How To Protect Your Hair From Heat Styling Damage

How long have you gone without using any heat on your hair? For me, the longest I can remember is 12 weeks. I was able to go 12 weeks without using any heat on my relaxed hair from a flat iron or blow dryer. That was a big deal for me. Up until then, I blow-dried and flat-ironed my hair every week. In fact, I would sometimes flat-iron my hair every day. 

As a result, I started noticing my hair didn't look and feel as full as it used to. And I wasn't retaining length. Now I didn't realize that the constant use of heat on my hair was causing the issue. I thought it may just be my hair decided to rebel, or it was the products I was using.

It wasn't until I turned to the Internet to find information, tips, and advice on relaxed hair care that I saw some articles talking about heat damage from direct.

Now I had never heard this phrase before - direct heat. However, some of the signs of the hair damage it caused were similar to what I was experiencing. So I knew I had to do something.

(This post includes affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and make a purchase, I may make a small commission.) 

What is heat damage?

Despite what we may think, our hair is fragile, and the constant heat from curling irons, blow dryers, and flat irons can damage it. Sometimes beyond repair. In a nutshell, heat damage is caused when constant high heat is used directly on the hair. Hence, the term direct heat.

Direct heat is when heat is applied directly to the hair by using styling tools such as a curling iron, flat iron, or blow dryer. This is considered to be the harshest method of using heat as it pulls moisture and hydration from the hair strands quickly, causing hair damage.

Related read: How To Avoid Heat Damage When Drying Your Hair

Signs your hair may be heat-damaged

The crazy thing is, heat damage can be spotty. So while you may use high heat all over your head, sometimes some spots may be more damaged than others. 

You can tell hair is heat-damaged if you use a lot of heat constantly on your hair and you see some or all of these signs

• Hair feels rough or dry
• Increased breakage
• Split ends
• Loss of elasticity
• Hair doesn't hold moisture well
• Ends won't curl or lay smoothly anymore
• Dull appearance

What to do about heat damage

While major heat damage isn't reversible, there are some things you can do to help your heat-damaged hair.

Use little to no heat

If hair is heat-damaged, the worst thing is to use more heat on it. Now you have a few options here. One is you can stop using heat on your hair completely. Basically doing a no-heat challenge where you use no heat of any kind on your hair. This means you air-dry your hair and find ways to style your hair without heat. I once did a 30-day no-heat challenge of which you can see the results of my challenge here.

Now, depending on how long your hair needs to air dry, you may be causing even more harm. The longer the hair is wet, the more the water causes the hair strands to swell, leaving them more fragile and susceptible to breakage.

Alternatively, you can use a lower temperature on your hair tools. I started using the medium heat on my blow dryer, and the next-to-lowest temperature on my flat iron. Lower temps tend to work better for hair that is fine or damaged. Healthier and coarser hair can sometimes tolerate slightly higher temperatures.

Use repairative hair products

If the heat damage isn't that bad, using protein-based deep conditioners and even a mild protein treatment could help add some strength back to the hair.

Another option is using bond repair products. They come as treatments, conditioners, and shampoos. 

Related read: Bond Treatments vs. Protein Treatments On Relaxed Hair

Cut/trim off the damaged hair

Sometimes there's no way around it. The damage may be so severe or so noticeable that it's better to have a fresh start by cutting or trimming away the damaged pieces of hair.

Keep hair moisturized

A lot of times, heat-damaged hair is dry because the heat can remove moisture from the hair. So it's important to add moisture back to your hair and keep it moisturized. You can do that by deep conditioning regularly and using indirect heat or steam to help the deep conditioner penetrate your strands better. 

Also, use a good moisturizer or leave-in conditioner on your hair. I find my hair stays moisturized longer when I use a leave-in conditioner on my wet hair after washing and conditioning it, and working the leave-in into my strands.

Baby the hair

Getting your damaged hair back on track may take some gentle love and care. Reduce the number of chemicals by no longer coloring your hair, stretching your relaxers for longer than six weeks, or even no longer relaxing your hair.

Other ways to baby your hair are

• Keep your hands out of it
• Style it less often and start wearing protective styles like buns or wigs
• Use moisturizing shampoos when you wash your hair
• Deep condition every time you wash your hair

Related read: How To Avoid Heat Damage When Drying Relaxed Hair

How to avoid heat damage in the future

Here are ways to avoid future damage from direct heat

Use less heat

Overall, try to lessen the amount of direct heat used on your hair. This is probably one of the best ways to avoid heat damage. You can do this by 

• Not using curling irons, blow dryers, and flat irons
• Using lower heat settings
• Sitting under a hooded dryer like this one. These dryers use indirect heat, which is heat that is not applied directly to the hair but circulates around the head
• Using the cool setting on your blow dryer
• Aiming for one-pass styling with the flat iron instead of repeatedly running a flat iron over the same section
  

Protect your hair

Use a good heat protectant before applying any heat to your hair, whether it's direct or indirect heat. While these aren't foolproof and provide total protection, heat protectants do create a barrier between the heat styling tool and your hair, providing some level of protection.

Some heat protectants I've used and recommend are the 

• Silk Elements MegasSilk Olive Oil Heat Protectant
• Mielle Mongongo Oil Thermal & Heat Protectant Spray
• L'Oreal Paris EverPure 21-in-1 Leave-In Conditioner Spray
• L'Oreal Paris Elvive Dream Lengths Heat Slayer Pre-Iron Leave-in Spray
• Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine Sleek and Stay Heat Activated Serum

Use heat on clean hair

Using heat on dirty hair can cause residue and build-up to burn onto the hair strands. Clean hair tends to have less residue and product build-up on it, helping to avoid that burning. Prior to flat ironing, consider using a clarifying shampoo to rid the hair of any residue.

Related read: How To Give Dirty Relaxed Hair A Reset

Strengthen your hair

Stengthening treatments come in two kinds. Protein treatments and bond repairs.

Protein treatments fill in microscopic holes and damaged spots on the hair cuticle. Bond treatments rebuild broken polypeptide chains and disulfide bonds inside the hair shaft. 

Protein treamtents tend to provide a protective coating strnegthening the hair. You can give your hair protein by using conditioners with ingredients like hydrolyzed protein. Or you can do a hard protein treatment like the Aphogee Two-step Protein Treatment or a lighter treatment like the Aphogee Two Minute Keratin Reconstructor.

Bond repair goes deeper than protein treatments and work to repair hair strands from the inside out vs. just strengthening the hair. Some of the popular bond repairs out ther are N°3 Plus Complete Repair Treatment, K18 Molecular Repair Hair Mask, and L'Oreal EverPure Sulfate Free Bond Repair Pre-Shampoo Treatment.

Moisturize your hair

Regularly moisturize the hair with a good leave-in conditioner. If you're using heat tools, moisturize before and after using them. Also, seal in the moisture with a hair oil or serum. If you use a natural oil, be careful that you don't fry or cook your hair by using a heat styling tool after applying the oil. 

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