I go between natural styles and straight styles pretty evenly.
When I straighten my hair:
- I clarify my hair before a press 100% of the time
- I either do a bond treatment, use a smoothing shampoo or use moisturizing shampoo after I clarify
- When I complete bond treatments, it is always on clean hair that has been air dried to damp. I never do them on dirty hair.
- I deep condition or do some other type of special hair treatment after I shampoo.
- That can be a protein treatment, K-18 treatment or regular deep conditioner that isn't oil based on press days. I do not complete oil treatments on press days.
- I recently did K-18 instead of deep conditioning for two back to back treatments. I am going back to deep conditioning on my next wash. My hair can press fine without a deep conditioner, but on successive presses the deep conditioner makes a positive impact that is missed when it is gone.
- Sometimes I steam my hair or use a shower cap to heat when I deep condition. When I use heat to deep condition, I let it cool off before I rinse the deep conditioner out.
- Once I wash out my deep conditioner I put my hair in bantu knots
- Bantu knots help the next steps become more efficient
- I can put in a heat protectant on my hair then dry the bantu knots partially under a hooded dryer before blow drying
- I can apply heat protectant to each bantu know before blow drying each section(no hooded dryer)
- I can Revair then apply my protectant(no hooded dryer)
- I used to always apply heat protectant before reving but that can cause issues with the wand. Applying the protectant after reving works fine.
- I always make sure my hair is fully detangled with a Felicia leatherwood brush, wide tooth comb or other detangle tool before stretching my hair to fully dried state. That prevents tangles and breakage.
- I never use the drying stage as my detangle stage. Doing that in the past caused unnecessary breakage for me.
- I have set my hair in braids or on rollers to dry. That works too, but most of the time I prefer Revair or the blow dryer.
- Once my hair is stretched and dried I ALWAYS use a fine tooth comb to part my sections. I always comb through each section with the fine-toothed comb. If my hair is not detangled thoroughly enough for the fine tooth comb to pass through it, I do not consider it detangled enough.
- The fine tooth comb step isn't detangling it, by that step my hair should already be detangled. If it isn't, then something went wrong in the wash, drying and detangling steps that can cause unnecessary breakage when pressing it. So, most of the time, if that happens, I will not press that day and try again on a different wash day. If I press my hair with marcels or a pressing comb that requires a stove, I always use pressing creme, pressing wax or a serum. Never light sprays.
- If I press my hair with a flat iron, my heat protectant depends on my hair style.
- Lighter leave-in for more voluminous or a softer press. Heavier leave-in, in humid weather, rainy days and/or if I want a harder press.
- I use heat protectant as leave-ins on press days. A heat protectant can be moisturizing but using a leave-in that is not specifically a heat protectant often undermines the ability for the press to last.
- I don't use multiple passes. Once is enough with the back of the hot comb, marcel iron or flat iron.
- I do dab the root one special time before the one pass.
- If I am pressing my hair more often, I trim my ends more often. If I pressed less than once every 2 months, a trim once a quarter or when I stop hiding my hair is usually is fine. If I am back-to-back pressing my hair monthly, then a trim every 2 months is necessary.
- When I mention trimming, I dust, then I get the hemline then pull sections of hair off base to trim all over. Each of those steps are also necessary.
- I do not touch up my press until I wash my hair again
- Exception 1: I don't mind reving straight hair if I got caught in the rain or something (dry wrapping without pressing my hair over can work for this too)
- Exception 2: I don't mind heat styling my hair a few days after I pressed it straight, especially on a soft press
- If I want to use back-to-back heat, I do things that offset damage like alternating between hard and soft presses and using higher end products.
- I touch my hair a lot when it is straight, so I usually sleep with it pineappled, or bunned loosely. If I wrap my hair, it is without using a brush/comb where I just pull the hair to that base of my neck(as if I were gripping it for a low ponytail) then wrap the length around my hair like a roller and tie it down. It combs down fine the next day without a lot of ripples and that method uses less combing than wrapping it would have.
- My press will usually last for a month and I will get new growth at the roots without my hair reverting even in very humid, southern weather or dry heat ,desert weather.
- I don't sweat in my scalp enough to revert my press. I may get a light coating of sweat but nothing that would disrupt my hairstyle for the month.
- At the end of my press, I clarify my hair again, followed by a deep conditioner or some type of speciality treatment before restyling it.
- Treatment can be hot oil, bond treatment, K-18, deep conditioner, protein treatment, etc, but it has to be a treatment, not just a regular wash and creme rinse.
- I prefer to alternate between pressed and natural styles because that helps me keep a line of sight to not heat damage my hair, conceal split ends, develop single strand knots or burn my hair out. However, I can press my hair back-to-back with few heat problems. All my hair problems are hormonal or medical when I cause them. Never due to my styling habits.
- If my hair is breaking or having significant issues while I want to press it...I don't. I baby my hair until the shedding or breakage tappers off a bit then I will check where I landed.
Wish I had my Fotki. I had a lot more detail on there, but I still have pressed photos on my LHCF album if you want to see them. I wear my hair pressed often. By the end of the year, it is pretty even between pressed and natural unless I am pregnant, recovering from a setback, or hiding my hair. I joke about my hair being high maintenance but that is just a joke. It can be pretty simple, when I let it be. That said, I really enjoy my hair. So, the more I take it out of its natural state or wear it out, the more I offset that to keep it healthy. That is the trade off. When I want to use juices & berries, it is in twists. When I want it pressed or flowing freely, it requires treatments, trims and extra maintenance to keep it long and strong.
ETA: You mentioned products. Now I will say technique and maintaining healthy har prior to pressing is more impactful than products but I will list what I am using and what I would go out and buy today, if I ran out of the discontinued items I currently have.
Clarifying shampoo:
Using: Rusk rosemary & Quillaja Detoxyfying Shampoo.
Alternatives:
Amazon product ASIN B000UPEF88
Amazon product ASIN B07TGFKTJN
Moisturizig Shampoo:
Using: Shu Uemura Ultimate Remedy
Alternative:
https://us.ag.care/products/balance...MI9feIxYni_gIV1hXUAR39wQc7EAQYASABEgIQ8fD_BwE
Deep conditioner: Shu Uemura Ultimate Remedy
Alternative:
Amazon product ASIN B007FIYBICI have used this deep conditioner when pressing my hair before. It isn't a favorite but it does the job and is easy to access.
Bond treatment
Using: CurlSmith Bond Curl Rehab Salve; Olaplex 0-3(0&3 or 1&2). I will throw in K-18 even though it is technically a molecular hair treatment. All three of those are still available.
Heat Protectants I like
Chi Silk infusion, Crack Hair Fix, Aveda Brilliant Damage Control, Olaplex 7 (all available)
Tools: Girl let me tell you I got the Dyson Airwrap, the Dyson Supersonic, a full set of Kizure irons, the FHI Runway Irons, EAP irons, Babyliss Irons, Sedu Blow Dryers, the original and the digital Revairs, Felicia Leatherwood brushes, bone combs, my Huetiful hair steamer still works and is used regularly. I have the Pibbs 516 + many, many more tools. That is a ton of stuff but is way cheaper than what getting my hair done at the salon would cost. Plus, the basics from Folica and Sally's did the job for many years, prior to the upgrades and splurges. You can buy the basics that work then build from there.
Sorry for the long post, but I hope that was what you were looking for.
