Need advice... Do you blow-dry or straighten?

[The Devil Man]

Hi, I'm a guy and I need some girlie advice... So, umm, I hope some of the gals of the Forum can help me out.

I have seriously loooooooooooooong hair for a guy. Well, okay, it's not huge, huge, but it's pretty long nonetheless. It's shoulder length and now that it's that long, it needs to be sorted out.

Advice I need is this. What is better to have nice, straight hair? Is it better to blow-dry or to use an actual straightener? I am extremely wary of using a straightener because they go to insanely high temperatures... like, over 200 hundred degrees celsius (or Fahrenheit for you Americans). That's a high temperature! And cos I sure as hell don't know how to use a straightener, I may make a mess of it and singe my hair... and I know of many people that have ruined their hair by not using a straightener properly.

Which means... use a blow-dryer as temperatures are way lower. But... how do I get my hair nice, funky and cool with a blow-dryer? Do you blow dry downwards? Or do you brush and blow-dry at the same time? What, what, what do ya do? Advice please! Thank you :kaohappy:

I love this guy ---> :kaohappy:

[Rye]

A combination of both is good. If you just blow dry it straight, it comes out a bit frizzy. If you blow dry (use a brush to help when you blow dry it straight) and then use a straightener after, it comes out straight and smooth with very little frizz. That's what I do.

Also, for a straightener, I'd recommend getting one that has a temperature you can set. If you're nervous about frying your hair, you can set it low. For me personally, my hair just doesn't fry at all for some reason which is very good, so I can set my straightener to about 7 out of 10. Good luck!

EDIT: Oh, and I dunno if you'd be in this, but after I do all that, I put a tiny bit of hair spray on a brush and then brush my hair so it stays. It's so little that it's not terrible hairspray hair, but it's just enough to make it stay nice.

[Quindiana Jones]

I like how you want to look nice for our baby

I suggest you get a girly girl girl to straighten your hair for you once or twice if you're unsure about technique etc.

I'm a guy so after having just talked about hair straightening I need to go do something manly like...curl my eyebrows or something...

[Zeldy]

Same as Rye, doing both is alot better. I used to just straighten mine, and It was always poofy, and it never stayed how I wanted it too.

You blow dry down, at the same time as you run the brush through it, thats what I always do. It dosn't get rid of the frizz, not for me anyway , so I then straighten it. Before straightning, if you have thick hair tie the top half in a bobble and straighten the underneath first, its also really helpful if you put some sort of Serum on.

Ive used straighters for 3 years, and Ive never singed my hair, mine go up to 200. I have burnt my fingers many times. I always run my hand through my hair straight after straightning it, thats painful. xD

I usually repeat this 2 times a day. My hair is awfully thick, and curls 10 minutes after straightning.
But I should (hopefully, they are expensive) be getting some GHD ones that are the King of straightners, and go over 200

[The Devil Man]

A combination of both is good. If you just blow dry it straight, it comes out a bit frizzy. If you blow dry (use a brush to help when you blow dry it straight) and then use a straightener after, it comes out straight and smooth with very little frizz. That's what I do.

Also, for a straightener, I'd recommend getting one that has a temperature you can set. If you're nervous about frying your hair, you can set it low. For me personally, my hair just doesn't fry at all for some reason which is very good, so I can set my straightener to about 7 out of 10. Good luck!

EDIT: Oh, and I dunno if you'd be in this, but after I do all that, I put a tiny bit of hair spray on a brush and then brush my hair so it stays. It's so little that it's not terrible hairspray hair, but it's just enough to make it stay nice.

Wow... I am surprised at you Rye... thank you for the advice

If you do that, then how often do you Blow-Dry and Straighten your hair during a week? The girl I was talking to this afternoon said she only needs to do her about twice a week and her hair is still in good shape.

I am not so sure about hairspray... but the good thing is I recently changed my shampoo to a hard-to-find Salon one. It's by Revlon and the shampoo is soooooo good. It smells beautiful. After you've showered, you use a same-brand spray on conditioner. Have you ever tried that?

And, Pure-quin, its okay man, guys should be a little bit feminine sometimes I know I am... I keep myself looking smart and tidy!

Thanks again Rye!

Ive used straighters for 3 years, and Ive never singed my hair, mine go up to 200. I have burnt my fingers many times. I always run my hand through my hair straight after straightning it, thats painful. xD

I usually repeat this 2 times a day. My hair is awfully thick, and curls 10 minutes after straightning.
But I should (hopefully, they are expensive) be getting some GHD ones that are the King of straightners, and go over 200

Thank you as well Zeldy. I saw a ghd one today that goes up to 232, which is pretty high (and scary). Burning my fingers is what scares the hell out of me... that, and maybe burning my ear or neck.

Repeating 2 times a day sounds very... exhausting! So to get my hair perfectly straight I have to mix both up? Thats the way to go?

I wanna get some shape to my face as my face is quite thin (no fat or anything) and I have a really sharp jawline and cheekbones. I wanna try and get some sort of definition to it as at he moment, when i go out my hair is tied back. If I let it loose, it just gets very scruffy.

Don't double post please! Use the edit button if you have something else to add. =D -kikimm

[Christmas]

It is a good idea I keep my hair pretty short.

[Zeldy]

Ive used straighters for 3 years, and Ive never singed my hair, mine go up to 200. I have burnt my fingers many times. I always run my hand through my hair straight after straightning it, thats painful. xD

I usually repeat this 2 times a day. My hair is awfully thick, and curls 10 minutes after straightning.
But I should (hopefully, they are expensive) be getting some GHD ones that are the King of straightners, and go over 200

Thank you as well Zeldy. I saw a ghd one today that goes up to 232, which is pretty high (and scary). Burning my fingers is what scares the hell out of me... that, and maybe burning my ear or neck.

Repeating 2 times a day sounds very... exhausting! So to get my hair perfectly straight I have to mix both up? Thats the way to go?

I wanna get some shape to my face as my face is quite thin (no fat or anything) and I have a really sharp jawline and cheekbones. I wanna try and get some sort of definition to it as at he moment, when i go out my hair is tied back. If I let it loose, it just gets very scruffy.

It depends on what type of hair you have. The only reason I have to straighten mine so much is due to being really thick and wavy. It is exhausting Which is why I only wash it every 3 days, as its just too much to do every single night, especially school nights.

Ive never burnt my neck or ears, not with straightners. Sometimes the Blow dryer does, but you just gotta ignore it. Its the same if you go the hairdressers.
You get used to it.

[The Devil Man]

It depends on what type of hair you have. The only reason I have to straighten mine so much is due to being really thick and wavy. It is exhausting Which is why I only wash it every 3 days, as its just too much to do every single night, especially school nights.

Ive never burnt my neck or ears, not with straightners. Sometimes the Blow dryer does, but you just gotta ignore it. Its the same if you go the hairdressers.
You get used to it.

My hair is probably the same as yours then. My hair is really, REALLY thick and I have to shampoo and condition every 3 days too, otherwise my arms feel like they're about to collapse. But it's all changed recently since I switched shampoo. My new one makes my hair feel very light and much softer, but it still retains its strength.

What shampoo do you use, because I'd recommend you use my one! I used to use Pantene Pro-V, then switched to Herbal Essences, then switched to Fructis (which was the worst) then back to Pantene again, and now onto my Revlon one.

[Zeldy]

I just find a shampoo I like, that works, and stick to it. For me its L'Oreal Elive.

[Breine]

As a fellow male with shoulder length hair that is also extremely thick and wavy, I thought I'd like to give you the best advice possible So, here goes:


I actually don't own a straightener myself, so I have to stay with the blow dryer. I don't use a brush when drying it, though, which would probably be a good idea, but my hair tends to look fine and straight without such dandy tricks - although it is a little big sometimes, but that's not anything that can't be corrected by messing around with it a little or just running my fingers through it. So, in my experince blow dryers work pretty well. Straighteners are nice, though, but they really are so damn hot and it's too much work for me to straighten my hair every morning. That is also why I only wash my hair every other day or so, especially on school days. I've never had long hair before I got my current hairstyle, but you learn these things and other tricks as time goes by... so you don't have to worry that much. I'm sure you'll find a good technique at some point that really works for you personally. Hope you could use my advice

Now, if you'll excuse me I'll return to being my manly self *cough cough*

[smittenkitten]

I blow dry then straighten, or if I haven't got straighteners it curls.

[Sergeant Hartman]

Stay safe at 180 degrees!

[Leen-Leen]

I have pretty frizzy hair, but when I straighten it, it's fine. And I only wash my hair every other day. For a straightener, I usually set it to 15 degrees because my hair is thick and frizzy. But if your hair is normal, 10 degrees can be fine. Find one of the straighteners that have a temperature dial that you can set. You probably can't fry your hair that way.

Blow drying only made my hair even frizzier. I don't really use blow dryers that much

[rubah]

all that heat is going to kill your hair

[Fuego]

I'll keep this quick ... i used to have hair down to my elbow almost my bum ...
It was soo curly i had it chem straightened.

Now its sooo much easier to style

I wash with pantene pro-v "smooth & sleek"

I towel dry abit and then throw some detangler into it.

Use my fingers to comb through and apply some redken "smooth down" in the pump bottle.

then a bit of Heat tamer (a spray) and start in on it with the blow dryer (on low)

then I use the cool feature for my dryer to cool my hair down and then wait for 15 mins for it to completely cool and be dry (because i heard doing a straightner right after blowdrying can damage your hair .

Then i go at it with the straightner ... (but thank god i don't need to use the straightener as long as i used to )

after that (while my hair is still warm) i throw some Tresemme "Anti-frizz secret" on it (because austin is a humid place) and work it through with my fingers.

and thats it

DON'T USE GARNIER SMOOTHING MILK (or their products in general) ... ITS MADE BY THE DEVIL ! AND MAKES YOUR HAIR FEEL (and look) LIKE USED ASS !

***EDIT***
acrylic straightener !!! the best kind to have