In this article I’m gonna show you step by step how to air dry your hair the right way.
Let’s start the air drying routine.
Air drying your hair is not just getting out of the shower, towel drying your hair and that’s it.
No, a good air drying routine begins in the shower and the first step into this routine is gonna be never skipping a deep conditioning hair mask before getting out of the shower. Because conditioning is gonna help your hair to gain back the hydration loss from shampooing.
When it’s time to rinse the hair mask do it with cold water to keep the hydration in the hair at the end of your shower, which is extremely important in order to reduce as much freeze as possible.
Once you are out of the shower, leave hair as it is because we’re gonna begin with the second step which is towel drying your hair the right way.
When you towel dry your hair you need to avoid rubbing, twisting or wrapping your hair with your towel. Also you need to stop using your regular towel on your hair. That’s another big no-no, since all these habits are only gonna lead you to breakage and a lot of frizz.
Fabric of the regular towels are really rough, they’re going to cause the cuticles to raise up and that’s when freeze, that’s when puffiness, that’s when a lot of breakage and damage problems happen.
What you want to do is to gently squeeze or pat your hair to drain as much water as possible, ideally using a microfiber towel but if you don’t have one you can use an old t-shirt.
Both of these are gonna be way more delicate with the hair cuticle while we towel dry.
If you have wavy or curly hair, what you want to do is to gently scrunch your hair. Each hair type needs to reach a certain level of dryness in this stage before it is okay to brush it or apply products on it.
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Based on my research, curly hair has to be forty percent dry, wavy up to sixty percent dry and straight hair needs to be eighty percent dry before you move on to the next steps.
This is the perfect time to move on to the third step in this air drying routine, which is applying a hydrating product on your hair.
When your hair is at this stage, it is more prone to lose water and if this happens, your hair could end up looking more puffy, frizzy, dry at the end.
What you want to do here is to provide the hydration and nourishment to your hair right away. The best way to do this is by applying a leave-in conditioner or a hair serum when your hair is damp.
This not only is gonna well moisturize your hair, this product will also coat your cuticles, preventing moisture from escaping from your hair.
Once you are done applying your hair products, the next fourth step into this air drying routine is brushing your hair.
I feel extremely uncomfortable brushing hair when it’s damp, but sometimes it is necessary to do it, especially at this moment to make sure that there’s no tangles and the products that we just apply get distributed evenly on our hair before it dries.
When I do this, I treat my hair like it’s glass. When you detangle wet hair, make sure to only use a wide tooth comb since it is less likely to pull and break your hair.
To reduce breakage, untangle hair from the ends towards the roots in small sections using gentle pressure.
Also it’s important for you to part your hair, whatever the style that you like, so that your hair stays in that way until it dries completely.
Now that your hair is smooth and detangled, we need to jump right away to the fifth step, which is wrapping your hair.
I normally don’t do anything fancy or complicated. All I do is to split hair in two main sections and then I just cross over from the bottom and then do the same on the top and to secure the wrap I use a bobby pin in the middle to keep this in place.
Wrapping your hair before it dries completely is going to make sure to reduce a lot of the puffiness on your hair while it’s in the process of air drying.
It is super important not to touch your hair while it’s getting dry, because it could defeat the entire routine.
As part of the six step into this air drying routine, I would recommend you to cover your hair with a microfiber towel or an old t-shirt if you’re only gonna air dry your hair for a few hours.
But if you are thinking on air drying your hair overnight, definitely use a silk cap or a silk scarf to cover your hair as a better option to protect it during the night.
At the end, my hair looks very soft, it doesn’t have any frizz and it’s super manageable and the most important thing is that we did not use any heat on our hair.
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Samantha is a hairstylist with over 12 years of color and stylist experience. She enjoys using her knowledge to create what her clients really want when they sit down in her chair. Her passion is creating unique looks that her clients feel great in.