**Standing up and clapping for this thread**
Im a PROUD fan of heat stretched hair
I admit that I get irritated by all the rhetoric saying that naturals who have heat stretched hair have unhealthy and damaged hair. I feel that heat stretched is an option just like texlaxed, relaxed, or natural...its all a continum and all methods that we as black women can use in order to achieve styles that we feel comfortable with and fit with our lifestyles and views. Im glad to hear about all the ladies on the board who have friends and family members with beautiful, healthy, long heads of natural but heat-stretched hair. I understand that it may not WORK for everyone...but thats nothing new. There is not ONE SINGLE thing that everyone can do anyways...thats why there is diversity on the board....ALL of our hair is different....some people cant do relaxers, some people can do texlax, some people refuse to deal with their natural texture...the board is about finding what works for YOUR HAIR and what makes YOUR HAIR healthy and happy.
So with that said, to the OP my hair is currently heat stretched and I LOVE IT!! No my coils are not as tight all over as they once were but thats okay with me. With the looser curls (some of the 4a are still 4a, some are more 3c ish, some are waves, some is frizz, my front is almost completely straight...but always has been..its definitely a mix)...but I embrace all of it and here are the benefits that I find.
1) It no longer takes me over an hour to detangle my hair enough to put it in a ponytail. I can now do it in like five minutes or less.
2)It no longer takes me five or six hours to do my two strand twists. I can do them in like 1-2 hours now.
3)When Im wearing my hair natural, my hair shows much more length. It also has a lot less bulk.
4) I can still wear wash and gos. I just do a modified version, where I wash, twist, and go.
5) If I want to wear a puff, I just wear my afro phony pony...it has perfectly uniform curls.
6) When I get my hair pressed, it lasts 2-3 weeks and doesnt take as long to do.
7) My hair gets washed and co-washed a lot more often since it takes much less effort to detangle and style.
Although, there are moments that I wish my coils were all perfect and the way they used to be...those moments are few and far between. I can still wear my hair both ways (coily and straight) with it being heat stretched. I feel that with anything you are going to have trade-offs and you can truly never have the best of both worlds. In my opinion, having heat stretched hair is definitely worth the trade offs of not having super tight 4a coilss. Once I get to BSL, I plan to move to a regi similar to pinkskates and straighten once or twice a month and keep my hair strong with protein and moisture.