When you have just put time and effort into straightening your luscious locks, the last thing you want to happen is for it to spring back overnight! As many as 33% of women own a straightener and 27% say they cannot live without it! If you limit this to just under 25s, it is an ever-bigger percentage, 40%! What was slightly more surprising was that 20% of men said they owned straighteners.
Straightening your hair can take between 10 and 45 minutes – depending on just how curly, long, and thick your locks really are. Although some people even say it takes up to 2 hours to smooth their tresses. No matter how long it takes, as far as we are concerned those extra few minutes in the morning are valuable. So we are going to take you through our tips on how to maintain your smooth, straightened style overnight so that you can reap the benefits for longer.
Table Of Contents
Invest In A High-Quality Thermal Protector And Straightening Serum
Often a straightening serum will also give you thermal protection. However, some products will only act as a hairspray to help to retain the hold for longer, meaning that you need to use two different products to get both the benefits – it depends on the products you choose. We recommend using them every single time you straighten your hair, and similarly when you blow-dry or curl it to protect your hair from damage and keep your style healthy for longer.
Heat protection for your hair often comes in the form of a silicone-based spray. You spritz it onto your hair before you style it and it forms a protective barrier around the strands of your hair. It traps moisture and infuses your hair with nourishing vitamins and fatty acids to give you a healthy sheen. They work on wet or dry hair, but you should only be straightening dry hair. We would always advise using a heat protection product before blow-drying your hair or straightening it.
Most straightening serums are designed to be applied before you style your hair for this very reason. Many also help you to retain your straight hair for longer and can be applied after you have straightened it as well to maximize hold for longer.
Use It Again At Bedtime
Your serum use doesn’t have to stop once you have straightened it. Before you go to bed, you can apply the same product to your hair from heat and moisture as you sleep. Alternatively, you can apply a different, soothing serum or hair oil to condition your hair and protect it from frizzing.
Pin Your Hair Before You Sleep
By pinning your hair to your head before you sleep, you limit its ability to bounce up. It’s easy to do and unless you have very thick, curly hair it shouldn’t take you too long. Simply separate your hair into sections then comb it, wrap it around your head and then pin it with a Kirby grip or hair slide. Build up layers over layers and secure them.
Alternatively, you can tie your hair back for a similar effect. To do this, separate out your hair into 2 to 4 sections and then secure them at the top with an elastic hair tie – don’t tie them too tightly though. Otherwise, your hair will kink overnight! Then, a couple of inches down each bunch, tie another hair tie, and again a few inches below that. This has a similar effect to pinning the hair to your head, in that it limits its ability to bounce, without putting much pressure on the strands themselves.
Protect Your Hair From Heat
Heating your hair directly causes over-drying eventually damage to the strands which can result in split ends and frizz.
Use A Heat Protectant Spray – whenever you are going to blow-dry or straighten your hair, you will want to use a heat protectant spray. This prevents you over-drying the strands of your hair, which can lead to split ends and other damage to your strands. By preventing thermal damage, you reduce your risk or flyaway strands and retain your straight hair.
Choose a ceramic or tourmaline straightener – ideally, choose a straightener with ceramic plates because they deliver an even heat distribution and glide seamlessly without catching. This reduces snags and split ends which can contribute to frizz.
Use the low temperatures settings – this goes for both your blow-dryer and your hair straightener. Higher heat settings are for thicker, coarser hair, and having the heat set too high can damage your hair. Blow drying using the cool air setting is thought to close the cuticles, which helps to hold your style for longer. For straightening, have a look at this temperature guide:
- For fine or damaged hair, choose below 300°F (148°C),
- For normal hair choose between 300°F and 380°F (148°C to 193°C)
- For coarse and curly hair, choose 350°F to 400°F (176°C to 204°C)
Avoid Humidity
Humidity is renowned for causing frizzy hair, even in people who don’t have it normally! To maintain your newly-straightened hair, avoid heat, damp and humidity at all costs. This includes using an umbrella to minimize rainfall on your hair, and keeping yourself cool. You can use air conditioning or a fan to keep your bedroom cool at night. This will minimize the amount you sweat, which would otherwise contribute to humidity around your hair.
As an extra, for when you are in very hot and humid climates, you can always use an anti-humidity spray. You can apply this straight after straightening, or whenever you need to.
Choose Your Bed Sheets Wisely
More specifically, choose your pillowcases carefully! Cotton pillowcases can act as Velcro on your delicate strands of hair. The fibers catch on your hairs and pull it apart, causing tangles, exacerbating frizz and ruining that sleek, newly-straightened look you’ve just achieved. A silk or even satin pillowcase reduces the friction between your pillow and your hair, meaning your straightened style can last for longer.
Satin or silk pillowcases can also do wonders for your skin! Due to the reduced friction, it is thought that they can reduce the rate at which wrinkles form!
Sleep Wearing A Silk Head Scarf
This is a similar principle to sleeping on silk or satin pillowcases. Not only does it feel wonderfully luxurious, but it can also greatly reduce frizz, therefore preventing your newly-straightened hair from springing up. It reduces the friction between your hair and your sheets and reduces kinking.
Combine Methods
You can combine this very easily with both of the hair-securing methods we have talked about to get even better results. If you prefer the wrap-around version, simply pin your hair and then secure a silk scarf around your head. Alternatively, you can purchase specially-designed hair wraps which you place on your head like a hat, but which are made of silky fabric to reduce friction.
On the other hand, you can add a silk scarf easily into your hair-tie method. To do this, lay a silk scarf over your head once you have separated your hair into two bunches. You will want the strands of the scarf to be fairly even each side of your head. When you secure your hair with the first tie, link the scarf into the tie as well. Then, wrap the scarf around your bunch of hair before securing another tie. Continue this until you reach the end of the first bunch, then repeat on the other bunch. You don’t want to secure them too tightly with the bunches or wrap your scarf too tightly either.
Final Thoughts On How You Can Prevent Your Hair From Re-Curling
These final tips may not seem like very much, but they truly can make the difference between keeping your hair straight for 12 and keeping it straight for a few days!
- Choose a good quality straightener – most modern straighteners have technology that nourishes your hair and helps to maintain your sleek style for longer.
- Thoroughly dry before you straighten – straightening wet hair will damage it and make it much harder to straighten it successfully in the future.
- Don’t overdo the styling – while it is tempting to straighten every day, giving your hair a few days off every week will give it the chance to recover and remain healthy.
- Resist the urge to fiddle – running your fingers through your hair can reduce how effective the holding spray is and make it more likely to lose its straightness.
- Use dry shampoo – to maximize the time in between washes, use dry shampoo to absorb oils and add volume to your straightened hair.
- Avoid getting wet – it is much more likely to spring back to its pre-straightened state sooner so use a shower cap and umbrella!
Conclusion
So those are our top tips for keeping your hair straight overnight. If you have any more tried and tested methods, feel free to let us know in the comments section below! If you are interested in upgrading your hair straightener to give you long-lasting straight locks, take a look at what we thought of some of the best hair straighteners on the market.
My hair used to be so nice and straight when it was long then when I cut it short it got frizzy so I started to put it up everyday but it’s getting longer and staying the same…what do I do or what am I doing wrong?
Awesome advice
Great tips. When I flat iron (ceramic) in order to keep my hair straight I gather my hair as if about to place in a ponytail and twist it at the base pinning the twist to the top of my head. After pinning I wrap in a silk scarf twisting the ends of the scarf and tucking them. Scarf knots can be so annoying when you are trying to sleep. For those who sweat or get hot silk is a must. Naturally regulate temperature unlike satin polyester.