by Bennii Blast of The Culture Pine
Before I started this journey, I had what some might call a love hate relationship with my straighteners (flat iron). I loved them, they loved me – but my hair hated them. My demarcation line at the crown broke off, but regardless of the damage it was doing to my strands, I continued to straighten out the new hair growth as often as I could.
Being so in denial about the health of my hair from using heat based tools, resulted in my persistence in achieving the desired sleek look that straightening offers. The problem was, it wasn’t so straight anymore. When I made the commitment to start transitioning, I knew there were things I had to change. I armed myself with probably more research than I ever needed, and got down to business!
The first thing that had to go was my beloved hair straighteners. Let me share with you what I realized:
- If I continue to straighten these beautiful new curls out of my head, how will I learn to love my hair if I’m constantly hiding it?
- During the transition period, we should be using the time to learn what products are working best for our curls. By straightening, I was denying myself a great opportunity.
- Using heat appliances often enough, could potentially kick the kinks for good. I have heard many stories where curls have not reverted after using heat tools.
- The new growth that has been appearing over the last few months may become damaged. This may result in having to chop it off shorter than you planned. Wouldn’t it suck to have to get rid of all that hard work?
Now I don’t want to come across as the pushy parent, but rather the encouraging fellow transitioner who has made the mistake for you. I am proud to say that I ditched the heat tools after the first month and a half, and have been heat free ever since! I know it’s hard because I have been there, but the fact of the matter is, looking cute now may cost you later.
There are so many styles out there from braid outs to bantu knot outs that will make you forget straighteners even existed. I guess my point is, if I can do it (the straightening addict) then I just know you can do it too. One of the worst feelings in life is regret, so try ditching the heat appliances and start seeing how beautiful your curls really are!
Have you had any heat caused setbacks?
Are you currently trying to cut back on the straighteners/flat irons?
Been natural all my life and yES im addicted to heating tools but i been heat free for 2months now been taking pics along the way and i can honestly say mu natural curl is coming back i still have strait ends tho:(
I've been natural all my 21 years of life, but am a heat addict. I tried to straighten my hair once every 2 weeks, but was realy once a week (those darn roots).
Any way, I made the decision in October, that come November I will remain heat free for the entire month. (My sister wants to kill me)
One week in and I just don't know what to do. I henna'd my hair yesterday (love it) but how do i style it??? I had class and a bunch of work to do today so I went to my bad hair day staple, a hat.
I recently ordered curlformers so I'll see how that goes.
After 5 yrs of blow drying and flat ironing my hair, only the back of my head has any curls, and when my hair is completely dry you can't even tell that I had any curls, my hair is completely straight. So….I'm no longer using heat on my hair. Will see if my curls will come back, if not then so be it..
When I first went natural I had no idea what to do. Although I was natural, I still had the mentality of relaxed hair and straightened it or wore weaves the first two years of being natural. I straightened my hair like every other week. One day I asked myself, I am natural, why am I straightening my hair so much??? As I became more educated, I realized that the heat was damaging my hair. I had about three big chops because I wasn't taking care of my hair. Now that I haven't officially straightened in over a year, my hair has become much healthier and grown tremendously. I stopped focusing on having straight hair and lengthy hair and focused on maintaining healthy hair and it will grow at it's own pace.
I used to flat iron like crazy and I was not transitioning. Going on 7 years natural I JUST learned this year how to care for my hair.
I used to be a MaxiGlide (dead after a year), then InStyler fanatic. I loved the results or so I thought. Then one day in April I was heat "burning" my hair and noticed the broken roots at the crown. My hair had broken all the way to the root! I had a quick wake up call and then started learning how to care for my hair.
Thank God for the internet. I shared my full story on my blog today.
'If I continue to straighten these beautiful new curls out of my head, how will I learn to love my hair if I’m constantly hiding it?'
This is true of braids and weaves too. Even though these are protective styles, you can become addicted to the 'safe' options and avoid doing the real work in going natural which is changing your mindset. I used to weave it up with the front straightened. my hair line was getting paper thin and could barely hide the tract. I've stopped heat for some time now. i now use those curlformers and comb out the curls to straighten if I want a straight style.
I havent relaxed my hair in 9 weeks, transitioning and I have 2 inches of new growth and havent thought of flat ironing. I never flat iron during my relaxing days just wrap n go. I love the look and feel of my new growth and cant wait for more of it to grow in. I hated the sleek, straight look anyway, roller sets is my now staple hair style.