Straightened Out And Cut Off

The ends of Syd's hair have been looking kind of rough for a while now. Several factors joined together to cause that damage, including the cold, dry winter, more "out" styles as she gets older, and the fact that Syd is learning to do her own hair. Let's face it - natural hair in the hands of a beginner is probably going to get a little damaged. No biggie, though. We just decided to cut the damaged ends off and keep moving. It's only hair...it will grow back in no time.

I usually trim her hair while it is in small twists (you can see a post about that HERE), but this time I decided to straighten it with a flat iron and then cut it. After all, it had been over 2 years since Syd's hair had been straightened. We were both interested in seeing how it looked all straightened out. Here's what we did:

Syd washed her hair and I detangled it, added some Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer, and banded her hair overnight.

Starting in the back, I removed one section of bands. I added some heat protectant and used a flat iron (set to med-high) on somewhat small sections of hair at a time. I tried not to go over each section more than once, but I did need to make a second pass on a few sections. Bottom line, I used as little heat as possible to get the desired results. This took the first back section from this:

to this:

(Yes, I did this while we were both sitting on the floor....lol)

I then repeated the process for the other 3 sections of banded hair. When I finished, I was actually shocked that her hair reached her waist. I didn't realize it had gotten quite that long!

I let her wear her waist-length hair down for a day, but the following day I followed through with her hair cut. Instead of taking her to a salon, I opted to cut her hair myself. If you choose to do this, I cannot stress enough the importance of using hair shears. Do not use your regular household scissors, as they are not sharp enough to cut your hair cleanly. They can tug and pull at your hair as you're cutting, and you will have damaged ends on the hair that has just been cut. Talk about counter-productive! I digress...

I ended up cutting between 3 and 4 inches of Syd's hair, just to be sure we removed all the damage.

The shadows in this picture make the ends look really uneven, but by the time I realized it, her hair was no longer straight, so I couldn't take a better pic. :/

Day 3 of straight hair was Easter. Since her hair was still looking good, I decided not to do much styling. I just made 2 french braids around her hairline and brought them around to meet in the back. 4 minutes and we were done!

After 4 days of straight hair, Syd spent an afternoon being very physically active, so she got sweaty and her straight roots began to get puffy. We knew it was time to move into another style. She liked having her hair straight...she was amazed at how easy it was to comb. But that being said, she still truly loves big hair, so straightening will remain something that only happens on rare occasions. You just can't argue with her "bigger is better" hair theory!