Tips to prevent hair drying out while flying?

[Mlarmour]

This year I am doing quite a bit of travelling, mostly short flights of about 1.5 hours but I am also doing one long haul flight to america. I generally have quite dry hair that does dry out very easily, especially when I fly. When I went to Thailand, my hair was dried out from the flight despite the fact I had deep conditioned the night before the flight. When I came back from Thailand, the combination of the heat and the sea water, combined with the fact my hair was already dried out, I had straw like hair. It had ever been that dry. Admittedly part of that was my own fault as I didn’t really take care of my hair. However even when I’ve flown to Europe, I’ve come away from the flight with dry hair. My skin dries out like crazy of flights too because of the recycled air, so I moisturise regularly to combat this.

Is there a way I can prevent my hair drying out from flying? Especially when it comes to my long haul flight, I don’t want to have dry, frizzy hair in my holiday pictures.

[blackgothicdoll]

I fly a lot, often to colder places or places where I'll have to work in a data Center. In general neither me nor my hair like rapid weather changes. I don't know if your hair likes oil, but I apply more oil than I normally would and wear two dutch braids. Keeping my hair coated and braided up seems to help. Maybe you can bring a scarf to cover your head while you are on the plane, too.

I'd also like to hear other suggestions.

[Mlarmour]

I fly a lot, often to colder places or places where I'll have to work in a data Center. In general neither me nor my hair like rapid weather changes. I don't know if your hair likes oil, but I apply more oil than I normally would and wear two dutch braids. Keeping my hair coated and braided up seems to help. Maybe you can bring a scarf to cover your head while you are on the plane, too.

I'd also like to hear other suggestions.

My hair seems to like coconut oil, but I look like an oily mess whenever I use it, it looks obvious I have oil in no matter how little oil I use. I was planning on taking my coconut oil with me to do a heavy oiling. I’ll have to try other oils and see what it’s like. I didn’t even think to consider wearing a scarf.

[Patience32]

This is a great question....I always get dry, straw-like hair when I fly but never made the connection to the recycled dry air in the plane. I don't have any advice, just curious to hear the responses!

[Ylva]

Maybe trying to avoid humectants in your hair products prior to the flight could be something to consider. Although, I don't know what you use anyway. :) Just throwing it out there!

[Alexandrina]

Huh, I don't travel much at all, but am interested in this thread because it never occurred to me it would cause problems! Hope you find a solution.

[JennGalt]

Maybe trying to avoid humectants in your hair products prior to the flight could be something to consider. Although, I don't know what you use anyway. :) Just throwing it out there!

This is actually can make a huge difference for some people. Even just avoiding them in your leave ins might be enough to help. Some people are humectant sensitive. I can use film-forming humectants like aloe or flaxseed in leave ins, but the ones that work simply by attracting water molecules can actually transport moisture out of my hair and leave it even drier than before and brittle.

Having a head slathered in humectant-laden products is a major problem if you’re one of those people in an environment with recycled air, central heating or cooling, or humidity fluctuations. You might want to start keeping track and see if humectants are a problem for you, and if so then which ones. Notice how your hair feels the next day, too; it usually takes 12-24 hours for me to notice an effect, but it does sometimes happen sooner.

[pailin]

For me, short flights are not a problem, but the real long ones (Thailand - US with a bunch of layovers for me) are extremely drying. My hair got very dry on one of those once, but I found a good smt fixed it quickly. Since then, I've made a point of using a fair amount of leave in conditioner plus a bunch of oil. Then I braid it, and if it's a bit of a greasy mess, it doesn't matter. Then once I arrive home I wash my hair like usual and it comes out ok.
Avoiding humectants is a good idea, since in low enough humidity they can actually dry out your hair. I'd especially avoid something like straight-up aloe gel as a leave in.

[EdG]

Airplane cabins purposely have very low humidity to prevent condensation. There isn't much you can do.

I wash my hair after being on a plane because it smells like jet exhaust.
Ed

[milosmomma]

I'm pretty nieve to flying in a plane, but would damp bunning be of any help? My bsl hair would still be damp after a full normal day so maybe if you spritzed before you flight and secured in an updo it would retain it's moisture?

[gingerninja]

I've flown a lot mostly transatlantic and it does dry my hair out, so what i do is co wash a few days before then lightly oil my length and bun it to retain my moisture. As for you using deep conditioning then using a coney leave in might work well as a barrier to the dry plane air.

[lapushka]

I would bun, that keeps most of your length contained and "unable" to dry out.

[amiraaah]

I’ve flown 3 days ago, my hair is very dry naturally. What I did is i showered before the flight, applied whole blends garnier cream mixed with coconut oil (i’m not a fan of Leave ins but my sister loves this garnier product so i wanted to give it a try) then i braided it and covered it in a scarf.

[Cg]

A tightly woven scarf is better than loose weave as it traps more moisture. I always moisturize heavily (olive oil and 1:1 diluted conditioner) before and after a flight.

[Mlarmour]

Thanks everyone. You’ve given me plenty of things to consider. Even though I’ve been on this site a couple of years, I am still pretty new to caring for my hair properly while it grows out.

[elsiedeluxe]

The only suggestion I haven't seen is to drink lots and lots of water, before and especially during the flight. It probably won't do much for your hair, but it will definitely help your skin.

I typically braid my hair when I travel (when it's long) mostly because a bun will be uncomfortable sitting in a stiff airplane/bus/train seat. My head likes to rest on the seat back and the bun gets in the way. Braids are more secure for me anyway, in general, so it makes it so I can ignore my hair completely for the entire journey. The ends might be a little dry when I arrive, but that's usually quickly solved with a spritz or a shower. My hair isn't very dry, though, so this hasn't been a big problem for me.

[ursaV]

Ohh, I'm taking my first long flight this summer, and I didn't even think my hair could dry out! My ends have their crispy days so it is definitely possible it could happen if I don't prepare. Now I will oil and use a scarf before getting on the plane, thank you for the tips everyone and for bringing up the topic Mlarmour.

[milosmomma]

Let us know what you try and how well it works for you :)