At some point in your natural hair or transitioning journey, you will likely do a blowout. Blowouts are incredibly versatile, and have the added benefit of allowing you to work with stretched and detangled hair for styles like braidouts, twistouts, bantu knots, updos, and even flat ironing.

But there is a right way and a wrong way to do a blowout. The correct products and methods will yield a full, voluminous, bouncy, soft, and moisturized blowout. The wrong stuff will leave you with a blowout that is stiff, greasy, crunchy, and brittle.

Caution!

Blow drying with heat causes a “flash drying” effect, which literally zaps the moisture from the surface of the hair as well as the water deep within the cortex.

As a result, the cuticles of the hair become dry, stiff, and brittle. When the hair is flexed or moved, the pressure of the movement causes the cuticles to crack.

In this weakened state, the hair is more susceptible to breakage during manipulation such as styling and combing.

1. Preventing Damage

There are a few ways to help ward off the damage and dryness that can result from a bad blowout.

Start with CLEAN hair

This one is particularly important if you are using your blowout as a stepping stone to flat ironing or further straightening the hair.

Why? Hair that is freshly cleansed with a sulfate-free shampoo will be free of oils and product buildup that might not be caught by cleansing with conditioner alone. Good sulfate-free shampoos include:

Always deep condition

As a naturally curly girl, you should be deep conditioning regularly anyway!

But in preparation for a blowout, you definitely want to amp it up some more and hit your hair with a protein and moisture combination that will help strengthen your hair, and deeply infuse moisture within the cortex that will help prevent breakage later on down the line.

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