How To Safely Use Heat On Natural Hair.

Heat protectant

A heat protectant is vital if you wish to avoid getting damage while using heat on your hair. Often people will just use coconut oil as a protectant, which is okay if you are getting a low heat blowout, but if you plan on flat ironing or just getting a full blowout, you should consider buying an actual heat protectant. Tresseme has a great heat protectant which you can buy online. You can order it here if your in Kenya.

Deep Condition

With regular heat use, you definitely want to go the extra mile to make sure your hair is healthy. Deep condition regularly to strengthen your hair strands and be sure to protein treat monthly. A protein treatment that particularly boosts keratin levels would be the most beneficial, as that is what gets damaged by heat.

Frequency.

When it comes to the frequency of heat use that’s solely up to you, but experts recommend flat ironing your hair once every six months (basically once a year). This is because the recovery process even after using a heat protectant takes a while, heat breaks down the keratin in your hair, which is a protein that gives your hair its structure and strength (this is why heat damaged curls are weak and don’t “curl up”), continuous heat use adds more damage each time, without giving your hair a chance to recover. Often leading to severe breakage or having to “big chop”.

As for full blowouts, try limiting them to once every three months.

Temperature.

Purchase a flat iron and a blow drier that has as many heat settings as possible, merely using heat protectant will not guarantee no heat damage, but regulating the amount of heat will.

If you only want to lightly stretch your hair, use the lowest heat setting on your blow drier, (I use the lowest heat coupled with medium speed on the drier)

When flat ironing your hair, try to limit the temperature to a max of 240c , anything higher than that will actually melt the keratin in your hair (not something you`d want unless you’re going for another big chop)

That`s all for this post , thank you for checking it out !

xo - Alex.