Trying to go from wavy to straight

Unfortunately, I don't think there's a lot you can do to keep your hair permanent straight without a flat iron. Since your waves came through between 11-15, it sounds like this change probably coincided with hormonal changes associated with puberty, and that's going to be an uphill battle trying to fight. That said, I do know there are some protein treatments (they tend to be things called Brazilian keratin treatments or similar), that you can buy and apply yourself at home and then, theoretically, they help your hair stay straighter for longer after you flat iron. I've never tried them myself, so I have no idea how true that is. I'm not sure how affordable they are, though, especially since I think the results are only supposed to last a couple of weeks at most. Other than that, you can get a straight perm, but those are pretty damaging, so I'd be cautious going that route.

Sorry, I wish I had something more helpful to suggest, but hair texture is one of those things that's pretty hard to change without chemical processes.

First thing, which is CGM, check to see if your products have a lot of glycerin. A lot of the “curly” and moisturizing products contain a lot of it. Personally my waves got frizzier with two separate leave-in’s before I realized the common factor was they both had glycerin as the second ingredient. I’m still using conditioner with glycerin, but I switched over everything else with a huge improvement.

I love the “blow-out” loose waves look. So personally I would use the flat iron to create curls. Watch Brad Mondo’s flat-iron video to learn how. The curls fall out as the day goes on but I find that it always looks pretty as it does.

I go about a week in-between washing my hair. So I maintain the look by putting some hair oil on my ends and on dry hair put in hair curlers ( I like to rag roll). It takes me minutes to pull them out and finger comb my hair vs. the 15 to 20 it would take with the flat iron. I find that as long as I do this every night my hair stays pretty smooth. DON’T be afraid to look up tutorials on YouTube. I didn’t know how badly I was using curlers until I started to watch hair videos.

I find that having that little wave hides any frizz that pops up. It also helps blend in any baby hairs that won’t get straight. It looks way more polished than my natural messy 2a/b/c (please make up your mind hair!) waves. If you prefer a straighter look, I can usually brush a good bit out.

Hope any of this helped, wavy hair is a b****. I know it isn’t permanent, I have never used a permanent treatment. It is the best routine I have ever used.

@vivienne

Yeah it wouldn't surprise me if it was hormonal. I know my mom has the same wavy hair so it could also be hereditary, I'm not sure.

Do you by chance know of any brands for the at home keratin treatments? I haven't been able to find any that are meant to do the same thing at a salon. All I keep finding is leave in conditioners that happen to have keratin in them.

I know there's never going to be something completely permanent out there but I need something that will last me a few weeks at least. I'm tired of having to keep styling my hair what feels like every 5 minutes. If I can't find anything else that will work, I might consider a straightening perm but only as a last resort. I bleached my hair sometime last year and I don't want to damage more than it already has been.

Its all good! I appreciate that you would at least try to help :)

@FieryW

I'll keep that in mind if I try to go back to curly but the CG method itself didn't really work well for me.

I think you might have missed in my post where I mentioned that my hair doesn't hold styling. That sounds really pretty but unfortunately I know my hair wouldn't hold it. Even with hairspray, if I were to curl my hair with an iron or curler, it would fall within 30 minutes. It drives me insane. Unfortunately I need something more than heat tools to try and tame my hair but I'm not very familiar with more permanent methods.

Thanks for trying to help though :)

Sorry I should of made myself more clear. Glycerin sucks in moisture from the air, especially during summer time. The symptoms you are describing is what my hair did when it was over moisturized b/c of glycerin. Including the not holding it’s style when using the flat iron. Since you said you had done curly girl, you may be using overly hydrating products.

But if your hair never has held any curl I would try a texturing spray if you have never tried it before. That works for my sister who also went from straight to curly. Hers changed with pregnancy.

I asked a co-worker who does her own blowouts and she says she's used Keratin Research and Softliss, but Amazon in the US has a lot of options. It's not really a product you can find in person however.

I also forgot to mentioned, but the fumes are extremely strong for this treatment, so you really, really need to do it in a very well-ventilated area. Also, while the overall claim is that the treatment helps strengthen your hair by bonding keratin to it, not that you need to run a flat iron through it it a lot during the application process, and I honestly don't think that's the greatest for your hair. I'd probably recommend checking on some videos of people who have done it if you can, because it's a pretty time-consuming process, so you should figure out what you're in for before you go for it.

@FieryW

Ok, interesting. I'll have to keep that in mind! Thanks again :)

@viviene

Awesome! Thank you. I'm definitely going to be doing some more research before I try anything.

Hi, I know of the Japanese Hair Straightening Treatment HOWEVER it is a Lot on your hair. I'd recommend doing more research than I did myself, but since you have wavy hair, it should work well with you. I do remember reading that it can damage already bleached hair, and could be difficult to dye the hair after the treatment is done. Also not all salons do it or know how to do it. But thought I'd mention it in case it helps!

My first answer to your question would be: Don’t do it..!! I’m sure your natural hair is wonderful! But if you want to straighten it for you, on a serious note, then I would recommend using a shampoo & conditioner defrizz, then heat protective. Blow-dry your hair with a brush (to reduce frizz in a cool setting) and then straighten it into sections to make it easier. The thicker it is, the more sections I would recommend putting it in. Please be aware of the heat damage, coming from a ‘curly girl’ stuck in the straightening cycle because I constantly straightened it for other people..!!

@honeylemon13

Yeah, I've heard of Japanese hair straightening before. It's not really up my alley because it's pretty expensive and really damaging from what I've heard. My hair has been processed so I probably wouldn't be a good candidate anyway. Thanks for the suggestion though!

@lizzajohnson10

I mean, my natural hair isn't horrible but trust me if you had it, you would think it was a pain in the rear too haha. I'm just trying to find more ways to make it manageable and not a hassle. I think you might have missed where I said that using heat tools on my hair usually doesn't last. To keep the style, I would have to blow dry and flat iron my hair at least twice a day and it would just cause more harm than good, unfortunately. No amount of products seem to help hold it either. I've kind of given up on heat tools, to be honest.

Update to my post: I've since been playing around with different products a bit more and I believe I have found a partial solution! I tried The Ogx's Ever Straight Brazilian Keratin Therapy shampoo and conditioner. After a few weeks, I noticed that my hair started looking straighter and I could mostly brush it out straight too. Whenever I braid my hair, my hair likes to wave up even more but it's not doing that as much now, which is awesome. Some sections are still stubborn but overall it's a lot better. The only thing I am having trouble with now is frizz. The shampoo and conditioner helped but I need some more kick. I couldn't find any more products from their keratin line but I found their coconut oil serum. However, I notice that it just makes my hair itchy and it doesn't really do much for moisture so I still need to go hunting for another leave-in. I'm happy to report that at least some progress has been made though!