Blow drying with oil or butters – could this work?

[Kuchen]

Winter's coming in and I'm finding that having wet hair is not compatible with going out and about my daily business (I'm not quite ready to go into purdah for the sake of my hair, nor make my neck any worse than it already is).
I've been wondering if oiling/buttering hair before blowdrying (on a lowish setting) couldn't actually be beneficial. Heat seems to be an important component of several deep conditioning treatments, so could this work?

What do ya think?

[Siava]

I'm in the same boat as you. I don't like sleeping with wet hair so have blowdried a few times using the cool setting (and I always oil). I haven't noticed any damage. I am thinking about investing in a diffuser though because I'd like to have dry curls sometimes, too. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread. Good question.

[rymorg2]

I've actually used oils and butters to flat iron, so I think that this would have SOME protecting benefit. Keeping it on the lower setting, not doing it daily, making sure to DT, and not completely drying it are all things you can do to minimize damage.

Incidentally, I tend to dry in the winter too. In the summer....not so much. But each time I wash if I'm going out in the winter I do.

[ChloeDharma]

I've recently been blow drying my hair for the same reason as you. I think if you just make sure to keep the heat low and the speed low, keep the nozzle facing down the hair shaft and not too close and as Rymorg2 says don't use it to get it bone dry then it should be fine.
Some oil or a butter would be a good idea, i've been using aloe vera gel as a leave in and light hold gel but i might add oil to that today.

[kwaniesiam]

I've been doing this, I take a wee bit of coconut oil and rub it through my hair then blowdry in the mornings on WARM while its still mostly damp, then finish it off on cool. I also use an aquis towel to suck up the extra water, I got it at bed bath and beyond last year and it has been very useful. HTH

[misstwist]

I occasionally dry if I have to be somewhere in the morning and have decided that my hair is just to greasy to look good even up.

I dry to not-entirely-dry on the lowest setting my dryer has and use a diffuser. Last time I got out my (clean) probe-style digital thermometer and dangled it in my hair while drying. As long as I kept the dryer moving the temperature didn't reach over 100 degrees.

My conclusion from this experiment was that occasional blow-drying with the diffuser wasn't going to do me much harm.

But I still don't like it, it makes my waves very fuzzy, even with aloe and coconut oil as a leave-in. I may dry without scrunching next time and stop a couple times to comb it. I'm sure it will still end up pretty wavy. I usually pillow plop at night, but my "neatest" wave formation occurs when I comb my hair while damp, don't scrunch and leave it to air dry. I still get a couple spiral curls in the front when I do this.

[Chromis]

What about taking a shower as soon as you get home? Then the hair isn't sopping wet to sleep on. A nice hot shower always feels delicious after a workday to boot!

[Kuchen]

I had a go, but in an effort to treat the really damaged bits of my hair (which remain fried) added too much butter. This is obviously going to take a little tinkering to get right.

Chromis – I tend to work at home and go out in the evening, so I'm a bit back to front!