by DHA's DIY | Aug 30, 2022 | Blowout, Dominican Blowout, Moisture, Hair Straightening, Silk PRESS
Moisture is, after all, the main factor in giving your tresses length and strength.
But can you moisturize a blowout? Is there anything you can do to keep your hair moisturised when you’re rocking a blowout? We all know water and heat straightened tresses don’t mix, so can you moisturize a blowout?
Moisturize A Blowout : Hydrating heat-straightened hair?
If you keep up the moisture when your hair is in its natural state, then you get kinda used to the bounce and flex moisturisers bring. But everyone who’s ever had heat straightened hair knows that getting it wet is a no-no. In turn, products which moisturise – containing as they do water and, often, water-attracting humectants – tend to be off the menu for blown out or pressed hair.
Some hair which is less prone to reversion can actually take a very small amount of water-containing products – usually thicker, heavier creams with a lower water content. These keep the hair feeling smooth and flexible without causing the hair to curl up again. However, on hair that reverts easily, it’s best to avoid even these products on your heat-straightened tresses.
If you have unruly edges, then you can add a tiny bit of Brillantina to your hairline to keep your edges smooth, but keep it strictly on the edges. (Note: To pincurl or rollerset a stale press, then you can apply it throughout your hair.)
Moisturize A Blowout: When to moisturize a blowout
If you want moisturized hair, then it’s best to lock in the moisture before you straighten it. To do so, apply an overnight pretreatment with a conditioner containing wheat germ extract, cetrimonium bromide or cetrimonium chloride – ingredients that slow down moisture loss during heat styling. Use products containing these ingredients and silicones to insulate your hair, and keep as much moisture in your strands as possible.
Moisture not only helps protect your hair from getting too hot too quickly, but also means more natural, fluid-looking hair once straightened. To keep some of it locked in, you will also need to keep the temperature as low as possible, At the temperatures most people use to blowdry and press, the hair loses all its moisture; it leaves the strands as steam and can actually damage the hair as it does.
If your hair is resistant to heat, and so you or your stylist tend to resort to high temperatures to straighten it, the lack of moisture will be even more pronounced in your tresses, in terms of movement and bounce. Your straightened hair will also be extra vulnerable to styling damage because all of its moisture, a key source of its strength, has been removed.
Moisturize A Blowout: Alternatives to moisturizers
Since moisturizers will counter your style here, try lubricating products instead. These products are water-free and are usually blends of oils or silicones, both of which work by protecting against damage from friction, and providing some of the smoothness water would have brought. You won’t get quite the same level of suppleness, however – most of these products act only on the surface while water’s smoothing action works from the inside out.
Use both types of products sparingly to prevent the hair being weighed down and killing the swing that makes the blowout such a stunning spin on straightened hair. Applying a small amount and then brushing through should be sufficient to spread the product through the hair. But be careful not to overbrush – without water, your hair is that much weaker and less able to stand up to the friction and tension of brushing.
And as soon as your straight look comes to an end? Don’t forget to treat your hair to a deep, hydrating treatment – after a good stretch without moisture a good dose is well overdue.
Image credits:
P. Taylor Images
Good 1
by DHA's DIY | May 8, 2022 | Dominican Blowout, Heat, Straight Hair, Blowout, Hair Straightening, Silk PRESS
Press reverting? Seven major factors make straightened hair reversion-prone.
Took care of the first three and still have trouble keeping your natural curls stick-straight after a dalliance with the iron or blowdryer?
Check out the final four forces acting against your straightened strands in Part II.
Press reverting: The reasons for reversion. . .
We said it before and we’ll say it again: the reason of reasons for premature reversion is not getting the hair straight enough from the start. This makes it more vulnerable to the humidity in the air, ever acting against it, hoping to turn it back into its natural waves and curls. There are seven factors in particular that play into your hair’s general tendency to go back to its roots. We let you know the first three in Part I, so let’s break down the last ones to press reverting here and now:
Press Reverting Reason #4: You got your hair wet
You grabbed an umbrella, a headwrap and a hat when you caught the forecast of a chance of light showers. You wore a towel over the scarf under your shower cap in the bath. But then you went and put in a product without checking the ingredients.
Many products, even, surprisingly, those designed for heat-straightened hair, contain water – an ingredient which is as anti-straightened hair as it is curl-friendly.
Water causes hydrogen bonds to reform in the hair, and for your heat-straightened strands, those hydrogen bonds mean curls.
When you’re scanning the ingredients list, keep in mind that products with “aqua” on the list contain water. And products with humectants on the list invite water in. If you want your press to survive a few more days, then steer as clear of the humectants (common ones include glycerine, propylene glycol and squalene) as well the water, even if it is “just a little bit” or towards the end of the ingredients list.
Instead, seal water out using products with hydrophobic silicones high up in the list; dimethicone and amodimethicone are a couple of excellent sealants to look out for.
There is a caveat, however: If you live in an area of high humidity, be aware that, regardless of your best efforts, some of the H2O in the water-rich atmosphere will make it into your hair.
This, in turn, means that some degree of reversion is pretty much inevitable, as even the highest quality sealants are somewhat permeable to water. And let’s not forget the fact that, even in low humidity regions, after a while, the moisture in the air will slowly seep into your strands, taking them back into alpha state. If this didn’t happen, presses and blowouts would leave your hair permanently straight.
Press Reverting Reason #5: You didn’t get the hair smooth enough
Even if you have hair that’s a little resistant, you can amp up the straightness by making sure you smooth it out as much as possible during, before, and after the straightening process. Once your hair hits a certain level of exposure to heat, it will show little progress in straightening, even though you turn up the temperature and multiply the passes with the iron or hairdryer.
That makes it important to stretch the hair as much as you can while it’s still pliable. Use smoothing conditioners and deep treatments, try rollersets, and work on improving your brush or iron technique, not forgetting to wrap your hair immediately after straightening.
Press Reverting Reason #6: Your sections were too big
Just as sectioning well ensures you get moisture to every layer, and tangles out of every tress, it also ensure you get every strand straight.
If you make your sections too big, then enough heat simply can’t reach the inner layers of the hair, as the outer strands will have a “shielding” effect, preventing the iron from contacting them.
The combination of tension and the little heat that does make it through might be enough for the hair to look straight. . . at first.
Within a few hours, however, the fact that not all the hair was touched becomes apparent, as underlayers begin to shrink, creating a puffy, press reverting appearance. To prevent, this make your sections as fine as possible – no more than centimetre thick and definitely no wider than the iron.
Press Reverting Reason # 7: Your hair has supernatural resistant strength
If you’ve corrected every one of the common mistakes listed and still find your hair won’t get straight then your hair quite possibly has a very high, natural resistance to heat.
While most virgin hair has some significant level of resistance, persistent resistance, over many instances of straightening, is a characteristic found in quite a few heads of hair.
It might be frustrating mid-ironing, pressing or blowout, but your press reverting is something to celebrate; it means your mane is strong in the face of one of hair’s biggest stressors, a strength that can help you attain longer lengths.
If this is the case, then either take steps to smooth your hair without high heat, or forego heatstyling altogether; after all, a straight look is just one of a zillion styling options for the inherently versatile naturally curly hair.
Whatever you choose to do, don’t force the issue. Even if your hair won’t get as straight as you want it, repeated exposure to high heat, trying to get it to do what it refuses to–stop your hair reverting, will eventually destroy its natural protein structure, leaving you with damaged hair that doesn’t look good, straight or curly.
For more on reasons behind your press reverting, see part one.
Image Credits
| Amandeep Singh Asnapal | Vinoth Chandar |Ashley Webb| Lauren Paulsen | Cambio de Fractal |
by DHA's DIY | May 8, 2022 | Dominican Blowout, Heat, Straight Hair, Hair Straightening, Silk PRESS
Wondering why your blowouts never seem to make it till the next appointment?
Or why your presses peter out well ahead of schedule?
Your hair rapidly reverting is probably due to one of these seven reasons. . .
Reverting: Failed blowouts all have something in common. . .
All of the reasons and rules of unsuccessful presses and blowouts reverting tie into one overarching principle. Call it the law of straightening, whether temporary or permanent, with chemicals or with heat: if you don’t get the hair straight enough, it’s just not gonna stay straight. Here’s breakdown on why you haven’t been getting it straight and why it’s quickly reverting:
Reverting: You put too much product in your hair
So you really wanted to protect your curls before putting them before the fiery blast of the blowdryer. Not willing to leave a stone unturned, you broke out the heat protectant shampoo, treatment, conditioner, and leave in, following up with the blowdry creme, the thermal spritz and a strong dose of straightening balm.
Or, you’re a fan of all things stick-straight and just can’t get over how smooth your hair looks when you run the hot comb over a thick layer of pressing cream.
Either way, you overdid it. In both cases, whether the goal was absolute protection or absolute straightness, your hair was never actually straightened, just momentarily stretched and weighted down by product.
As the product wore off, your curls became less beholden to gravity and started working their way back to wave and cloud formation.
To avoid product getting in the way of successful straightening, limit yourself to one to two leave in heat protectant products.
When you apply, apply only a small amount – i.e., just enough to cover your strands, so you can smooth and protect and still be able to tell when your hair is actually straight. If you use a concentrated protectant e.g., atrActiva Shine Drops Shield Conditioning Leave In Serum, and work it in well, you won’t have to worry about whether you’ve applied enough product as it will be effective with very small amounts.
Reverting: You didn’t go hot enough
Yes, this part is controversial. Too much heat certainly can cause damage; keratin, the protein hair is made from, begins to denature – become permanently deformed – at anywhere from 140-200 degrees Celsius or 210-250 degrees Celsius, depending on the water content and other factors.
Once it’s gone that way, it’s gone; there’s no question of bringing your hair back to its original state or repairing the damage. All should be well, as long as you keep your heatstyling tools well below these temps. The trouble is, on many heads of hair, the hydrogen bonds (the reformable ones that bring you back to curly as soon as water hits your hair) don’t want to let your hair get straight until the heat gets dangerously close to causing permanent damage.
Unfortunately, in this case, if you’ve made sure you’ve covered all the other bases and still have issues, you’ll simply have to make a choice between leaving your hair not-so-straight or taking the hit.
Reverting: Your hair is damaged
So you got your mane shiny and smooth, right from the roots down to just a couple inches away from the tips. Thinking you must have missed a bit, you slide the iron over the ends a couple more times. Nothing happens. You turn up the heat and hit it a few more times. Still nothing.
Your ends won’t go smooth, not because it’s reverting, but because they are damaged beyond repair – either from heat overuse, excessive dryness, tool abuse, or simple, inevitable wear and tear. That is why they won’t straighten again, ever. The only remedy to get your ‘do silky smooth from root to tip is to create new tips – by promptly chopping those worn ones off.
And there’s more. . .
The forces that work against your straightening ambitions are absolutely relentless. Check out Part II on straightening tresses reverting to find out the rest of the seven reasons that make your hair reversion-prone!
Image Credits
| Amandeep Singh Asnapal | Julie Monday |Uneduex | Choo Yut Shing |Helga Weber|
by DHA's DIY | May 2, 2022 | Dominican Blowout, Heat, Straight Hair, Hair Straightening, Silk PRESS, Uncategorized
Scientists have worked out the exact temperature you can straighten your hair at and get your curls back – it’s 185°C.
That temperature is good for up to 50 passes – with perfect curl reversion.
But does curl reversion after heat mean your hair isn’t damaged? Not necessarily – here’s why.
Heat damage: What flat ironing does to your hair
In a groundbreaking study on how heatstyling affects tightly curled hair, scientists measured the difference in curl before and after flat ironing at 220°C (428°F) and 185°C (365°F).
The first article in this series breaks everything down, from how they chose the curl types to how they worked out the safe temperature to straighten curly hair.
Here’s a quick recap: The researchers found that after flat ironing 50 times at 185°C, curls sprang back to their original selves once washed and airdried. At 220°C, that didn’t always happen. In fact, several of the tight curls transformed into bigger curls and even loose waves that were almost straight.
That overall loss of curl indicated the hair was damaged by the higher heat level. Whereas at 185°C, curl reversion – the technical term for when your curls come back looking the same after heat styling – was pretty much reassured.
But they weren’t done.
Heat damage: What temperature is safe to flat iron your hair?
Lack of curl reversion is a strong indication that hair is damaged. But curl reversion doesn’t mean that your hair is not damaged. Remember, even out of the tresses straightened at 220°C, there were some strands that did revert to their natural curl.
To check for actual damage, the researchers had to use some standard laboratory tests.
They took 50 strands from each of the hair tresses they had flat ironed. First they used a tensile apparatus, which applied stress onto the strands until they broke. The break stress – the amount of pulling it took for the strand to break – was used to determine whether the hair’s tensile strength had changed. If it had, that meant the hair was damaged.
For the hair flat ironed at 185°C, nothing had changed. The hair fibres didn’t break any easier than before straightening and they hadn’t lost any of their original stiffness.
But the tensile testing showed that the hair straightened at 220°C had lost its natural stiffness and started to break more easily. Its break stress was less than half of hair that hadn’t been straightened.
Then they broke out the DSC machine – a gadget that scans and analyses heat to detect changes in proteins.
Just like the curl loss and poor tensile strength indicated, the DSC analysis showed that the internal structure of the hair ironed at 220°C was damaged. The equipment revealed that there were fewer bonds in the hair’s molecular framework.
The internal structure of the hair flat ironed at 185°C, though? It was unaffected. Its internal structure was intact.
Why hair straightened at higher temperatures gets heat damaged
When hair is exposed to high temperatures, this causes the hair protein to permanently change shape or denature, like what happens when you cook an egg.
If the heat level gets high enough, it starts to break apart the disulphide bonds and the alpha keratin backbone that give your hair its internal structure.
This doesn’t happen at 185°C because there isn’t enough energy to break those bonds.
Why do looser curls mean your hair is heat damaged?
The disulphide bonds that hold your hair together and give it its natural structure are also responsible for something else – shape memory.
When hair that has been safely heat-straightened gets wet, it returns to its natural curl pattern – that’s because the water activates its shape memory.
That’s what happened to the hair that was flat ironed at 185°C. Because it wasn’t heat damaged, its ability to revert to its natural curl pattern stayed intact. As soon as it got wet, the shape memory kicked in and it curled right back up again.
Heat damaged hair has lost some of its internal structure, which takes away that shape memory. So when it gets wet, the strands are unable to revert to their original curl pattern.
That’s what happened to the hair that was straightened at 220°C. The structural damage from all that heat meant that many of its disulphide bonds were broken.
Without those disulphide bonds – the same bonds that get broken by a relaxer when you chemically straighten your hair – the hair experienced an overall loss of curl.
This is what caused the “shift to lower curl types” or the change from tight curls to loose curls and waves which was observed by the research team.
Avoid heat damage: turn down the heat
So the moral of the story? To avoid frazzled, permanently straightened, heat damaged hair, be cautious with the temperature when you flat iron. Resist the temptation to turn the dial up past 185°C. There are other, better ways to get your hair straighter and smoother.
And remember: the heat protection from staying at 185°C has only been confirmed up to 50 passes – cumulatively. Bear that in mind if you’re a 2+ passes to straighten kinda girl. It all adds up even if you space hair straightening out.
And if you colour your hair, you might want to keep the temperature even lower. Heat damage on dyed hair can change its colour.
If you straightened your hair on max before you saw this post and now wetting won’t bring your curls back, there are some steps you should take before cutting the damage.
If you’re about to blowdry or straighten your hair, or plan on using heat at all in the near future, you can prevent heat damage if you know the maximum safe temperatures for your type of device, your heatstyling method and your hair type.
You can download this FREE Heat Damage Thermometer Guide with the scientifically proven maximum safe temperatures for using heat on different types of hair.
by DHA's DIY | Apr 28, 2022 | Dominican Blowout, Roller Setting
Ways and Reasons to Successful Dominican Blowouts
In the Dominican Republic, conditioning treatments are applied like clockwork, every week at the salon, where women often spend hours being pampered and beautified while socialising with friends, family and neighbours who also share their steadfast commitment to keeping themselves beautiful.
Hairdressers are regular and efficient with trims and their customers oblige; they can see that their hair is growing lengthy and lush as easily as they glimpse the flashes of silver as the stylist puts the shears to work. It’s as essential an element to their results-based beauty regimen as the multiple applications of conditioner.
Speaking of which, even when Dominican hair is done at home, the routine doesn’t alter. Usually, there are not just two but four or five conditioning steps of a Dominican blowout; sometimes including a pretreatment which takes the number up to five.
Dominican Blowout: 5 steps of conditioner options you can use
BUT WHAT DOES IT DO???
Using several conditioners allows each to provide the hair with its unique benefits (e.g., one product, typically the deep conditioner will add strength, while the rinse-out conditioner adds detangling slip). And all conditioning layers either infuse or seal in moisture; the key factor in shiny, healthy hair.
With Dominican blowouts, when it comes to taking hair from coils and spirals to straight, well-moisturised strands are also much more flexible and amenable to styling so it’s easier to smooth them out. In addition, well-conditioned curls are usually markedly looser, so using several strong conditioners back to back actually takes out some of the straightening work.
Dominican Blowout: WHY ROLLER-SET THEN BLOWDRY?
Using two levels of straightening is also key to a Dominican Blowout, as are the types of straightening methods used. Rather than blowdry wet hair at a high temperature, exposing it to direct heat which could literally boil the water inside the strands and crack the hair shaft, a Dominican stylist will usually dry the hair in rollers first, under a dryer.
This has a trio of benefits:
- Lower stress to the hair from limiting exposure to direct heat
- Roller-set hair is smoother and bouncier, making it easier to finish the job with the blowdryer and allowing for extra straight and extra flowing end results.
- Longer lasting straightness
A Dominican stylist will often forego a flat iron, so limiting again the exposure to damaging direct heat, though some will run it through the hair quickly to “seal in” the straightness so the look, of the Dominican blowout, lasts longer.
Dominican Blowout: WHY DON’T THEY LEAVE SOME CONDITIONER IN?
A surprising aspect of Dominican Blowouts is that, despite the many layers of conditioning, leaving a lot of product in the hair is not encouraged. Dominican hairdressers are usually extra-judicious about rinsing every last drop of conditioner from your hair, to the amazement of many first-time clients since, in mainstream hairdressing, leaving some of the conditioner in has long been de rigeur.
But after generations of honing their technique, Dominican stylists have realised that minimising the amount of product in the hair not only allows it to have more movement, it also means that the stylist has a better idea of when the hair is actually straight as she moves from section to section.
Hair that is weighed down with excessive grease or heat protectants will often temporarily appear straight during the styling process only to revert soon after. Using less product means the stylist can tell easily when the hair is straight enough. And getting the hair properly straight at the outset means that the straightness of the Dominican Blowout will be more longlasting.
by DHA's DIY | Apr 27, 2022 | Dominican Blowout
Dominican women are renowned for their ability to style their naturally tightly-curled hair straight and silky, no matter how coarse the texture or how resistant the curl. The famous Dominican Blowout is a temporary, 100% chemical-free styling option, available to natural women who want to add straight to the variety of looks achievable by their inherently versatile hair, as well as to women who relax, who can use the method to add that extra silkiness and swing to their hair, and even stretch the time between relaxers.
So how do they get hair so silkily straight and keep it that way?
The success starts with the condition of the hair.
Damaged hair simply doesn’t straighten well.
On some hair types, it will simply refuse to straighten or the end results will look frizzy and burnt. Often, women mistake stubborn ends that defy any number of passes with a flat iron as part of the “resistant” nature of their hair. It’s not. What it actually is, is hair that has been damaged beyond return, its structure so badly distorted that it simply cannot be straightened, let alone look smooth. Dominicans avoid this outcome by keeping their hair in superlative condition.
As well as having hair follicles nourished by the abundant natural plant sources of a Caribbean diet, Dominican women rely on their native superconditioners, rich, glossifying treatments packed with tropical botanical extracts as the foundation of their excellent haircare.
Their well-conditioned hair is hair that is less prone to damage and, with a smooth surface that reflects light fully, it looks scintillatingly silky. But it’s not just the products; it’s the ritual. Haircare is an important rite throughout the African Diaspora, and the Dominicans have it down to a science.
Usually, there are not just two but four conditioning steps. Some routines include a pretreatment which takes the number up to five. Typically, however, it goes a little something like this:
Step 1
of a Dominican Blowout:
RINSE
Rinse thoroughly with warm water
Step 2
of a Dominican Blowout:
Here’s three options for you:
RINSE
Rinse thoroughly with warm water
Step 3
of a Dominican Blowout:
Not sure which rinse-out conditioner to use?
Choose from these 3:
RINSE
Rinse thoroughly with warm water
Step 4
of a Dominican Blowout:
LEAVE IN
Here’s four great options you can try:
Step 5
of a Dominican Blowout:
Use large smooth rollers with hair clips or grips at the base/ root area to secure each roller. For extra guidance see How to Roller Set Your Own Hair.
Step 6
of a Dominican Blowout:
Step 7:
of a Dominican Blowout
Step 8
of a Dominican Blowout:
blowdry
use a round brush, with thin sections of hair that securely fit, and a good constant circular motion up and down.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio:
Step 9
of a Dominican Blowout:
serum
Use a pure lightweight greaseless serum to seal your straightened hair, adding a barrier to humidity, shine and sleekness.
Step 10
of a Dominican Blowout:
Once your Blowout is complete, and your hair silky and shiny, keeping it that way is in your hands. Dominican women will often leave the salon with their hair in El Doobie, the beehive-esque wrap that is used to keep the hair straight overnight. Adding a small amount of serum everyday and being smart about your exposure to water should help you hold on to the gloss and gleam for the week to week and a half it is intended to last.
See more tips in our other articles dedicated to the Dominican Blowout!
