yardyspice Guilty as charged! But I'll come to the Curlformers later.
I have never used a blow dryer before flatironing. I used to braid and airdry in braids then flat iron wet-to-dry BARE HAIR
then I'd apply a serum (not even a heat protectant one *gasp* ) and pass the flat iron again. I'd have smooth, straight hair. Here's a close up of my hair after I pass the iron on hair that isn't blowdried and without product (I AM NOT SUGGESTING ANYONE DO THIS MADNESS!!!)
And these are results from flatironing hair that was simply stretched in braids then flatironed when damp w/o product and then one more time with a serum:
The last time I flatironed, I used Curlformers to stretch my hair. I started with hair that had just been washed & DC and was still wet (I'm 4B):
After Curlfomers, my hair was this stretched:
I wasn't going to put heat on y hair w/o a protectant so I used a spray protectant to wet my hair (coz I like to do wet-to-dry presses) and passed the iron ONCE over each Curlformer section (They were pretty narrow coz I used 80+ Curlformers) and my hair looked like it had been blowdried:
I then parted small sections and applied heat protectant serum to seal my hair and passed the iron once...and my hair was smooth and straight and stayed that way until my wash:
This was me getting ready for the wash at the end of the week:
And reversion as soon as shampoo touched it:
And this is my hair after the wash:
Did I mention that what made my last flatiron my favorite is NOT ONCE did I smell burning protein? None of that "someone's getting her hair flatironed" smell during, after or even when I wet my hair. Protectants rock!