Be it curly, straight or something in-between, everyone looks good in their own way. Having said that, personal preferences do vary from person to person. It could be that you just want a change in your hairstyle, or maybe managing the tangles and knots every day has become too time consuming for your busy schedule now. Whatever the reason is, if you have decided to go for hair straightening, here are a few things that you should know before you actually do it.
The Effects are Long Term
If you go into a salon and they chemically straighten your hair, you are going to be stuck with straight hair for a very long time. The problem is, if you don’t like the effects at that point, there’s just no way to go back, at least not for a long while. Even if you like it initially, but things become boring for you after a while, you can only go for another hairstyle, but your hair will not go back to its original state. This is why, all experts recommend straightening your hair at home with a salon quality flat iron first. You will get a preview of how you look with straight hair, without the permanence of chemical straightening. You can also use flat irons at home to straighten your hair for particular occasions, without the long term commitment.
It’s Not Always What You Expect
You may have gotten inspired by your friend’s straight hair and impressed at how gorgeous she looks with the new hairstyle, but unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that it will be the same for you too. People with very coarse or curly hair may not always get the effect they desire or expect. Things could improve after multiple sodium, oxidant and heating treatments, but it’s never ideal or recommended to go for multiple treatments within a short time as it can damage the hair and even the scalp. Also, if you have damaged or thinning hair, things could become much worse.
Know What You Are Going For
Provided you have already decided that you want a straightening treatment, consider only the two following methods of the process and choose the one that’s right for you. Also, check out Forbabs.
Keratin Treatment
Probably the best and the safest technique of them all, keratin treatment first breaks the natural keratin bonds in hair and then refills the resulting gaps with external keratin. As keratin is largely responsible for the health of human hair, a keratin treatment should add volume and shine to your hair, along with making it smooth and straight.
Hair Smoothening
It won’t straighten your hair as much as a proper hair straightening technique, but it will also harm your hair much less. It is more of an alignment procedure that smoothens out frizzy hair and helps with split ends and dullness. It doesn’t break your cuticles and therefore is the least harmful.
Avoid going for Japanese straightening, rebonding, thermal conditioning, etc. as they are all inferior and older (but cheaper) than the two techniques mentioned here. Whatever you do, we recommend using a straightener at home first to get an idea of what you are getting into.
