We all want the poker straight tresses that flow unfettered in the wind but have you sat back and ask yourself whether there are negatives to straightening your hair? Whether done at home or at a permanent hair straightening salon, straightening your hair comes with a host of side effects. Here are some of the common side effects of hair straightening:

Dryness

What happens when you are straightening your hair with a straightening iron? Smoke comes out, right? You know what? This isn’t smoke. It’s steam coming from your hair.

To straighten your hair, a hair straightening iron seeps moisture from your hair, and it evaporates and turns into steam. If you don’t believe this, wash your hair. What happens? It goes back to its natural state because you have restored moisture.

Due to the tendency of the hair straightening methods robbing the hair of its moisture, long term use of these methods has been shown to rob your hair of its natural oils, making it extremely dry and brittle.

Breakage

As you might guess, as your hair gets dry, it also gets brittle and more susceptible to breaking. In fact, the hair is too brittle to the extent it can sometimes break right from the middle.

Frizz

I have come across information that straightening your hair will get rid of frizz, but nothing is as further from the truth as this. Hair straightening is counter-intuitive when it comes to frizz removal. This is because hair dryness brought about by hair straightening leads to more frizz. Not less.

Hair fall

If you love keeping your hair straight, you have to apply heat regularly, which has been shown to damage the hair and the hair follicles. The chemicals used in salons to straighten hair have also been shown to cause a lot of damage to hair roots, and when you have weak roots, your hair begins to fall out.

Dullness

Since hair straightening strips the hair of its natural oils, the hair is no longer beautiful, healthy, or shiny. You are left with dull, lifeless tresses that are unappealing to look at.

Altered hair texture

As the hair chemicals alter the water composition in the hair, they also alter the hair texture. When you use these chemicals over a long time, the hair texture is altered permanently, such that no amount of hair care remedies or hair masks can save the situation.

When your hair is damaged, you have no other way out other than to cut the hair and grow it again from scratch.

Itchy scalp

The itchy scalp comes about due to hair follicles’ death, which results in the underproduction of natural oils that keep the hair scalp moisturized. The loss of moisture leads to flaking, dryness, and scalp itchiness that can even spread to the forehead and back.

Can you avoid the side effects of hair straightening?

Although, hair straightening comes with a good number of negatives, the cool thing is you can prevent the side effects from coming about.

One of the things you should do is to always wear a heat protectant before straightening your hair. This way, you prevent your hair from getting completely fried by the straightener.

Every time you are washing the hair, oil the hair, and use an air conditioner. You also should make a habit of deep condition your hair every two weeks to provide some intense hydration to it.

Finally, ensure you straighten your hair in a professional Japanese hair straightening salon or any other reputable institution. The stylists working in these salons are highly trained, so they will undertake the hair straightening professionally and protect your hair from damage.