Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Where Are The Curlz?!

Yes, her hair is straight! and NO, I did not relaxed her hair.

I know many parents have concerns or are afraid of using flat irons or blow dryers on their children's hair.

I am going to share the one thing my Husband said to me almost two years ago: "Buying cheap things will give you poor results". Investing in a good quality tool will probably due less damage than an inexpensive hair tool.

After a long discussion my husband convinced me to buy a good quality flat iron. Yes, I did pay a good amount of money for it but to be honest it was totally worth it.

I believe this is the third time I flat iron my daughter's hair and I believe that the process has not damaged her hair because of the following reasons:

1. I don't do it often; Ms. Bree is about to turn four and I've flat iron her hair maybe a total of three times in the last three years.

2. I make sure I wash, condition, moisturize and stretch her hair before flat ironing it. I don't use the blow dryer to dry her hair. I rather band Ms. Bree's hair in order to stretch her curl pattern.

*Why do this? If you stretch the hair before you flat iron it then you will spend less time going over the curls repeatedly. (See What is Banding? Post)

3. Once the hair is stretched, I apply a heat protector. I personally use Paul Mitchell Smoothing Gloss Drops.

4. I DO NOT let the flat iron sit on one spot for a long time. In fact, I recommend you divide the hair into small sections, and gently flat iron the hair. Smaller sections are easy to do and will prevent you from having to go over the sections repeatedly.

5. My flat iron has different settings: 240, 280, 320, 350 and 400.
I use the 320 setting to do Ms. Bree's hair since her hair is more delicate.

The important thing to remember is to prep the hair before you flat iron it, to moisturize the hair, and then follow with a protective style.

I will be doing cornrows on Ms. Bree's hair as the next protective style.