I THINK I have a GREAT idea for straightening 4b hair in a HEALTHY way

[tada1]

4b Naturals, please chime in if you've done this before.

Have you ever braided or twisted your hair after washing/co washing and then sat under a hooded dryer for it to dry? In theory, drying this way should stretch the hair out almost like a roller set would.

If you've tried this, please chime in and post pics. If you've not tried it please volunteer as our test bunny I would do it but i don't have a hooded dryer and i currently have kinkies installed

hurry!!!!!

 

[chebaby]

i think ive read before that some naturals do this. like you said it does stretch the hair causing less tangles and knots and less passes the flat iron has to make to get the hair straight.

 

[Leeda.the.Paladin]

I have not done that, but I have banded my hair before flat ironing it and it worked pretty good.

 

[tada1]

i think ive read before that some naturals do this. like you said it does stretch the hair causing less tangles and knots and less passes the flat iron has to make to get the hair straight.

really? :woohoo: do you have links to youtube channels or threads on here? I did a search on youtube and didn't find anything to that effect

I have not done that, but I have banded my hair before flat ironing it and it worked pretty good.

thanks for mentioning that. What did you band your hair with? the last time i tried banding, my ends exploded into puff balls and tangled up

 

[AnotherLevel]

^^^^ I banded my hair Sunday night for the second time. The first time my ends were "exploded puff balls" as well. Lol!! This time I put a small rod a the end of them and it helped tremendously. Banding stretches my 4b hair very well. It looks like a blow out.

 

[MekyakaKinkerbelle]

When I used to get my hair straightened (and was natural), that's how my stylist would do it. She's put my hair in about 6 plaits, and stick me under the dryer to draw most of the water out before getting started.

Less damage from the hand held blow dryer. But she'd still to use the handheld with a paddle brush to draw out the hair from the severe shrinkage. Just my experience though.

 

[Leeda.the.Paladin]

With ouchless bands soaked in oil. Here's when I banded my hair about a year ago:

http://newlynatural.com/blog/2009/04/tried-banding-again/

 

[MizzBrit]

i would be the test bunny if my hooded dryer didnt die on me..but it sounds like it works as i airdry in braids and it stretches my hair

 

[tada1]

^^^^ I banded my hair Sunday night for the second time. The first time my ends were "exploded puff balls" as well. Lol!! This time I put a small rod a the end of them and it helped tremendously. Banding stretches my 4b hair very well. It looks like a blow out.

**off to stalk check out your fotki**

With ouchless bands soaked in oil. Here's when I banded my hair about a year ago:

http://newlynatural.com/blog/2009/04/tried-banding-again/

Thank you, KCcurly! Your hair looks SOO amazing on your blog!!!

 

[tada1]

i would be the test bunny if my hooded dryer didnt die on me..but it sounds like it works as i airdry in braids and it stretches my hair

i was thinking the same thing. my hair stretches in braids very easily. i would imagine that sitting under a hooded dryer would make it faster and smoother too

 

[NEWYORK20004]

When I used to get my hair straightened (and was natural), that's how my stylist would do it. She's put my hair in about 6 plaits, and stick me under the dryer to draw most of the water out before getting started.

Less damage from the hand held blow dryer. But she'd still to use the handheld with a paddle brush to draw out the hair from the severe shrinkage. Just my experience though.

I didnt know you relaxed.

 

[tada1]

With ouchless bands soaked in oil. Here's when I banded my hair about a year ago:

http://newlynatural.com/blog/2009/04/tried-banding-again/

your blog has a TON of info on banding. thank you so much for sharing

 

[cutenss]

I band too. But in just one ponytail, since my hair is fine. And using CHI Silk Infusion seems to help it dry faster, for my hair.

 

[ThickHair]

I do banding, but I let my hair air dry. Heat is a no no for me. Haven't used it in 13 years.

 

[Nonie]

I haven't done your method, OP, but I stretch without any heat whatsoever. I use Curlformers and airdry:

Before:

After air-drying in Curlformers:

 

[cocoaluv]

Yup. This is exactly how I stretch my hair out and I am a 4B. sorry I dont have any pics. I just washed my hair too but today is the first time i actually tried to straighten it with a blow dryer and THEN box braid it up and put a scarf on. I like my original way better but i just wanted to try something different tonight ( plus I left my bonnet dryer at my moms house and my brother didnt bring it over till AFTER I finished blow drying my hair).

 

[Creatividual]

I stretch my hair with braids all the time with great results. By the 2nd day of rebraiding nightly, my hair is as stretched as it would be if I had blow dried it.

 

[tada1]

I do banding, but I let my hair air dry. Heat is a no no for me. Haven't used it in 13 years.

for real? I thought a hooded/bonnet dryer is "good" heat. just like DCing with heat is supposed to be good heat. did you suffer from heat damage in the past? sorry for all the questions i can be very inquisitive.

I haven't done your method, OP, but I stretch without any heat whatsoever. I use Curlformers and airdry:

OMG NONIE!!!!! your hair looks JUST LIKE MINE!!! :shock: what do you do with it after curl formers? wear it curly or flat iron? do the ends stretch as well? i don't have curl formers but I might try those bendy roller things. im so excited

Yup. This is exactly how I stretch my hair out and I am a 4B. sorry I dont have any pics. I just washed my hair too but today is the first time i actually tried to straighten it with a blow dryer and THEN box braid it up and put a scarf on. I like my original way better but i just wanted to try something different tonight ( plus I left my bonnet dryer at my moms house and my brother didnt bring it over till AFTER I finished blow drying my hair).

you've been holding out on us, chica. please expatiate. do you use heat protectant to prevent reversion? how exactly do you do it? my ends are healthy but they definitely do not like to stay stretched. pppplllllleeeasse post a before and after picture of the braid and bonnet dry method.

 

[yods]

Doesn't longhairdon'tcare on youtube do a version of this? I certainly remember her saying she never takes the blow dryer on to sopping wet hair. I am sure she puts her hair in braids and air dries for a while and then uses a blow dryer on low heat to finish drying. Her hair is pin straight afterwards.

Sorry am at work right now and can't access youtube but its the one about blow drying. If you haven't found it later, I will come back and post a link.

 

[Nonie]

)OMG NONIE!!!!! your hair looks JUST LIKE MINE!!! :shock: what do you do with it after curl formers? wear it curly or flat iron? do the ends stretch as well? i don't have curl formers but I might try those bendy roller things. im so excited

Yes, I straightened after that. I put the CFs on dripping wet hair and let them stretch it as it dried. I then wet each CF section with a heat protectant spray. (In the past, I would just press wet-to-dry from that shrunken state, and since WTD presses are what give me a smooth finish, I can't press w/o them but I decided this time to do it with a heat protectant as my "liquid" instead of water. I particularly felt safe doing this because the directions do say to spray immediately before flat ironing.)

The result looked like a blow-out--which is what happens anyway, but I got it with only one pass, when I think I would have to do a few or in sections along the length to get it to look like that, before when I'd just flatiron WTD from the shrunken state. So this is how it looked:

And then I finger parted narrow sections and applied heat protectant serum to seal my hair making sure every inch was well coated, not heavily but just making sure I didn't miss an iota of my hair. Then I'd pass the iron over that once. The length became very smooth. Even the ends were smooth--you can sorta see that in the lower right hand corner of the pic below:

The serum kept my hair from reverting. I had no burned smell AT ALL during the process or after or when I washed my hair (which is when my hair shrunk fully to normal=full reversion). I must mention that besides the protectants I used during the flat-ironing process, I think starting this protection from the conditioning stage (I conditioned with CHI Infra Thermal Protection) may have contributed to the successful press/results and the absence of damage. I used an iron at 446 degrees F (230 degrees C).

ETA: I have worn CF results out to work but I wasn't too happy with not being able to separate the coils. I hate that look like you just took out rollers and didn't comb your hair, but I haven't figured out yet, how to separate 4B coils from CF without the ends looking frizzy. So I went to work looking crazy like this:

Please ignore the beads along the hairline. I usually brush the edges of my hair to give a neater appearance so no one knows that it isn't so obvious that I bother very little with my hair after waking up.

 

[tada1]

Doesn't longhairdon'tcare on youtube do a version of this? .

oh i lurv that gal. thanks for the tip. she uses a blow dryer instead of a hooded dryer, but i'm adding her method to my arsenal. i don't think it will hurt to try

Please ignore the beads along the hairline. I usually brush the edges of my hair to give a neater appearance so no one knows that it isn't so obvious that I bother very little with my hair after waking up.

LMBO @ the beadies i've given up on mine. i tried gelling them down over the weekend. no luck AND i got a HUGE zit near my ear a few days later. never again

thanks for the pics and explanation, Nonie! the thought of no burned smell sounds good to me!

ETA: you are so creative. i think that style with the curlformers still looked cute. looks like you planned for it to turn out that way

 

[Nonie]

oh i lurv that gal. thanks for the tip. she uses a blow dryer instead of a hooded dryer, but i'm adding her method to my arsenal. i don't think it will hurt to try



LMBO @ the beadies i've given up on mine. i tried gelling them down over the weekend. no luck AND i got a HUGE zit near my ear a few days later. never again

thanks for the pics and explanation, Nonie! the thought of no burned smell sounds good to me!

ETA: you are so creative. i think that style with the curlformers still looked cute. looks like you planned for it to turn out that way

About the beads: There really is no need to gel them down. If you brush them, they do look neat. I once posted the difference brushing with no product makes.

Here you can see that my nape usually has peppercorns, even after I flatiron as you can see from that section that is straight:

But when I brush the edges (and it's only on the perimeter, out of my whole head, that ever gets brushed), the nape looks so much neater:

You can also see how that beady hairline you saw in the CF do looks when it's brushed from these pics of the same do but w/o the CF'd back:

No product was used in either case.

Thanks for the compliment. I had hoped that's how it looked to the unsuspecting folks at my job who don't know things our hair can do.

 

[Vashti]

Doesn't look crazy to me. Looks really nice. I've always wanted to use CF but I'm afraid they might tear my hair out.

 

[tada1]

Doesn't look crazy to me. Looks really nice. I've always wanted to use CF but I'm afraid they might tear my hair out.

we are in the same boat

 

[AnotherLevel]

**off to stalk check out your fotki**



Lol!! I am TERRIBLE at keeping up my FOTKI but just to showcase my progress and give thanks to my lovely LHCF ladies, I have updated my siggy .

PS: The "after" pic below is a flat twist out on banded hair .

 

[tada1]

**off to stalk check out your fotki**



Lol!! I am TERRIBLE at keeping up my FOTKI but just to showcase my progress and give thanks to my lovely LHCF ladies, I have updated my siggy .

PS: The "after" pic below is a flat twist out on banded hair .

now that's what i call PROGRESS
ps: your skin looks amazing in both pictures!

 

[tada1]

anyone else tried this yet?