Though blow dryers make your hair look great, all that exposure to heat is actually quite damaging to your hair. Your hair can end up dried out, frizzy, or with split ends, which is never a good thing. If you’re worried that you’re going to fry your hair with your frequent blow drying, there are some steps you can take to minimize the heat damage.
Preparing to Blow Dry Your Hair
Buy a good quality hair dryer, like the one available from LABEL.M.
For minimal hair damage, buy a high-end dryer. Some of them are so sophisticated they have a dial that lets you control their actual temperature. If you don’t want to splurge like that, just make sure you buy a dryer with cool, warm, and hot settings. Do not buy one of the low-end dryers that only have a single setting.
- Make sure you also buy attachments to help you style your hair, including a nozzle to distribute the air flow evenly and a diffuser to spread it out over a large area of hair.
- If you don’t know where to find the above, ask your stylist at TONI&GUY when you get your next hair cut.
Adjust the dryer temperature as per the texture of your hair
Generally speaking, finer hair will overheat and burn more quickly, so you want to dry fine hair at a lower temperature. Thicker or curly hair might require a higher heat setting to get the job done, but don’t over-expose any type of hair to heat.
Pre-treat your hair with protection products before exposing them to the heat from your blow dryer like the LABEL.M Heat Protector.
Use your fingers or a comb to distribute the product evenly throughout your hair.
Blow Drying Your Hair
Separate your hair into sections. You don’t need to physically separate your hair, but at least mentally map out how you plan to dry your hair. You might begin with the hair on the left side of your face and work around the back to the right, or you might begin with the bottom layer of your hair and work your way to the outer layer
Begin blow drying your hair at a low temperature. Make sure to work your way through the hair sections you mapped out in the previous step. Work through your hair until it’s about 40% dry.
- Massage your hair at the roots to encourage it to take on volume.
- Flip your hair upside down by bending forward, and direct the air flow at the back of your head to more easily dry the bottom layer of your hair.
Attach the diffuser to your blow dryer. This will help spread the more intense heat over a larger area, in turn reducing the damage.
Continue blow drying your hair on medium or high heat. A good way to use a diffuser is to drop your hair into its fingers and letting the air blow up through to the roots.
- Continue this until your hair is about 90% dry
- Let your hair cool back down. Cooling your hair back to a normal temperature keeps it from getting frizzy, and also feels great on your skin after you just blasted yourself with hot air for a while.
- Flip the heat setting on your dryer to cool, or use the frost-boost button if the model of your dryer has one.
- Run the cool air through your hair until it is cool.
- Allow it to air dry the rest of the way.