Is Your Steaming Flat Iron Giving You Bubble Hair

Steam flat irons are one of the advanced styling tools in the hair care industry. This tool has gained overnight popularity because of its ability to straighten both wet and dry hair quickly and precisely. it also causes less hair damage than any regular flat iron and infuses your hair strands with an adequate amount of moisture so that they remain silky and smooth even after the styling process.

However, with all its amazing benefits, a steaming flat iron also has a minor drawback – it results in bubble hair. Bubble hair is an annoying hair condition that makes your tresses look lackluster and messy.

Keeping in mind about the users of steam straighteners, in this article, we have discussed everything about bubble hair and how to prevent them so that you can enjoy smooth, silky, lustrous hair even after using this new-generation tool.

What is Bubble Hair?

In simple words, bubble hair is a hair shaft abnormality that makes your hair strands suffer from air pockets and unevenness. It is a type of thermal injury that deforms your hair shafts completely and makes your precious locks look bumpy and damaged.

One of the major reasons your hair suffers from this irregularity is because of an excessive amount of heat. When you apply a high amount of heat to your wet or damp tresses to straighten them, the water inside the hair follicle boils up and instead of evaporating; it gets trapped inside the hair fiber. This trapped water expands and forms air pockets in the hair strands to make your hair look uneven, bumpy and cause an internal cavity.

These expanded, air-filled bubbles also result in cracks and holes in the cuticles and damage your precious tresses from the inside out. Damaged hair strands are dry and fragile and suffer from breakage and fall easily.

How to Determine if You Have Bubble Hair?

If you have been using a substandard steam flat iron then there is a high possibility that you are already suffering from bubble hair. Look for the following symptoms to determine if your manes are suffering from this annoying hair condition or not.

• Your tresses feel rough and don’t slide off each other
• They become excessively dry and fragile
• Becomes hard to detangle and breaks off easily
• You are experiencing patchy hair loss due to weak hair
• You tresses look uneven and bumpy
• Suffering from immense frizz and flyaways
• Your hair strands are experiencing severe split ends

How a Steaming Flat Iron is Responsible for Bubble Hair?

Before discussing how steam straighteners cause bubbles in hair let’s first understand how this tool works. A steam flat iron is not like any regular hair straightening tool; it uses heat as well as Vapor Infusion Technology to straighten your tresses quickly and effectively. But as it is using two different heating methods (conventional heat and steam heat), there is a high probability that this tool will damage your hair if it’s not used properly.

When you keep your steam flat iron in your wet hair strands for an extended period, the heat and the steam from the plates start acting as boiling water on the tresses and form several air bubbles in the hair fibers. These bubbles not only give your precious manes an uneven texture but also absorb the moisture so that your hair becomes dry and brittle and suffers from excessive frizz.

Also keep in mind that, regardless of the price and brand, a steam straightening tool will always form air bubbles in the tresses if you hold it one place for a long period.

Also check out: Can You Straighten Curly Weave

Steps to Prevent Bubble Hair

There is an old saying “prevention is better than cure”. Take necessary safety measures before straightening your hair locks to make sure that they are styled properly without suffering from any air bubbles or heat burns and damages.

1. The first and foremost advice would be to use as little heat as possible to style the tresses. Do not style or straighten your hair daily to keep them healthy as well as good-looking.
2. Never try to straighten or style your dripping wet hair with a hot styling tool. Start your straightening session by using a microfiber hair towel. A microfiber hair towel like the DuraComfort Essentials Microfiber Hair Towel soaks up 95% of the excess water from your hair and leaves them slightly damp so that you don’t require a super high amount of heat to straighten them properly. Slightly damp hair also requires less steam and hence, doesn’t form any bubbles or air pockets.
3. Even when your tresses are healthy and silky, don’t forget to apply a heat protection spray for straightening hair (we prefer this HSI PROFESSIONAL Argan Oil Heat Protector) all over them before the straightening. A heat protectant not only shields your precious manes from the high heat of the steam flat iron but also makes sure that they don’t suffer from any air holes or hair bubbles.
4. Choose excellent quality steam straightener  to straighten your tresses. A steam straightener like this kboo Hair Straightener removes any water particle left in the hair 3X Faster and with 60% less damage. Cheap steam straighteners do not distribute heat evenly to each hair strand and have the potential to form hair bubbles easily.

Ways to Restore Bubble Hair

If you have never followed the above steps and your tresses are already suffering from bubble hair, you must take necessary steps to restore the manes and bring back their healthy self.

One of the easiest and most effective ways to get rid of such hair condition is to chop them off. Having a trendy haircut like short bob or Diana cut would not only minimize bubbles but also give you a brand-new, sexy outlook.

Then again, not everyone is willing to cut down their long tresses. In such cases, we would suggest trying a Botox keratin hair treatment as it repairs bubble hair super quickly.

This specialized treatment finds out the bubbles and air pockets in your tresses and infuses them with keratin and collagen to restore their previous self. This keratin and collagen also rebuilds the hair fiber and provides enough moisture and nourishment to the tresses so that your manes look incredibly healthy without any traces of bubbles and holes.

Sources

• Charlene Latreuille, Is Your Steaming Flat Iron Giving You Bubble Hair?, 8th March 2019