Flatirons are a common tool at home or the salon to help sisters achieve their desired hairstyle. But over time, how can heat affect your hair? We've compiled a few tips to consider when using flatirons.
Your Hair Is Just Like Your Skin
The hair shaft is a delicate structure with two main layers: the inner core and the outer coating. (It can also be divided into three separate layers: the cortex, cuticle and medulla.)
A healthy hair strand has a uniform structure with a hollow, water-and-air-filled medulla and a smooth cuticle. This allows light to pass through it, giving it an internal glow (translucent center) and an external, reflective shine (smooth cuticle).
Excessive heat can damage all of these important layers.
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Some Heat-Styling Tools Deplete Hair of Its Natural Moisture
Over-applying heat to your hair when it is already dry causes brittleness, breakage, dullness and dryness to the point where hair is stripped of its natural moisture, causing your cuticles to dry and snap off.
Some Irons Are Better Than Others
Hair straightening tools use the natural moisture content of your hair to create a new style. However, if the proper care is not taken, they can make your hair brittle.
Steam-producing irons provide moisture, making them less likely to dry out your hair. Experts share that some of the best of these are Teflon-coated irons.
Burnt hair cells can build up on hot irons and cause them to stick to your hair, which can be very damaging. To avoid this hazard, replace your flatirons as needed.
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Heating Your Hair When Wet
When heating wet hair, it boils the moisture in the center of the hair shaft, cracking the smooth walls of the medulla and creating bubbles within the shaft that break and disrupt the flow of light.
Additionally, the cuticle, pushed outward irregularly by these bubbles, also cracks and splits, losing its smoothness, and making it rough, which hurts its naturally reflective sheen.
The point, just like with anything, is moderation. A little heat every now and again will have less of an effect on your hair than those who use it more often. Consider exploring protectant hairstyles that do not require heat.
Visit the BlackDoctor.org Hair Care center for more articles and tips.
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