STOP! Air Drying Is Damaging Your Hair

We know we’re not the only ones who have spent years being warned about the damaging effects of using heat tools like a blow dryer. To the point where whenever we don’t have somewhere to be we embrace the air-dry vibes. Spending hours walking around the house with a sense of pride, feeling like we’re doing something good for ourselves and our hair - well guess again.

A study published in the Annals of Dermatology found that there is more to it than that. Without getting too deep into the nitty gritty experimental methods, they compared air drying against several different temperatures of blow drying to determine which method had the least negative impact on the hair. They conducted this experiment by shampooing and drying hair 30 times over 30 days and had a control group where nothing was done to the hair.

When examining the hair surface damage they found the most severe amount of lifting and damage occurred when hair was dried on the highest heat setting with the shortest distance from the scalp - 95℃ and 5cm. There was no observed damage to the hair surface for the air-dry group.

Between the air-dry group and the low-temperature dry group there were no significant differences in cuticle damage. However, there was cuticle damage found to the high-temperature group. None of the groups had any damage to the hair cortex.

The Cell Membrane Complex (CMC), located between the cuticle and cortex, is where their findings get interesting. The only group to show damage to the CMC was the air-dry group. None of the hair dryer groups or the control showed any signs of damage when examining their CMC.

The study concluded that there is significant damage caused to the inner layer of the hair from air drying and that this is equally as damaging to the hair as drying on high heat. The repeated and prolonged swelling of the CMC over time can cause hair to become weak, dry, less elastic and therefore more prone to breakage.

Impacts on the CMC are not the only potential issues with air drying. Celebrity stylist Jennie Roberts has also pointed out that air drying can lead to build-up, bacteria, and fungus on the scalp - ew. That potential build up isn’t just from your hair products, it’s also from what’s in your water. If you live somewhere with hard water and air dry your hair you’re exposing your hair to harmful calcium and metallic elements for a longer period of time, causing more damage.

None of that sounds like a good time.

So what exactly are we supposed to do if high heat damages the outer hair and air drying damages the inner hair?

The answer. It depends.

It’s definitely not air dry from soaking wet, or blasting the ever loving sh*t out of your hair on hellfire level heat.

The keys to dry most hair types with little to no damage are:

• Get most of the moisture out of the hair before starting the drying process. Use a microfiber towel to gently squeeze out excess water, do not rub the hair.

• Once hair is damp, not soaked, use the lowest heat setting (not cold) and lowest air pressure setting.

• Use a continuous motion to dry hair so that all sections dry evenly.

• Keep the blow dryer 6 inches from the scalp.

However, if your hair is already heat damaged or more curly you can opt for drying your hair using these settings until it is 80-90% dry then allowing the remainder to air dry. Most expert hair stylists will also recommend using the diffuser attachment if you have curly hair. This will cause the least, if any damage to the hair for these hair types.

Regardless of what you do with your hair drying routine make sure that you’re using the right products to protect your hair. You don’t want to spend all this time meticulously drying your hair to prevent damage and then short-changing yourself by not using any products to back up all that hard work. Make sure you at least spray a lightweight leave-in conditioner and heat protectant spray before doing any drying activities.

If you’re an air dry girl we know we just added 20+ minutes to your hair washing routine but you’ll thank me later. And for our blow dry girls - we both knew the high heat wasn’t good for you so put the heat down and stop frying your hair.

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