This week's focus

How to Add Body Back to Fine Straightened Hair

Here's something that typically happens when you straighten fine hair.

You finish your silk press and your hair is smooth, but it doesn't have quite the body you desired. Or a few days later, the style has fallen and your hair just looks a little...blah.

Your first instinct may be to pull the flat iron back out. Then maybe follow it with a curling iron to put some shape back into the hair.

But your hair doesn't need a bunch of extra heat added to it again.

It just needs reshaping.

A flat iron is doing the job of taking textured hair and removing that texture from it. Once your hair is straight, it doesn't take too much to give it more body, bend or movement.

That distinction matters even more with fine hair because every extra pass with a heat styling tool like a curling iron means more direct heat on strands that have less room for unnecessary heat exposure.

And there's another reason your straightened hair looks different than you expected.

Your natural texture creates volume. Once you stretch and smooth that texture, much of that volume disappears. If your individual strands are fine, the difference can be pretty noticeable.

That doesn't mean you can't enjoy styling your hair in a silk press. Straight and full are just two different styling goals.

Once you understand that, you can choose your tools based on what your hair actually needs.

If your hair has reverted and you want it straight again, that's one thing.

But if it's sufficiently straight and simply needs more body, movement or polish, you don't need to put it through an intense heat styling process again.

This is where setting the hair can be useful.

Hot rollers can quickly reshape hair that is already straight, giving it bend and movement without sandwiching each section between the heated plates of a flat iron or wrapping that same section around the heated surface of a curling iron.

Hot rollers still use heat, so we're not talking about totally heat free styling when wanting quick reshaping.

We're talking about using the right type of heat for the job you're trying to accomplish without risking heat damage.

So before you reach for a curling iron, ask yourself: