Daffodil asks…Based on one of your descriptions of heat damage, I am wondering if cool air will also do any damage by shocking the cuticle dry too quickly, and removing natural moisture. I thought cool air would be completely safe, now I’m not quite sure.
The Left Brain responds:
While it seems logical that cool air would be completely safe for your hair you have to understand that the problem is not just the temperature of the air used to dry your hair. It’s also the fact that you cycling your hair through wet and dry conditions.
Dry damaged
When hair is saturated with water the cortex (the inner protein bundles that give hair its strength) swells up. The outer protective layer of your hair, the cuticle, is not as “stretchy” as the cortex so it doesn’t swell as much. Therefore, as the inner part of the hair shaft swells it pushes the layers of cuticles outward and causes them to lift up. Then, as the hair dries, the inner part shrinks again but the cuticle doesn’t contract as much. That’s how cycling between wet and dry hair damages the cuticle. More rapid drying (i.e., hotter temperatures) stresses the cuticles even further but even cool blow drying can contribute to damage.
What do YOU think? Do you have any tricks for drying your hair with the least damage? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
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Hmm, interesting. Does that mean that washing your hair more often is damaging to it for this reason? (other than the stripping extra moisture away and causing friction on the hair) I myself prefer to wash my hair fairly regularly (every other day) but my stylist told me that you should wash your hair as little as possible. Paula Begoun says that how often you wash it is just a matter of preference. I know there has been much talk about co washing and no poo but I’m wondering about how bad wetting your hair is vs washing it.
I’ve also been told by my stylist that the less you wash your hair, the better–I wash my own about every 4 days, because when it’s dirty it holds a style longer, and frankly I’m lazy–but don’t we all know the girl with fabulous hair who washes it/flat-irons it etc. every single day and it’s longer and thicker and more fabulous than your own?
I know I do! I blow-dry my hair maybe 3 or 4 times a month, if that; usually I let it air dry. I had a very bad over-processed highlight experience over a year ago and I’ve been growing that out without highlights/treating my hair very well since then, to let it heal. The only heat-styling I do 2/3 times a week is hot rollers; it’s the only way to get the body and texture I like. (Occasional flat-ironing also.)
I think a distinction should be made, in the real world, between healthy hair and attractive hair. Blow-drying and heat styling are bad for your hair, but never doing either means you’re generally left with very healthy but not particularly attractive hair. Unless you’re one of those lucky few who wake up with naturally fabulous hair, and there aren’t many.
I try to wash my hair less, and let it air dry as often as I can, to make up for the damage I know I’m doing when I hot-roll it/flat iron it. The whole point, after all, is to have more good hair days, isn’t it?