A Complete Guide To Air-Drying Hair

Heat is your hair's greatest enemy.

We've already lost count of how many times we've said that in this blog, to be honest. Heat can damage hair, weaken it to the point of breakage, and make it look dull and frizzy.

But at the same time, heat is almost a requirement when it comes to styling hair. Wanna curl your hair? Gotta use heat. Wanna straighten your hair? Gotta use heat. Wanna dry your hair right after taking a shower? Gotta use– now hold on, just a minute.

Contrary to popular belief, you don't actually need to use a blowdryer if you want to dry your hair properly. Even if a blowdryer may not be able to cause as much damage like that from a curling wand or straightener, it still causes some harmful effects to your strands. After all, hot air is still hot, which still leaves your hair more prone to breakage.

If you're interested in getting your hair to dry without using heat, here's our complete guide to air-drying hair.

Air-drying hair: does it work?

The answer to this question isn't very straightforward, but to say it simply: yes, it can work.

The biggest problem to air-drying, however, is that it often can't give you the same texture and volume that blowdrying can provide. In that case, your job is to make sure that you can get both of these things, even without a blowdryer.

Air-drying tips and tricks

Air-drying hair isn't exactly rocket science, so there's no exact way to do it. There are some general rules that you must follow though, depending on your hair type.

Straight Hair

(c) Unsplash

If you've got naturally straight hair, always remember to focus on adding a little body and volume to your hair when air-drying. Most straight-haired people tend to have hair that falls flat, so be quick to remedy this.

What you can do is to carefully brush your hair while it's still damp from the shower. Leave it for a few minutes until it's only slightly damp. Afterwards, you can then braid it or wrap it in a bun and until it fully dries. Once you take the braids or the bun off, you'll have perfectly volumized hair!

Curly Hair

(c) Unsplash

Air-drying curly hair is a little bit different from air-drying straight hair, but that's only because curly hair takes a longer time to dry. Not to mention, many people with curly hair find that air-drying their curls could lead to frizzy and dry hair that's just absolutely a no-no.

When you're trying to air-dry curly hair, remember to start the detangling process right when you're still in the shower. Apple dollops of conditioner if you need to – it really helps. Focus on the shafts of your hair strands. The goal is to deeply moisturize your thick strands so that your hair will remain soft and manageable even if you don't blow dry it!

For more hair guides, feel free to check out the ZALA blog!