Flat Iron Curls, Hair Washing Frequency, and Why You Should Never Cut Your Own Hair

We looked up the most Googled hair, skincare, and makeup questions and decided to answer all of them in one episode of the Beauty Lab Podcast. Here is everything Velia and Monina covered -- no sugarcoating, no sponsorships, just honest professional answers to the questions people actually ask.

 

How to Curl Your Hair With a Flat Iron (And Whether You Should)

First, a small correction: it is a flat iron, not a straightener. But since everyone knows what a straightener is, we will move on.

Not every flat iron can curl hair. The plates need a beveled edge -- a slightly rounded edge rather than a completely flat one. Without it, you simply cannot create a curl no matter what you do. So before you try, check whether your flat iron has that beveled edge.

The technique is: clamp the plates lightly, not with a death grip -- just enough tension -- then turn your wrist in the direction you want the curl to go, and slide down the strand. Think of how you curl ribbon. Clamp, turn, slide. The direction of your wrist determines which way the curl falls: away from your face if you rotate away, toward your face if you rotate inward.

If you try this and it is not working, your plates may be too wide or your flat iron may just not be designed for curling.

On temperature: most people have their flat irons set to 450 degrees, which Velia finds genuinely alarming. The only time she uses 450 is during a Brazilian Blowout, when the hair is protected by the chemical process. For everyday curling, fine or bleached hair should not go above 250 degrees. The only exception is very coarse, naturally curly hair where the goal is to smooth the natural curl before creating a larger curl pattern -- in that case, up to 350 is reasonable.

The honest recommendation: if you do not have coarse, stubborn, curly hair, just use a curling iron. Flat irons are the number one tool that damages hair. Using them to curl on a high heat setting is a recipe for long-term breakage.

Should You Cut Your Own Hair?

No. That is the whole answer.

The longer version: Velia will not tell you how to cut your own hair because she genuinely cares about your wellbeing. The tutorials that exist for this are, in her words, probably planted by hairstylists to ensure job security. Nobody who has ever given themselves a haircut has been fully honest about how it turned out.

The one narrow exception: if you already have bangs that have been cut by your hairstylist, and you need a very small trim between appointments, ask your stylist to show you how first. Hold the bangs down in the shape and position you want them to live, very light tension, and take the smallest possible amount off. The problem is that almost nobody has proper shears at home. Kitchen scissors, craft scissors, and whatever else people reach for will bend the hair rather than cutting it cleanly, which means even if your technique is perfect, the result will be uneven.

For everything else: book an appointment.

Do You Need Separate Morning and Night Skincare Routines?

Yes. And here is why they serve completely different purposes.

In the morning, the goal is protection. You are protecting your skin from UV exposure, environmental stress, and moisture loss throughout the day. A morning routine can be as simple as a gentle cleanse, an antioxidant or hydrating serum, a moisturizer suited to your skin type, and a broad-spectrum sunscreen. That is it. If you are going to be outside for extended periods, you need to reapply the sunscreen -- it does not last all day.

At night, the goal is repair and replenishment. Your skin goes into a natural healing cycle while you sleep, and you want to support that process on clean skin. This is when corrective ingredients belong: retinols, retinoids, peptides, pigmentation-targeting products, and barrier support. Cleanse first -- even if you did not wear makeup, sunscreen, product buildup, and environmental residue have been accumulating on your skin all day. Clean skin allows the body to heal rather than spending the night keeping external debris out.

Night routines do not need to be complicated. A serum, a retinol or corrective active, and a nighttime moisturizer is a complete routine. More products do not automatically mean better skin. Consistency with the right products for your skin type matters far more than the number of steps.

If you are not sure what your skin type is, that is the place to start. Take Monina's skincare analysis at kindred-skin-scribe.lovable.app -- it will tell you exactly what your skin needs.

Why Does Makeup Look Worse as You Get Older?

The short answer: it is not the makeup. It is the skin underneath it.

As we age, the skin changes in ways that directly affect how makeup sits and wears. Collagen and elastin decrease. Hydration retention decreases. Oil production shifts. Fat pads in the face begin to diminish -- by around 35, you start losing approximately 1% of facial fat volume per year, which affects contour and causes that drooping and hollowing people notice. Perimenopause and menopause accelerate many of these changes.

The result: foundation that used to look smooth looks cakey. Concealer that used to cover under-eye circles settles into fine lines. Powder that used to set makeup now makes everything look dry and emphasized.

A few specific adjustments that help as skin changes:

Stop using matte foundation formulas. Even if you have combination or oily skin, matte formulas become increasingly unflattering with age. Shift toward more hydrating, skin-like formulations. The K-beauty cushion foundations and sponge applicators are worth exploring because they tend to have good skincare ingredients alongside the coverage.

Ease up on powder. If you are powdering your entire face, do it with a very light hand and a translucent formula only. Over-powdering mature skin emphasizes texture rather than minimizing it.

Stop overdrawing brows. The instinct to fill in brows that have thinned out is understandable, but harsh, overly defined brows on mature skin tend to read as severe rather than polished. Softer and more natural is more flattering.

For under-eye concealer: do not apply it across the entire under-eye area. Concentrate on the inner corner (tear duct area) and the outer corner, and blend those two points together. Covering the full under-eye with concealer is what causes the crease and the caking.

The overall goal as skin changes is not to cover the face but to bring dimension to it. Less product, better placement, more prep. The time that used to go into applying makeup starts going into prepping the skin instead, and the result is actually more youthful.

How Often Should You Wash Your Hair?

Here is the test: run your clean fingertips across your scalp. Touch your fingertips together. If you feel any oiliness, it is time to wash your hair.

If you feel that the day after washing, you are not washing thoroughly enough. If you genuinely do not feel it for three days and you are being honest with yourself about checking all areas of the scalp (not just one spot), then you produce less oil and three days is appropriate. Either way, do not go beyond three days. Wash it anyway, even if it does not seem necessary.

The "I only wash my hair once a week" approach might feel sustainable in the short term, but long-term it causes real scalp problems -- either contributing to hair loss through DHT accumulation, or creating scalp conditions from fungal overgrowth. Neither is worth it.

Also worth considering: you may be used to the smell of your own hair and not realize others are not. Hair absorbs everything -- cooking smells, coffee shop air, smoke, sweat. The T-shirt analogy applies here. If you would not wear the same shirt two days in a row after cooking or being active in it, your hair deserves the same consideration.

When you do wash, wash twice. First shampoo breaks down the buildup. Second shampoo actually cleans the hair and scalp. Each wash should take about 60 seconds of actual scrubbing at the scalp. If you have questions about scalp health, check out the Don't Feed the Fungus episode and the DHT and hair loss episode -- both linked in the show notes.

What Skincare Products Are Actually Worth Spending Money On?

The foundational principle: do not chase fads. The word "fad" literally means fashion for a day. If a product is going viral this week, that is not a reason to buy it.

Here is what is genuinely worth investing in:

Daily sunscreen. Non-negotiable. Every dermatologist and esthetician agrees on this.

A good cleanser. Not necessarily the most expensive one, but one that actually does the job for your skin type. Drier and more sensitive skin generally does better with creamy, milky cleansers that do not foam heavily. The cleanser is the foundation of every routine -- do not cheap out on it.

Barrier support products. Look for niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, ceramides, and ingredients that actively maintain and repair the skin barrier. A damaged barrier means nothing else you apply can work properly.

Evidence-based corrective ingredients with a proper delivery system. Liposomal delivery (where ingredients are encapsulated to penetrate more effectively) matters as much as the ingredient itself. Look for clinical research on the actual product, not just the ingredient category.

Professional treatments for pigmentation and texture concerns. Monina is direct about this: a topical cream will not fix melasma. Pigmentation that is buried deep in the skin requires professional treatment -- whether through an esthetician or a dermatologist. Products work best in conjunction with professional treatments, not instead of them.

What is not automatically worth it: price. Expensive does not mean effective. An expensive product with poor ingredient delivery is worse than an affordable product with the right ingredients delivered correctly. Read labels. Use the Yuka app (or similar) to analyze ingredient lists if label reading feels overwhelming.

One more warning: when you see a product advertised in a reel or video and you go to order it, verify at checkout that you are actually buying the same product shown. There are a lot of bait-and-switch marketing techniques where a different product ships from what was advertised. It has happened to both of us.

Listen to the full Beauty Lab Podcast episode wherever you stream podcasts. And if any of this raised questions about your specific skin type or hair type, the resources below are a great place to start.

Shop Velia Beauty Co -- cruelty-free, sulfate-free haircare packed with natural minerals and plant proteins. Get 20% off at veliabeautyco.com with code THEBEAUTYLABPODCAST.