HEAT TRAINED NATURALS-CAN YOU STILL...

DDTexlaxed

TRANSITION OVER! 11-22-14
I am interested in educating myself. Can heat trained naturals still wear protective styles like braids and twists? If anyone does this, please share your regimen.:yep:
 
my sister is heat trained and is in sew-ins for her PS. she wants to wear her hair out now and is looking into twists and braids. anyone out there got some advice for her and DD?
 
When I was heat trained, I could still wear protective styles because at the end of the day, when I wet my hair, it reverted completely...
 
Wait... why wouldn't a heat trained natural be able to wear protective styles like that? :perplexed
 
I have no clue what heat training is. I try to avoid heat. When I did straighten for a trim I was still able to put in braids and twists. However, sometimes depending on how much heat is used, how often it is used, when it is used and whether or not there are any products in your hair + the state your hair is in, it is possible that your hair may never revert back to how it originally was.
 
It's essentially using heat damage to stretch out the hair permanently to avoid SSK and minimize shrinkage.

You are pretty much correct.

And to answer the question of still being able to wear braids or twists.... Braids...YES
Twists...ehhh, Not so Much.

The reason one would not able to wear twists as a heat trained natural is that the curl needed to maintain a twists really is not there. You can feel, and see the difference.

When my hair was heat damaged, there was a noticeable difference in the way my twists and twist-outs looked and felt.

Check out the pic below. Its a twist out. Pay attention to the very front. The straight clumps of hair are sections of hair that are heat trained / heat damaged. Those patches of straight hair are all over my head in this pic.

PLEASE DON'T QUOTE THE PIC
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Fast FWD -- Now take a look at this video made almost 2 years after the picture was taken. The heat damage has grown out and been cut off. You can see the difference in my twist-out.

SN: Pay no attention to the content of this video. Its one of my early ones. :lachen:
 
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I disagree with the term heat trained as synomous with heat damange. I blow dry my hair about once a week and have been doing so for the past 8 months and there is NO difference in my texture. Yes some people use hair to permanently change their hair pattern but I think for the most part naturals that use heat responsibly regular do not see this texture difference. If anything I would say that my hair "behaves" better because it is alway detangled unlike before when I airdried) and I always wash in braids never giving my hair a chance to knot and tangle. I know and have seen the difference between washing is stretched sections and not.

DD/OP to answer your question, I'm not natural, but yes I have worn braids (very recently actually). I don't do twist only because I don't know how to do them myself!
Longhairdontcare wears braids often and she has a video wear she is in twists as well.
 
Now I am confused. Not to hijack the thread but does heat trained hair fully revert? I always thought it meant the hair was "changed" (I don't want to offend ppl) and when it got wet, the hair was a looser curl if it curled at all. Can someone please clarify for me? (I would ask my sister but her stylist does her hair and so she has no idea what her curl pattern actually looks like) TIA
 
^^^I cannot speak to anyone else's hair, but I wore my hair straight for about 4 years and my hair was not damaged...My hair fully reverted each and everytime water touched it and my curl pattern has not changed...
 
When my hair was "heat trained" it wasn't damaged. It just behaved "better" my presses would last, and my hair would revert to curly/kinky just fine. I would say that my ends were in better condition and my reverted hair was more uniform. It's like the curls/coils/kinks clumped together in beautifully choreographed hair ballet. Now that I rarely use heat I feel like more strands are freestyling...if that makes sense. :lachen:

But to answer your question, I could still wear braids and twists fine but I chose not to do it often so I never had a regimen for them.
 
Now I am confused. Not to hijack the thread but does heat trained hair fully revert? I always thought it meant the hair was "changed" (I don't want to offend ppl) and when it got wet, the hair was a looser curl if it curled at all. Can someone please clarify for me? (I would ask my sister but her stylist does her hair and so she has no idea what her curl pattern actually looks like) TIA

I'm confused, too. If the hair reverts, what makes it "trained"?

Sorry, OP, for being no help at all!
 
i'm gonna have to say heat trained hair is damaged. if your curl pattern has loosened because of the use of heat ( not because of hair weight) then it is damaged. if your hair pattern has not loosened at all and you use heat to straighten regularly, then your hair is not heat trained, it just straightens relatively easily...this is just my opinion.
 
Heat training is not damage. This is training your hair to remain in a stretched state at least most of the time however for some it will revert completely when washed. I have 4b hair that is not prone to ssk's so for me it is not about that - it is about manageability. If having super tangly, uncombable, shrinky dink hair is some sort of yardstick for hair health then I guess "damaged" is betta. But seriously you ladies who keep calling it damage shouldn't knock it till you try it. If you do and follow the regimen correctly you'll be pleasantly surprised. You do have to learn to use heat tools safely and effectively though for it to work - this is especially important if you've had problems in the past with burning your hair out. You can train your hair to do anything - heat is just one tool to achieve on type of result so I don't see the need to build up a taboo about heat based on misinformation.
 
Heat trained hair that doesn't revert when wet is damaged hair.


To answer your question OP: Twists don't look as good because there is no "kink" or "curl" to keep them intact. Braids still look pretty well on heat trained hair (then again it depends on the degree it has been heat trained for both styles)
 
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I disagree with the term heat trained as synomous with heat damange. I blow dry my hair about once a week and have been doing so for the past 8 months and there is NO difference in my texture. Yes some people use hair to permanently change their hair pattern but I think for the most part naturals that use heat responsibly regular do not see this texture difference. If anything I would say that my hair "behaves" better because it is alway detangled unlike before when I airdried) and I always wash in braids never giving my hair a chance to knot and tangle. I know and have seen the difference between washing is stretched sections and not.

DD/OP to answer your question, I'm not natural, but yes I have worn braids (very recently actually). I don't do twist only because I don't know how to do them myself!
Longhairdontcare wears braids often and she has a video wear she is in twists as well.

thanks! someone who knows what they're talking about!
 
Heat training is not damage. This is training your hair to remain in a stretched state at least most of the time however for some it will revert completely when washed. I have 4b hair that is not prone to ssk's so for me it is not about that - it is about manageability. If having super tangly, uncombable, shrinky dink hair is some sort of yardstick for hair health then I guess "damaged" is betta. But seriously you ladies who keep calling it damage shouldn't knock it till you try it. If you do and follow the regimen correctly you'll be pleasantly surprised. You do have to learn to use heat tools safely and effectively though for it to work - this is especially important if you've had problems in the past with burning your hair out. You can train your hair to do anything - heat is just one tool to achieve on type of result so I don't see the need to build up a taboo about heat based on misinformation.

:perplexed
 
I always thought heat training was just damage but after reading some of your posts I think I might have been wrong. When my hair was DAMAGED from too much flatironing about halfway down it was wavy instead if curly in some spots. But when I was straightening more carefully using heat protectant etc. I noticed that my hair reverted completely everytime but I had almost no SSK and My hair behaved itself.

As for the OP's question I have no idea lol my hair looks ridiculous in twists and braids so I never do them.
 
I think it depends on the degree to which your hair is heat trained...

I've noticed some members are heat-trained to the point where they have little to no curl pattern. One member in particular said that unless her hair is straight, she can only wear buns because of the change in texture.

However, PinkSkates heat-trains and she is able to wear twists. Her hair also reverts completely.

I think there is a way to heat-train and retain your texture. If so, you *should* still be able to wear twists/braids.
 
Heat training is not damage. This is training your hair to remain in a stretched state at least most of the time however for some it will revert completely when washed.I have 4b hair that is not prone to ssk's so for me it is not about that - it is about manageability. If having super tangly, uncombable, shrinky dink hair is some sort of yardstick for hair health then I guess "damaged" is betta. But seriously you ladies who keep calling it damage shouldn't knock it till you try it. If you do and follow the regimen correctly you'll be pleasantly surprised. You do have to learn to use heat tools safely and effectively though for it to work - this is especially important if you've had problems in the past with burning your hair out. You can train your hair to do anything - heat is just one tool to achieve on type of result so I don't see the need to build up a taboo about heat based on misinformation.

@Bolded:
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Da fvck?:perplexed:nono:

Wow, you sound really bitter.
 
Heat training is not damage. This is training your hair to remain in a stretched state at least most of the time however for some it will revert completely when washed. I have 4b hair that is not prone to ssk's so for me it is not about that - it is about manageability. If having super tangly, uncombable, shrinky dink hair is some sort of yardstick for hair health then I guess "damaged" is betta. But seriously you ladies who keep calling it damage shouldn't knock it till you try it. If you do and follow the regimen correctly you'll be pleasantly surprised. You do have to learn to use heat tools safely and effectively though for it to work - this is especially important if you've had problems in the past with burning your hair out. You can train your hair to do anything - heat is just one tool to achieve on type of result so I don't see the need to build up a taboo about heat based on misinformation.
I don't think you meant any harm, but my hair is not heat trained and it def isn't uncombable (I fingercomb) or tangly( I put my head under water and it works like magic.
 
Heat training is a sensitive subject. A previous poster mentioned heat training and heat damage are not the same thing. Youtube has a few good exampIes of heat trained naturals. Longhairdontcare2011 is one of my favorite. She mainly wears braids, but she has a video of her twists, twist-out, and of her wet hair. Heat can damage hair that doesn't make it the devil, but improper hair care techniques are.
 
Oh damn I knew this was going to get ugly

I straighten my hair at least 4 times a month and my hair is not heat damaged. It still shrinks up as it always did. Some of us can straighten and have no problems with reverting back to curls. That's why I am natural, I love the versatility.

With that being said, I guess to answer your question OP you'd have to examine your own hair in order to make that determination. Being natural is not a one size fits all unfortunately. I can straighten with no problems, but I've seen some Ladies straighten once and ruin their hair. I don't do any of the styles you mentioned, but if I wanted to yes they could be done with no issues.
 
OP, I think it depends on the degree to which you are heat trained; longhairdontcare2011 uses light heat training and retains enough curl to do twists, while brittanynic16 uses a little more heat and her hair looks more texlaxed. I like brittanynic16's perspective on heat training she has some nice YT vids check them out. How your heat trained hair behaves depends on your own texture and how your hair responds to heat.
 
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