When you do your hair, there is much more to it than just shampooing, conditioning, and combing. If you have curly or wavy hair and you want it straight, you need to know your way around hot hair styling tools. The same is true if you have straight hair and if you want to wear it curly or wavy.
There are a few basic hair styling tools out there that you can choose from to get your hair exactly the way you want.
Blow dryer
The blow dryer has two purposes. First, if you take a shower and you don’t have time to wait for your hair dry, you can blow-dry it. You can dry your hair in a fraction of the time so that you can get out and start your day.
Some people blow-dry their curly hair to straighten it out. This is called a blowout. To be effective, you would need to comb constantly while you are blow-drying. Attachments are available that go on the end of the blow dryer to help with your blowout. They keep your hair from blowing around while you are blow-drying, and help straighten your hair faster.
Many women who do blowouts will put a spray in their hair first to protect it from being damaged by the heat. You can either do your own blowout or you can visit the salon and have it done for you.
Flat Iron
Flat irons are very popular styling tools used to straighten out your hair. They derive from how women straightened their hair in the 60’s and 70’s—with a clothes iron! It was very effective in achieving the straight style that was so popular back then, but not so good for the health of your hair.
Today, the iron has been replaced with a better method call a flat iron. This styling tool resembles a clamp. On both sides of the clamp is a heated plate. The hair goes in between the heated plates and you gently slide the iron down your hair. This is safer for your hair than using an iron and it is more effective than a blowout.
Curling Iron
Before this styling tool was invented, women would put rollers in their hair to make it curly. While this method is effective, it is very time-consuming. Just putting the rollers in can be time-consuming, and then you would need to wait for your hair to dry. Unless you have an over-the-head dryer, it can take hours for your hair to dry.
This is where the curling iron comes in. This iron has a long barrel that the hair gets wrapped around. It also has a clamp to hold the hair down. You roll your hair around the barrel and hold it for a few seconds so that it creates a curl. Some women will spray their hair with hairspray to get the curl to hold tighter.
These irons come with barrels in different sizes. If you want a very tight curl, you would go with a skinny barrel. If you want waves rather than curls, pick a bigger barrel.
Curling Wand
This styling tool is the most recent styling tool to come out on the market. It is similar to the smaller barrel curling irons, however, it doesn’t have a clamp to hold the hair against the barrel. To use this styling tool, you wrap your hair around the barrel and hold it in place.
Most wands come with a heat protective glove—it’s easy to accidentally touch the barrel when you are wrapping your hair! Over time, you might get used to wrapping your hair and you will no longer need the glove.
This styling tool can create tight curls or loose waves. More and more women are trading in their traditional irons for styling wands for the convenience and versatility they offer.
There are plenty of heated hair styling tools that can create the style that you are hoping to achieve. If you use more than one, you can have curly hair one day and straight hair the next.
