Could Low Heat Styling Be The Next Big Thing In Black Hair Care?

Last week I had one of those, ‘man you look like crap moments’ and even though that might sound a little depressing really it was just my way of finding the perfect excuse to spend a little money to get my hair done.

It took me all of five minutes to call James (my stylist extraordinaire) and make it to the salon to get my hair pampered and bone straight.

After about two hours, lots of laughs, and a couple of Taylor Swift renditions later my hair was done and I, according to James, was ‘high snap’ ‘low snap’  ‘Gone With the Wind’ fabulous. My hair looked amazing and I have every intention of enjoying this flat iron* thing for the next 3 weeks.

With all that said I was clearly biased when I pondered on the question, could low heat styling be the next big thing in black hair care? I immediately thought, geez I sure hope so.

Heat gets such a bad rap, it is always on the list of things not to do if you want to have healthy long hair that doesn’t break or get dry.

There are a couple other things that are on the ‘bad list’ too. For instance conditioning too much can lead to hair that is too elastic, mushy and prone to breakage. Sulfate shampoos and clarifying causes dryness, breakage and in some extreme cases, excessive shedding. Silicones, relaxers, braiding your hair tightly, brushes, combs, cotton, hygral fatigue, mineral oil*, too much tension, friction the list goes on and on.

The point is if you do not know what you are doing almost anything can cause damage to your hair including heat, why? Because hair is dead, yes world, there is no life there! As we go about our hair care practices what we are essentially doing is trying to preserve a biologically unresponsive fiber and any wrong move will ruin all our efforts.

How Heat Styling Affects Hair

It is difficult to talk about low heat styling without talking about how heat affects your hair generally. Hair is made up of four bonds and of the four the hydrogen bonds are the ones that are most affected by heat. Applying heat to your hair breaks the hydrogen bonds and allows your hair to straighten, likewise when we add water the hydrogen bonds allows your hair to return to its original state.

In situations where hair does not return to its original pattern your hair is said to be heat damaged which means that the very structure of your hair strand is destroyed causing it to be permanently straight.

Some women choose to permanently straighten their hair for ease of styling, and though controversial these days they seem to be perfectly happy with straight looking ‘curls’.

The Story Behind Low Heat Styling

The idea behind low heat styling is that you get the benefits of straight hair without all the damage. Have you heard of the Coolway Flat iron? The makers of Cool Way claim that their flat iron* takes advantage of a special sensor technology that allows for early detection of moisture levels in your hair and can adjust the temperature of the iron* accordingly.

In addition to this they guarantee that the temperature will never exceed 299° F which means the elimination of damage caused by high heat, reduction of frizz, increased levels of hydration in your strands and the flat iron* can be used daily.

By no means is this an endorsement for that flat iron* but rather just an observation that it’s certainly an exciting time in hair care in that people are thinking about ways to move away from high heat styling without totally abandoning heat all together.

For a lot of us curlies, our choices this far have been either to wear your hair curly all the time or risk heat damage when flat ironing to get super straight hair. But natural hair is about versatility  I love the idea of wearing straight flowing hair one week and a shrunken braid n curl the following week.

Certainly the idea of straight hair without damage is fascinating but on the flip side if you hair is already damaged and not resilient to heat or much of anything, it doesn’t matter how low the flat iron* is set, more damage will definitely be done until the health of your hair is restored.

How to Prepare Your Hair For Low Heat Styling

Much like high heat styling your protein and moisture game needs to be on point if you choose to subject your hair to anything that may alter the bonds within the hair shaft.

Low temperatures does not necessarily guarantee less damage to your hair but healthy hair has a better chance of bouncing back (literally) when you return to curly.

To create resilience, try to deep condition your hair regularly and use proteins to build your hair shaft and keep your hair strong. Still keep heat styling to a minimum, I’m still not buying the idea that you can use any flat iron* daily. It will always be better to alternate between using heat and giving your hair a break because nothing done in excess is good for your hair.

So Could It Be The Next Big Thing In Black Hair Care?

Most certainly, we already have a group of  closet heat users that are genuinely afraid to say “hey, I occasionally use a flat iron’  and we have some individuals that are deathly afraid of using heat because the dangers of heat damage, but really want to try it. And then there a those that don’t give a flying fish about what anyone thinks and they use heat all the time but would love a guarantee of no damage.

Believe it or not black hair care especially natural hair care is still in it’s infancy in many circles and as women gain length you will find that as styling options go, flat ironing is a good method as any at keeping your hair stretched and reducing tangles and matting.

It is great to know that there are other options out there other than braids and rubber bands.