Straightening hair. Is this frowned upon now??

[dollydoughnut]

Just been reading another thread about shiny hair etc. and realised that some people said that the op should not staighten her hair anymore.

I straighten my curly hair most days and hate doing it as my hair is breaking and falling out. However, my hair just never looks right curly anymore and I feel like a middle aged frump (which I probably am) with it. Once it is straight, it lasts longer without attention, looks healthy and I feel much younger.

I have been looking at people with curly hair and am finding it much more interesting than obviously straightened hair. But...how do I go about it?

if i had curly hair , then i would leave it curly. but i dont. its straight, but not straight enough without my straighteners.
my only advice wouldl be what my friend with beautifyl curly locks says. and that is only ever go to a hairdresser who herself has curly hair. not sure thats much help

i think straightening is soul less

I have very curly hair and I used to always straighten it. I cant at the mo cos I over-did it a bit, but if it makes you happy and you're not over doing it then I say go for it.

Yes as long as it doesn't look ironed and like a stiff bored then it's fine!!

Anyway all this frowned upon stuff is ridiculous. You have your hair how you want.

I use the straighteners on my fringe, which actually doesn't make it straight but gives it a nice shape.

Sometimes I do all my hair, but then although it feels nice and swishy, it makes quite flat.

I am the same as stitchtime - my hair is straightish but just looks as if I haven't bothered with it if I don't straighten it. Plus it is really thick so fairly unmanageable.

There must be some products to 'calm down' really curly hair but I wouldn't know what works best.

I think curly hair is lovely but can see that it would be difficult to manage.

Thanks for all your messages! I think curly hair is lovely but mine is fine and goes frizzy easily. Also, when you are older (late 40's) I think it looks better when you are more 'groomed'. Otherwise I look a bit unkempt.

Trikken, when you say you 'overdid' it, what happened to your hair?

I had it on the hottest setting which was too hot for it, didnt twig it would damage it even tho I did think it smelt quite bad, then when i washed it it didnt go back curly as it had and just went wavy and limp. It also kept snapping and breaking. I showed my hairdresser and she said it would have been fine on the lowest setting and to not straighten it as much as I had been doing it every day.

I do like my hair curly too, but its nice to have smooth managable hair sometimes.

I have curly hair, I straighten it very occassionally but I find after I have straightened it the curls don't come completely back until after the second wash. If you straighten it all the time then I imagine just letting it dry curly once wouldn't be very effective, it'll take a few washes for it to return to its curly state.

well damaged straightened hair is not a good look

get the split ends cut off and get advice from a decent hairdresser on a cut to suit your curls

poker straight hair is over

I used to straighten my naturally wavy hair, as it was huge when freshly blow dried. Now I am embracing its hugemenss and going for a scrunched curly/wavy look which has atracted many compliments, let me tell you.

it's now more like this

but it was
like this

HUGENESS

not
Hugemenss

mine didnt even go back after two weeks worth of washes and it normally did go right back to being curly.

I have curly hair I love it but Mon-Fri it is straight just takes less time to get out to work if I have just got to run the straightners through it-Come the weekend its curls all the way- Also agree it looks somehow more groomed straight- I have a pretty full on job and used to feel when my hair was curly at work it somehow looked less professional.
I agree no need to follow fashion I change from curls to straight as the mood or circumstance takes me.

Straightening has transformed my life. I wouldn't mind if I had curly hair but I have'nt. My hair is frizzy (no other word to describe it). Straightening is the only thing which calms it down and makes it look tidy. I know I am damaging my hair but there is no alternative.

oh em gee honey, straight hair is like so totally over

(thank god, i've been waiting two decades)

OMG Nooooooooo!

I am also late 40's and embraced my wavy/curly hair in about 1978. I haven't straightened it with straighteners while thats been a fashion as my hair is very fine and I look BALD when the hairdressers straighten it!
But yes, groomed is much better on anyone over 40. When I was in my 20's it was all fab auburn curls without any effort on my part whatsoever.
However having said that today I couldn't find the hairdryer so I kept fluffing my fine hair up with my hands, when i finally looked in the mirror I was quite pleased to see it looked like that fluffy (think early deborah harry) hair cut that scarlett johansen has probably paid megabucks for!

I think dead poker straight hair (often seen with black hair under/white hair over wrongness) is over.

You can still straighten your hair but try not to over straighten it. So it looks like naturally straight hair, not flat ironed hair.

I have wavy hair that looks great if just left to dry on its own naturally, no brushing etc, but usually I'm in a hurry so have to blow dry it. This makes it frizzy so I have to run the irons through it to take the frizz out.

GHds have totally transformed my life too.

My hair has a wave to it and gos really frizzy if i don't dry and then straighten immediately after washing

i don't straighten my hair poker straight, but just make it look a bit more groomed. i also only do it every 3rd day.

Agree Trixy, I do it to look more groomed in between washes too. I don't know what I'd do without my GHDs!

Thebolter when I first got my GHDs I lent them to my sister so she could see how wonderful they were as she has nightmare hair like mine.

She sent me a text saying "thank you, thank you thank you God for GHDs!!!"

i never used to be able to do anything with my hair before, but now it can look halfway decent thanks to GHds.

My hair is too thick.

GHDs are only any use if your hair is thin to normal. It takes a hairdresser nearly an hour to straighten my hair using them, as there's so much of it. They always tell me off, as though I have thick thick hair to annoy them

I'm with Bonneville.

I always looked a total mess before straighteners were invented. Had years of frizz misery. My hair 'puffs up' as it dries, and goes all wispy and doesn't lie flat. It is not curly in that the strands lie together in waves - but each individual strand goes off into a frizz fest somehow. (Are you feeling my pain?)

I use my strtaighteners to smooth: my hair is so thick it still looks busy and wavy tbh, but at least the straighteners get rid of the awful flyaway surface fuzz.