Straightening curly or wavy hair has and will always be a subject of much interest because, well, it's common knowledge that it’s woman’s nature to want that which she can’t get, or which implies painstaking efforts to obtain it. Women’s magazine Marie Claire comes to save the day once more, offering us four simple tips to getting and maintaining straight hair, as you can see below.

Whether the hair is long or not, stylists recommend that, immediately after blow-drying it straight, we part it sideways. It seems that all that extra weight on the side, aided by plenty hair products specifically meant for this, will help the hair not turn puffy and frizzy by the end of the day, ensuring we look gorgeous from morning to late at night.

Since we’re on the topic of blow-drying, the same stylists also advise us to use only a “1500- to 1800-watt hair dryer” when styling our hair, since anything less powerful will certainly curl up our hair even before we’re done with trying to make it straight. Also at this stage, it’s best if we stick to hair locks that are not thicker than one inch, to allow the hot air to pass through and reach all hairs. “Opt for small sections and be sure to dry each thoroughly before moving on,” Marie Claire tells us.

On a final note, we should also pay due attention to the hair products we buy to keep our hair straight. For instance, the mag informs us, we should avoid all products that list water as one of the main five ingredients, since “adding moisture to your hair after straightening it is guaranteed to make it curl up again.”

For those of us with naturally curly hair, making it straight could be a bit more difficult, but not downright impossible. “Shampoo and condition with moisturizing products to hydrate your naturally porous hair and keep it from getting frizzy,” Charles Dujic, an L.A.-based stylist, tells Marie Claire. Leave-in conditioner and styling lotion are next, followed by blow-drying the hair, lock by lock, with a big round brush.

To sum up, with all of the above in mind, getting that straight mane we’ve always dreamed of should be only half an hour of styling away.