Dear Ladies,
If I knew what I knew now about the tension method I would have stayed natural. I was natural up until 2010 and had a difficult time with SSK and tangles. Because my hair is a combination of 4a/4b and 3cs the different combinations as it got longer the ends would snap off a lot at the slightest thing. When I would wear my hair in a big pony tail, the 3c sections throughout my hair would stick up from the rest of my hair and people would always advise me on taming my hair a bit more. I spent a lot of money on gels specifically to tame those hair but no such luck those hairs would always shoot up especially if I washed my hair in extension braids. I exclusively air dried my hair because I was afraid of heat. Whenever I would talk to my mother about using heat, the only thing she could come up with was the pressing comb which worked well for her hair but not for mine.
I actually got a severe set back when I decided to blow dry my natural hair on my own. And my mother warned me that if I didn't get my hair all one uniform texture I would have some breakage from combing and trying to style my hair. I don't think that I used all that much heat but as my mother predicted, not getting my hair in one uniform texture caused me breakage along with the fact that my arms got so tired that some parts of my hair got dry and then that caused further damage.
I moved to West Africa where the humidity is very high. I couldn't deal with the damage so I braided it before I moved and because I had not braided my hair in such a long time and my braids were too tight, I lost all my progress.
My hair dresser convinced me to get a relaxer in order to get my dense fine hair into at least a more uniform texture that would make it easier to style and look neater when I wore braids extensions and without extensions.
So, to make a long story short I did relax it. I digress, anyhow now that I am relaxed my hair dresser uses the tension method to blow dry my hair once a month. I have had no problems since that time. As I said while I am not like upset over having relaxed hair, if someone had used this method on me when I was natural I would have remained that way and it would have made styling my hair a lot easier. Like now I would have just kept my hair in a bun and only wear it down on special occasions. I prefer buns anyway and not really into the whole phenomenon of wearing hair out all the time.
So it really does depend on your hair texture and your hair needs. My mother who is natural doesn't care for the tension blow dry method she can't stand very straight hair and wears by her trusty pressing comb on the stove. She doesn't have problems with SSKs and tangles because her hair is all 3c and she loves to hair dry it in big braids.
Best,
Almond Eyes