Styling Your Hair With Flat Irons
by Ashley Laurier on September 10, 2008
Flat irons are a versatile styling product. Most people are aware of their ability to create poker straight hair, but they can also be used to create waves and curls. Why waste money buying different styling appliances, when you can create multiple hairstyles with your flat irons? This article looks at how to use flat irons to style your hair.
Using flat irons to straighten your hair
This is the most obvious use for flat irons, as it is what they were originally designed for. The popular ceramic flat irons make it easier to straighten most hair types, including hair that is naturally curly or wavy. As well as straightening your hair, they also leave your hair looking smooth and glossy. Flat irons tend to be easy to use. 
In most cases, you simply need to place a small section of hair between the plates of the flat iron, and press the handles together to keep the hair in place and in direct contact with the heated plates. Running the flat iron down the length of your hair will usually be enough to straighten your hair. You should avoid keeping the hair between the plates for much longer than this, as the heat can damage your hair. This is particularly true if your flat iron does not have adjustable heating settings.
Using flat irons to curl your hair
This is an often overlooked way to use flat irons. If you do not have curling tongs or heated rollers, you can create soft curls and waves using flat irons instead. If your hair is naturally wavy, you can use the flat irons to straighten your hair beforehand to create a sleek finish. This can eliminate frizz and flyaway ends, as well as letting you create the type of curls and waves that you desire (rather than having to work around your natural curls). To create waves and curls using a flat iron, you can simply wrap your hair around one of the plates of the flat iron, and hold for a maximum of thirty seconds. This allows the heat to change the natural chemical make-up of your hair so that it can become curly (for a short time, at least). Once the thirty seconds has passed, carefully open the handles of the flat iron so that your hair falls out. It is important not to touch your hair until it is fully cooled down, as this can stop the curls from fully forming. If this happens, your hair may not hold the curls, and may quickly revert to its natural style. Repeat this on each section of your hair until your hair is fully curled. A light spray of hairspray can "set" the curls, and you can also lightly spritz with shine serum to add a touch of sophistication.
Using flat irons to create "flicks"
You can use flat irons to create "flicks" in your hair. This can be a good way to frame your face. For example, Katie Holmes often has the ends of her smooth chin-length bob flicked inwards so that it follows the curves of her chin. Conversely, she also has the ends flicked outwards from time to time to create a more dishevelled look. It is very simple to create these types of "flicks" using your flat iron. Straighten your hair as normal, but hold the ends of your hair inwards or outwards (depending on the type of "flick" that you are trying to create) as the flat iron reaches them. This will encourage the ends to flick in the desired direction. It also ensures that the "flicks" will be straight, which can look glamorous. Jessica Simpson is just one celebrity who has chosen to combine soft curls and face-framing "flicks" to create a hairstyle that stands out from the crowd.
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clerk or the post-office worker or the railroad conductor reaches sixty he collects his pension or his annuity and goes toSt. Petersburgto get a few years#8217; sunshine before he dies. It#8217;s called #8220;The Sunshine City#8221;. The weather#8217;s so good that the evening paper there,The Independent , is given away free any day the sun hasn#8217;t shone by edition time. It only happens three or four ghd hair straighteners uk times a year and it#8217;s a fine advertisement. Everybody goes to bed aroundnine o#8217;clockin the evening and during the day the old folks play shuffleboard and bridge, herds of them. There#8217;s a couple of baseball teams down there, the #8220;Kids#8221; and the #8220;Kubs#8221;, all over seventy-five! Then they play bowls, but most of the time they sit squashed together in droves on things called #8220;Sidewalk Davenports#8221;, rows of benches up and down the sidewalks of the main streets. They ghd Christmas just sit in the sun and gossip and doze. It#8217;s a terrifying sight, all these old people with their spectacles and hearing-aids and clicking false-teeth.#8217; #8216;Sounds pretty grim,#8217; said Bond. #8216;Why the hell did Mr. Big choose this place to operate from?#8217; #8216;It#8217;s perfect for him,#8217; said Solitaire seriously. #8216;There#8217;s practically no crime, except cheating at bridge and Canasta. So there#8217;s a very small police force. There#8217;s quite a big Coastguard Station but it#8217;s mainly concerned with smuggling betweenTampaandCuba, and sponge-fishing out of season at Tarpon Springs. I don#8217;t really know what he does there except that he#8217;s got a big agent called #8220;The Robber#8221;. Something to do withCuba, I expect,#8217; she added thoughtfully. #8216;Probably mixed up with Communism. I believeCubaconies underHarlemand runs red agents all through theCaribbean. #8216;Anyway,#8217; she went ghd straighteners on, #8216;St. Petersburgis probably the most innocent town inAmerica. Everything#8217;s very #8220;folksy#8221; and #8220;gracious#8221;. It#8217;s true there#8217;s a place called #8220;The Res-torium#8221;, a hospital for alcoholics. But very old ones, I suppose,#8217; she laughed, #8216;and I expect they#8217;re past doing anyone any harm. You#8217;ll love it,#8217; she smiled maliciously at Bond. #8216;You#8217;ll probably want to settle down there for life and be an #8220;Oldster#8221; too. That#8217;s ghd outlet p the great word down there¡ #8220;oldster#8221;.#8217; #8216;God forbid,#8217; said Bond fervently. #8216;It sounds rather likeBournemouthor Torquay. But a million times worse. I hope we don#8217;t get into a shooting match with #8220;The Robber#8221; and his friends. We#8217;d probably hurry a few hundred oldsters off to the cemetery with heart-failure. But isn#8217;t there anyone young in this place?#8217; #8216;Oh yes,#8217; laughed Solitaire. #8216;Plenty of them. All the local inhabitants who take the money off the oldsters, for instance. The people who own the motels and the trailer-camps. You could make plenty of money running the bingo tournaments. I#8217;ll be your #8220;barker#8221; ¡ª the girl outside who gets the suckers in. Dear Mr. Bond,#8217; she reached over and pressed his hand, #8216;will you settle do ghd hair straighteners uk wn with me and grow old gracefully inSt. Petersburg?#8217; Bond sat back and looked at her critically. #8216;I want a long time of disgraceful living with you first,#8217; he said with a grin. #8216;I#8217;m probably better at that. But it suits me that they go to bed at nine down there.#8217; Her eyes smiled back at him. She took her hand away from his as their breakfast arrived. #8216;Yes,#8217; she said. #8216;You go to bed at nine. Then I shall slip out by the back door and go on the tiles with the Kids and the Kubs.#8217; Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Page 32 The breakfast was as bad as Bond had prophesied. When they had paid they wandered over to the station waiting-room. The sun had risen and the light swarmed in dusty bars into the vaulted, empty hall. They sat together in a corner and until the Silver Meteor came in Bond plied her with questions about The Big Man and all she c ghd sale ould tell him about his operations. Occasionally he made a note of a date or a name but there was little she could add to what he knew. She had an apartment to herself in the sameHarlemblock as Mr. Big and she h ghd iv straighteners ad been kept virtually a prisoner there for the past year. She had two tough negresses as #8216;companions#8217; and was never allowed out without a guard. From time to time Mr. Big would have her brought over to the room where Bond had seen <a >ghd outlet</a> ghd outlet p him. There she would be told to divine whether some man or woman, generally bound to the chair, was lying or not. She varied her replies according to whether she sensed these people were good or evil. She knew that her verdict might often be a death sentence but she felt indifferent to the fate of those she judged to be evil. Very few of them were white. Bond jotted down the dates and details of all these occasions. Everything she told him added to the picture of a very powerful and active man, ruthless and cruel, commanding a hu cheap ghd uk ge network of operations. All she knew of the gold coins was that she had several times had to question men on how many they had passed and the price they had been paid for them. Very o ghd hair ften, she said, they were lying on both counts. Bond was careful to divulge-very little of what he himself knew or guessed. His growing warmth towards Solitaire and his desire for her body were in a compartment which had no communicating door with his professional life. The Silver Meteor came in on time and they were both relieved to be on their way again and to get away from the dreary world of the big junction. The train sped on down throughFlorida, through the forests and swamps, stark and bewitched with Spanish moss, and through the mile upon mile of citrus groves. All through the centre of the state the moss lent a dead, spectral feeling to the landscape. Even the little townships through which they passed had a grey skeletal aspect with their dried-up, sun-sucked clapboard houses. Only the citrus groves laden with fruit looked green and alive. Everything else seemed baked and desiccated with the heat. Looking out at the gloomy silent withered forests, Bond thought that nothing could be living in them except bats pink hair straighteners and scorpions, horned toads and black widow spiders. They had lunch and then suddenly the train was running along theGulf of Mexico, through the mangrove swamps and palm groves, endless motels and caravan sites, and Bond caught the smell of the otherFlorida, theFloridaof the advertisements, the land of #8216;Miss Orange Blossom I954#8242;. They left the train atClearwater, the last station beforeSt. Petersburg. Bond took a cab and gave the address onTreasure Island, half an hour#8217;s drive away. It wastwo o#8217;clockand the sun blazed down out of a cloudless sky. Solitaire insisted on taking off her hat and veil. #8216;It#8217;s sticking to my face,#8217; she said. #8216;Hardly a soul has ever seen me down here.#8217; A big negro with a face pitted with ancient smallpox was held up in his cab at the same time as they were checked at the intersection of Park Street and Central Avenue, where the Avenue runs on to the long Treasure Island causeway across the shallow waters of Boca Ciega Bay. When the negro saw Solitaire#8217;s profile his mouth fell open. He pulled his cab into the kerb and dived into a drugstore. He called aSt. Petersburgnumber. #8216;Dis is Poxy,#8217; he said urgently into the mouthpiece. #8216;Gimme da Robber#8217;n step on it. D ghd hair at you, Robber? Lissen, Da Big Man muss be n#8217;town. Whaddya mean yuh jes talked wit him #8216;nNew York? Ah jes seen his gal #8216;n a Clear-water cab, one of da Stassen Company#8217;s. Headin#8217; over da Causeway. Sho Ahm sartin. Cross ma heart. Couldn mistake dat eyeful. Wid a man #8216;n a blue suit, grey Stetson. Seemed like a scar down his face. Whaddya mean, follow #8216;em? Ah jes couldn believe yuh wouldn tell me da Big Man wuz #8216;n town ef he wuz. Thought mebbe Ahd better check #8216;n make sho. Okay, okay. Ah#8217;ll ketch d ghd hair straightener south africa a cab when he comes back over da Causeway, else atClearwater. Okay, okay. Keep yo shirt on. Ah ain#8217;t done nuthen wrong.#8217; The man called #8216;The Robber#8217; was through toNew Yorkin five minutes. He had been warned about Bond but he couldn#8217;t understand where Solitaire tied in to the picture. When he had finished talking to The Big Man he still didn#8217;t know, but his instructions were quite definite. He rang off and sat for a while drumming his fi ghd gift sets ngers on his desk. Ten Grand for the job. He#8217;d need two men. That would leave eight Grand for him. He licked his lips and called a poolroom in a downtown bar inTampa. Bond paid off the cab at The Everglades, a group of neat white-and-yellow clapboard cottages set on three sides of a square of Bahama grass which ran fifty yards down to a bone-white beach and then to the sea. From there, the wholeGulf of Mexicostretched away, as calm as a mirror, until the heat-haze on the horizon married it into the cloudless sky. AfterLondon, afterNew York, afterJacksonville, it was a sparkling transition. Bond went through a door marked #8216;Office#8217; with Solitaire demurely at his heels. He rang a bell that said, #8216;Manageress : Mrs. Stuyvesant#8217;, and a withered shrimp of a woman with blue-rinsed hair appeared and smiled with her pinched lips. #8216;Yes?#8217; #8216;Mr. Leiter?#8217; #8216;Oh yes, you#8217;re Mr. Bryce. Cabana Number One, right down on the beach. Mr. Leiter#8217;s been expecting you since Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Page 33 lunchtime. And¡?#8217; She heliographed with her ghd hair straightener price pince-nez towards Solitaire. #8216;Mrs. Bryce,#8217; said Bond. #8216;Ah yes,#8217; said Mrs. Stuyvesant, wishing to disbelieve. #8216;Well, if you#8217;d care to sign the register, I#8217;m sure you and Mrs. Bryce would like to freshen up after the journey. The full address, please. Thank you.#8217; She led them out and down the cement path to the end cottage on the left. She knocked and Leiter appeared. Bond had looked forward to a warm welcome,-but Leiter seemed staggered to see him. His mouth hung open. His
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