Even if you are a natural hair girl, you may sometimes need to style your hair with heat tools. Heat is not something you need to totally avoid. Rather you should use it in a random and safe way protecting your hair from the damage that it can cause to your hair. If you are transitioning to natural hair or your hair is damaged by excessive use of heat tools, there is a solution.
Once your hair is damaged by heat, it cannot be reversed. However, with proper care and routine, you can slowly rebuild your hair back to its normal condition. The big chop is not the only solution to restore your hair from its damage.
Related:- How to Prevent Hair Breakage Before It Happens To Your Hair
How to Tell if Your Hair is Damaged by Heat?
Heat damage is pretty visible. You don’t need a professional to tell you that your hair is damaged by heat. If you find your hair harder to manage, and style that is one sign it is damaged.
Some signs of heat damage include;
- Hair breakage and split ends
- Hair Dryness
- Rough hair texture
- Too much tangled knots
- Overall Difficulty to manage your hair
How to Treat Heat Damaged Natural Hair?
Even though, heat damage is irreversible, you can do various treatments to get your hair back to its normal condition. The following procedures will help you get your hair’s natural glimmer and shine back.
Assess the level of the Damage
Assessing the level of damage is the first most important step you should carry out. Understanding the level of severity lets you determine which sections of your hair need more treatment and helps you drive a good treatment plan.
Use Clarifying Shampoos
Application of different products (heat protestants, butters, oils, conditioners), and accumulation of dirt along with heat styling tools cause damage to your hair. Clarifying shampoos eliminate build-ups accumulated over time and clean your hair strands from moisture-blocking elements. Once your hair is clean and your pores are open, water and oils can penetrate easily and helping your hair restore its original texture.
Related:- Best clarifying Shampoos for Natural Hair
Use Protein Treatments
Heat tools can change the protein structure in the hair. It may also strip out its proteins over time. Around 90% of our hair is comprised of protein and losing hair proteins causes severe hair damage. A protein treatment infuses protein to your strands and helps them restore their natural protein level. This helps the process of restoration at a great level.
Related:- Best Protein Treatments for Natural Hair
Deep Condition
Restoring the protein moisture balance of your hair is what makes your hair return to normal. Heat styling tools make moisture leave your hair. Even though the new Steam flat irons help keep the moisture from leaving, the widely used standard straighteners have no mechanism to keep the moisture in your hair. Deep conditioners help restore lost moisture and keep the moisture balance to normal
Related:- Best Conditioners for Natural Hair
Steam Your Hair
Steamers allow deep conditioners, oils, and treatments to penetrate deep into your hair strands. This helps the recovery process by restoring the hair’s normal moisture level.
Related:- Best Hair Steamers
Use Essential Oils
Essential oils (argan oil, Grapeseed oil, olive oil, castor oil) help your hair restore its moisture balance. They also nourish the hair inside out and restore its elasticity and smoothness. You can apply a single essential oil or a mixture of two or more oils depending on what works for your hair.
Related:- Best Oils for Low Porosity Hair
Reassess your efforts after a couple of months
After two to three months of treatment, reassess your hair. It is inevitable that you notice a difference after each treatment. Restoring damaged hair takes time and tastes your patience. But it is possible with the right procedures and a little bit of patience and consistency.
