When was the last time you had a bad hair day? Did it look limp? Was it frizzy? Was one section of hair sticking out from the rest? We’ve all been there.
Our hair is one of our most defining features. It makes an impression when we meet someone new, it can reveal our personality, and it can reflect our overall disposition. Over the years, hair care advice has been constantly evolving, and it can be difficult to keep up.
While most hair care advice concerns how to wash our hair, drying our hair is just as important. Most of the damage we do to our hair happens when we dry it. Drying our hair is an underreported step in the hair care process, so let’s discuss six helpful and harmful strategies we use to dry our hair.
Helpful: Use A Woven Towel to Dab Hair
When life is busy, drying our hair can be a time suck for many of us. If you prefer to wash and wear your hair to save time or for the convenience of it, the moments you step out of the shower are very important to the drying process. Instead of wrapping your hair to towel dry, try dabbing your hair with a woven towel for a smooth and absorbent approach. Then, you can gently squeeze out the moisture so that your hair is no longer dripping wet. Blotting the ends of your hair will not only speed up the air drying process, but it will also prevent hair breakage and hair fall.
Harmful: Towel Drying Your Hair
While wrapping your hair in a terry towel may be a reflex when you get out of the shower, it increases frizz and tangled hair. If you’re set on your routine, try switching from a terry towel to a woven towel to dry your hair. Woven towels are more gentle, and the absorbency pulls away the moisture without a problem. While towel drying your hair for a long time can dry out your hair too much, make sure you wear it until your hair is still damp but not dripping. When you unwrap your hair, avoid rubbing the residual water away with the towel.
Helpful: Blow Drying Your Hair
Another tried and true method for drying your hair is using a blow dryer. While there has been lots of research that suggests that hair dryers can cause breakage, brittleness, and dryness, using a hair dryer can still be effective and safe with effective techniques. In order to avoid damaging your hair, first let your hair dry partially. Once it’s no longer dripping wet, set your hair dryer on the coolest setting and blow dry your hair. Be sure to keep the dryer about six inches away from your hair at all times while moving it around consistently. If you prefer further protection against heat damage, consider using a heat-protector spray prior to blow drying your hair.
Harmful: Comb Your Hair After Showering
When your hair is damp and heavy after showering, it’s most vulnerable and prone to tangled hair, split ends, and hair breakage. For finer and especially curly hair, consider combing your hair in the shower instead of after for better hair drying results. Combining your hair out of the shower will lower volume, especially at the roots of your hair, and increase breakage.
Helpful: Use Product on Your Hair
Finding the right hair product for your hair is a trying process. In order to find the right product for your hair, examine your hair type. Do you have curly hair or straight? Is your hair coarse or wiry? Is your hair heavy or fine? Do you colour your hair? Do you air dry your hair or blow dry it? All of these questions will help you narrow down what your hair needs are. With an overwhelming amount of products promising to fulfill your hair needs, it takes trial and error to find the right products. This may sound daunting and even frustrating, but having patience and an open mind will provide opportunities to find the right product for your hair. More product is not always better as too much product can make your hair crunchy or oily.
Harmful: Touching Your Hair as it Dries
If you’re more accustomed to letting your hair air dry, resist running your hands through your hair or brush your hair as it dries because it will cause your hair to frizz. If you have a strong preference to have your hair out of your face, consider braiding your hair or twisting it into a bun while your hair is damp. Letting your hair have the chance to dry untouched will help keep your hair strong and healthy.
Embrace Your Hair
Finding the right hair drying regime evolves as our hair changes over time. Just when you think you’ve mastered your hair drying process, it may mean it’s time to change the products and techniques you’ve been using to maintain your hair’s health.
While it’s easy to point out the flaws in our hair, embrace and have gratitude for the hair that you do have. We can find just as many positives about our hair as we do negative. Hair care can be tedious for some and playful for others, but in the end, taking care of your hair is an act of self-love.
Written by Eleni Zaptses
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