Your hair is an important part of your overall beauty package. If it does not complement the rest of the other parts, your overall beauty will diminish. There may have been times when you wanted to alter your hair in order to make it more complementary to the rest of your looks. And, rightly so, because transforming your hairstyle can--and often does--improve your looks. In many cases, a transformed hairstyle looks better than one's natural hairstyle. If your hairstyle is naturally wavy or curly, you might want to shift to a straighter hairstyle with the use of a hair straightener.

Modern science and technology have achieved much in improving tools, processes, and techniques for straightening hair. Nowadays, you can succesfully straighten your hair within an hour or so. You have two major options for getting straighter hair. The first one is through the services of a professional hair expert. She or he has adequate training and expertise to straighten your hair, but the process will often cost a lot. An alternative way is to make a one-time investment in a hair straightener solution. This alternative way makes the process convenient for you because you can do it at home.

Hair salons and hair stylists commonly apply hair straightening chemicals to your hair. Many of such substances, however, are harsh and destructive to the hair. Ammonia, for example, is a major ingredient of many of such hair straightening solutions and is a well known cause of allergic skin or scalp reactions. Other hair stylists have started using a less damaging approach that does not employ ammonia and other harsh chemicals. Examples of such innovative solutions are the Cationic Hydration Interlink (CHI) hair straightener tools. Farouk Systems, Inc. manufactures CHI hair straighteners that many professional hairstylists are currently using for hair transformation techniques ranging from the traditional straightening of hair to modifying hair according to the latest hairstyles.

Many people still use traditional hair irons for straightening their hair, but CHI hair straighteners are preferred by expert hairstylists because CHI hair straighteners not only produce results similar to those of traditional hair irons but also produce them better. One very important advantage of CHI hair straighteners over the traditional hair iron is that very minimal moisture loss occurs during the hair straightening procedure. When your hair loses a lot of water, your hair becomes dry and brittle. With far infrared, ceramic, and ionic technologies combined, CHI hair straighteners keep your hair's moisture in while they iron your hair flat.

In plain and simple terms, CHI hair straighteners use infrared waves to heat the flat ceramic surfaces on the hair straightener tool. The hot ceramic plates flatten, smoothen, soften, and straighten your hair. CHI's technology also ensures that your hair won't burn and stick to the hot ceramic plates. Working from the inside going out, CHI hair straighteners prevent much water or moisture from escaping as the ceramic plates shine and soften your hair.

When performing hair straightening on your own, you should take precautionary measures to prevent overheating your hair. Use heat protection products on your hair. Such products are designed specifically for hair treatment and usually come as gels or creams that you can apply to your hair. CHI has several of such products, but you might want to try out the other brands that are available in many hair care stores and salons.

The process itself of ironing your hair is very easy to do. Clamp a layer of your dry hair with the hot ceramic surfaces and gently pull the tool away from your scalp. If you want to work on damp (or even slightly wet) hair, you must use a CHI Auto-Digital Wet to Dry Ceramic Hairstyling Iron; otherwise, always work on dry hair. After one pass, you will be able to see straighter hair. At times, especially if your hair is tough, you can try two or three passes.

Since innovative hair straighteners such as CHI hair straighteners never use irritating chemicals and substances, you can straighten your hair without worrying much about chemical damage.