How to Heat Style Safely.

We’ve all seen the video of the girl who’s hair snaps off while she’s trying to curl it. Nothing serves as a better reminder that heat styling can be both friend and foe. Don’t go chucking your irons out just yet, with a little help from Davines and Cloud 9, we’ll set you straight. (See what I did there?)

If you’re someone who likes to use a straightener or curler a lot, you will have seen first hand the kind of damage these tools can do to your hair. But straighteners and curlers aren’t the only culprits. Anything that involves applying heat to your hair can cause damage, including heated rollers and hairdryers.

The reason that a heat protector is so important is that it provides a barrier between your hair and the heat source. This means less heat is able to penetrate the hair shaft and, in turn, helps to prevent structural damage. Davines Melu Shield is a spray that protects the hair from heat up to 220 degrees, which is the frightening temperature reached by a GHD. It can be sprayed into damp hair before blow drying and dry hair before straightening or curling. It contains anti-oxidants, thermal protectors and Quantenium-8, which has conditioning, softening and anti-static effects on the hair. Quantenium-8 also helps to speed up blow-drying time, which is a must for anyone with hair that just won’t let the moisture go.

Here at Live & Let Dye, we only use Cloud 9 straighteners. This is for a number of reasons, one of the main ones being that they have a variable temperature setting. This is incredibly useful when it comes to avoiding causing damage to your hair. With the ability to go from 100 to 200 degrees, it allows you to select the appropriate temperature for your hair type and the kind of finish you are after. If you’ve blow-dried your hair and just need to smooth it over, then the lower temperature settings are all that you need. The same goes for people with fine hair, no good will come from using an unnecessarily high temperature.