It doesn’t matter what sort of scorching device you employ or how a lot warmth protectant you slather on, straightening and curling your hair inevitably causes injury. However for these of us who love altering up our hair with warmth, we’re in a continuing battle to make our routines as wholesome as attainable. A technique to try this is to make use of a steam flat iron, which makes use of moisture to assist silk out your strands, explains Tippi Shorter, a L’Oréal Professionnel artist.
“Once you’re treating your hair, you need to consider it the identical method you’ll once you’re considering of an costly material,” says Shorter. “You’re not going to iron a silk shirt; you employ a steamer. The addition of steam to a conventional iron [allows it to] work extra delicately on the material of your hair. It provides shine, retains hair softer, and straightens and smoothes quicker with much less direct warmth.”
The ins and outs of utilizing a steam flat iron
When utilizing a steam flat iron, it sounds just a little like a clothes iron—you possibly can hear the hiss of the steam as you glide the device by your hair. The steam helps add moisture to the hair, which is useful as a result of warmth styling normally strips moisture. “The steam actually softens the hair and places moisture again into the hair follicles earlier than it is compressed with the plates,” says Shorter. By offering moisture, the steam makes the method a bit much less damaging than dry straightening.
Plus, including moisture makes the straightening course of a bit simpler, explains Gregorio Ruggeri, a hairstylist and trichologist in New York Metropolis.
“Should you can think about the hair shaft being just a little bit crinkly, once you’re utilizing a daily straightening iron on bone dry hair, you are simply burning it into form,” he says. “However when you find yourself utilizing an iron, and there is a little little bit of moisture, it is going to be simpler to easy that by.”
Even when you do not have a steam iron, you possibly can replicate this with any scorching device by making certain there’s just a little little bit of moisture in your hair once you’re styling. “Each time I exploit a straightening iron, I at all times make that there is a little little bit of moisture within the hair in order that once I’m utilizing an iron, it is going to truly steam it into place,” says Ruggeri. He suggests ensuring your hair is about 95 p.c dry earlier than utilizing any customary heat-styling device.
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Should you do need to put money into a steam flat iron, know that you may’t fill it up with faucet water. “You actually need to use distilled water,” says Shorter. “If you’ll want to, the following possibility could be to make use of bottled water, and the third could be filtered water, however by no means faucet water. Faucet has minerals and metals which…can in the end wreck the mechanism within the styler.”
It doesn’t matter what sort of scorching device you are utilizing, do not forget that warmth is warmth, and it is not good in your hair. Simply because the steam makes the method a bit more healthy, it does not imply you possibly can ignore the golden guidelines of warmth styling. Make sure you are not going over the identical part a number of occasions in a row, utilizing scorching instruments a number of days in a row, or skipping out on warmth protectant.
What it is like utilizing the L’Oréal Professionnel Steam Pod
My first go utilizing a steam flat iron was with the L’Oréal Professionnel Steam Pod ($250). I went to the L’Oréal salon in New York Metropolis, the place Shorter straightened and curled my hair utilizing the steam pod, after which I took one dwelling to play with by myself.
The water holder makes the device cumbersome, however as somebody who loves large bouncy curls, this works in my favor: I can get the identical sort of voluminous curls as I normally do with a 2-inch curling iron. Nonetheless, this bulk makes it troublesome to model my complete head. Due to the place the plates sit, I can not get proper as much as my scalp to get my roots as straight as I might like (I think about this makes the Steam Pod difficult to make use of on quick hair, too). That stated, it does work rather well for styling my lengths.
I additionally love that the Steam Pod is supplied with a detachable row of tremendous, plastic tooth alongside its edges, which comb my strands as I model them. “The comb guides whereas the steam penetrates the hair, permitting you to make use of larger sections,” says Shorter. “This lets you do your hair in a lot much less time however with extra shine and luster.”
When utilizing the comb, I’ve observed that my hair is way bouncier, smoother, and shiner. I’ve tried to imitate this through the use of a fine-tooth comb and a daily flat iron, which works nice for straightening, however is unattainable to duplicate once I’m making an attempt to create flat-iron curls.
General, I discover that my hair does really feel smoother once I use the L’Oréal Professionnel Steam Pod, and the comb makes it simpler to get a pleasant, glossy model. Plus, I like realizing that it is more healthy for my strands than my customary styling routine.
Extra steam flat irons to buy
The Steam Pod is not the one steam flat iron on the market. Study two different choices beneath.
L’ange Le Vapour — $199.00
This flat iron combines infrared warmth and steam to infuse hair with moisture and assist scale back potential injury. It options rounded ceramic plates enable for straightening and curling with equal ease. A digital LCD show permits you to adjustable the temperature between 250℉ and 410℉ so you possibly can customise your expertise based mostly in your texture. Relying on the size and thickness of your hair, you might have to refill the tank each one to a few styling classes.
Solofish Steam Hair Straightener — $39.00
This steam straightener options ceramic plates for even warmth distribution and 5 steam vents to maintain your hair enveloped in moisture. Set the steam to medium or excessive—or flip it off to make use of the straighter like a daily one. It heats between 300℉ and 450℉ and can attain 300℉ in 15 seconds.
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