10 BEST Tips For Straightening Natural Hair

Straightening our natural hair can be quite a chore and keeping it straight is even more challenging. However if you are armed with the right tips, straightening your natural hair doesn’t have to be so frustrating.

Knowing what to do before, during and after straightening your natural hair is key to maximizing how long the style will last and how good it will look. This is the season where straight natural hair will last longer than during summer time and sometimes we need a guide on just how to go about straightening our hair.

I saw a video on YouTube from the lovely Moiyshee and seriously had to share. Most of the time, we religiously look to the popular YouTube hair gurus for hair tips. I know that I am guilty of it too.

However there are a sea of new YouTubers who bring a wealth of hair knowledge and entertainment to our feeds if we subscribe to them. While she only has a few videos, her clarity and personality made me hit the subscribe button. Below are her 10 BEST tips for straight natural hair at home EVER!

1. Shampoo twice. This removes all the dirt and products from our hair. This is when you can bring out the clarifying shampoo*. If you like, you can clarify with the first wash and then use a moisturizing shampoo for the second wash. Having super clean weightless hair is the best way to start this straightening process and ensures that bouncy hair is the end result.

2. Make sure you deep condition. Grab your favorite deep conditioner* that always leave you with well hydrated hair or go ahead and mix up your kitchen concoction. The key is to really moisturize the hair.

The use of heat will reap better results so sit under a hooded dryer* or a steam cap for at least 20 minutes. This step cannot be stressed enough, as this hydration is what will prevent your hair from looking dry and limp after using heat to straighten the hair.

3. Use less leave in. Or skip it all together if your deep condition session left you with super moisturized hair.

4. Opt for roller setting your hair and sit under a hooded dryer* (if you have one) instead of blow drying your natural hair.

This might make your wash day longer because it is an additional step but you will be happy with the bouncy straighten results you will have later.

Blow dryers* can blow the moisture right out right out of your hair, leaving you with dry hair to then be flat ironed. Also direct heat from a blow dryer* and flatiron in one day can be a bit much – so try roller setting.

5. Wrap the rollers with paper towels. This one I have never heard about before. But She wraps her rollers with paper towels prior to using them but she swears by it. Apparently it allows you to smooth the hair out and makes the flat iron step easier and quicker.

6. Use a quality flat iron*. We are not advising you to go out and spend a lot of money in a flat iron. But you should get a quality flat iron* that won’t get your hair. For best result, get an iron with a temperature gauge. She used a HAI convertible flat from folica.com.

7. Use the brush chase method instead of the comb chase method. To get silky flat ironed hair, a boar bristle brush is best. Each hair stand will be smoothed out and bouncing in shine and volume. Try it!

8. Definitely work in small sections. It might seem time consuming but if you want silly straight hair that will last then this is the best tip of all. Working in really small section reduces the amount of heat applied to the hair because you would only need one pass with the flat iron.

9. Use a heat protectant to shield your hair from the heat. Make sure each strand gets coated with the product but, go light. You want to prevent heat damage and prevent the hair from reverting but you also want bouncy, light hair, so do not use more product than is needed.

She applied Creme of Nature Argan oil* gloss & shine polisher as her protectant to dry hair before flat ironing and her hair is amazingly shine and bouncy.

10. Protect all that straightening work when you hop in the shower. First wrap your hair with a towel THEN use a plastic or shower cap*. If you do not do this then be prepared to have frizzy hair that reverted quickly. The towel will act as a strong barrier between your hair and all of that moisture in the shower.

Check out the video:

And there you have it: 10 Best Tips for straightening natural hair from Moiyshee! How do you straighten your natural hair?