Relaxed heads, how do you achieve salon result at home

[NYDee]

I have tried rollers and Curlformers but my hair is still not sleek. Blow drying makes the hair bigger not sleek and I haven't been able to stragthen my roots well too. I'm thinking of using flat iron but don't want to use direct heat and it's a lot of work too. I'm feeling so frustrated.

 

[Minty]

sorry NYDee. What exactly are you trying to achieve

I understand you want "sleek" hair, but are you trying to get a style?

Generally, sleek hair comes from two sources (IMO):
1. Health
2 Heat

after your next DC, rinse in cold water - then use your leave-ins and try a rollerset. See if this helps.

**If you do decide to go the heat route, please do not use a dial higher than 250 - YES this is low, but you are relaxed, and a few passes on this temp. is alot healthier on the hair than 400.

(Once you get better at figuring things out, you can use a higher heat, or come to the realization that you don't need heat at all - you are relaxed)

 

[NYDee]

The problem is my hair is fully relaxed in the middle of my strands so rollersets and curlformers don’t get it straight. I'm tempted to go for a corrective relaxer but I'm trying to stretch for 12weeks (I'm at four weeks now) and I want to wait until then to fix it.

I'm trying to develop good habits early by not resorting to heat but I don't think I have a choice at this point. I would rather use curlformers only and comb my hair out afterwards but that hasn't turned out nice so far. I'm also shedding and not sure why, another reason I don’t want to use heat. I believe the cause is stress and it will stop but I hate seeing so much of my hair on the floor. I mixed garlic paste last week with Emergencia conditioner, it helped a little. I guess I have to do that more often.

 

[Minty]

maybe stretching is not for you right now.

 

[NYDee]

I'm thinking of that too. Oh well.
I will wait another two weeks and see how things go. Thanks for the tip.

maybe stretching is not for you right now.

 

[Newbie2Beauty]

This may sound silly but it works for me. Do your normal wash routine ending with your leave-in. After you have dried your hair 100% (air, hooded, blow dryer whatever) wrap it and then put 1 layer of Saran Wrap around it. Sit under the hooded dryer for about 10 minutes and that should work. I follow up by applying my moisturizer and sealing. It always works for me. I am a big time air dryer but when I want really straight, shiny and sleek hair without flat ironing this is what I do.

 

[Aireen]

I hope I can provide some insight to this situation you are experiencing. For me, my hair has gotten to such a state that it looks almost the same with or without a flat iron just by using a blow-dryer. (I haven't really air-dried my hair in about 1 year or 1.5 years.) The reason for this is like HijabiFlygirl said, health and heat. My blow-drier is 1875 watts I put the settings on high with turbo combined. Even though this did help more compared to other blow-driers, my hair would still come out looking like a poodle. This is where health comes in; even though I don't believe your hair can be all that healthy once it's damaged because hair is dead once it grows out of the scalp, you CAN maintain it and preserve it. What helped me do that was a combination of intense conditioning, keeping my scalp clean, stretching my relaxers (my hair dresser overlaps, especially if I don't stretch), and eliminating the use of heavy products on my hair. Heavy products always made my hair limp and/or stiff and intense conditioning with a protein and moisture kept in mind definitely helped. Even though I don't flat iron anymore, if you take the advice given that you will receive throughout this thread you should see results and your hair should be VERY sleek.

 

[chelleypie810]

the main thing I did was make sure my hair was moisturized. I did an overnight DC treatment on dry hair making sure all my strands were saturated. My hair came out soft and bouncy just like the salon. BTW I flat ironed.

 

[lovelexi]

I think it comes with time and practice. When I first started doing my hair at home it was a mess.I just kept practicing. I kept my hair moisturized and practiced perfecting my roller sets. Im still far from the salon sleek look but its getting better. Its been about two months. I also experimented with different leave-ins and oils until I found a combo that gives me the most shine. Also the less products I use the lighter and bouncier my hair.