The deep dive
Is breaking up with heat the answer to all your hair woes? We investigate…
M y relationship with my hair straighteners is the most reliable and long-term one I’ve ever had. After I got my first pair, I didn’t look back. They perfectly smoothed my candy flossesque hair texture and helped revive limp noodle curls in a single twist. What wasn’t to love? Well, the damage, that’s what.
I was already hooked by the time I realised the havoc that heat was wreaking on my tresses, and while I’ve tried to go teetotal over the years, those ceramic plates keep calling me back. So you can imagine my scepticism when I was scrolling through TikTok one evening to discover the ‘heatless curl method’. Lo and behold, Gen Z were cutting out the need for heat, using the most random of objects.
It was entertaining, to say the least. Watching people wrap locks around towels, men’s ties, even socks – there was no household item left untouched. But it wasn’t until a satin heatless headband set landed on my desk, complete with matching silk scrunchies, that I decided I just had to give it a go.
My first attempt left me wrestling with the silky headband, wrapping my damp hair around it before going to sleep. But by the end of the week I was a pro, and when I shook my hair out in the mornings, I had brilliantly bouncy curls. As a selfproclaimed lazy girl, this seemed too good to be true; you get extra sleep and skip the heat damage? Just take my money.
It’s gettin’ hot in here
A couple of months later, my hair wasn’t only shinier, but growth was happening at a faster rate than I’d ever seen. After years of accepting that I wasn’t genetically blessed in that department, I started to wonder: was it just heat that was stunting my hair’s potential all this time?
I voiced my theory to textured hair specialist and Living Proof pro expert Errol Douglas, who confirmed my suspicion. ‘Preventing damage is always better than looking for a cure,’ he says. ‘Exposure to high heat can pull moisture from the hair, changing its protein structure, causing cracks to the cuticle layer (the F-layer) and making it vulnerable to damage. If you don’t protect strands prior to heat styling, it can not only cause damage, but change your texture and shift your colour.’
Hairstylist and Virtue educator and ambassador Jonathan Eagland says heat is a major factor in your hair’s health. ‘Other than chemical processing (such as colouring and bleaching), heat is the main aggressor,’ he says. ‘You may not notice it right away, but before you know it, split ends and breakage will begin.’
So, is there a happy medium we can all strive for – where heat can be used for good? ‘Heated hair tools, in my opinion, will always be damaging as they’re unnatural,’ says Eagland.
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