Are there any naturals who keep...

[LucieLoo12]

their hair straight all the time and it manages to stay healthy? I'm about 2 1/2 years natural and I am so tempted to relax but I love the fullness of my hair, but not the kinky-ness. My curl is just too tights and I am constantly getting SSK's and tangles. I thought about doing a texturizer but don't want to deal with the chemicals.

I heard about this "heat trained" hair, but wanted personal experiences with naturals keeping their hair straight at least 80% of the time. Thanks!

 

[Prettymetty]

I keep my hair straight most of the time. Ive been heat training my hair since last January. I retained all my growth and my hair looks healthier than ever. Relaxers were too harsh for my hair and scalp. Im a slow grower, but I was able to get from nl to apl in less than a year. I could never do that with a relaxer, because I had to trim every few months

 

[LucieLoo12]

I keep my hair straight most of the time. Ive been heat training my hair since last January. I retained all my growth and my hair looks healthier than ever. Relaxers were too harsh for my hair and scalp. Im a slow grower, but I was able to get from nl to apl in less than a year. I could never do that with a relaxer, because I had to trim every few months

Prettymetty

How often do you straighten it? Once a week?

 

[Jasmataz]

Yes, with the exception of my hair being in a sew-in, I keep my hair straightened most of the time. I usually flat iron every 2-3 weeks. My curl pattern has loosened, but since I rarely wear natural styles, I don't mind.

I'm not going to lie, when I first started straightening my hair on my own, I had a few setbacks because I didn't really know what I was doing and I was so used to my hair stylist doing my hair. But once I improved my regimen and started using some of the same techniques as my stylist, I was able to retain my length/density.

Here's a thread where a few of us who go to the same stylist discuss some of those techniques....
http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=665545&highlight=reniece

 

[Channy31]

In the past I've straightened once a week, and then curled my hair once or twice on top of that! My hair retained most of it's length but was pretty damaged.
Straightening my hair once a week has worked fine for me too, however I have tons and tons of strands so my hair has to be really quite bad to have straggly ends.
Now I'm straightening once a month.

I'd say start off straightening once every two weeks and see how it goes.

 

[lovely_locks]

How long was your hair when you started heat training your hair?

 

[Prettymetty]

I get a dominican blowout about 12 times a year. I may go twice in one month, but then I wont get it straightened for a few months. My curl pattern is looser now. Instead of 4b with shrinkage it looks like loose crinkly 4b