Last Updated on March 27, 2022 by Rei
Some of you may know that air drying is the safest way to dry your hair after showering, and while we agree that it’s the safest and probably the best.
Still, we wouldn’t count the other methods of drying your hair to be bad for you.
Instead, we should exercise the proper precautions with whatever drying method that we choose.
With the right technique, even the most damaging method (hair dryer) are safe as long as you follow the proper guidelines that we will mention below.
It might even be the safer option for you if you have the hair type that tolerates hair dryers compared to the other drying methods.
So let’s get started on learning the different ways to dry your hair.
Table of contents
- What is the healthiest way to dry your hair?
- Is it better to let your hair dry naturally?
- Guide to the different ways to dry your hair after showering
What is the healthiest way to dry your hair?
This depends on a lot of factors, like what hair type you have, what kind of hair dryer you have, and what’s the current health of your hair.
Certain hair types are much better suited to a certain drying technique, like if your hair is curly or kinky, your much better off using a hair dryer with a diffuser.
This is because curly hairs need their hair to be supported while being dried, which makes the hair dryer diffuser great for this type of hair.
I recommend that you read about your hair types so that you’ll know what’s the healthiest option for you.
If your hair is currently damaged, we recommend that you stick to air drying and towel drying for now, because as we know heat is very damaging to your hair.
For now, we recommend that you moisturized your hair as much as possible and use a microfiber towel when towel drying to prevent further damage.
Is it better to let your hair dry naturally?
Yes, it’s better. But the only reason that it’s better than a hair dryer is because of the heat it generates which damages the hair.
It also depends on what hair type you have like we mentioned above.
If you have straight hair we recommend that you just pat dry your hair to about 70% and leave the rest to dry naturally.
Recent studies published in Korea find that leaving your hair wet for too long (2 or more hours) can also damage your hair.
But if you insist on drying your hair without using heat, we recommend that you pat dry your hair using a microfibre towel to about 70% then use the cool shot setting of your hair dryer to speed up the drying time.
Guide to the different ways to dry your hair after showering
Towel drying
For towel drying, we recommend that you blot your hair using a microfiber towel or a t-shirt to dry your hair.
Make sure that you’re not using a towel that’s too coarse because this type of towel damages your hair and makes you more prone to frizz.
Steps to towel drying:
- Squeeze your hair with your hands so that your hair is not dripping wet.
- Use your towel to gently blot and squeeze your hair.
- Make sure that you are not being hard on your hair when using your towel. Just let the towel do the work and absorb the moisture.
- The dryer your hair gets, the more likely it is to tangle your hair, so be careful as you go along.
Air drying
The main thing to keep in mind while air drying is the amount of time your hair will remain wet.
Like we mentioned above, keeping your hair wet for more than 2 hours is bad for your hair.
To prevent this, towel dry to about 70% and leave the rest to air dry.
Hair dryer
The thing you need to worry about when hair drying is the heat.
Heat is the most damaging thing you can expose your hair to.
That’s why before even touching a hair dryer you need to use a heat protectant product that contains silicon.
Also, make sure that you moisturize your hair as much as possible to avoid breakage.
Now when it comes to actually using the hair dryer the main thing that you need to be conscious about is how long you’re drying certain sections of your hair.
You need to keep on moving when using a hair dryer to avoid over-drying sections of your hair.
To combat this problem we recommend that you use your diffuser. It works by scattering the hot air so that you won’t have to move as much compared to no diffuser.
Another thing to keep in mind is the heat setting. We recommend that you only use the lowest heat setting to prevent damage and frizz.
We know some of you are in a hurry and you want to dry your hair as much as possible so you crank that hair dryer to eleven.
Never do that!
If you really are in a hurry just towel dry your hair first then use your hair dryer in the lowest setting.
