Heat Training Support Thread

[islanchile]

joslingeneva

Still looking out for those pics girl!

 

[DDTexlaxed]

I am using heat to maintain a strait style. My previous attempts were pitiful, but my first true success was yesterday. I used grape seed oil to blow dry and then did a light roller set after I curled my hair. Not only did it look good, but my hair and ends were beautifully moisturized, not crunchy. I will do this in the winter time and in the summer wear wet buns. Since I use low heat, I don't think my hair will suffer at all.

 

[me-T]

dang all these pics are lookin good! awesome growth progress dd! now where's my update?

well, this heat training stuff wasn't working out. i ended up just relaxing it, which i'm SO happy about! (so happy i actually just used capital letters, lol)

i was starting to get breakage, and the ssks weren't letting up. as far as texture change, well it did loosen up from it's regular 4a/mostly b look to a solid 4a i guess. but considering i had been doing this for all of 2011, there should've been more progress. not to mention i got tired of the process every 2 wks. all that work for breakage and no texture loosening? no ma'am.

so before my bday on dec 12 i put some elasta qp no base (in regular i think) and it. came. out. awesome. best relaxer i ever used. i have sooo much less breakage now.

pic time! the 1st one was my fresh washed fro. the other 2 are close ups of some of the clumping i would get, and you can really see how the texture looked. the last pic is my hair now. it's grown a lil bit from lower neck length. they were extra big so i had to do some major cropping.

 

[me-T]

oh, just saw some more texture pics. they're older, but for some reason, my hair didn't really loosen much more after that point. almost looks like the same day. my hair was dry in these pics. the straight one is a press for a length comparison to my relaxed pic.

 

[30something]

@me-T
Did you relax bone straight or texlax?



I totally feel you on heat training process, it takes a lot of time..siting there and applying heat is time consuming. I pretty much abandoned my process and just straighten the normal way instead.. I think I will down the road (a year or two from now) start to experience significant looser texture...which I'm not even caring much about right no. Maybe its best to take it slow and steady.

 

[nubiangoddess3]

me-T

No, say it isn't so I was following your heat training process ( since your hair looks very much like my cnapp hair)

You said that you were doing it ever two weeks could that be the reason for the breakage.

What temperature were you using and how many passes ?

 

[me-T]

20Something

i'm relaxing bone straight, or at least almost to have some body. i tried that texlaxing, and i might as well had been full natural

nubiangoddess3

don't get me feeling bad sayin you were following my reggie! i did 1 pass at about 360, which isn't really a lot i guess. but my hair was too perpetually dry, even with constant co-washing & overnight baggies when i wasn't pressing. i really don't know what the real cause of breakage was, i'm just glad i caught it before it became a setback

if it's still working for ya'll, keep on. i just didn't have the patience for it. but lookin at brittany's swang in her newest videos make me feel like "dang, shoulda hung in there"

 

[theeREALmccoy]

Hey ladies!! Been stalking this thread since before I big chopped not really intending on heat training but just for extra info...now that i've been natural almost two years, I can say with confidence that I will be doing some form of heat training! I'm a type 4a with MAJOR shrinkage! I love being natural & I love my curl pattern but it is a BEAST to detangle when it has shrank (correct verb? lol). I know most people would say "Hey dummy just don't let it shrink up!" Well that's what I do most of the time ..I wear braidouts and twist outs 99% of the time, but I would love to be able to wear a wash and go and have it 1) hang and 2) not give me hell when I decided to wash again. I love my curls but I'd like them to not shrink so much!

I have only straightened my hair 3 times since natural and only had success once. My problem was that I was terrified of heat damage so I used a pretty low heat setting....my hair laughs at anything under 400F lol. This last time that I straightened, I used apex pressing oil and cranked my flat iron up to the highest setting (450F) using the comb chase method & about 3 or 4 passes per section. I know some people are out there clutching their pearls but at that point I just wanted my damn hair relaxer straight and I said I would reap the consequences when I went to wash my hair lol. Surprisingly, I had only a few tendrils of my hair SLIGHTLY looser (barely noticable). My only issue is that I'd like to get all of my hair to loosen uniformly.....any suggestions?

P.S. If it makes any of you feel better I said that next time I will attempt to lower the heat setting hehe

 

[30something]

Hey ladies!! Been stalking this thread since before I big chopped not really intending on heat training but just for extra info...now that i've been natural almost two years, I can say with confidence that I will be doing some form of heat training! I'm a type 4a with MAJOR shrinkage! I love being natural & I love my curl pattern but it is a BEAST to detangle when it has shrank (correct verb? lol). I know most people would say "Hey dummy just don't let it shrink up!" Well that's what I do most of the time ..I wear braidouts and twist outs 99% of the time, but I would love to be able to wear a wash and go and have it 1) hang and 2) not give me hell when I decided to wash again. I love my curls but I'd like them to not shrink so much!

I have only straightened my hair 3 times since natural and only had success once. My problem was that I was terrified of heat damage so I used a pretty low heat setting....my hair laughs at anything under 400F lol. This last time that I straightened, I used apex pressing oil and cranked my flat iron up to the highest setting (450F) using the comb chase method & about 3 or 4 passes per section. I know some people are out there clutching their pearls but at that point I just wanted my damn hair relaxer straight and I said I would reap the consequences when I went to wash my hair lol. Surprisingly, I had only a few tendrils of my hair SLIGHTLY looser (barely noticable). My only issue is that I'd like to get all of my hair to loosen uniformly.....any suggestions?

P.S. If it makes any of you feel better I said that next time I will attempt to lower the heat setting hehe

Go about it slow and gradually and consistent so you can monitor all changes and loosing. Its good to also know that hair can only be trained to a certain limit before you experience adverse effects so be very aware of your own limitations. From my own personal expereice I believe its safer to train at the temperature that you can successfully straighten your hair at verse the highest temperature on the flat iron.

 

[theeREALmccoy]

20Something I agree that it is probably way safer !!! The next time I flat iron I'm going to go with a temp closer to 400 and see if I can still get the same results. Being that spring is upon us and I live in Louisiana, I don't think I'll be flat ironing any time soon unless I feel like I need a trim. The humidity is a fool out here! Thanks for your advice!!!

 

[LightEyedMami]

i am currently trying to heat train, and my hair is so heat resisitant, i have yet to get any training (damage)...my hair is as course as ever!....i tryed blow drying on medium heat w/ a comb and brush attachment, but i like it better when i flat iron, i still haven't decided what method will be my "official" method...it seems that flat ironing keeps my hair more moist, tangle free, very little breakage and lasts a bit longer too....however it is DIRECT heat which makes me want to keep giving blow drying a shot...im so confused.

 

[30something]

i am currently trying to heat train, and my hair is so heat resisitant, i have yet to get any training (damage)...my hair is as course as ever!....i tryed blow drying on medium heat w/ a comb and brush attachment, but i like it better when i flat iron, i still haven't decided what method will be my "official" method...it seems that flat ironing keeps my hair more moist, tangle free, very little breakage and lasts a bit longer too....however it is DIRECT heat which makes me want to keep giving blow drying a shot...im so confused.

My hair was very resistant too but out of no where it started to loosen... I think its because I went over board with the 450 degrees.. back to back. I can totally relate my hair always feel moist when I flat iron.

 

[mimi0410]

I need all the support and help I can get!! I transitioned from texlax hair with the help of weaves. My last texlax was August of 2009. I began wearing weaves at the end of April 2010. Just before my first install I had quite a bit of the texlaxed hair cut. Fast foward to present and here I am fully transitioned...totally lost, and feeling like a newbie. I almost feel like I dont know where to start...I think I may even be a bit intimidated by my hair now erplexed. At current I dont have any desire to wear my hair naturally curly. As I was transitioning I always thought (in my head) that my end result would have me heat training. I took down my last weave over this past weekend and now I cant help but wonder if it was a bad idea. Trying to deal w/natural hair in the spring/summer (humidity---reversion) what was I thinking!?
Any regimen suggestions, ideas, product favs are totally welcomed. Ive attached pics of my hair blown out and pressed.

 

[Lanea87]

Just wanted to BUMP to see how you ladies are doing......

 

[Charla]

Bump:bouncegre

 

[Charla]

I've been so skeptical of heat training until I read this thread and watched soon many YouTube videos about it. I'm so at peace and confident in this decision, that I started my first session today!

After my normal wash/conditioning routine, I blow dried my hair in small sections on medium heat with the comb attachment without heat protectant. I plaited each section and cut 1.5-2" off each plait...and I didn't even cry!! It was the right thing to do because of all my ssks!

Tomorrow I will be flat ironing with Crisco and no heat protectant on 300○ for 5-10 passes.

I will try to maintain this for 2 weeks wearing buns mostly. Every 2 weeks I will do my same routine but add a protein DC...all the while monitoring my hair's health and texture loosening.

 

[gforceroy]

Charla I am thinking about heat training as well. I think it will solve my ssk problem. Who knows maybe I will retain more length and have less shrinkage!

 

[Charla]

Charla I am thinking about heat training as well. I think it will solve my ssk problem. Who knows maybe I will retain more length and have less shrinkage!

gforceroy
Let's hope it solves it for the both of us! Do you have a plan of action yet?

 

[gforceroy]

Charla I plan on straightening my hair next weekend. I might just do more passes of heat (maybe 5-8) to see if it makes a difference. I haven't used heat in almost year so I know I have to work on technique as well.

 

[Charla]

Charla I plan on straightening my hair next weekend. I might just do more passes of heat (maybe 5-8) to see if it makes a difference. I haven't used heat in almost year so I know I have to work on technique as well.

I bought an electric pressing comb at Sally this morning. Im going to start with that instead of the flat iron. I'm excited!

 

[beingofserenity]

Charla, so how has it been going?

 

[longhairdreaming]

Hey ladies, haven't posted on here in forever but I was finally able to get pretty swinging pressed hair. My issue it turned out was two prong

A. Not having the right products...it's hard in my little desert town but got stuff when I was home this summer
B. not getting my roots straight...solved with my Andis High Heat Pressing comb

Thanks for the tips!

 

[Charla]

Charla, so how has it been going?

beingofserenity I did 3 heat sessions and each time after all my hard work, I ended up back in a puff because of the humidity. So I decided to just relax before I caused too much damage from the heat.

 

[MsLizziA]

I'm not a heat trained natural but I will start heat training my sister's hair for her. Its an alternative to a relaxer. I will be using the Babyliss nano titanium pro flat iron. Her hair texture is much kinkier than mine and I find the biggest difference between ceramic and titanium is that the titanium plates get much hotter which is why I decided to use this on her hair to train it.

Any 4b/4c that is planning on heat training may want to look into a flat iron with titanium plates

 

[sckri23]

Im texlaxed but the back of my hair is acting like its relaxer resistant and heat resistant for some reason so I gotta start heat training. Recently I tried s-curl, dove heat protectant, and softee pressing oil. It still reverted the next day.

 

[LaFemmeNaturelle]

MsLizziA any updates on your sisters hair?

 

[MsLizziA]

MsLizziA any updates on your sisters hair?

LaFemmeNaturelle . yep, her mom changed her mom lol. so its pending

 

[Napp]

Is anyone "heat training "anymore? I used to think my hair was resistant to heat. Turns out I just needed a better flat iron and straightening technique LOL

 

[RoundEyedGirl504]

So I am officially heat trained. My curl pattern is quite a bit looser and I cut my blowdrying and flat iron time way down! I have a sew in now, but my leave out hasn't reverted at all. anybody still on the heat training wagon?

 

[Napp]

RoundEyedGirl504 I consider my self heat trained in the sense that my NG responds well to heat but my curl pattern is pretty much the same.