Well not...completely straight. Blow dried. I think this is the next step for me. Honestly my hair has just become a time suck for me. Its like Ive traded in the hours at the salon for hours detangling my freakin' hair in the shower. I understand that healthy hair takes work but I refuse to spend hours twisting, braiding, detagling...I have 2 young kids and better things to do. Also at the length I'm at now knots and tangles have just become crazy. I run the risk of snapping knots every time manipulate my hair. And with my hair being longer now, and thick, even just a basic bun is hard to do with my hair in its natural state. Bottom line, its just not fitting my lifestyle anymore. When my hair is straightened or bow dried, it keeps knots and tangles at bay, makes my hair much easier to manipulate, easier to moisturize, and it seems to hold moisture longer a week or week and a half as opposed to like 2-3 days. I can easily just pin it up and go about my business. I want to grow my hair longer but it has to be managable for me and it cant be at the expense of the other things in life that I have to do. So I think this is a good option for me and I think I'll keep it blow dried most of the time, except in the summer when I go to the beach and swim a lot.

I will be following this topic because I am in a similar situation.

I've gone from being a heat-trained (damaged) transitioner to being relatively heat free in 2012 but now it's 2013 and I'm question if I wanna continue to use heat sparingly or if I want to return to using it regularly.

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Hey there. I am new at Curly Nikki! I know exactly what you mean! Just about two months ago I started blow drying my hair straight, because it was so much easier for me to style. I just wash/condition it then blow dry using a heat protector. At first my hair was hesitate, but after a month... it adapted really good. Hopefully this helped. Good luck!

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^ It does help, thanks One thing I have learned is that we all have to do what works best for us and figure out what we can tolerate. I'm actually excited about this. I definately plan on doing my best to prevent/rduce damage as much as possible. But at this point I feel that careful heat use won't damage my hair any more than snapping through these knots and tangles already is lol

You're welcome.

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Yeah, there seems to be many naturals now who take this route these days..especially those with longer hair. I'm not a fan of constantly re-braiding/re-twisting too often too because it is too time consuming for me. If blow drying definitely saves you time, then I don't see what not. It's always best to do what fixes your life style. There are also many things out there to keep your hair strong if you choose to blow dry anyway. You also always have the option of blow drying on cool or medium heat too.

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●BC'ed @ 22 mo. post,May 2012.
(Living in sub-tropical humidity hell)
●Hair Type:4D/5A.Fine-Textured. Grows Down + Out.

Ill be following this thread. I've actually been considering this myself. I just don't know how to go about it without damage.

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Type 4, Coarse, Low Porosity.
75% shrinkage. Past CBL stretched.
Natural since 3.7.11.

Me too. I blow dried in Dec and I was so able to rid my ends of ssks. It was so easy to manipulate not dealing with over manipulation or broken strands. My tangles are cray in and out of the shower. I found that get much less ssks if I keep my ends stretched through blo drying and banding. TO & BO styles don't cut it as far as stretching my hair. My only reservation is that after transitioning from relaxed I had tons of heat damage that cost me about 10 mos setback. For now I'm just psing. So either it's ps, curlformers/flex rod sets or blow dry

Hey curls. Do what's best for you. It's gotten to the point that I dread wash day. So I want now start using heat. It must be meant because a fellow natural started talking to me about my hair. She had about mid back length hair, it was hard to tell because the ends were curled and I was blown when she said she was natural.
She blow dries and flat irons about every six to eight weeks and trims her ends regularly, mainly if she she's they are too dry. Her hair is GORGEOUS. And she made me LOL when she said "I just don't have time to sit every night twisting and pinning or whatever, it's too much work". She complemented my hair but she said she knows too well the work it takes to get it done.

So, all that to say.... If you know that using heat will benefit you, go for it. Spring semester starts for me on Jan 28, at that point, I won't have time for all the work my hair takes. Pre-poo/detangle, wash, oils, sealing, etc. just too much. Heat may be the way I go too.

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"Failure, in my book, is someone who lives in the safety of their laptop taking shots at those who actually achieved what they have been unable to do." ~ Eli Roth

I guess there is always the chance of damage but so far my hair has been reverting every time. Hopefully it stays that way now that I'm going to be more frequent with it. My plan to prevent/reduce damage is this (what Ive been dong when I blow dry...)

After my wash/detangle:

DC my hair with a DC that contains moisture and a little protein for strength...lately Ive been mixing a little chi infra treatment in with my regular DC since it is a heat protecting DC. (I DC with heat for about 10-15 min)

Rinse and apply my leave in and then seal with a little silicone serum (works better for me than natural oils)

Apply light coating of heat protectant and band my hair in 4 sections and airdry

Next day apply more heat protectant carefully brush the section im working on with my denman and then tenson blow dry from root to midshaft on medium/low heat and speed. Then when I get to the ends cool shot the ends.

Then I use my comb attatchment ( does not catch or cause breakage for me) comb from root to midshaft on med/low, then cool shot comb down to the ends.

Twist the section...move on. Ive been havng a lot of sucess with this method. Maybe t can give you some ideas on how to go about it for yourself if you choose to start using a little heat.