A flat iron is a must in a woman’s hair care arsenal, but did you know that a lot of women don’t even know how to properly use one? That leads to hair that is not as smooth and shiny as you expect. It can also damage your hair if used incorrectly or frequently. Therefore, for permanent straightening, you should consider going to a Brazilian blowout salon. Here are all the tips you need to seamlessly straighten your hair with a straightener.

Get The Right Flat Iron

Before even going into the technique of straightening your hair with a flat iron, you must have the proper tools to work with. A lot of the time, women will not get the best results when straightening their hair, and that’s not all because of not knowing the technique. The trick is choosing the right kind of flat iron.

Flat irons are available in a huge variety and finding the right one could be confusing. Well, firstly, you don’t want to go for the flat irons that have a plastic plate for heating. That’s a huge no-go and it will turn your hair into a frizzy and unruly mess.

You always want to choose a flat iron that has ceramic or at least ceramic-coated plates. The plates will glide through the sections of hair and it will not only give you straight hair but also a more shiny and beautiful-looking mane.

Prepare Your Hair

Now that you have the right tools to work with, it’s also good to know that your hair needs to be prepared before you can straighten it. So, first things first, you need to wash and condition your hair. With any hair styling, you want to ensure that you’re working with freshly washed hair because greasy hair will not hold the style at all and all of your hard work will be ruined. So, hop into the shower and scrub your scalp well to get rid of all of the sebum, build-up, and dandruff in your hair.

Once you get out of the shower, you don’t want to straighten your hair right away. This isn’t going to end well. A flat iron will only work on completely dry hair, or else you will create a lot of frizz in your hair and the heat can burn the hair shaft as well, if you use a hot flat iron on wet hair.

So, grab your blow dryer and brush the hair out, while blowing it dry simultaneously, to ensure that the mane is dry to the touch. Blow your hair dry, keeping the nozzle in a downward direction. This is going to keep away frizz and the results will be more professional.

Use The Right Products

The next step in the order of importance is selecting the right heat protectant for your hair. This is the only product that needs to be applied to your hair. You don’t need to go crazy with a hair styling gel or any other leave-in products, because they’re not necessary. You just need a good hair protectant and that’s about it.

Now, this is where a lot of people can make errors. You don’t want to drench your hair in heat-protectant spray. Be warned, it’s going to make your hair greasy and you’re going to ruin everything you’ve just done and you’re going to have to start over again. So, when spraying your hair with a heat protectant, try to spritz it from a distance of 6 to 8 inches and apply it in layers.

After this is done, you’ll want to wait for at least 5 minutes to let the heat protectant sit in your hair. This is going to prevent heat damage and you will also get great results without that weird white or gray cast in the hair shaft, especially after flat ironing your hair.

Divide The Hair

Even if you don’t have thick hair, you still want to follow this step. Hair straightening using a flat iron isn’t hard at all, once you master the art of sectioning the hair right. You want to first divide your hair into 2 major sections. Those will be the top and the bottom sections.

The top section of the hair will sit on the crown of the head and the bottom section will stay at the nape of the neck. You’re going to need some claw clips to hold the hair in place, so make sure that you have some handy. You’re going to want to start from the bottom section first because it’s easier to work your way up than down. Your arms won’t get tired either and you will straighten your hair like a pro.

The trick here is to take out some hair from the bigger section and focus on them first while keeping the rest of the hair tied and tucked away. In this way, no hair will get in your way and the process will move much faster. You’ll be done much quickly if you work in this orientation. If you got extensions from a hair extensions salon Potomac, you should be more careful while straightening your hair.

Work With Small Sections

Now comes the actual part where you will straighten the hair. The best tip that helps even beginners with straightening the hair, is to work with thin sections. The sections that you’ll be taking out of the bigger chunk of hair, should be no more than 2 inches wide and the section should easily fit in between your two fingers.

In this way, the flat iron can straighten the hair perfectly while distributing heat and pressure evenly on all strands and the hair will also be more manageable. You will find that you won’t have to go over with the flat iron again and again, because once will do the trick easily and you can set the straightened hair to the side and work on the other section until you’re done.

Working in smaller sections is going to give you the most beautiful mane and it will look straight, sleek, and glossy. The results are the combined effort of working with washed hair, using a flat iron on completely dry hair, not having any product in the tresses beforehand, and the straightening technique. That’s pretty much all there is to straightening hair, but if you don’t know the little tips and tricks, then it’s going to feel like an impossible task.

Finishing Touches

You’re pretty much done with straightening your hair at this point, but if you want the style to last long, then you will need to spritz on some hair spray that’s going to hold all of that effort in place for longer.

If you want to go the extra mile, then grab your blow dryer set it to the coolest temperature, and brush your hair while blow drying, keeping the nozzle pointing downwards. This is going to lead to extremely shiny and sleek hair.

Conclusion

A flat iron is pretty easy to use, but you need to understand how it works first to get the best results. Practice makes perfect, however, so don’t give up and you’ll get the results that you’re looking for. After all this, your straight hair will last for one day at best. If you’re fed-up of using a flat iron, consider keratin treatment by hairstylist Potomac.