How to Dry Hair Properly?

In my previous article “How to Wash Hair Properly”, we discussed how warm water and the right kind of lathering could do wonders for your hair. After painstakingly analyzing the reasons behind the steps to better washing results, it’s time to move on to more serious business: drying, combing and brushing your hair properly.

How to Dry Hair with Towel?

Here’s a secret that not many people know: rubbing your hair with a towel after a shower is a bad, bad idea. As you may already know, rubbing causes friction. Friction causes heat, because two surfaces are unduly opposing each other vertically. Add all these up, and you get frayed, damaged hair.

A quick and easy solution out of this particular conundrum is to pat instead of rub. Patting does the job, though it might appear that you’re taking longer than is warranted. Nevertheless, if you actually compare the time needed to pat hair dry and rub hair dry, the two aren’t far apart. Develop your own style of patting and your own rhythm: do it for your hair’s sake.

Blow-Drying is Evil

Human hair was designed to shield your head from the sun, and to keep warmth in when it’s necessary to do so. The human scalp was designed to sweat and produce oil to create equilibrium between the hair and scalp and the outer environment.

The scalp and hair however, were not designed to withstand a consistent stream of hot air more than 40 degrees Celsius. We are talking of course of the humble yet violent blow dryer. The blow dryer may have been useful to Hollywood stars, theater actors and hair stylists for the past few decades, but the fact remains that it damages the hair.

Consistent with this fact is the general appearance of actors’ hairs when they are simply seen in public. If you need proof, look at Pamela Anderson’s candid shots in public. If you look closely, most of her hair is already frayed. The whole head of hair lacks volume, and seems to be dried-out beyond repair; which is probably true.

How to Style Hair Safely?

As a rule of thumb, never apply hair gels and similar styling agents when your hair is completely dry. The reason for this rule is that the hair will lose its natural chemistry if there’s no moisture to balance and buffer the chemicals in the styling agents. That’s why hair stylists often shampoo their clients first before using chemicals: it preserves the pH level and helps reduce the over-all damage to the hair.

Tips on Safely Blow-Drying Hair

If you require blow-drying on a daily basis because of the nature of your occupation (or preoccupation), you can still use it but you have to change a few things.

Most folks prefer to blow-dry until their hair is crisp (like when they woke up that morning). This is a very bad practice. Instead of waiting for your hair to dry to this degree, stop when your hair is already just pleasantly damp. Simply allow your hair to dry naturally.