Hair falls flat, loses luster, when it finishes drying

[technowitch]

Hello everyone! I hope it's alright if I ask for some advice on this?


I have fine hair, most likely low porosity (it doesn't like oils, doesn't retrain moisture well). It's got a slight natural wave to it.


When my hair is halfway dry, it looks amazing. It's got volume, shine, looks hydrated, got a nice wave to it, the red from my henna coloring is bright - overall just looks great...


But, then, when it finishes drying fully, it falls flat, loses its luster, the ends look split and dry, it frizzes up a bit... It goes from looking gorgeous to blah between halfway dry to fully dry.


Is there anything I can do? I just air dry. I don't use heat tools. I have the same issue no matter what combination of leave in's I use.

[lapushka]

How long is your hair, what cut is it? Blunt? Layers?

Do you use the curly girl method or brush it when it's dry?

[PumpkinSpiceGrl]

I'm interested in this as well. I have straight, fine hair that acts similarly. It will dry, then get all kinds of fly-aways, yet still be flat. Thank you for making this thread Technowitch!

[SpottedBackson]

I have straight/wavy hair and I've always found that on wash day, when my hair has dried, it looks pretty frizzy and awful. I then go to bed and sleep in a silk bonnet. The next morning it's soft, shiny and the frizz has gone. Something about sleeping on it makes it look better. For that reason I always try to wash my hair when I get home from work/uni and give it time to dry before bed. I never ever ever wash it in the morning.

This is also the reason I'm super confused by people who wash their hair every day - my day 2 hair looks sooo much better than my wash day hair.

You could try washing in the evening and sleeping on a silk pillowcase/with a silk bonnet and see if that helps.

[Lady Stardust]

My hair is frizzy the day I wash it too, and smooth the next.

I wonder if you have product build up? That can cause frizz and dry feeling ends.

[MusicalSpoons]

I have straight/wavy hair and I've always found that on wash day, when my hair has dried, it looks pretty frizzy and awful. I then go to bed and sleep in a silk bonnet. The next morning it's soft, shiny and the frizz has gone. Something about sleeping on it makes it look better. For that reason I always try to wash my hair when I get home from work/uni and give it time to dry before bed. I never ever ever wash it in the morning.

This is also the reason I'm super confused by people who wash their hair every day - my day 2 hair looks sooo much better than my wash day hair.

You could try washing in the evening and sleeping on a silk pillowcase/with a silk bonnet and see if that helps.


My hair is frizzy the day I wash it too, and smooth the next.

I wonder if you have product build up? That can cause frizz and dry feeling ends.

Ditto. I wash at night (with the lengths over my pillow and off the end of my bed) and it's infinitely preferable to daytime air-dried hair. It is still pretty frizzy but it feels soft and the ends feel nice, which they don't if they air-dry during the day :confused:

[Kalamazoo]

I wonder if an ionizer would help. I've had an ionic hairbrush (Sharper Image) https://www.sharperimage.com/si/view/product/Ionic+Hair+Drying+Brush/205868
You'll notice they also have other ionic hair tools.

These days, I just have a $20 ionizer that I bought at Walmart sitting on the countertop, running all the time. So it's putting ozone in the air, and eventually it gets to my hair. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Holmes-Personal-Space-Air-Purifier-HAP116Z-U/21930737?athcpid=21930737&athpgid=athenaItemPage&athcgid=null&athznid=PWVAV&athieid=v0&athstid=CS020&athguid=6ab18c63-d26-16e67fb744e189&athancid=null&athena=true (Wow! The price has gone DOWN to $15! :p )

I first got interested in ionizers to deal with allergies, but they help other things, too, like hair.

[SleepyTangles]

Have you tried slightly dampening the ends, then using a tiny amount of oil over the moisture? I mean a drop of oil, or two.
For my hair, using fats over dry hair is worse than doing nothing.

[Zesty]

I'll chime in with the others who have said their hair looks better after being slept on. I hate the look of my freshly dried hair, it looks dull and frizzy (to my eye) so I always wash the night before if I have something to look nice for.

[technowitch]

Thank you for your responses everyone! I wash my hair in the morning because it always looks disgusting after I sleep. I do have those satin bonnets and I've tried putting my hair inside in different ways, but the result is always the same. My roots end up so greasy looking and my ends look very dry. I avoid oil because, no matter how little I try, it always ends up just sitting on the surface of my hair: like gasoline on pavement. I've tried clarifying shampoos that are color safe, since I color with henna, but still have the same outcome. Right after the shower, I apply detangler and leave in conditioner and brush it out. I've tried scrunching and not brushing multiple times, but my hair dries up, frizzes, and falls flat whether I skip the brush or not and my hair doesn't seem to like scrunching: I don't get defined waves, but a rats nest. So, I brush.

[Kalamazoo]

Are you interested in making your own shampoo & conditioner? I really like browsing through the threads on the "Recipes, Henna, and Herbal Haircare" Forum, https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21

Personally, I ditched all my plastic combs & brushes and replaced them with wooden combs that I found on eBay. I've also tried ox horn combs, but for some inexplicable reason, I like wood best. I bought combs made from various woods to find out which I liked best. But some folks believe that dragging a plastic comb/brush through one's hair creates static electricity.

[poli]

Hello everyone! I hope it's alright if I ask for some advice on this?


I have fine hair, most likely low porosity (it doesn't like oils, doesn't retrain moisture well). It's got a slight natural wave to it.


When my hair is halfway dry, it looks amazing. It's got volume, shine, looks hydrated, got a nice wave to it, the red from my henna coloring is bright - overall just looks great...


But, then, when it finishes drying fully, it falls flat, loses its luster, the ends look split and dry, it frizzes up a bit... It goes from looking gorgeous to blah between halfway dry to fully dry.


Is there anything I can do? I just air dry. I don't use heat tools. I have the same issue no matter what combination of leave in's I use.

Hello, you could check your products for protein. Henna does not work well with too much of protein. Also if your hair is low porosity you might benefit from deep treatments with heat (heat cap for example).
Maybe you could try SMT (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=128) (Snowymoon's moisture treatment)?
As for leave-ins, the best one that retains hydrated "juicy" look for me is Cantu Curl Activator - and I have straight 1c hair so it works for any hairtype.