The lovely and sophisticated Curlychronicles shows us a less damaging way to stretch our hair with a blow dryer prior to styling–
Do you use a blow dryer to stretch prior to twisting or braiding? What’s your regimen?
The lovely and sophisticated Curlychronicles shows us a less damaging way to stretch our hair with a blow dryer prior to styling–
Do you use a blow dryer to stretch prior to twisting or braiding? What’s your regimen?
© 2023 Curly Nikki.
This is very great thing you have shared with us. Now I found enough resources by your tips about this issue, Thank you.
Here are steps I followed for my first forays into the world of tension blow-dry regimen:
-Finger-detangle/pre-poo stretched, dampened hair with coconut oil (in 10-12 twisted sections)
-Shampoo with Shea Moisture's Moisture Retention Shampoo (with twist intact)
-T-shirt blot and air-dry for 10-15 mins
-spray hair with grapeseed oil (natural heat protectant) and use the tension blow-dry method section-by section (medium heat; using nozzle attachment)
-apply Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque (leave-in conditioner) and set hair (braids, twists, flat twists, bantu knots, etc)
After a blow-out, my hair is elongated, soft and fluffy. Blow-drying results in little/no breakage for me and lesens the tangles I encounter in te next detangling session. I'll def be incorporating this method into my routine.
P.S. I have super coil and highly textured almost APL natural hair.
This method looks awesome for ladies who have thick, dense hair. I would be afraid to try it on my fine hair, as pretty much ANY direct heat application results in dryness and breakage for me.
My "quickstretch" method involving INDIRECT heat requires me to braid my hair in a few sections (or band in a few ponytails, Tie a silk scarf around it and sit under a hair dryer for a few. Work well and protects my hiar from breakage and overydrying.
I tried this last night and I loved it! I had already let my hair dry in large braided sections and thought this would be a good way to keep the tangles and shrinkage at bay. I blow dried the roots section by section and then twisted with shea moisture curl enhancing smoothie. My hair is gawgeous today! Soft, shiny and wavy pretty. Does anyone use this method on a weekly basis with still healthy results? I rarely use heat on my hair but I can't deny the results of this.
I actually tried this method a few weeks ago and loved it for my hair. I don't blow dry often as I feel it dries out my hair really bad and I see so many broken hairs, but I didn't see many at all with this method. I also used the blowdryer on warm and cool so it didn't even require a lot of heat to get the hair stretched…tension did it alone. My daughter's hair on the other hand still came out feeling a little dry, but it could've been because of the leave in I used. I definitely recommend it to those that want to blow dry but hate it because there hair gets so dry from it.
My hair hadn't seen heat in months touched but this week wanted a more straighter look so I could give myself a decent trim. Tried the tension method and it's excellent. Didn't see my hair around the sink, yay! Don't know how often I would do this but it's a keeper for the future.
Her hair looks beautiful, but I say no to blow drying, regardless of method. I work really hard to keep my hair hydrated and moisturized and I think blowing hot (or warm), dry air on it will just counteract all of my efforts. It's not worth the risk for me.
I HATE blow drying my hair. My hair is uber thick and spending that time to blow dry it is my definition of torture. My hair, to me, doesn't feel better or softer after it. I rather use flexi rids to dry my hair.
I'm always glad to see a curly who finds methods that work for her and judging by the beautiful tresses I saw in the video it obviously works well. But for me, no thanks. My hair would split as soon as the blow dryer came into sight. Flat twisting works best for my hair and using Curls Like Us Curl Cloths just before twisting helps with the drying time. Still, this was an informative video, but I think I'll have to pass on this method.
The only time I ever had serious split ends was when I was using the blow-dryer every week with a comb attachment.
I rarely blow-dry these days but when I do I use the tension method just as she describes. It helps also to put my hair in large twists and let it get about 50% dry, because by that time the ends are 100% dry and already smoothed out for the most part.
Nope. No blow dryer on these tresses. Over time I realized I don't need it. My hair tends to get straighter over time by itself.
I have used this method before – calling it a 'sneaky' way to dry my UBER SHRINKY hair.
We were told blow drying was bad for 4c hair – and I felt sooo guilty when I used one.
Thanks for demonstrating that blowdrying's not that harmful if the hair's dried in this manner!
PS – your hair is off the chain gorgeous!
YES, this method I highly recommend when I used the comb I lost so much hair but with tension drying I didn't lose any.
Yes, I love this method. I have done a blow out 2x as a natural. The first time I did it my old way with a paddle brush and it took an hour. Sigh. That was April. This month I did it again, and I detanlged FIRST, used heat protectant and it took like 15-20 minutes and I used my fingers when it was almost dry along with grapeseed oil to get it extra straight. No comb, no hair loss.
I've been tension blow-drying my hair for a little over a month now and the difference has been startling in a good way, When I would use the comb attachment, even though my hair is ridiculously full, I would see a lot of hair on the bathroom floor. Also, my hair would feel good, but with tension blow drying it feels even better, softer, like cotton. I need assistance drying because when I air dry my hair gets tangled. It's very thick and no amount of detangling while it's wet helps me when I air air, so I am a big fan of the tension dry method.