
I did slighty roll my eyes when it said to fix frizz get a trim. I thought, "My goodness if I trimmed my hair everytime it was frizzy (especially in the summer) I wouldn't have any hair left!" That made me laugh. The rest of it was pretty good. I had kinda zoned out when it was suggesting different straighteners since I wasn't ever gonna buy one so I missed the part the rest of you are talking about.

But jeez, overall, that is a great article!! It is good to see people talking about the damage of heat.

HuggyBear
March 9th, 2011, 07:27 PM
The last time I went to a hairdresser she told me that I needed a flat iron. My hair is as straight as can be.:confused:

trillian
March 9th, 2011, 07:32 PM
Speaking of articles. I'm sure you folks have read this... but! I found it today, and it make me happy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/fashion/24Mirror.html?_r=1

UltraBella
March 9th, 2011, 07:33 PM
The only high end brand I can think of without the option to turn down high temperatures is CHI, and I think they may have started adding a few temperature options. Correct me if I'm wrong though; I thought the majority of high end flat iron had more accurate temperature gauges. :p.

GHD has several professional high end flat irons that are dubbed smart irons and supposedly "know" how much heat your hair needs and adjusts accordingly. You are not able to manually control the temp.

tanya222
March 9th, 2011, 07:41 PM
Trillian, thanks so much for the link to that article!

Made me sad, her description of how she felt at 7 when her mom made her get a pageboy after having waist-length hair :( I can't imagine ever doing that to a kid!

krissykins
March 9th, 2011, 07:52 PM
GHD has several professional high end flat irons that are dubbed smart irons and supposedly "know" how much heat your hair needs and adjusts accordingly. You are not able to manually control the temp.

Oh yes, I have heard of those :p Thanks for reminding me! I'm not going to buy into that hype though.

HeatherJenae
March 9th, 2011, 07:54 PM
Ugh, I'm officially sick of the straightener hater vibe on LHC. I know most of the women here are all about natural and that's great but can we lay off the people that like to straighten for once. We aren't uninformed or desperate to have celebrity hair, we just feel confident and nice when it's straight. No offense to the OP, that was just kind of building after a few months back on the boards. The judgement is kind of exhausting.

krissykins
March 9th, 2011, 07:56 PM
I'm sorry, HeatherJenae, I did not mean to offend you :flower: I have my reasons for disliking the hair straightener, but it does wonders for other women's hair and I'm glad that option is there. :) I'm so much happier now that I'm not attached to it, personally, but I'm glad that it gives other women the straight hair they long for.

Also, it confuses me when people with perfectly straight hair use a flat iron, just like when curlies use curling irons. But they have their reasons, so I should think before I judge.

HeatherJenae
March 9th, 2011, 08:04 PM
Thanks Krissy. I really do appreciate that. I know that the LHC is a very natural, organic sort of place and that doesn't really fit my hair agenda. It's hard to be a young chick who loves using mainstream products and trying out heat tools on boards where that is definitely not the majority. I totally wasn't targeting you or really anyone specifically with my post. It seems like we are always commenting after each other on threads cause we're on here so much! :) That's what happens when you love the long hair right? So I guess that's all I'm hoping for, is that some members stop the hatin' and get back to just the long hair lovin'.

P.S. I really enjoy the waves in your signature. (Shhh...don't tell anyone or my straightening reputation will be ruined. :) )

krissykins
March 9th, 2011, 08:09 PM
Ahh yes, LHC, the home of the organic-lovin' fools :p just kidding, LHCers! But really, there are so many members at every point on the spectrum that it's hard for someone to not catch flak on something. I may dislike flat irons, but I can't say I'm too excited about washing my hair with herbs. Heheh. I know you weren't targeting me, but I did happen to open my big mouth about my disdain for heat appliances. They just never agreed with me, that's all.

And thank you for the lovely compliment :D I won't tell anyone, but let's hope the other hair straightener hatin' folks don't come here and see how you outed your secret wave-loving self ;)

Back to the original topic, I think there are a few things that could be changed about the article, but ultimately there are some good points, ie deep conditioning. I guess no article is perfect!

spidermom
March 9th, 2011, 08:16 PM
What I read didn't say that heat protectants are a myth. It said they prevent some damage but can't prevent all damage to hair straightened every day at too high a temperature.

HeatherJenae
March 9th, 2011, 08:21 PM
I agree on every point! But yes, to un-hijack the thread, I liked the article and I especially liked that it gave a temperature that you should never go over with your flat iron. I had tried to research that before and could never come up with anything conclusive. My Sedu goes up to 450 degrees, which is completely ridiculous. I can't imagine not burning my head if I did that. I usually go 340 but seeing that the limit is really 350, I think I might start trying to do smaller finer sections on 300 and see if it works. I really enjoy using a straightener because it's an immediate result and it goes so fast. It is addicting, like the guy says! But I keep it to twice a week cause straight gets boring after a couple days. I am all about the heat protectant though. I think that it might not be doing that much, but it's better than absolutely nothing. I recently got sucked into the silk pillowcase cult by LHC and have not looked back. I've also been known to associate with the cult of the Snuggie. But hey, when it's that popular, they have to be doing something right! :) Overall, I think it was a great article for women who really flat iron without any prior knowledge of the damage involved (aka me five years ago), so any helpful tips they can give ladies who love to straighten is awesome.

spidermom
March 9th, 2011, 08:24 PM
300? I thought it said 180.

HeatherJenae
March 9th, 2011, 08:44 PM
Absolutely right Spidermom, it said 180 Celsius but since I'm in the US I go by Fahrenheit so I googled the conversion and it came out to 180 C equals 350 F. :)

CaityBear
March 9th, 2011, 09:07 PM
Yay!!! I get so happy when I see stuff like that. FINALLY people are catching on! lol

krissykins
March 9th, 2011, 09:49 PM
300? I thought it said 180.

Yes, it's an article from the UK, so it's in Celsius.

Arya
March 9th, 2011, 09:56 PM
Ugh, I'm officially sick of the straightener hater vibe on LHC. I know most of the women here are all about natural and that's great but can we lay off the people that like to straighten for once. We aren't uninformed or desperate to have celebrity hair, we just feel confident and nice when it's straight. No offense to the OP, that was just kind of building after a few months back on the boards. The judgement is kind of exhausting.

Hey, don't stress about it. Everyone has their own pet-peeves. Mine are layer-haters ( I loves my layers) so it's kind of annoying to see 'finally growing out all my evil devil layers' every other post, but I get that it messes up braids and updos, even if I think one length hair can look blah. I also go into a murderous rage when people suggest redheads are 'firey' or 'hot-tempered' (the irony is not lost upon me XD). Straighteners ruin a lot of women's hair. But for the ladies with steel wire growing out of their head, it's not so bad! Although you are informed, there are a large percentage of women who think straightening is 'good' for their hair, and don't realize all the damage it can do. I get that this board is geared to growing the longest, healthiest, damage free hair. The cardinal rules for that are no chemical dyes, no heat, and gentle treatment, but there's plenty of women who can get away with some of that and still have awesome looking hair, like you.

MeganE
March 9th, 2011, 11:11 PM
I think it's all the movies coming out that take place in medieval times. Lord of the Rings, Robin Hood, Tristan and Isolde, to name a few. People are noticing how amazingly gorgeous long hair can be!

krissykins
March 10th, 2011, 07:24 AM
I think it's all the movies coming out that take place in medieval times. Lord of the Rings, Robin Hood, Tristan and Isolde, to name a few. People are noticing how amazingly gorgeous long hair can be!

That could be true, but how does that link with healthy hair care? I think most people who just try to grow it long don't worry about keeping it healthy by buying silk pillowcases :p that's just my opinion though.

HeatherJenae
March 10th, 2011, 03:57 PM
Thanks Arya! I have layers too. Yes they wreak havoc on every braid I attempt but I think they add a lot of body and movement. I do covet the one length girls sometimes though, but you always want what you don't have, hence my straightening ways. :)

Arya
March 11th, 2011, 10:58 PM
Thanks Arya! I have layers too. Yes they wreak havoc on every braid I attempt but I think they add a lot of body and movement. I do covet the one length girls sometimes though, but you always want what you don't have, hence my straightening ways. :)

Ah well. You can't have your layers and braid them too XD
Although they seem to behave nicely when braided damp. Have you tried it?
Oh and you should have seen me when I had blunt cut hip length hair! It was interesting but very unsophisticated. I much prefer the movement and thickness I get with layers.

ScarlettAdelle
March 12th, 2011, 12:40 AM
That's the great thing about fashion... In a little while, we'll be out of fashion again and people will be chopping and we'll get to float right back into obscurity XD

I actually like being out of fashion.

Between now and then, we can collect hair toys!

Is it strange that I collect hair toys & things that are in fashion and stow them until they're no longer fashionable to wear?

x0h_bother
March 12th, 2011, 08:01 AM
GHD has several professional high end flat irons that are dubbed smart irons and supposedly "know" how much heat your hair needs and adjusts accordingly. You are not able to manually control the temp.
Interesting. I HOPE the 'smart' part is not this: when hair is even slightly damp, the digital temperature guage shows (290) as opposed to the original 300 degrees I set it on (as an example.) I hope the new smart irons do not then 'bump up' the heat at times like this to more, to counteract the dip in heat. That would NOT be smart.
OP, thank you for the article, and I agree with the heat addiction cycle. Do you all think that blow(fry)ing is better for the hair as they suggest? I wouldn't be able to do this, as my texture is so stubborn I can never get it straight with a blow(fry)er. But it's just a thought for others.

x0h_bother
March 12th, 2011, 08:03 AM
That's the great thing about fashion... In a little while, we'll be out of fashion again and people will be chopping and we'll get to float right back into obscurity XD

I actually like being out of fashion.

Between now and then, we can collect hair toys!

Is it strange that I collect hair toys & things that are in fashion and stow them until they're no longer fashionable to wear?
REBEL! :p

x0h_bother
March 12th, 2011, 08:10 AM
I usually go 340 but seeing that the limit is really 350, I think I might start trying to do smaller finer sections on 300 and see if it works. <snip>
I've had lots of success with 300 and my hair is stubborn but like you I have a great flat iron. :) GL!

Lianna
March 12th, 2011, 09:10 AM
Oh and you should have seen me when I had blunt cut hip length hair! It was interesting but very unsophisticated.

I think blunt cuts can look sophisticated and "neat"! (http://www.123rf.com/photo_8647173_fashion-model-with-straight-long-hair-and-red-lips.html) :)

Arya
March 12th, 2011, 11:52 AM
I think blunt cuts can look sophisticated and "neat"! (http://www.123rf.com/photo_8647173_fashion-model-with-straight-long-hair-and-red-lips.html) :)

Oh, it's true for other people, I know. If I were a stick thin model it might look good, but honestly, I look about 12 without layers. Also my hair doesn't stick in updos that aren't braided, so all the updos on here that look great in one length hair don't work for me.

ScarlettAdelle
March 12th, 2011, 06:31 PM
REBEL! :p

Well... Maybe... but I have a cause, for what it's worth! XD

And that cause is to be AWESOME!:cheese: