At the first Masterclass Demo on the 30th ESSENCE Festival BeautyCon™ stage, celebrity hair stylist Ashanti Lation shows us a step-by-step of her favorite hair trends and tips. The founder of VIP Luxury Hair Care and stylist for ESSENCE Festival performers Victoria Monet and Ari Lennox has been busy mastering the latest celebrity-approved techniques, tips and tricks.
Below, Lation shares her top 5 pro tips for a New Orleans heat-surviving silk press––and every look in between.
Pro tip 1: Shampoo the scalp first
“You want to take warm water, if you have low porosity hair, and let it get fully saturated,” she says, just like a sponge. “A lot of people like to take the shampoo and put it on their hair first. No,” she warns. “Shampoo always goes on your scalp [first] and let it run down.” Opposite that, she recommends using conditioner on the hair shaft first, then work it up. “You don’t want to clog the pores on your scalp [with conditioner].”
You may underestimate how often you should clean your hair tools, which is more than just pulling hair out of it. “Clean your tools, your combs, brushes, curling irons,” she says. “Everything that you use for that process needs to be disinfected every single time.” From using family members’ hair tools to going to the hair salon, building up on tools can make your scalp itch, especially for eczema-prone skin.
Pro tip 3: Detangle from under the shaft
Instead of snapping through your curls, a part of hair care is actually caring for your hair. “Y’all detangling your hair, you’re tearing it up,” she says. This means knowing how to hold the brush. While many people may hold the handle and comb from the top of the hair, Lation recommends holding the brush in your palm and combing from underneath the shaft. “If you’re taking your time and detangling from the bottom up, it goes through every time,” she says. “That’s a tip to make sure you’re not ripping your hair.”
Pro tip 4: Let the hair cool down before pressing
You should use a heat protectant––like Fenty Hair’s The Protective Type or Amika’s Heat Defense Serum––both at the blow dryer and flat ironing stages. “While the hair is still warm, I like to lock in the heat [with heat protectant] and let it cool down,” Lation says. “That’s what makes the press last longer.” Using this pro tip can help your silk press last about three weeks, even in New Orleans heat.
Pro tip 5: Press the hair slowly
Lation debunks the myth of passing over the hair multiple times. Instead, she recommends pressing the hair slowly, with one, long pass. “This is a slow dance, this is not a fast song, this is not a bounce song. Take your time,” she says. To not damage your hair, she also suggests using a ceramic iron for more fine hair, while titanium can be used for thicker, stronger hair. “Fine hair just can’t take all that,” she says. “These steps are also going to help you keep your curl pattern
