Heat Protection For Hair

Hey guys, today I am going to talk a bit about hair protection for hair. First of all allow me to start by saying that I am not a fan of heating tools, therefore I don’t use heat protection that much. On the other hand I am aware that you cannot avoid heating tools forever. You may want to straighten your hair from time to time, you may be in a hurry and need to blow dry your hair after washing and so on. So, I thought since heat will eventually meet your hair occasionally let’s see how we can minimize the impact it will have on our hair.

Which are the sources of heat?

Ok, to start with let’s identify the heating tools that we care trying to protect from. These are hair dryers and curling irons, but also straightening irons, other heat appliances or even the sun when it is really hot outside.

Why is heat so bad?

Well, heat affects the protein called keratin in your hair. It softens it, causing hair breakage. Heat can also reduce the amount of water in your hair, causing little bubbles on steam to form inside your hair resulting in weakened hair. Another thing that heat can do is destroy our natural oils produced by the scalp, causing hair dryness. Put it all together and you got yourself a big problem. Split ends are also a common result of overusing heating tools. Attached you can see some examples of heat damaged hair shaft.

How to protect hair from heat?

As you may know there are a whole bunch of heat protectant products out there, not very expensive, starting at $2-3 up to $10. Basically there are two types of heat protection products: serums and sprays. If you ask you can use either one, depending on your personal preference. I heard people saying that if you have natural straight hair my recommendation would be to use sprays, while for curly hair serum products would work better. I have used both with same results. If I were you I would try both as see what works best.

Most of the heat protection tools contain silicone, which has the downside of sliding off wet hair, instead of coating your hair; therefore you will get better results if you apply the heat protectant to dry or almost dry hair. This does not make much sense if you are trying to protect your hair from a blow dryer, so obviously your hair is wet. Anyhow, you should have your hair at least partially air dried before.

The heat protectant should be applied all over the hair shaft, by separating your hair in several sections and applying the product to each section. The procedure is quite simple. You can start using heating tools after your hair is fully coated. Some conditioners also offer heat protection, so you don’t need to get a separate product for heat protection unless you really need it.

Conclusion

Heat protection is easy, inexpensive and very helpful for your hair’s health if you use a lot of heat styling.

Christine is the owner and editor of Biotin Hair Growth.com and she is offering free hair tips and advices for growing long hair fast.