Straightening Long Naturally Curly Hair

Please note: My daughters hair did not look like that before straightening. That's just a picture showing you what her curls look like.

I finally straightened Miss A's long natural hair. Can you believe it? I sat her down and I told myself I would try one section and if that one section was not straight after one pass of the flat iron, I would quit. Well as you can see, it worked! And the best part, the actual straightening process only took roughly 40 minutes. #Winning

So I'm sure you want to know how it was done, right? It's not as difficult as you may think...

• I washed her hair a few nights before using Bee Mine Products. Don't forget you can use our reader discount code: COLDBBB for 10% off your purchase only at Beemineproducts.com
• After washing and detangling, I moisturized her hair with our favorite product, Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer. Click here for Miss A's full hair care routine.
• I banded her hair immediately after moisturizing in two sections. Click here for Banding F.A.Q.
• The following day I removed the bands, detangled and put her hair in one banded ponytail going straight down her back.
• On day three it was time to flat iron her hair but first I applied a small amount of extra virgin coconut oil to her hair to protect her curls from any heat damage. Grabbing a very small (about 1 inch in width) section, I brushed the section with our Denman D3 brush and ran the flat iron down the section from root to tip.
• I used a pink Hana Elite 2 inch flat iron that was gifted to us from Misikko.com a while back. Absolutely love this flat iron. I kept the flat iron around 300 degrees and continued this process until complete, which again only took about 40 minutes.

Flat iron used, only we used a 2 inch made for thicker hair.

I think banding her hair made the biggest impact. Her hair was already stretched out quite a bit thanks to banding. If you plan on straightening natural hair any time soon, band the hair for a couple of days first instead of blow drying to reduce the amount of heat used on the hair.

Bed time routine has been very simple. I have been placing her hair in 1 or 2 twisted ponytails or one loosely banded ponytail, nothing special.

Please feel free to ask any specific questions.

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Guest Post: Straightened Natural Hair for a Cut

By: Rae of Tweeny Hair

The ends of Syd's hair have been looking kind of rough for a while now. Several factors joined together to cause that damage, including the cold, dry winter, more "out" styles as she gets older, and the fact that Syd is learning to do her own hair. Let's face it - natural hair in the hands of a beginner is probably going to get a little damaged. No biggie, though. We just decided to cut the damaged ends off and keep moving. It's only hair...it will grow back in no time.

I usually trim her hair while it is in small twists (you can see a post about that HERE), but this time I decided to straighten it with a flat iron and then cut it. After all, it had been over 2 years since Syd's hair had been straightened. We were both interested in seeing how it looked all straightened out. Here's what we did:

Syd washed her hair and I detangled it, added some Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer, and banded her hair overnight.

Starting in the back, I removed one section of bands. I added some heat protectant and used a flat iron (set to med-high) on somewhat small sections of hair at a time. I tried not to go over each section more than once, but I did need to make a second pass on a few sections. Bottom line, I used as little heat as possible to get the desired results. This took the first back section from this:

to this:

(Yes, I did this while we were both sitting on the floor....lol)

I then repeated the process for the other 3 sections of banded hair. When I finished, I was actually shocked that her hair reached her waist. I didn't realize it had gotten quite that long!

I let her wear her waist-length hair down for a day, but the following day I followed through with her hair cut. Instead of taking her to a salon, I opted to cut her hair myself. If you choose to do this, I cannot stress enough the importance of using hair shears. Do not use your regular household scissors, as they are not sharp enough to cut your hair cleanly. They can tug and pull at your hair as you're cutting, and you will have damaged ends on the hair that has just been cut. Talk about counter-productive! I digress...

I ended up cutting between 3 and 4 inches of Syd's hair, just to be sure we removed all the damage.

The shadows in this picture make the ends look really uneven, but by the time I realized it, her hair was no longer straight, so I couldn't take a better pic. :/

Day 3 of straight hair was Easter. Since her hair was still looking good, I decided not to do much styling. I just made 2 french braids around her hairline and brought them around to meet in the back. 4 minutes and we were done!

After 4 days of straight hair, Syd spent an afternoon being very physically active, so she got sweaty and her straight roots began to get puffy. We knew it was time to move into another style. She liked having her hair straight...she was amazed at how easy it was to comb. But that being said, she still truly loves big hair, so straightening will remain something that only happens on rare occasions. You just can't argue with her "bigger is better" hair theory!


Also - have you heard about our upcoming trip? After spending 9 days doing missions work in Guatemala last year, Syd and I are going back for an 8 day missions trip this August. You can read all about that on our MISSIONS TRIP POST and see more pics of last year's trip HERE. In addition to accepting donations, I am also using 100% of the proceeds from my etsy shop, HUFFLEBLOSSOMS, to pay for this trip. I would love for you to check out my shop, where you will find duct tape flower hair clips, fabric flower clips, and ladder ribbon jewelry. More items are added all the time, and I'm always willing to make custom pieces for anyone looking for specific colors, sizes, etc. You can contact me at huffleblossoms@gmail.com. Thanks to anyone who is able to help support us!