When we use our hair straightener we usually watch out that it doesn’t fall to the floor or that it doesn’t get wet, we carefully plug it and take other precautions as well. But are we as careful or take the same precautions when passing the hair straightener through our hair? That is why we are going to go through the 10 most common mistakes that we daily make with our hair straightener for preventing damaging our hair.

The way how we wind the cable and put the hair straightener back to its case is very important.We must:

• Wind the cable in zigzag as you see in the picture and not around the iron as we could burn the cable or part it internally the more we tighten it.
• Put he hair straightener inside the thermal bag so the temperature is kept warmand the cable inside the external pocket of the case. The form of the Slim hair straightener bag is perfect for travel.

As we saw in this tutorial it is important to keep the irons of the hair straightener clean, so as to lengthen its useful life while at the same time look after our hair. In order to do so we will only need the following:

• Methylated spirits
• Cotton

It is very easy to select the ideal temperature so as to protect our hair, like the Termix Slim Styling Iron or the 230º. To do so we just need to pass the hair straightener through the hair and once we reach the ends press the tuft of hair with our hands. If we get burnt and are obliged to release it, then we are using the wrong temperature. The correct thing would be to hold the hair straightener and feel the heat of the engine without getting burnt.

You can also visit this link where we explain the temperature we need to choose for each type of hair.

It is more advisable to do a slow pass tan 2 quick ones, as long as the temperature is right.The ideal number of passes over the tuft is 3 (2 over the root and 1 over the ends). If after the second pass, we don’t reach the effect wished, then we should pass over to the following tuft or wait some more minutes until it is cold again and pass the hair straightener once more over its surface. It is very important that the hair is cold because even though we pass the hair straightener through warm hair many times, we are not going to be able to style the hair the way we want to and apart from that we will damage our hair even more.

The thickness of the tuft is very important. According to its thickness you will need to take less hair (if it is very thick) or more hair (if it is very thin). The thickness of the hair you take, should never exceed the length of the irons of the hair straightener. In the picture we show you how:

Another classic mistake is to press firmly on an iron against the other thinking that in doing so the impact of the hair straightening or curling will be wider. To the contrary, the more we press the more difficult it is for the hair to glide through the irons. The hair gets more damaged and we run the risk of parting it (if the temperature is not appropriate) or of marking a line (as usually happens at the root. We simply need to apply the right force on the irons so that they can close and touch the hair and also feel that the hair glides easily and quickly through the irons.

When curling, the turn is very important. We mustn’t wrap the hair around the hair straightener more than once (as we can see in the picture) or make the hair straightener glide downward exerting too much pressure on the irons, because in doing so we prevent the hair from gliding as we saw in the previous paragraph.

It is also very important to correctly place our hands. If we wish to curl the hair, then we should better work vertically while if we wish to straighten it, we should better work horizontally. We should place the hand that holds the hair straightener some centimetres away from the irons (as you can see in the picture) and we should use our other hand to pass the comb through the hair to untangle it before passing the hair straightener.And in the case of curling, we can use it to hold the end and direct the turn, but always without exerting pressure.

Athough nowadays there are many hair straighteners that can be passed through damp hair, it is ideal to avoid it as the hair retains more heat and the drying process is hampered leaving the hair not so shiny. The infrared system determines if the hair straightener can be applied on damp hair. The hair should have some slightly damp areas but should not be wet. We musn’t forget that if we wish to dry the hair, we should turn to the hair dryer instead. The hair straightener only helps us style the hair more easily.

And to end up with the most common mistakes, not using a thermal protector or excessively using it, are both counterproductive. It is better to use a spray protector so as to avoid the overexposure of the hair to the heat. If we use it in excess, we are wetting the hair again and this is bad for the hair.The correct measure would be to apply the protector over 5 different sections of hair (as we can see in the picture) and spread it evenly across the hair by using a comb or just the fingers. The hair should NOT feel damp. If this is the case, then wait some minutes or dry it with a hair dryer.

These are the 10 most common mistakes we make when using the hair straightener. We have already showed you how to avoid themand hope you follow our advice in the future. The daily use of the hair straightener is not a problem as long as it is used correctly and mistakes are avoided.