Considering Silk Press on Natural Hair? Read This First
Let’s talk about a silk press on natural hair.
If you’re looking to straighten your natural hair, you don’t have a whole lot of options. Using chemical straightening solutions will mess up the natural patterns of your hair while introducing unwanted chemicals.
One of the hair straightening solutions for people trying to keep their natural hair is the silk press. The chances that you’ll try the silk press hair treatment at least once in your natural hair journey are very high.
In this guide, you’ll be learning about the silk press hair treatment to the minutest detail. You’ll learn the pros and cons, how much it costs, how long it lasts; in short, this is the ultimate silk press guide.
What is a Silk Press?
A silk press hair treatment is a hair straightening solution that involves using the traditional blow-drying and straightening techniques without using any chemicals that could alter the natural pattern or structure of your hair.
A silk press is a temporary hair straightening treatment, as it does no chemical alteration to your hair. Unless you’re doing it continuously, your hair will revert to its curly or wavy pattern naturally.
The silk press treatment supposedly got its name from the silky feel that it leaves on your hair and the pressing by the flat iron or pressing comb.
Who Can Get a Silk Press?
A silk press can be done on any hair, regardless of the type, color, or thickness. However, this treatment is most effective for natural hair. If you style your hair with a chemical product, a silk press treatment will be more or less ineffective for you.
However, your daily routine can determine if you’re the perfect candidate for a silk press. If you swim or go to the gym regularly, getting a silk press treatment may not be the best idea.
The biggest neutralizer of the silk press treatment is water. Activities like sweating, swimming, or washing your hair will undo the treatment instantly.
How Much Does it Cost to Get a Silk Press?
A silk press hair treatment may look too expensive or too cheap, depending on the other item on your comparison table.
Since you don’t need complicated hair care products for a silk press treatment, it will only set you back around $50 to $150, depending on your location and the stylist.
That price pales in comparison to the $300 to $500 that the average keratin treatment costs. However, it’s a bit more expensive than the $40 to $100 that a blowout treatment costs.
How Long Does a Silk Press Last?
A silk press isn’t a permanent hair straightening treatment, so you shouldn’t expect the results to stick forever. On average, you should have your straight hair for about one or two weeks after the silk press treatment.
While that’s the expected duration of a silk press treatment, many factors can affect how long the treatment will last.
Exposure to water will revert your hair to its original state like you never had a silk press in the first place. If you want to go swimming anytime soon, you should stay away from a silk press treatment, at least until after the swim.
You should also observe your regular hair care routine to prolong the treatment’s duration, but you shouldn’t overdo styling products; they don’t help much once you get a silk press!
Silk Press Advantages and Disadvantages
Up until this section, the silk press hair straightening treatment has been portrayed in a positive light. If you’ve tried some hair straightening solutions previously, you should know that you’ll be hard-pressed to find one that doesn’t do some damage to your hair.
In this section, you’ll learn some of the pros and cons of getting a silk press over alternate hair straightening treatments.
Silk Press Advantages
It’s a good thing that the silk press has way more advantages than disadvantages. Here are some of the pros of a silk press hair treatment.
- It’s chemical-free
Finding a hair straightening treatment as someone who has decided to go natural is no joke. Almost every haircare solution will find a way or two to incorporate formaldehyde. Silk press remains one of the best chemical-free hair straightening treatments for natural hair.
- Easy to maintain
Apart from the fact that you can’t swim and you must prevent water from touching your hair at all costs, a silk press hair treatment is relatively easy to maintain.
You don’t need to use any specialized shampoos or spend extra hours in the shower detangling your hair. Also, remember to cover your hair with a silk scarf while you sleep.
- Changes your look
Wearing a new look is always interesting, especially if it involves a radical change to your hair. A silk press treatment will let you transform the look of your hair temporarily, so you can go back to your beautiful natural hair whenever you want.
Silk Press Disadvantages
Here are some of the disadvantages of getting a silk press hair treatment that may want to make you try out some alternatives.
- It’s a heat-based solution.
Just like every other hair treatment based on heat, silk press can lead to some significant heat damage to your hair if you use it continuously over an extended period.
While silk press has no chemicals that alter your hair, the heat from blow-drying the hair in preparation for the treatment can make your hair keratin weaker, making your hair overly dry and susceptible to damage.
Proper use of the silk press treatment won’t magically break, melt, or damage your hair. However, with any heat-based hair treatment solution, there’s always the risk of hair damage.
- You can’t (shouldn’t) do it at home.
You can achieve the perfect silk pressed hair at home (we’ll provide a free guide below), but the chances of getting excellent results without blowing everything up are pretty minuscule.
A silk press is a heat-based treatment, and your stylist knows if it’s the best for you. Also, you don’t know just how much you should heat your hair to get perfect results.
To avoid damaging your hair, you should always use the services of an experienced hairstylist while getting a silk press treatment. However, it doesn’t hurt to do it yourself if you’re okay with the possibility of potentially messing up your hair.
Which is Better; Silk Press or Blow Out?
The hair blowout treatment is similar to the silk press in that it also uses blow-drying to style your hair. The main difference between these two hair treatments is that a silk press involves pressing the hair with a flat iron.
Due to the striking similarities between these hair treatments, it’s hard to choose one over the other. However, a silk press is still objectively better, especially if you have natural hair.
The silk press treatment lasts a little longer than a blowout treatment, and they share the same heat damage risks, and the silk press isn’t even a lot more expensive.
How to Silk Press on Natural Hair at Home
If you want to avoid paying the premium to a stylist for a silk press treatment, you may consider a DIY silk press treatment at home. In this section, I’ll guide you through the process of doing a silk press at home to gain experience and save some money.
Before getting into the tutorial, it’s important to warn you that this may go wrong. If your hair has suffered heat-related damage previously, we recommend having your stylist ascertain if you can use this treatment.
If all is clear, you can follow these basic steps below to silk press your hair at home for free, and a video will be added at the end of the write-up, so make sure to read and watch.
- Detangle and cleanse your hair
Detangling your hair before starting the treatment is essential to ensure that the process is 100% effective. After detangling the hair, you should cleanse it using a clarifying shampoo to remove all the dirt and product buildup, preparing your hair for the treatment.
- Apply a heat protectant and blow-dry your hair
Before blow-drying your hair, it helps to use a heat protectant to minimize the effect of heat on your hair.
After applying a heat protectant spray, you can start blow-drying your hair without having to worry too much about heat damage. You should also note that heat protectant sprays aren’t failsafe, so you should silk press your hair in moderation.
- Straighten your hair using a flat iron
After blow-drying your hair, you can proceed to straighten it with a flat iron. You should divide the hair into multiple small sections and straighten each section separately to achieve the ultimate straight, silky look for your hair.
While a silk press treatment is easy and provides excellent results, you should refrain from doing it frequently. A silk press treatment every so often is enough to avoid the heat damage associated with a silk press treatment.
Here’s the cool video tutorial I promised, I hope you find it helpful.
Conclusion
A silk press is one of the few hair straightening solutions available to people with natural hair, and it’s surprisingly good. It’s not complicated and doesn’t involve using any chemicals, but it delivers silky smooth and straight tresses, at least temporarily.
That doesn’t mean the silk press treatment doesn’t come with its problems too. Once you use a silk press treatment, you can forget about swimming or washing your hair throughout that week, and you also have heat damage to worry about.
I hope you find this post on silk press interesting and helpful.
And if you got questions or feedback, do not hesitate to let me know by leaving a comment below right now.
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