I'm on the hunt for a hair protector to use prior to straightening my hair. I use a ceramic iron but I still feel like I'm damaging my hair and getting split ends a lot faster than when I didn't straighten it. Any recommendations for something that might help?
toni and guy make one - i forgot what it's called but i think it's blue - you should be able to go into any toni and guy salon and ask what it's called
also aveda has one in the purefume brillians line - not sure what that's called either but it's in a clear spray bottle - they also should be able to tell you that at aveda.
one way or another though, flat irons are very very bad for your hair and the protecting stuff can only do so much. the best thing you can do is limit your use of it. do NOT use it every day unless you want nasty fried hair that you will have to chop all off next year! if you really want your hair straight every day, try washing it less (maybe once every three days) b/c the flat iron is so so bad
also if you can avoid heat styling your hair at all sometimes i would go for it - i know this is hard but sometimes i'll just go with wavy hair during the week and jsut straighten it on weekends.
another tip if you like heat styling your hair is this - when you wash your hair, just wash the top part (by the roots) - shampooing can dry out your hair, even if it's a moisturizing shampoo - the ends are the parts most likely to be affected, and anyway your roots is where it gets greasy anyway.
when you condition, just condition from your ears down- the hair at the top of your head shouldn't really need it, and this makes it easier for you to go longer without washing.
Thanks for the suggestions indiekitten. I'll check those suggestions out.
I actually only straighten my hair three times a week (my hair actually looks a whole lot better when I don't wash daily, not to mention the time savings!). I've still had problems with terrible split ends though since I started straightening: Hopefully this will help alleviate the problem a little bit!