Getting a Straighter Blowout on Natural / Transitioning Hair
Getting the hang of blow drying my hair took me quite some time. Sometimes it would be too poofy and very tangled around the ends. Not to mention, the end result would be as dry and crispy as a bowl of Shredded Wheat. After honing in my techniques, I find that this particular method works well for me when I want to blowdry in preparation for a flat iron. My hair ends up superbly straight compared to other methods and is much easier to flat iron.
To start off, I use a hatchet blowdryer with a brush attachment. I prefer this for 2 reason:
The hatchet is easy to hold
The brush gets the hair straighter than a comb
The ugly step sister of blowdryer attachments
The brush look really intimidating and at first glance it looks like it would slice up ones hair strands. It wasn’t until i broke my wide toothed comb attachment that I decided to try it out for myself.
Surprisingly the tines of the brush are spaced very far apart and are very flexible. It not only slides though my kinks and curls, it detangles them and removes shed hair. Because of this, the hair is very easy to straighten when I chase with a flat iron. Make sure to detangle the hair before hand.
I prefer the brush attachment to a round brush because there is no continuous rolling motion to get the hair straight. The brush is used just like a regular comb attachment so no excessive manipulation is required.
To get the hair especially straight, I insert the brush at the base of the scalp and pull it through in a continuous arc shaped movement. After a few passes on each side my hair is very straight.(I tend to use large sections as well)
Attempting to show arc movement
The final result is hair that is detangled, straight and easy to flat iron. There will be very little snags if one wanted to chase the flat iron with a comb. Also, the hair looks perfectly fine to wear blown out as it is.
End result
Of course one has to be realistic to how much straightening a blow dryer can do. It really depends on ones hair texture. Do not expect perfectly straight hair from blowdrying alone. In attempts to get blowdried hair “flat iron straight” I just ended up with hair that is crispier than KFC’S drumsticks and riddled with split ends. Try to keep in mind that the blowdrying step is mainly to elongate and stretch the curls while the flat ironing step is more mean for getting a smooth and finished look.
Even so, I prefer to rollerset before straightening as it is less direct heat and leaves the hair with more moisture. When I am low on time however, I am always satisfied with the result of this technique. I hope this helps you natural curly heads out there!
Thanks for reading
