Heat styling – we all do it. Whether you curl your hair for special occasions or won’t be caught dead without your locks straightened within an inch of their lives. But are you doing it right? Here’s a crash course from Redken creative consultant Guido.

First things first. If you’re going to be attacking your hair with high temps, you’ve got to prepare. “For a blow-dry, apply a heat protectant cream or gel, like Redken blown away 09 protective blow-dry gel [or I use Satinwear], to damp hair and comb it through so it’s thoroughly distributed. You want to make sure that your mid-lengths and ends, which are the most prone to damage, are evenly coated,” Guido said. ”For curling or flat-ironing, mist a heat protectant spray like iron silk 07 ultra straightening spray or spray starch 15 versatile ironing spray on each section (hair should be dry) before you use your hot tool.”

Now that you’re all prepped, are you going to go curly or straight? Curly girlies, take note when choosing what size curling iron to use.

“It depends on two things,” according to Guido. ”First, you need to decide what size curl you want to create. Second, you have to account for the fact that the curl will loosen throughout the day—you should choose a barrel that’s slightly smaller than the size of the curl you want. For loose waves, I find 1-inch curling iron works best. At first the curls might appear a bit too tight, but they’ll loosen up perfectly.”

Straight ahead for advice on keeping flat-ironed hair from looking lifeless.

“Apply a heat protectant product like iron silk 07 ultra straightening spray to each section before you flat-iron. Hair that’s continually exposed to heat without any protection will end up looking dull, damaged and lifeless. The other trick is to kick the ends out. Just turn your wrist slightly as you’re bringing the iron down to the end of the section. It gives you movement and texture, so hair doesn’t look so severe.“

[Image: T3 Limited Edition - Pink Overnight Hair Dryer]

Tags: curling irons, curling tongs, hair, hair straightening, heat styling, redken

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 8:26 pm and is filed under Beauty, Beauty Products, Beauty Tips, Hair Care, Hair Products, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.