17 Useful Tips and Tricks for Anyone who uses a Hair Straightener!

December 27, 2015

17 Useful Tips and Tricks for Anyone who uses a Hair Straightener!

First of all I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! It has been such a whirl wind around here in my life and it feels good to kind of slow down a little bit!

But, today I thought I would talk about hair straighteners and if you could possibly be using the right one for your hair type! I use a hair straightener every day, and along with blow drying the heat can really get to your hair leaving it dry and damaged. But, no worries! Here is all you need to know about your straightener and how to keep your hair from unnecessary damage.

1. First, figure out which size straightener is best for your hair type.

The general rule is the shorter the hair, the thinner the flat iron. For people with longer, thicker hair, a wide flat iron is best.

2. Know the difference between the different types of straighteners.

And know the difference between the different types of straighteners.

Use the chart above to figure out what kind you should be using.

3. Before you do anything, use a heat protectant spray like this one.

Before you do anything, use a heat protectant spray like this one. | 17 Useful Tricks For Anyone Who Uses A Hair Straightener

Putting 365 degrees of heat directly on your hair can cause dryness, breakage, and overall fried hair. Spritz on a heat protectant spray while your hair is damp to put a barrier between the flat iron and your hair.

Get this spray for $4.29.

4. Set the heat no higher then 365 degrees.

Set the heat no higher than 365 degrees.

Hair burns at the same temperature as paper. 451 *F. The highest temerature that you should use your first iron on is 365 *F. For those with fine hair, the temperature should be between 300 and 325 degrees.

5. Get a bend on your hair with this brush trick.

Get a little bend in your hair with this brush trick.

Once you have completely ironed your hair, drape the hair over a brush until it cools with a bend. Check our the tutorial here.

6. When you get to the crown, flat iron your hair up and towards the ceiling to get volume.

When you get to the crown, flat-iron your hair up and toward the ceiling to get volume.

Seperate and iron your hair in sections. While ironing iron up instead of down, this lifts the root of the hair and will give more volume to each layer in turn giving your whole head of hair a more volumized look.

7. Switch things up by using your straightener to curl your hair.

Step 1. Begin with a one-inch section of hair. Smaller sections are easier to work with when curling with a flat iron so I suggest taking one inch at a time even if you have a larger iron.

Step 2. Twist the iron underneath the hair, making sure not to lose the tail. If your not careful, the tail can get caught in between the iron and the rest of your hair and begin pulling. This also causes frizz, so be careful to be as neat as possible during this step!

Steps 3 + 4. Once the hair is wrapped around, it should look like this. Begin pulling downward in a steady, smooth motion for an even curl. The longer you take on this step, the tighter the curl. I wanted voluminous waves so I ran through my sections fairly quick.

Step 5. Continue curling until your entire head is complete. Once done, shake your hair out with your fingers and apply an anti-frizz serum to tame any flyaways. Spritz with a bit of hairspray and voila!

8. Or make some Beachy Waves!