new thread
Hi everyone. I just discovered this board last weekend and this is my first post. I used to have long hair (mid back) that was thick and quite wavy, that I cut in 1999 when I was 46. I started growing it back around 2.5 years ago and for the first year was making good progress (bangs around chin length, 3 inches or so below ears on sides, etc.) Unfortunately, it was wavier than I wanted so I started using a ceramic straightening iron--started with one from Revlon, then got a true ceramic pro which I saw on infomercial. I became rather hooked on having the straight look and continued to use the iron(3-4 times weekly). Over the last year and a half, my hair has not grown as fast and appears damaged.(appears really dry especially after shampoo) I don''t really want to cut it--any suggestions for damage repair? Also, is there a way to straighten without damaging? Any useful tips would be appreciated. Thanks.
Hi there,
I fell foul to straightners too. Fortunatley I stopped before any permanent damaged happened, (I think I got paranoid about my hair getting thinner). I went to a hairdresser about it, she said I could have a good portion of my hair cut (about 5 inches), or that I could have about 2 or 3 inches of the really bad ends cut off and then steady trims every month on the less damaged ends left over, so I could keep it at a constant lenght. I took the later option, it took about 6 months to have totally good ends again, but the plan worked. You could try searching around for good shampoos and conditioners for dry and damaged hair, I did while I was in that cutting process and it did smooth my hair out a fair bit but I wouldn't hope for miracles. I'm not really sure about any products that will straighten hair without damaging. Ever since I damaged my hair with those darn straightners I'm scared to touch any hair products other than shampoo and conditioner : ) but I hope the first part may help you out.
Good luck : )
Neil
What you should do really depends on whether you have split ends or just dry ends. Examine a few individual ends. If you find an alarming amout of individual strands that fork off, then you have split ends, and you should probably get them trimmed off just above the split. If your ends appear to be intact, and they are not split, then you might not need a trim. Dry ends can be rememdied by some hardcore conditioning and a bit of jojoba oil or something similar. Hope this helped.
>Also, is there a way to straighten without damaging? Any useful tips would be
>appreciated. Thanks.
There are products which are designed specifically to protect your hair from damage due to heat when styling. I've used Redken Straightening Balm and it worked well for me.