5 Blow Dry Tips to Save Your Hair and Your Time! (For Wavy to Straight Hair)

1. Finger it!-
Always finger blowdry your hair until it is 70-80% dry before starting in with a round brush. Before the hair is this dry, it doesn't take the shape of the round brush anyways, so arms tire out and by the time the hair is dry enough to start to be smoothed by the brush, we give up.

2. Apply Product on Damp, NOT Wet Hair-
The best time to apply product to your hair, such as a frizz minimizer, or volume spray is after you finish finger drying when the hair is still damp, but before you use a round brush.  This helps your product stay put on the hair, less dissipates during your blow dry, and it is less diluted from the water already in your hair.  It basically helps the product be a little more effective.

3. Root to Tip-
Always blow dry from root to tip, or from the scalp towards the ends of your hair. This helps the hair be shinier and less frizzy because we are blowing in the direction that the cuticle (platelets) lay.  Think scales of a snake.  If we blow in the right direction, we smooth them and keep them tight.  If we blow in the opposite direction, we cause them to open up, and catch on one another (frizz) and reflect less light (causing dullness).

4. Cold Shot-
Most Blow dryers have a cold shot.  Many consumers either don't know the cold shot is there, or don't know what it is supposed to be used for.   When used properly, the cold shot can be an effective tool in blow drying your hair.  Heat opens those lovely platelets we discussed in root to tip, and cold conversely closes them down.  Therefore, any shape we want to "set" in the hair (such as the round brush), we would heat up and then cool down with our cold shot.  I find it effective to also occasionally hit the cold button while finger drying to cut down on so much heat on the hair.

5. Over Night Dry-
If your routine can be changed to shower in the early evening, you can let the hair air dry as much as possible before bedtime, and then simply let it finish drying over night.   Then, when you use your flat iron in the morning, or your curling iron to touch up your waves, you avoid double heat styling, and thus keep the hair in better, less damaged condition.  When I suggest this to clients, I many times get "Oh No! There's no way!  My hair would be too crazy."  To this I suggest only the beginning steps of the Over Night Dry.  I tell them to evening wash and dry overnight; I encourage them to invest a couple dollars in a fine mist water bottle.  If your hair dries over night, you can re-mist it in the morning and do the very end of the blow dry session from about 10% wet, and this can still help us avoid having to dry from 100% wet to 100% dry cutting down on time, and keeping the hair healthier.