11 Best Products To Straighten Natural Hair 2024

When you went natural, how long did it take you to straighten your hair?

A month?

A year?

Two years?

We hear all the stories about heat damage that scare us away from manipulating our natural hair.

While heat damage is real, there are ways to protect our hair.

There are products on the market like heat straightening creams and heat protectants that help the process.

No one should get into the battle of straightening natural hair without the appropriate equipment, but luckily, we’ve got it for you.

Here are 11 products that will help anyone straighten their natural hair.

Keratin Complex Infusion Therapy Infusion

As you’ll come to find out, keratin is an essential ingredient in hair care.

Because of this, you’ll want to try the Keratin Complex Infusion Therapy.

It works well for a number of reasons.

One, the product helps infuse keratin, the hair protein, to your strands to further protect it during styling.

It also works against heat and humidity, the bane newly straightened natural hair.

Keratin Complex also boasts that this product is both lightweight and moisture-rich.

This allows for hydrating and smoothing the hair during blow drying or straightening.

Another added benefit of this product is that it’s meant to shorten the amount of time it takes to blow-dry or heat style your hair.

Plus, the conditioning products will help it stay silky and shiny.

Overall, this product is going to help keep your hair straighter, silkier, and stronger for longer.

Giovanni Straight Fast Hair Straightening Elixir

Cruelty-free is very important to many people, and if that’s something you’re looking for in your products, try the Giovanni Straight Fast Hair Straightening Elixir. 

While it might be a heat protectant, it offers more than that.

This product helps smooth hair while also hydrating the scalp.

They boast that their crystal clear gel not only helps smooth and relax curls and coils, but it also gives them a beautiful, natural shine.

The Giovanni product is also able to penetrate the hair deeply with its botanical extracts and oils, which allows for further protection.

Plus, in addition to being cruelty-free, this hair straightening elixir is also sulfate-free, paraben-free, and safe for colored hair.

Oribe Straight Away Smoothing Blowout Cream

Blowouts can take forever, especially when you’re styling your hair yourself.

The Oribe Straight Away Smoothing Blowout Cream helps with that.

This product promises everything we could ever want in a blowout.

Not only are the blowouts meant to be quicker, but your hair will be protected against heat and humidity.

Plus, this product will help your hair keep its body instead of falling flat.

It contains a number of beneficial ingredients that include hydrolyzed quinoa, great mullein flower, and root juice.

The quinoa helps strengthen and protects from breakage while the mullein flower is rich in vitamins.

The root juice also helps deliver nourishment and antioxidants to the hair.

Last, but not least, the most important ingredient in the Oribe blowout cream is the heat-activated protein.

As its name implies, it literally begins working once heat is applied.

Bumble And Bumble Bb. Straight Blow Dry Cream

We’re all after the perfect blow out, and you’re one step closer with this product.

The Bumble and Bumble Bb. Straight Blow Dry Cream is a heat protectant.

In addition to helping protect your hair from high heat, it also shines and helps with frizzy hair.

That’s not the only thing this product does.

While it helps de-frizz and tame flyaways, it also helps straighten strands as well.

The product works on any hair type, but works best on those with medium to thick density hair.

Since this product is meant to help with blow drying, be sure to apply this Bumble and Bumble product to the hair while it is still damp.

Kerastase Discipline Blow-Dry Smoothing Primer

The Kerastase Discipline Blow-Dry Smoothing Primer is relatively new, but this product looks extremely promising. 

Whether your natural hair is more curly or coiled, it can work for you.

This product is a leave-in treatment that helps protect the hair from extreme heat while also preventing further damage.

Not only does this Kerastase discipline primer provide anti-frizz and anti-humidity protection, but it also smooths the hair for a healthier-look.

This product should be applied to towel-dried hair.

Tigi Bed Head Straighten Out Straightening Cream

Is there anything worse than straightening natural hair only for it to fall victim to humidity?

The Tigi Bed Head Straighten Out Straightening Cream will help with this.

This product contains thermo-setting polymers that help the hair stay straight for up to 48 hours.

Plus, it will stand up in 98% humidity.

This Tigi Bed Head product will also keep the hair smooth and shiny.

The glycerin in the product helps penetrate hair fibers which help condition it from within.

It can also be applied dry.

So try using it right before flat ironing or right before applying your conditioner.

Redken Align 12 Protective Smoothing Lotion, Award Winning Product To Straighten Natural Hair

If you’re looking for an award winner, this is it.

The Redken Align 12 Protective Smoothing Lotion was the 2013 Best of Beauty Winner for Best Straightener.

Why?

The biggest boast of this product is its anti frizz technology, which offers long-lasting protection from heat and frizz control.

Meant to be applied to damp hair, the product begins working before heat is applied to help smooth  the strands.

Redken even offers a hair diagnostics quiz to make sure that this product is right for you.

SoftSheen-Carson Optimum Care No-Lye Relaxer

While most of the products are on this list because they help the straightening process, what if you want a more permanent solution?

The SoftSheen-Carson Optimum Care No-Lye Relaxer is an option.

I can’t act as if every natural woman wants to stay natural.

I mean, oftentimes I question whether I want to relax my hair.

If you’re looking to permanently straighten your hair, this SoftSheen-Carson relaxer is one of the most popular on the market.

And if you need more options, here are a few relaxer options for 4a, 4b, and 4c hair types.

Brazilian Blowout Acai Protective Thermal Straightening Balm

If you know anything about hair, you’ll know that the words “Brazilian Blowout” mean something.

That’s why the Brazilian Blowout Acai Protective Thermal Straightening Balm is on the list.

What is the Brazilian blowout?

Imagine full, voluminous hair that frames your face perfectly.

And that’s not it.

While straightening can cause most of our texture to disappear, the kinks in your hair are still visible through a Brazilian blowout, making it ideal.

Now, why is this product worth trying?

This product is also a heat protectant that helps straightening curly and coily hair.

Not only does it tame frizz and protect the hair from heat styling, but it also helps with other environmental stressors.

Namely humidity.

Humid weather can cause your hair to go from cute to electrocuted in minutes.

Not only is the Brazilian Blowout straightening balm going to help reconstruct and strengthen damaged hair, but it creates a protective protein layer on the hair.

This product is going to lead to straighter, smoother, and shinier hair.

John Frieda 3 Day Straight Semi-Permanent Styling Spray

The John Frieda 3-Day Straight Semi-Permanent Styling Spray is going to help with one of the most annoying things about heat styling.

Natural hair can be very susceptible to environmental stressors like heat and humidity.

It oftens seems like after a blowout or straightening session, all our work is dedicated to making it last as long as possible.

This John Freida product is going to help reinforce your straightened look for up to three days.

This product contains polymers of keratin protein.

They are said to wrap around each strand to help seal them in their style.

While most of the products on this list are creams or lotions, this is a spray.

Meant to be used on wet hair, it is important to evenly distribute it throughout the hair.

If your hair is thick and dense, it is best to separate your hair into sections and apply the product before blow drying.

The John Frieda Styling Spray should not be applied directly before straightening.

TRESemme Expert Selection Heat Protection Spray

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen this product everywhere.

It might be wrong to think this, but the TRESemme Expert Selection Heat Protectant Spray might be the most popular on the market.

If you’re natural, you’re probably not applying heat to your hair very often, which makes this product that much more protective.

This product is ideal for those who heat style their hair often, which adds to its appeal, especially for those who seldom do it.

The TRESemme heat protectant is meant to restore vibrancy and shine to hair.

It also stands up to heat tools that reach up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, even though no one should be styling their hair with such high heat.

If you’re blow drying your hair, spray this on damp hair.

This product can also be applied on dry hair as well.

There is one thing to be mindful of.

When you hear sizzling from your straightener, that’s a bad sign.

It’s a sign that your hair is still wet, and damp hair is more susceptible to heat damage.

If you’re straightening with this product while your hair is dry, allow the heat protectant to dry before going in with the straightener.

Your hair will thank you!

What Ingredients To Look For In Straightening Products

When straightening hair, there are a few things to be mindful of.

The most popular way to achieve straight hair from natural hair is through heat.

You could either use a blow dryer or a hot tool like a flat iron or straightener.

Regardless, normally heat will be applied to the hair.

Because of this, it’s important to protect your hair as much as possible.

It is important to be mindful of the ingredients you should be looking for in your straightening products.

Applying heat to the hair can cause it to become dry, brittle, and unhealthy.

Because of this, apply products in advance that are going to help counter the effects.

Ingredients like Vitamin E, argan or coconut oils can help.

Vitamin E is an antioxidant that helps with a number of things.

One, it helps promote a healthy scalp which leads to hair growth and overall hair health.

The vitamin also stops hair follicles from breaking down which can lead to shedding.

Argan oil is another great ingredient because of its fatty acids.

They help moisturize the hair and the scalp which is important to maintaining healthy hair.

Coconut oil, on the other hand, is a popular ingredient used in hair care.

This is possibly because it contains many great ingredients.

Not only does coconut oil moisturize, but it is rich in nutrients.

It contains natural antioxidants while also having vitamin E, vitamin K, and iron.

Vitamins and oils are great ingredients to look for, but that’s not all you need.

As I mentioned, straightening your hair can be damaging.

If you are going to do it, do it right.

Other ingredients to check for are keratin protein and ceramide.

Starting with the latter, ceramide helps restore hair’s balance.

It also helps minimize damage that might be done during the straightening process.

The last ingredient to look for in straightening products are keratin proteins.

Our hair is made up of protein, so it’s important to keep them strong and enforced.

Using a product that contains keratin protein will help strengthen the hair if our natural protein is being broken down.

Best Products to Straighten Natural Hair Conclusion

If you’re natural, straightening your hair is daunting.

No one wants heat damage.

While you should definitely minimize how often you straighten your hair, it can be done while keeping your hair healthy.

You just need the right equipment for this, as well as to keep your hair straight after straightening it.

First, start with the products on this list.

Then, you’ll need the perfect flat iron for curly or coily hair.

Straightening your hair shouldn’t feel like you’re saying goodbye to a friend.

And with the best products for straightening natural hair, it doesn’t have to.