How To Minimize Damage When Using A Flat Iron

by Anjelina Tongco

Heat styling with a flat iron is one of the best and most efficient ways to style your hair. Once you’ve purchased your hair straightener or a hair curler, you’re free to style your hair any way you like. Although a flat iron is most commonly used to achieve sleek, stick-straight hair, curling hair with straightener is also possible. Indeed, your options are endless. 


Unfortunately, heat styling is also one of the most damaging ways to style your hair. Exposing your hair to heat regularly can make it weaker as the keratin in your hair strands changes shape and loses its elasticity. That means your beloved hair iron is probably doing more harm than good to your locks. 


Thankfully, there are plenty of things that you can do to either prevent damage from heat styling or minimize it (if it can’t be helped). Here are some tips on how to minimize damage to your hair when you’re using a flat iron. 


  1. Use a heat protectant spray - heat protectant sprays work wonders when it comes to shielding your hair from the damage brought on by heat styling tools like a flat iron. We love the K.Style I-tool Protective Heat-styling Spray by Lakmé because it protects hair from up to 220º and it gives a long-lasting hold as well. Get it here.
  2. Invest in a tourmaline-coated flat iron - tourmaline releases negative ions when heated. This means that a tourmaline hair iron heats up more quickly and therefore requires less time to straighten your hair, reducing the amount of time that your hair is exposed to heat/damage. 

We recommend:

Avanti Tourmaline & Ceramic Flat Iron

Avanti Ultra Ionic, Nano-Silver & Tourmaline Flat Iron

  1. Never apply heat to wet hair - air dry your hair before heat styling, if possible, and never apply extreme heat to wet hair. Doing this will damage your hair and make it more prone to breakage. 
  2. Apply a hair mask on days when you’re not heat styling - you can’t be heat styling your hair every day. On days when you’re off work or school, give your hair a break and give it a nice hair mask treatment that’ll help restore lost moisture from your hair. A vitamin-enriched hair mask would surely work wonders in keeping your heat-damaged hair too. 
  3. Heat moderation - blasting your hair straightener to the highest heat setting so you can do a couple of passes and be done is tempting, especially if you’re in a hurry. Don’t do it, though. It’s better to use the mid-heat setting and do multiple passes than to use the high heat setting and damage your hair.