Do you love walking out of the salon with perfectly styled hair and then go home and try to replicate it only to notice you spent two hours and your hair looks like, well, you did it?  This guide is for ladies that want salon styled hair in the comfort of their own home.

Just a few tips & tricks before we start...

• Make sure you have a good quality blow dryer and flat iron. Skimping out and getting less than the best means you get less than the best results and could potentially be using products that will end up damaging your hair, causing frizziness, dryness and split ends.
• Get a good hair heat protectant serum.  These are usually found in the hair styling products at your local beauty or drug store, next to the hairsprays etc. Look for something that says it is to be used with heat tools, these will protect your hair from the high temperatures it is about to be exposed to and will also make the hair shiny and more supple.
• Having a good round or paddle brush is important, it will be your friend when maneuvering a blow dryer in one hand and the brush in the other.
• Make sure that the whole time you are using your dryer, you keep it pointed down toward the shaft of the hair -- this ensures shininess!

Blow Drying

You're out of the shower, you have an hour to get ready for work and you want to look fabulous-- what do you do?

• Grab a good thick towel dry sections of your hair with it. Before you can get salon styled hair, hair dressers usually remove all excess moisture from the hair. Hair should not be dripping wet when you begin to blow dry.
• Now that your hair is damp and not wet, we can begin drying. Separate hair into four sections: part your hair down the middle and then again from ear to ear. This will leave you with two sections on the top of your head and two at the back of your head. Hold the sections waiting to be dried with clips.
  
• Unclip one of the back sections of hair and apply a heat protectant or detangler and gently run your brush through your hair to untangle any problems. Grab your blow dryer in one hand pointing down always.  For most hair, it is important to use a medium-low heat and speed setting with damp hair. Anything higher and you'll end up with a head full of frizzies.
• Continue drying hair in a pointed down manner for each section, making sure you spritz the heat protectant spray over each section and create a gentle tension with your brush as you pass your dryer through your hair.
• Once each section is dry, use the cool setting on your dryer and slowly pass your brush and dryer through your hair once again. This will make the hair shiny and set.

Not that hard, right? Now we're onto the finishing touch-- the flat iron.

Hair Straightening

For this part, you'll need a little practice. There is no shortcut for learning how your hair responds best to straightening irons. Some thicker hair types will need a few more passes than thinner hair types and some coarse hair will need slower passes with the flat iron than bleached or chemically treated hair. The following is a guideline to use, which you can tweak to your specific hair type as you go.

• MAKE SURE YOUR HAIR IS COMPLETELY DRY! Failure to do so will result in damaged and frizzy hair, we don't want that now, do we? ;) The only exception to this rule would be if you have a Wet to Dry flat iron, in which case go ahead and iron your hair if its still wet. These irons are usually a little pricier but cut down on drying time.
  
• Use a comb to create 2 inch sections throughout your hair, and clip it. This may seem tedious and repetitive but it is essential to good even results and will make the ironing process go by faster. Invest a little time in creating these sections and it will pay off.
• Make sure your sections are not larger than the plate size of your iron. A common mistake is creating sections that are too large, and this impedes the ability of the flat iron to create good even straightening results.
• Grab a section of your hair near your scalp with your iron. Gently and evenly, pass your iron down to the tip of your hair. Again, depending on your hair type you may have to pass the iron slowly or faster over the sections of hair, once you see how your hair reacts to the iron you'll know more about how to use the iron. It is important not too linger too long on one section, as this may cause damage like split ends and dryness.
• Repeat the last step for all the sections of your hair and voila! Beautiful results in less time than you thought!

Closing thoughts...

1. Use a good dryer and flat iron, you don't want to use less than the best and risk damaging your hair!
2. Make sure your hair is dry before ironing
3. When you flat iron your hair, make sure you section it into 2 inch sections
   
4. Pay attention to your own hair's needs: does it need more passes with the iron, does it need more heat protectant serum, do you need more towel drying time?
   
5. Remember: Beauty takes practice & patience!