Straight to beauty – choose a hair straightener

Straight hair is beautiful! Surprisingly, but in the history of hair and fashion industry to understand this now obvious fact came not immediately: virtually at all times, in different countries and even parts of the world is considered much more aesthetic just “babylon on the head. In ancient Greece they wore their hair up straight, only as a sign of mourning for their deceased loved ones, and they wore their hair covered with ashes.

Modern Haircuts: stylish geometrics

Talk about straight hair as a fashion trend began in the early twentieth century: the First World War with its marching conditions for the first time so massively dressed women in pants and cut the ladies hair.

But this did not make women any less feminine and hairdressers caught hold of the new trend and began to create the first geometric haircuts – so unusual a hundred years ago and triumphantly returned to fashion these days.

Today not a single fashion show can do without hairstyles with clear straight lines, angles, diagonals, accentuated by immaculately straight hair.

Office-corporate style

Sleek, straight hair looks professional, sexy and also business-like, which is why it is perfect for the dress code of most serious organizations.

In addition, straightening with a special device requires very little time and does not create noise, such as a hair dryer, so many create beauty directly in the workplace.

By the way, it is not necessary to straighten the whole head, it may be enough to make two or three accents on bangs or a couple of locks framing the face – and the well-groomed look is guaranteed.

The Asian trend: silky smooth

China, Japan, Korea and other Asian countries have given the world an incredible number of stylish beauties, none of whom could boast curls.

The hallmark of Asian beauty is refined elegance. Dress up a Japanese beauty in a simple dress or T-shirt and jeans and she will not become less attractive.

But if she had her hair permed, she’d almost certainly lose all her charm.

Asian smoothness didn’t even come into fashion, it’s as if it wasn’t required, like any true natural beauty. It’s just that more and more designers, fashion designers, stylists and beautiful women are finding themselves under the spell of Asia.

Fashionable tandem: volume and straightening

The straightened hair looks especially effective and beautiful if it is given a volume at the roots. It can be done with a hair dryer and a round brush, but you can also use the straightener itself to raise the hair: to do this, they must be clamped between the plates of the device and slightly pulled up.

Iron through the hair?

Traditional hair problems are often associated with hot styling, blow drying, and using curling irons. Most hair damage, however, is not caused by hair straightening appliances but by unhealthy diet, stress, sunlight, perm or coloring. Giving up styling for most modern women, working and living a full life, is absolutely unacceptable: the situation requires to look “one hundred percent”, it often depends on mood and personal life and career. Dry, colored or chemically permed hair needs:

– The right temperature for straightening or other hot styling the lower the temperature, the better for such hair ,

– Using additional hair-protecting cosmetics,

– Care techniques in the appliance itself: the material used to coat the plates is particularly important for maintaining healthy hair.

Specialists do not recommend straightening wet hair, because when you do it this way, it will quickly lose a lot of moisture, and the styling will be very difficult. Regular use of such products inevitably leads to gradual drying out of the hair. It is best to leave your hair to dry naturally or blow dry it gently to create volume at the roots.

True, for particularly impatient users, some manufacturers come up with straighteners designed for dry and wet hair. The vents in these models let the steam out and the drying and straightening go hand in hand.

Only certain professional appliances tend to have these properties. For extra care, some models are equipped with a steam humidification function Remington, Rowenta .

Don’t forget to turn the straightener off!

Safety is a major concern and most modern, quality products from reputable manufacturers conform to very strict standards. It is important that the device switches off after 30 minutes of use some models switch off after 1 hour, which is a lot, so it is better not to risk it .

For safe use are important points:

– Have a cool and non heatable handpiece,

– the possibility of locking the device in a closed position,

– The presence of a swivel wire attachment that prevents it from tangling.

Size and shape matter?

Of course, when buying a straightener, it is best to simply hold it in your hands and try to understand if it is comfortable to use. Most straighteners have standard plate sizes, lengths and widths. The length of the working surface is usually 8-9 cm, there are some models with “super-long” – 11 cm – plates.

There is no big difference in convenience, except that if you want to straighten really long hair, it will go faster. The plate length has no impact on hair!

The width of the blades is more important in practice. The most straighteners have 2,8-3 cm wide plates, but there are also wider models that cope with the straightening tasks faster, but increase the contact area between the plates and the hair, so it is particularly important not to overdo it on the hair.

In general, neither the length nor the width of the plates has any important influence on the condition of the hair – it is more important how to use the tongs. Do not pinch, pull hair, do not keep the device on the hair for too long, do not straighten wet hair – these are things to pay attention to. Another thing is the question of convenience. For example, it’s not as easy to straighten super-short hair with wide plates as it is to straighten short bangs.

Some straighteners have a rounded shape, which the manufacturers claim is good for curling. However, since the outer rounded edges still remain cold, it’s not entirely clear how this happens. The calculation in this case is based on the heat left in the hair after running the straightener over it. At best, the result is a small “wave”, but certainly not curls.

Can you tell me how many degrees above zero it is right now??

A good straightener should have an adjustable thermostat – we do not want to burn the hair! The question is whether it will be adjustable and, very importantly, visible: it is optimal that you can see to what temperature the plates are heated. The most modern models are equipped with digital displays and have the ability to adjust the temperature directly during use.

Some models have a digital memory function, which means that you can select the desired temperature at a touch. The most advanced models can be adjusted to the hair type and condition and adjusted to the temperature settings. This is of course a premium appliance.

Mechanical thermostat makes the device cheaper, but this does not mean that such a straightener is bad: it is just important not to adjust it “by eye”, and look in the manual and see what thermostat position corresponds to what temperature.

Rectifier plate coatings

Manufacturers call their proprietary coatings and materials differently, but the point of them in all appliances

is the same:

– Reducing friction and improving gliding between the plates and the hair. All patented coatings are extra smooth which means the contact time between hair and plates as well as the mechanical stress on the hair is minimized.

– Avoiding overheating your hair. Uniform heating of the plates does not allow points or areas of overheating.

– The ability to pre-apply styling and protection products to the hair, eliminating their buildup on the plates. This is a very important point, as hair health experts unanimously recommend the use of hot styling sprays and mousse to minimize the damage caused by the latter. If trouble does happen and the product stains the plates, a good brand-name coating is easy to clean.

– Reduces the build up of static in the hair with ionization. Electrified hair sticks to clothes, brushes, crumbles and disobeys. Ionic conditioning leaves hair manageable, beautiful, smooth and silky smooth.

Plate coatings can be:

– Metal this is practically impossible with quality devices: in this case, the plates cool down more slowly, the temperature is difficult to regulate, mousses and gels stick and stain the device, the hair overheats, etc. . d. . We urge you to pass it by, not buy it and throw it away if you have one!

– Ceramic material is much more gentle on hair . Almost every manufacturer has it. The devices with ceramic plates without extra “frills”, as a rule, have a good price-performance ratio.

– Ceramics with different sputtering, inclusions mostly nano-diamond or tourmaline . Tourmaline is a mineral that is naturally ionizing. Nano-particles of diamond or tourmaline not only make the coating of the plates superhard, but also help get rid of static electricity, producing negatively charged ions . Vran developed the NanoGlade ceramic coating for their appliances, Vidal Sassoon the ceramic-tourmaline coating, Rowenta the ceramic UltraShineNanoCeramic coating.

– Titanium alloys titanium alloys have excellent thermal management, rapidly reaching the desired temperature .

– Teflon Teflon provides good glide and even heat distribution, but still gets dirty from the products used in styling .

– Mixed for example, ceramic-turmaline plates in some devices from Philips, ceramic-teflon plates with nano-diamonds in some devices from Remington, ceramic-titanium plates in straighteners from Babyliss . This approach combines several technologies to achieve the best glide and do less damage to your hair.

– Antibacterial NanoSilver Antibacterial Technology from Ga.Ma, nano-silvering Nano-Silver from Valera . There are all kinds of amazing innovations: For example, in the Remington Shine Therapy 230 straightener the structure of the ceramic plates allows to hold inside and under the influence of temperature activate on the surface of the plates a special caring conditioner.