How to apply heat to your hair without causing damage

Too much heat exposure on your hair can lead to severe damage and dryness, leaving you with dry and brittle strands.

Educator at GHD Natasja Pienaar shares how to effectively apply heat to your hair without causing damage.

Should you wait for your hair to dry before putting heat on it?

No, but always use a product that contains a heat protection in order to protect your hair against heat damage.

GHD’s styling range is developed to cater to your every styling need when using heat. Each style product in the range includes the heat protect system which protects the hair against direct heat from your styling tools and environmental thermal factors such as UV induced free radicals, which can lead to colour fading.

How do you avoid overexposure to heat?

Always dry your hair to 80% on the medium heat setting first. Hair is most fragile when it’s wet and if you expose hair to a high heat from wet you can create rapid moisture loss and dehydrate the hair, which will lead to breakage and colour loss.

Only use the maximum heat setting on your dryer after your hair has reached the 80% dry mark. If you like to style your hair using any other tool make sure your hair is 100% dry before styling.

What does the cold air on a drier do?

The cool shot button is important. This allows you to set the hair in place when you have achieved your desired result.

Use the cool shot button before releasing your section from the brush. This will allow you to set the hair into your desired shape and lock in shine.

Is it true that different textures require more time?

All hair types are different; some will take longer than others to dry but that does not mean you need to dial up the heat. The structure within all hair types are the same, which means that all hair types need the same amount of heat to achieve healthy styling results.

What is high porosity hair?

This is when the hair cuticles are widely spaced from each other, which makes this type of hair highly porous and won’t be able to retain moisture as well as low porosity hair types.

Because the cuticles are widely spaced, high porosity hair tends to absorb moisture products quicker, be a lot frizzier, dryer and breaks easier, when compared to other hair types.

What is low porosity hair?

This is when the hair cuticles are spaced closer to each other, making it more difficult to. These hair types take longer to dry and products sit on top of the hair shaft, taking longer to absorb.

What is the easier way to get curly hair dry without abusing heat?

To achieve a smooth and sleek blowdry on curly hair, make sure to use the correct products and brush.

Using a product such as straight and smooth spray and straight and tame cream will assist with protecting the hair against heat and humidity, giving you a smoother result and a longer lasting blowdry.

Use a natural bristle radial brush when blowdrying as this will create the correct tension on your hair.

Why is a good hairdryer an investment?

Your result will only be as good as your hairdryer. Hairdryers contain different technologies you can benefit from.

Using a professional dryer like the GHD helios professional hairdryer has a new patented Aeroprecis technology that will deliver the ultimate styling results, giving you 30% more shine.

What is the best way to blow dry your hair?

• Step 1: Always protect your hair first, use and apply globally on wet hair before styling.

• Step 2: Use a paddle brush or detangling comb to untangle any knots and to evenly distribute heat protect spray throughout.

• Step 3: Set your hair dryer on the medium heat setting, dry your hair until 80% dry before using the maximum heat setting when creating your desired blowdry.

• Step 4: Use the correct brush – If you are looking at creating a volumous blowdry a ceramic vented radial brush size 2 would be your best option. If you have naturally textured or coarse hair opt for a natural bristle radial brush which will allow you to stretch out the hair for a smoother and sleeker result.

• Step 5: Set your dryer on the maximum heat setting and start your blowdry. Blow-drying your hair from 80% dry into a desired style will allow you to achieve optimum results faster and protect your hair from overexposure of heat.

To celebrate Women’s Month, we are giving away some great prizes online! To win a GHD Helio hair dryer worth R2,999 visit www.citizen.co.za

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