Straight Ahead Flat iron | How to use Flat iron | Flat iron reviews

To get perfect, pin-straight hair, you need more than a blow dryer. You also need a flat iron. It also helps to know how to use a flat iron properly. It may seem obvious: you clamp down a bit of hair into the iron and pull it through. But there’s actually an art to correctly straightening hair with a flat iron.

BLOW DRY YOUR HAIR

You want your hair to be as dry as possible when straightening. Not only will this allow your flat iron to work better, it will also prevent your hair from being shocked by the heat and breaking off.

Point the hair dryer downward with the flow of your hair while blow-drying. This downward motion away from your roots encourages your hair to dry straight. Also, set your hair dryer on the lowest heat setting. If you have particularly frizzy hair, drying your hair on a lower heat setting for a longer period of time will prevent your hair from puffing up as you dry it.

USING THE FLAT IRON

It’s very important to work in layers when straightening hair and to start with the bottom layer of hair. To do this, clip away the top 3/4ths of your hair, or the top half if you have fine, thin hair.

It’s up to you to determine how many layers you want to work through. Keep in mind the goal is to run your iron over hair as little as possible. If hair feels at the end as if you need to do another run-through, you were ironing sections that were too thick.

Once hair is clipped, you’ll work your way around the bottom layer. Iron 1-inch or smaller sections of hair at a time. Clamp the iron down as close to the scalp as possible. Then slowly pull iron down the length of hair. If a second pass is needed be sure to wait until the hair has cooled before applying more heat.

Once you complete the bottom layer, create a layer above it by pulling up hair again. You want to work your way up through the sections of your hair, layer by layer.

If you have typically, dry, frizzy hair, rub a serum like our Rejuvenating Argon Oil Hair Serum between your hands and palm over hair for extra shine and to keep hair in place. To keep frizzies along the hairline at bay, spritz hairspray on an old toothbrush and ‘brush’ them down.

Set your blow dryer to cold on the lowest air flow setting. Carefully blow-dry your hair for another minute to help set your straightened hair. You can also use a thick brush to guide your hair in a straight motion if you prefer.

Straight Ahead Flat iron | How to use Flat iron | Flat iron reviews