The silk press technique is a need for a lot of women, especially for our curly sisters. Now that we are on lockdown and you may not be able to go to the salon for that much-needed silk press, you may want to read on to know how you can do it at home.
There are just a few things you need to remember in order to successfully silk press your hair without damaging it. Let’s go ahead and dive right in.
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Enjoy Silky Straight Hair for Days
Silk Press Process
First of all, silk press uses high heat so to make sure that you do not damage your hair, deep conditioning is a must. If your hair has been previously pressed, use a clarifying shampoo to rinse out any build-up. Rinse it thoroughly to make sure that the roots and all the strands are clean and clarified.
After you have done that, you can now start deep-conditioning your hair. You can use whatever conditioner brand you like as long as it effectively makes the hair soft, moisturized, and bouncy.
Some women might need to put on a conditioning mask overnight. Yet, some might only need it drenched in conditioners for a few hours. Nevertheless making sure that your hair is conditioned enough is the most important step in a silk press.
Here’s What You Will Need:
- Blow dryer
- Round brush
- Fine tooth comb
- Titanium flatiron
- Alligator clips or hair tie to section hair
- Argan oil
- Cling wrap/saran wrap
Step 1: Blow Dry and Straighten
After drying the hair with a cotton cloth, it’s time to prep the strands for the actual press. Start by applying a heat protectant serum.
Proceed to the actual sectioning and blow-drying of the hair to get it as straight as possible. No need to worry about keeping it perfectly straight, the silk press method will do that for you.
Step 2: Silk Press
When the hair has been blow-dried, it is now time to apply heat from the flatiron.
Note: Make sure to use a titanium flat iron instead of a ceramic one because the hair comes out shinier under the heat of titanium plates.
Section the hair and by using a fine-tooth comb separate about an inch-width of hair. It is best to go through this in really thin sections, however, if you are comfortable pressing a thicker section you may do so as well.
Carefully iron the hair, slowly going through the length and making sure that the hair is pressed straight for that perfect silk press. Go through all the sections until you are done.
You may repeat sections as necessary but take note that high heat can damage hair. It is definitely to go through the hair length slowly and carefully so as to avoid repetition.
At this point, you may already stop here. Your hair will definitely look silky smooth as long as you follow the directions correctly. However, the next step will take your hair from regular silky straight to amazing.
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Step 3. Silk Press Hair Wrap
This next step is not necessary, but it will make your hair silkier, bouncy and it will look natural even.
To do this, section your hair and apply argan oil. Just a little amount will do, you don’t want it to be too greasy.
Comb your hair with the intention of wrapping it around your head. Avoid twisting it around in itself because it will undo all that hair pressing that you just did. You may apply heat using a blow dryer to help the argan oil penetrate deep into the roots of the hair.
In some cases, you may want to sleep on it overnight but 20-30 minutes of blowdrying and a few more minutes to cool down will do the trick.
Check out these amazing professional tips to avoid hair damage from Ann Le:
Voila! Silk press hair that is shiny, bouncy, and so beautiful. Style as desired with curls or just silky straight hair, whichever you choose I’m sure it will turn out beautiful.
Have you ever done a silk press at home? What’s your silk press story? We’d love to hear from you, let us know in the comments section below.
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