Silk press
A silk press is a styling technique to straighten hair with heat. The goal is to try to build movement into the hair.
There are three key steps in achieving the perfect silk press.
- Wash/condition: you cannot have a good silk press without a clean head of hair. Product buildup will prevent you from getting the look you want. You will probably need to use a clarifying shampoo to get your hair completely clean and condition the hair to add moisture back. Make sure to wash out all the conditioner.
- Blow dry: you should try to achieve as much of the heavy lifting of the straightening with the blow dry. You want to try to get your hair as straight as possible during this step. This will help to decrease the number of passes you will need to do during the flat iron step. Make sure to use a heat protectant before using the blow dryer. Some will even add a serum to add smoothness and shine.
- Flat iron: small sections are a must and start at the roots. Follow flat iron with a comb as you move down the hair shaft to provide tension to help to achieve a straighter look. You will need a hot flat iron usually at least 400 degrees and the tighter the curl the hotter the flat iron. Make sure not to fry your hair with the flat iron.
Heat protectant
A heat protectant serves a barrier for your hair strands. High degree of heat can be very damaging to hair and lead to dryness and breakage. This is the last thing you want on your healthy hair journey.
Aveda Brilliant
Lightweight without leaving a sticky feeling on the hair. Still have movement in hair after blow drying hair.
Mizani Heat Spray Heat Protectant
Blow dryer
You want to use a blow dryer that will get hot enough. As noted earlier, the blow dryer step is the most important in the silk press. You want to make sure you hair is as straight as possible during this step to help reduce the amount of heat you have to use during the flat iron step.
Comb attachment is helpful when straightening textured hair.
Conair Pro Silver Bird – affordable.
Conair Infinitipro
Dyson Supersonic Hair dryer
quite expensive but excellent results.
Revlon One Step Hair Dryer and Styler
Flat iron
Quality flat iron will take you far in the silk press. You will reduce the number of passes and get a smoother finish with a quality flat iron.
Babyliss Pro Nano Titanium Ultra Thin
