Kim Comments: What’s worse: chemically straightening hair, or blowing hair out and flat ironing it 2-3 times per week? I know they’re both bad, but is there a lesser of the two evils?
The Right Brain Replies:
Chemically straightening is about the worst thing you can do to your hair. That’s because the first step in the hair straightening process breaks apart the protein bonds in hair.
Breaking those bonds allows you to take the curl out of the hair but it’s very harmful because not all the bonds are repaired. So, your hair is left much weaker after straightening.
Blow drying and ironing are harmful too, but they’re much less damaging than chemical attacks. Plus, you can use heat protection products that will help cut down on the damage.
The Beauty Brain’s Bottom Line:
You can iron your hair straight many times before you’ll equal the damage from chemically straightening it one time.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
is there maybe a way to help the proteins bond back together better? or would that risk making your hairs bond together too?
A lot of hair salons that do chemical straightening will follow that process up with an intense protein treatment / conditioner like Aphogee, Hair Mayonaise, real eggs or plain yoghurt. This is thought to allow some protein back into the hair shaft & provide a little bit of strength. Hair forum members have also done henna treatments to achieve the same results. You can avoid getting the red colour from henna by leaving out the terps (lemon juice, coffee etc)
Hi! I should say that your realy usefull link to the post about heat protection products for hair doesn’t work properly and i couldn’t find this post trough the search poption as well.
@Marya: The link was to our old blog site which is why it didn’t work anymore. I took it down. Thanks for letting us know!