Weaning off heat styling.

[Synester]

So I heat style my hair, not drastically. I dont straighten it ever, but I do blow dry it when its half damp to make it nice and smooth and straight. My hair naturally has some wave to it.
Ive noticed though, when I let it air dry...its puffy and frizzy and rough looking. And i hate it. So I style it and make it nice and sleek. My hair doesn't dry nice naturally. Does anyone here have that problem? That their hair doesn't dry by air nicely. My hair is a mess If i do that. If my hair looked good air dryed I feel like I would be more inclined to stop.

I always keep the dryer a good distance from my head and make sure it is not to hot.
I do not use heat protectant often because I feel it builds up a lot on my very fine hair

[spidermom]

I think you're pretty safe with careful blow drying. If you can direct the air against your neck without it being too hot, it won't be too hot for your hair either. Just avoid pulling at your hair with a brush while blow-drying.

[_fred_]

So I heat style my hair, not drastically. I dont straighten it ever, but I do blow dry it when its half damp to make it nice and smooth and straight. My hair naturally has some wave to it.
Ive noticed though, when I let it air dry...its puffy and frizzy and rough looking. And i hate it. So I style it and make it nice and sleek. My hair doesn't dry nice naturally. Does anyone here have that problem? That their hair doesn't dry by air nicely. My hair is a mess If i do that. If my hair looked good air dryed I feel like I would be more inclined to stop.

I always keep the dryer a good distance from my head and make sure it is not to hot.
I do not use heat protectant often because I feel it builds up a lot on my very fine hair

I also have that problem, although the only person who can blow dry it sleek is my hairdresser, I just don't have the knack.

Totally agree with spidermom, blow drying carefully on cool is fine. I've also found that putting my hair back or up as soon as it's dry (or about 98% dry) will mean that by the evening it's a whole load smoother and nicer looking. To avoid getting a kink in my hair from bunning/flipping/braiding, I sometimes take it out halfway through the day, and do it up with the twist the other way. By the evening it looks fine - and it's kept my hair out of the way all day.

[Cherriezzzzz]

That is exactly me. I switched to Chagrin Valley shampoo bars... It's life changing for me. My hair air dries in less then half an hour and it air dries nice! I no longer touch my T3 blow dryer nor my Chi ceramic flat iron :( I bought the best but also a lot of $! Now my husband is asking where that gallon jug of acv went hahaha cause I use it on my hair diluted as a rinse for conditioner lol

But I no longer force my hair straight and smooth. It looks great with it's natural wave now! Some shampoo bars make my hair straighter, some curlier.

[Arctic]

I prefer my hair when it's slightly styled too. I don't have anything against gentle and careful blowdrying, but since I wash so often (almost daily) I just got sick and tired of the tme and effort it took me weekly/monthly/yearly to just stand there with blowdryer in my hand. My prefered method it fluff my hair as it air dries to make the drying quicker and to give me volume. This will break up my wave pattern so fluffing is a no-no if I want to encourage my waves. Then, when my hair is about 80-90% dry I put it up into 2 cinnabuns, one on top of the other. I leave it like that for maybe 30 minutes, sometimes more but even 15-20 minutes gives me results. And the results are, that when I take my hair down it's smoother, sleeker, it has some large, soft, uniform waves. It still has some volume and fluff but nothing like before the buns. I really enjoy the results and this has been my go to method for a long time now. My hair might not be 100% dry when I take the buns down but it visually doesn't look damp anymore so I can easily just start my day and face the world few minutes after taking them down.

[MusicalSpoons]

So I heat style my hair, not drastically. I dont straighten it ever, but I do blow dry it when its half damp to make it nice and smooth and straight. My hair naturally has some wave to it.
Ive noticed though, when I let it air dry...its puffy and frizzy and rough looking. And i hate it. So I style it and make it nice and sleek. My hair doesn't dry nice naturally. Does anyone here have that problem? That their hair doesn't dry by air nicely. My hair is a mess If i do that. If my hair looked good air dryed I feel like I would be more inclined to stop.

I always keep the dryer a good distance from my head and make sure it is not to hot.
I do not use heat protectant often because I feel it builds up a lot on my very fine hair

I relate to the frizz and roughness! My hair air dries to be very frizzy (and when I was using cones, it would dry horrendously flat too ... weird combination) so I wash it at night and let it air dry overnight. I don't know why it helps but I have no frizz doing it that way (and more volume, but only because I drape it up over my pillow and off the end of the bed). I found using a Denman brush then made my hair nice and sleek in the morning :)

[lapushka]

So I heat style my hair, not drastically. I dont straighten it ever, but I do blow dry it when its half damp to make it nice and smooth and straight. My hair naturally has some wave to it.
Ive noticed though, when I let it air dry...its puffy and frizzy and rough looking. And i hate it. So I style it and make it nice and sleek. My hair doesn't dry nice naturally. Does anyone here have that problem? That their hair doesn't dry by air nicely. My hair is a mess If i do that. If my hair looked good air dryed I feel like I would be more inclined to stop.

I always keep the dryer a good distance from my head and make sure it is not to hot.
I do not use heat protectant often because I feel it builds up a lot on my very fine hair

Blow drying is not a bad thing. We're only careful with heat stylers (straighteners, curling irons) here.

If you use a blow dryer responsibly it is *perfectly fine* to use.

If you can hold your hand in the airstream for a long time (or a more sensitive part of you) without it burning, then you've got a good temperature going. If it burns, it's too hot. I weekly diffuse on warm now since it's gotten colder and I have no damage from it.

It's the straighteners and the curling irons you need to be on the lookout for for heat damage (white dots, splits).

[MoonRabbit]

As a fellow wavy, I learned going natural means a frizz battle forever. But it is so much better now that I learned to care for my hair type. Blowing drying and brushing it sleek over the years disrupted my wave pattern and it took a hot minute for my hair to accept air drying. Here is my routine, if you ever feel like giving some of these steps a try. Wash day- Finger comb in some leave - in after shower while still wet. Plop in a t shirt for 15-20 minutes then let down to dry completely, Important: do not touch your hair while it is air drying. First day hair, for me, is ALWAYS a frizzy ugly mess, so I put it in a braid and sleep on it. Second day hair is 90% frizz free, if you need to detangle, use a wide tooth comb or better yet use your fingers. It may take some time for your hair to adapt to a new routine, but if it still doesn't suit your needs then keep doing what you are doing, a little warm air isn't going to destroy your hair.

[Synester]

I have a similar routine, I detangle before i shower. wash then detangle alittle bit more after...put it in a tshirt and let it get "damp" but not soaking wet. then brush it through and let it dry more before I decide to blow dry it...or leave it be and get wavy. I dont HATE my waves they are pretty..if they werent frizzy and messy looking My hair just looks so much more uniform when its dryed with some fast air lol.