Time to Dry

[Beatrice]

Faced with a choice, would you wash your hair more often, or stretch washes and blow dry?

I've been air drying and stretching washes for months now. My hair takes at least an hour and a half to look decent in an updo. I prefer to give it two hours. Unfortunately, school is getting ready to start, and I won't have more than an hour to air dry.

Lately I've been air drying as long as possible, then finishing off with a blow dryer on low. If I do that, I can go an extra day without washing. If I wash at night and air dry, I can't even get away with an updo on the second day.

What would you do?

[loralie]

Ugh I don't want to think about this... but I'm starting work on Monday with a new job where we have to look GOOD (sigh.) So I'm going to have to figure out how to get my hair to dry in time for work, AND have it look okay.

Have you used a regular household fan? I have a really high powered one and it helps to dry my hair without the heat! Try it!

[pepperminttea]

If I wash at night and air dry, I can't even get away with an updo on the second day.

I'm curious; why not? I can normally make my oily few-days-old roots look presentable in an updo with a boar-bristle brush, it just looks like I've smoothed product into it. No-one has to know it's entirely 'all natural'. :p

[UltraBella]

I am curious too, you beat me to it pepperminttea. I always wash in the evening and air dry overnight and then put my hair up the next day. It takes at least four hours of air drying before I can put my hair up.
Faced with a choice, I would wash more often. I just can't stand to blow dry. And it takes FOREVER with how thick my hair is. I really dislike it. I wouldn't want to wash every day either.

[misstwist]

Have you tried a micro-fiber towel?

My drying time took a nose dive once I started using a micro-fiber towel to wrap it in. I bought a decent sized one in the car washing section at wal-mart.

[Beatrice]

Thanks for the ideas everyone! I don't have a household fan, but I do have a strong ceiling fan and a blow dryer I can set on cool. That, along with air drying as long as possible, worked out well for me today. I think I'll try to get my hands on a microfiber towel, too. Much as I'd like to make it work, drying at night isn't a good option for me. Even a BBB can't conceal what's going on with my hair after about 12 hours. :rolleyes:

[Charlotte:)]

I would just wash it more often, but only the scalp. Hairdryers do a LOT more damage to my hair than frequent washing.

[sugarpixie10988]

How about just rinsing it with water instead of actually washing it more often? Then shampoo on the days you would normally wash. Sometimes when I think I need to wash my hair, I just rinse it with water and that's more than enough to get it less oily looking.

[florenonite]

What about just blow-drying on the scalp (on low-med heat)? I find that when my hair takes more than a couple hours to dry, it ends up being greasy at the back of my head (where it's thickest) pretty much as soon as it's dried, whereas if it takes less time to dry then it'll be fine for a couple days. Using that logic, blow-drying only the scalp hair (and leaving the more delicate length to air-dry) will keep it from getting greasy too soon. ETA: I would recommend blow-drying on a low setting so it's less likely to tangle your hair, too.

[jera]

How about just rinsing it with water instead of actually washing it more often? Then shampoo on the days you would normally wash. Sometimes when I think I need to wash my hair, I just rinse it with water and that's more than enough to get it less oily looking.

I use the water only method all the time now, but it still takes hair a long time to dry which I think was the original problem? :o

I don't have a solution for this. But, If I had to look good, I think I'd wash with WO and then blowdry on the coolest setting. It's a lousy choice, but my hair would look too awful without being washed. :shrug:

[luckyduck]

A box fan will get my past BSL hair pretty dry, no heat in about 10 min! Then it finished air drying. I generally just go ahead and put it up damp. I do some sort of rinse at least, every day, since I run in the am.

[Fog]

Love the Blade Runner reference in the title (if that's indeed what you were aiming for -- if not, ignore my babbling).

This is a tricky issue for me, too. I like to avoid drying not only because of the damage, but because I feel like it's a huge waste of time. Right now the walk to work in horrendous heat generally takes care of the wet hair (while introducing a host of other hygiene issues :rolleyes:) but it's going to become more of a problem over the next few months.

[Beatrice]

Love the Blade Runner reference in the title (if that's indeed what you were aiming for -- if not, ignore my babbling).

This is a tricky issue for me, too. I like to avoid drying not only because of the damage, but because I feel like it's a huge waste of time. Right now the walk to work in horrendous heat generally takes care of the wet hair (while introducing a host of other hygiene issues :rolleyes:) but it's going to become more of a problem over the next few months.

Yay, you noticed! :)

I did try WO once, but it was a disaster. I think it's because I lived, then as now, in an area notorious for hard water. By the time I was done, I wished I'd left it alone, or at least tried CO. Alas.

That's a good idea about blow drying only the scalp, if I can't manage to keep it on cool. The length tends to dry faster anyway. Thanks for the tips everyone. I was starting to think I would lose all my progress retraining myself to take care of my hair!

[mariika]

microfiber towel sounds good! and you are lucky to only need ONE HOUR (is this even real?) to dry your hair! my hair needs about three and a half in summer! and it's not even that long! apl

[clichepithet]

I would just wash it more often, but only the scalp. Hairdryers do a LOT more damage to my hair than frequent washing.

I'd second this. Not only do I hate waiting for my hair to dry, but I'm starting to be unhappy about the amount of conditioner I use when I CWC. Therefore, scalp-only washes. I like the method explained by Amoretti (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=85) in the Articles section the best, personally. Though I'm terrible at braiding upside down, so I just do my braid higher up by leaning back really far.