Embracing your afro and the curly texture of your 4c hair doesn’t mean you can’t straighten it once in a while.
How do you accomplish your desired outcomes without causing damage to your hair on days when you wish to wear it silky straight?
These five suggestions will assist you in straightening your 4c hair without inflicting heat damage.
Straightening Your Hair
It’s all about safeguarding your coils when it comes to 4c hair. Because the follicles of kinky hair are flat/elliptical, as opposed to the oval and circular follicles of wavy and straight hair, straightening 4c hair has its own set of guidelines.
You can benefit from the following five suggestions:
- Reduce heat intensity: When straightening 4c hair, using a blow dryer is your best bet; not only do you achieve straight hair, but you also apply less heat to your hair.
If you absolutely must use a flat iron, get one with a protective covering and a temperature reader.
- Use a heat protectant: If you must use heat on your hair, use a heat protectant to give your strands an extra push.
These silicone-based sprays or lotions guard against heat damage in 4c hair. While silicon is not the greatest element to put on your hair on a regular basis, it can’t hurt to use it when you need to straighten it.
- Don’t make it a habit: No matter how much heat protectant you use on your hair, utilizing heat on it on a regular basis will inevitably destroy it. So maintain straightening your hair for those once-in-a-while occasions when you want to modify your appearance.
- Only use one pass: Multiple flatironings to get a silky straight outcome may be even more harmful to your hair.
- Consider the aftercare: Every time you straighten your hair, it dries out. As a result, to keep your coils in place, deep condition your hair afterward and apply a protein mask. These treatments will restore moisture to your hair and repair any damage caused by straightening.
These tips will help protect your hair from heat damage and keep your 4c coils intact.