I give my hair a blow out every once in a while.. lately more than often. I can absolutely feel & see the damage after every time I straighten, esp. if I use a straightening-iron afterwards. This past month I straightened my hair a handfull of times & ended up having to get an unexpected trim  So just straighten with caution if you must & try a heat protection spray before you straighten.

Okay, I chickened out and didn't do it. I was researching how applying heat to the hair affects it, and then decided not to because when i have long hair, i want it to be as healthy as it can be. I dont think I'm going to be applying heat to it anytime soon.
     When I was researching it though, I was reading a little about using a blow dryer and a round brush to style it. What are your guys's thoughts on that? Do you think it is better or worse than using a curliing iron or flat iron? Just curious.

                 -Jilayne

Yeah I guess, Precious Locks. I should have known that, but I thought that maybe heat applied directly to the hair would be more damaging.  It was honestly just a question about the blowdrying thing, I wasn't going to try it.

   But anyways, about the "What am I trying to achieve" thing, I'm not really sure.  I'm 13 years old right now, and one of the only girls in my class that doesnt straighten or dye or do something damaging like that to their hair every single day. I personally think that its ridiculous to conform that way, to think that your natural hair type is ugly and that you have to change it to fit in, or to be pretty and I wish that girls like me would not think like that. I still have lots of friends and things like that, and people still like me for who I am, naturally not changed. Sometimes I get the " Ohh I bet your hair would look really nice if you straightened it" kind of thing. In fact, I was even told that today. Maybe I was just sinking into the peer pressure earlier with my first question, i dont know.
To me (most of the time), my hair is beautiful, and I love the slightly curly/wavy type thing it has going on.

      So thanks for the helpful advice!             -Jilayne

As a teen-to-teen thing (I'm 15) I get it.  Personally I never do anything to my hair involving heat because I am lazy  .  My aunt straightened my hair once and it took 2 hours.  I do NOT have that kind of time.

But what you really have to be able to do is too look the person in the eye and say "I'm fine as I am.  If you can't accept me, that's your problem."  but that's hard and takes a lot of confidence.  A good thing to do after someone says something like that is too think of all the cool things that curly hair can do and look like that straight can't.  If you're having a good hair day, just looking in a mirror could help (though not one of those school bathroom mirrors b/c they are either filthy or the lighting is really unflattering).

I just felt as another teen(I'm 16 in a month)I shoudl put in there that Jilayne I was exactly in your frame of mind at your age.I didn't want to be like anyone else and now here three years later I'm not.It's good that you've set a goal up so young.I wish I had at 13 set up that I wanted long hair.To think it could be to my waist now if I had never cut it.But alas,It is falling only 4 inches past my shoulders.(grrr)


Never let anyone tell you that you are not beautiful because you Don't straighten your hair or wear the "in" clothes.12 inches of healthy hair is better than 8 inches of damaged gross hair.(that is look at a girl who has BSL that most of it is fried)

-Heat:
You may try getting a straightening shampoo and just use it once.I only use heat on my hair probably once every 2 months maybe more if I'm doing something special.

Good luck on your hair journey.
~ace

Thanks for your input, Drear and Foreverfay. I'm glad that I have people my age here who i can relate to, also.
                                        -Jilayne

Jilayne, Glad you have thought through a little more what you are hoping to acheive...

It has been a long time since I was a teenager.  I remember one girl had beautiful shiny hair and all of us were awed by her hair.  Someone asked her what she used to get such beautiful hair.  Her answer was "I don't blow dry it or use any heat!"  That was many years ago and I still remember her answer.  It obviously had an impact on me.

Well-cared-for long hair is always admired, but many people don't understand what is required to have that kind of hair. 

It is also true that teenagers all want to test their wings and try new things.  Hence changing hairstyles and modes of dress. Nothing wrong with that...just make sure it is what you want and not what someone else says you want.  (hehe, that is still true at my age ).