A question that comes up over and over again in the curl community is; ‘how do you recover from heat damage?’ As we all know; heat has the ability to damage our hair; change its texture and curl pattern.
2 years ago; I didn’t even know I had curly hair. My hair was so damaged from the amount of heat I used to apply to it that I ended up believing that my hair was just frizzy not curly. So; after strictly following the ‘6 Amazing Tips For Transitioning To Natural Curly Hair’ I found out that I had type 3a curls – shocking right?
This is the power of heat damage – it can completely change your hair (and not for the best). Luckily, heat damage is reversible. You can totally get your beautiful healthy curls back by using the following steps:
Table of Contents
Trimming
Trimming is the first step towards achieving healthy undamaged hair. By trimming your hair you are getting rid of the damaged, over heated hair which causes the hair to look frizzy and broken. The damaged hair needs to be trimmed in order to let new healthy and undamaged hair grow in its place. Trim the ends of your hair as this is where your hair is likely to be the most damaged.
Deep Conditioning
The purpose of deep conditioning is to strengthen, nourish and enhance your curls. Deep conditioning is the procedure of applying a rich, creamy concoction of restorative products to your hair using heat to penetrate into the hair.
Deep Conditioning salvaged my hair. You should deep condition your hair at least once a week in order to get the best results. To find out more about deep conditioning and how to do it, click here.
It helped my hair repair so much faster and I can guarantee it works. This is crucial if you want to see your hair recover from heat damage. For heat damaged hair, I strongly reccomend the ‘Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Conditioner’. I advice you to buy this product as it helped smoothen and fasten your recovering period. click here to buy it.
To find out how to deep condition your hair; click here
Use Curly Girl friendly Products
It’s crucial that you use products that are free from harmful chemicals that have the potential to damage your curls. These products are called; Curly- Girl Friendly Products.
They are free from silicone, paraffin, sodium and other harmful chemicals. An article published by Allure; 10 Commandments of Curly Hair explains that silicone, paraffin and sodium based chemicals are harmful for your hair and your curls. These chemicals are too harsh for curls as it lifts the hair cuticles and causes it to frizz and dry up. In order to get the most out of your naturally curly hair and to recover fast from damage; be careful with the type of products you use.
List of Curly girl Friendly Brands:
No Heat
It’s important that you stay away from straighteners, curlers and relaxers. I can’t remember the last time I straightened my hair. And it feels good!!! This prevents damaging the pattern and the texture of your hair as it is harder to then achieve a moisturised, defined curl pattern with damaged curls.
Try to become less dependent on a diffuser. Let your hair air dry naturally or use protective styles to protect it from heat damage to get the best results such as the plop method.
Using a Cotton t-shirt or Microfibre towel
Using a cotton t-shirt to dry your hair is what those with curly hair swear by. Use a cotton t-shirt; or better – a microfibre towel to dry your hair. Do not use a towel as that causes frizz and break your hair.
Conclusion
In conclusion; these are 5 tips on how to recover from heat damage and these are the exact 5 tips which I used on my curly girl journey from heat damaged, dead and broken hair to healthy, luscious long hair. If you have damaged hair caused either by chemicals or heat and you want to get healthy natural curls, read the post on ‘transitioning’, it will be your guide and has great gems and advice on what, how and when you should transition. Click here to read about transitioning.