Hair Pressing Demonstration

Today, I did a demonstration on Hair Pressing. It's kind of an old-fashioned, yet still very popular, technique of temporarily straightening and smoothing very course, curly hair. There are many types of pressing combs that are used for this process. Some are long for long hair and short for short hair. Some have wider teeth, while others have very close teeth for a smoother result. Some combs are electric with a built-in thermostat and some are heated in an electric Marcel-type of heating unit that looks similar to a tiny oven. Today, we used both types and each student practiced sections of a manikin head. They were excited to try it, but also nervous because the irons got so hot. We used the thermostat iron set at 400-degrees. The unregulated iron needed to be tested each time using a piece of light paper. If the paper turned brown, then the comb would burn the hair. There was alot of brown paper, but I'm proud to say there was no burned hair, or skin (thank goodness). We were very careful and followed safety rules and procedures. This was a fun lesson and the students had a fun day.