The Truth About Straightening Your Hair

Women who have straight hair will spend a fortune at the beauty salons to have their hair permed or curled to give it texture and waves. So it is rather ironic that women on the other end of the spectrum with naturally wavy hair will pay good money to beauty salons to have their hair blown out so that it is absolutely straight.

For African-American women, having their hair straightened with blowouts and hair relaxing products is a normal aspect of their life. When African-American hair is left in a natural state it can be worn in a mini Afro, in braids or locs or straightened with heat instead of chemicals. Locs is a style where the hair essentially locks together as it grows out.

problem with having your hair continuously straightened with the use of chemicals is that over the course of time it is extremely hard on your hair and many African-American women find their hair falling out by the time they are in their fifties from years of having their hair straightened with chemicals at beauty salons. This has resulted in many African-American women opting to wear their hair in a natural state or to straighten it with heat instead of chemicals.

One of the more popular methods for straightening hair for both African-American women and Caucasian women is called the Brazilian blowout. The Brazilian blowout uses a chemical product in conjunction with a hair dryer and styling methods to create straight hair results for course hair that is considered more long-term than a traditional blowout. However, this method is very time-consuming and it's not cheap.

The average Brazilian blowout runs in the range of $300-$600 at most beauty salons. Despite its high price range, the product has been extremely popular for women who seem willing to pay almost any price to get their hair under control.

Of course you can blowout your hair yourself without the product using the Brazilian blowout if you have the time and skill to achieve the same look. The problem with blowing out your own hair is it only tends to last a few days before begins to look less than straight or needs to be washed. The trick around this according to beauticians is to add a little bit of baby powder to the base of your scalp which helps absorb the oil in your skin and also has the added benefit of increasing the volume of your hair.

Once you get it down to an art form you should be able to give yourself a blowout that looks as professional as beauty salons give. However, a lowball time estimate would suggest you will be spending at least fifteen to thirty minutes every time you need to blow your hair out. You will have to straighten it section by section and finish it off by adding a hair straightening serum to maintain it, which is probably why it's so popular to have a beautician do it for you.