I Did It...But I'm Not Impressed

I flat-ironed my hair last night/this morning. It took me a total of 4 hours even with my new fangled flat iron. Why 4 hours? because my hair is really thick and it got even thicker with the products that I used.

First Step: I drenched my head in a mixture of Shikakai powder and coconut milk.
The box said to make it into a paste, well I didn't realize how much
milk was in the coconut milk can because all I saw was the fatty white
stuff. So I got a little carried away and the paste turned into runny
muddiness.
No worries, I still used it anyway. My goal was to keep it on my head
for at least 2hrs. I think I managed 45min. because it started running
down my face and neck.
Needless to say I liked it and it will be part of my regimine. It made
my hair thicker, (not sure if I need anymore thickness) somewhat softer
and overall stronger.
Thats precisely why I waited to use it before I flat-ironed my hair
because I wanted it to be strong enough to handle the heat and not have
as much split ends.

Second Step: I pumped a handful of Kerastase Oleo-relax on my hands and applied it
all over my damp hair before I blow-dried it. Lets just say this
anti-freeze serum was no match for my frizzy hair, not even close. It
just made my hair feel hard and weird.
The funny thing is the box says to use two small pumps and apply over
the hair. I ended up using two puumps of the serum for every strand of
hair on my head. I literally used half the bottle.

Third step: I used Salerm Brushing spray on each section of the hair and re-used
Kerastase on the same section, and then, another pump for the ends of my
hair, which is what I really want to protect.
Then I flat ironed with the brand new Solia flat iron I purchased from
Folica.com

Overall, I'm not impressed. Yes, my hair is flat. But that's all it is flat. It's straight but not silky or anything, actually, its very dull looking (gotta hit up that jojoba oil. I tried to put some "oomph," some bouce, body, whatever you want to call it but, it basically fell flat this morning.

I'm not impressed with the flat-iron so I'm returning it. I figure I can use my rollers and over-head drier and get a semi-straight result. I won't be as soft and the ends will still look kinda crinkly but the overall effect is pretty much the same. So, obviously I will not be flat-ironing my hair every 3 months like I thought.


Maybe I'll try again next year with a different flat iron and/or different products.
This experience just reminded me of one of the main reasons I went natural in the first place. I hate when hair just sits flat on my head and doesn't do anything!
At least give me some shine, something! something to work with!
I plan on returning the flat-iron on Saturday and getting my roughly $80 back into my account where it belongs. Thank God for return policies!