OK, I know I'm not a heat pro so maybe what I share doesn't seem to hold much water, but I'm telling you, until April this year, I was terrified of heat. I also seemed not to lose my battle with frizz in a day or so. Not so this year.
Prior to April 2009, my pressing method was wet-to-dry with no product but water and then with one more time with a serum applied. I got an OK press. This year, I made a few changes.
I dry DC'd overnight with a reconstructor, shampooed and then conditioned with CHI Infra Treatment, rinsed and then for the first time stretched my hair before the wet-to-dry press but I didn't want to use heat for that, so I stretched at room temp.
Also instead of wet-to-dry w/ just water, I used a heat protectant spray to wet my hair (after stretching BTW
) and for my second press a heat protectant serum instead of my usual plan serum. (Heat protectants were a new thing for me.)
Before the press:
After stretch by airdrying in Curlformers:
The wet-to-dry with heat protectant didn't look so hawt
erplexed but I made sure to coat the hair completely with the protectant spray:
Final press was done again on small sections very carefully coated completely by protectant serum:
And here's how my hair looked when I put it into plaits in readiness for a shampoo 3 days later:
And for anyone thinking I used too much heat, I assure you my hair was not damaged at all.
Reversion started as soon as I shampooed my hair as could be seen when I undid one plait
:
And at the end of my wash, my hair was back to its old self:
<B>So my advice for preventing immediate frizzing:
- I highly recommend wet-to-dry presses but instead of doing them with just water, I recommend a heat protectant liquid.
</B>
- I also emphasize that you work on small sections at a time.
- I also highly recommend using a heat protectant serum applying meticulously to small sections at a time so hair is well covered to seal hair from humidity.
- I also believe that if your flat iron isn't hot enough, it won't properly breakdown the bonds necessary for that temporary straight hair. But if your hair isn't well protected, it could break them down permanently = damage.
ETA: I forgot to mention the highlight of the entire process: not ONCE did I smell burnt hair. Not during the press, nor after I was done; not even when I wet my hair to shampoo.
I have always had reversion after a press, but NEVER in all my life have I witnessed a press w/o any burned smell or shampoo of pressed hair without any burned-hair smell. Yay me!