Transforming Your Hair Texture and Beautifying Your Look

Discovering the natural hair texture can be liberating, but also daunting. In her candid exploration, Kayla Greaves comes clean on not having experienced her natural hair until her early twenties. The realization caused by the natural hair movement led to a concept of liberation from the ways we used to believe we should grow our natural curls. It has been empowering for women to reclaim each strand of hair on their heads (literally) and embrace their natural hair as beautiful.

Today, as we celebrate natural hair, some women prefer to experiment with different textures using heat-training hair. While some people may decide on this for conformity to external beauty standards, for others, the decision has very little to do with that but more personal preference or convenience.

Understanding Heat Training for Hair

Heating up hair training however entangles us in the scientific world, cultural practices, and ongoing debates about its health. When it comes down to it, heat training involves doing multiple applications of heat on your hair with flat irons to ‘train’ the hair to stay straight as time goes on.

Scientifically speaking, this breaks down the hair’s keratin structure over time and makes it harder to rebond into its natural curl pattern around moisture and humidity. Heat training is appealing because it offers the possibility of changing curl to straight and vice versa without using permanent chemical treatments.

While this practice is not without risk. Exposure to high heat repeatedly can result in the hair shaft becoming compromised to the point of dryness, split ends, and permanently changing the hair’s natural curl pattern. Any dead, permanent change to the curl is considered ‘heat damage’, although some choose to call this change ‘restructuring.

Balancing Style and Hair Health

Determining whether to discover heat training for hair is essentially about striking a working harmony between needing to style your hair and keeping your hair sound. Hair care professionals emphasize the importance of adopting safe practices, including:

1. Using Heat Protectants: They’re a barrier between the heat tool and the hair so the products cut down on damage.
2. Choosing the Right Temperature: According to experts, flat irons should be used at a lower temperature and should not be applied to your hair daily.
3. Maintaining a Conditioning Routine: Heat exposure is only made available by deep conditioning treatments which are essential to protect and fortify hair.
4. Regular Trims: Removing the damaged ends keeps your hair healthy.

It’s important to also tend to an individual hair type and texture. Hair that is not as fine is less prone to breakage and so will fare better in a situation where it will be trained using heat.

The Cultural and Emotional Significance

But talk around heat training for hair goes beyond just what you do to your hair. Ultimately when you zoom out, it’s about beauty standards, cultural identity, and autonomy. In that case, deciding to heat train for many is not about not letting curls be, but because of our personal preference or practicality.

The practice is, however, also criticized. Others say natural textures are products of societal biases that favor straight hair, so we are simply adapting to that bias, and frequently creating a new one in the process. For its opponents, on the other hand, heat training is all about reclaiming agency over a personal narrative: Your hair story.

Heat Training vs. Heat Damage: Debunking Myths

Perhaps nowhere is there more disagreement about heat training than whether it can actually be done without causing permanent damage to your hair. Critics call it drying and causing breakage but proponents insist with good care one can have healthy hair.

It is necessary to know the difference between controlled heat training and overuse of heat tools. While heat training is meant to make styling feasible without having to overdo chemical treatments, misuse or overuse of heat can be very damaging.

Is Heat Training for Hair Right for You?

Whether or not to pursue heat training on hair is a very individual decision. It asks whether the simplicity and convenience of it outweigh the dangers to hair health. For those considering heat training, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1. What Are Your Styling Goals? If you need a little additional flexibility between textures, heat training is something worth experimenting with.
2. Are You Committed to Hair Care? We need a strong care routine to decrease risks.
3. Do You Understand the Risks? Educate yourself about the potential for permanent changes to your curl pattern.

Celebrating Diverse Hair Choices

The beauty industry is ever-changing, and it has graciously embraced diversity in terms of hair textures and ideal hairstyles. Whether you’re aiming for natural curls heat training your hair or any other method, the choice is yours, but be sure to make this choice with hair’s health and your style at the top of your mind.

At the end of the day, hair care is a course of discovery, independence, and manifestation. Learning about the science and cultural importance of heat practices, like heat training, means you’ll be able to understand your hair journey better and take ownership of your hair journey without fear.

Related posts:
My “Heat-Trained Hair” May Actually Be Heat-Damaged
Does more heat really help “train” your hair and loosen the curl pattern?
How To Heat Train Hair: What You Need To Know | PATTERN