If You Use A Flat Iron To Straighten Your Hair All The Time, You Should Definitely Know These 16 Things

Here's how NOT to fry your follicles.

1. First, you should know the golden rule of straightening your hair: never ever use a flat iron on it when it's still wet.

Getty Images

If you're ironing your hair and it sounds like a frying pan sizzling, STOP, because that's exactly what you're doing!

2. You should ideally let your hair air dry, but it's also okay to use a blow dryer to speed that process up a bit.

Getty Images

When your hair is almost completely dry, that's when you can give it a quick brush to get better results.

3. You absolutely must use heat protectant product to minimize damage to your precious strands.

@moroccanoil / Via instagram.com

This step is important in order to avoid drying out your hair too much or damaging it. There are literally thousands of these kinds of products out there, so you have no excuse!

4. Don't heat your straightener to any temperature hotter than 365 degrees.

Getty Images

But that's only if your hair is a little thicker. If your hair is thin, try to keep it under 325º.

5. Don't go after huge chunks all at once — divide up your hair and tackle it by small sections.

Getty Images

It'll be way faster in the long run.

6. Always start with your flat iron at the roots and work your way out to the ends. Make sure to hold your hair taut throughout the process.

Getty Images

7. You can and should run a brush through the section of hair to remove tangles before hitting it with the straightener.

Getty Images

If you use a comb or brush to lead the way ahead of your straightening iron, you'll end up with winning results.

8. Make sure you don't iron over the same section of hair more than once.

Getty Images

If the flat iron is hot enough and you did everything right, running it through your hair more than once will only destroy your beautiful hair.

9. In case you didn't know, you can also use a flat iron to get seriously great beachy waves.

mythashomestead.com

Here's just one tutorial of many out there on how to get wavy hair with a flat iron.

10. If you're not a 100% expert at straightening your hair, we recommend you use a ceramic flat iron.

BuzzFeed / Getty Images

This kind of starter straightener will give you fewer opportunities to burn your hair.

11. If you have a bit of experience and need something more powerful, a titanium flat iron is what you want.

BuzzFeed / Amazon

These flat irons get hotter and warm up faster.

12. If your problem is frizz, a flat iron with tourmaline plates is perfect for you:

BuzzFeed / Bed Bath and Beyond

These types of flat irons produce more negative ions than any other flat iron, which will make your hair shiny and reduce frizz.

13. Clean your flat iron every week with a cotton swab soaked in rubbing alcohol.

Getty Images

Just make sure it's cold and off, of course.

14. Stay away from products with silicone in them when you've finished flat-ironing your hair.

Getty Images

Silicone is a synthetic ingredient that acts as a protective layer that looks shiny, but essentially just keeps your hair from absorbing nutrients. It's also hard to wash out of your hair.

15. Say YES to finishing products.

Getty Images

Definitely finish your look off with anti-frizz products that allow your hair to stay straight for longer.

16. And hey, you know this already, right? Don't flat-iron your hair every day.

Getty Images

A good straightening job can last for up to three days with the proper care and some dece dry shampoo!

For more translated content and BuzzFeed International goodness, subscribe to Inter Webz: our new bi-weekly newsletter bringing you the best of the 'net from around the world.

This post was translated from Spanish.