Ways to hurry up hair drying...

[TealDolphin]

I have thickish hair, and it takes 6-8 hours to fully dry. I can't blowdry, because that makes my hair really frizzy. Any ideas?

[MissManda]

I also have thick hair that seems to take forever to dry. What I do is I will very, very gently fingercomb and separate my hair so that the air can get to more of it. I usually wait until it is damp instead of soaking wet to do this. I don't know how that would affect your curls because I've noticed that my hair does dry straighter than it would otherwise. In addition to fingercombing, I will fluff my hair every so often.

Sitting next to the heater in wintertime can also help a wee bit.

[littlestarface]

My hair takes too much time to dry the only thing I can do is use a turbie towel, comb it when its wet and then braid it and just wait.

[Madora]

Here's the method I've used for more than 40 years on my thick, long hair:

1) Gently squeeze the excess water from your strands.

2) Wrap your hair in a large towel and pin it so it will stay on your head.

3) Wait about 10 minutes

4) Remove towel and using a wide tooth comb, part your hair from forehead down to the nape.

5) Clip the left hand section aside so it's out of the way.

6) Gently comb out any tangles from the right hand side hair. Work slowly - starting at the bottom of the strands and working up towards the scalp.

7) Take a small section of hair from your temple area in your hand. Hold out your hand and bring it up to your eye level. Now, release the strands.

You are "fanning the strands". Repeat this "fanning" over and over and over until all the hair has been dried.

Drying my 40"+ hair took 30 minutes (outside). Takes slightly more inside.

If you have a hot air vent - or a space heater - you can dry your hair near them (not too closely!).

Hair takes forever to dry if you just let it sit on a towel down your back.

You have to AIR your hair -- fan the strands - to hasten the drying process.

[GRU]

After my Turbie-Twist, I wrap my hair in an old t-shirt for five minutes, then remove the shirt and turn it around and re-wrap using the dry side of the t-shirt. This helps to suck out extra moisture that the turban didn't get, without contributing to frizz.

[pepperminttea]

You're wavier than me, so I don't know if you "plop" your hair, but if you don't, I love LittleOrca's method of wearing a towel turban (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=34399). Splitting the hair into two sections rather than one really makes it a lot more effective.

[Athena's Owl]

I "Blow-dry" my hair.

I have two stand fans. I set them up one on either side of my chair, turn them on low/medium speed from about four feet away, and this cuts the drying time down considerably.

[Yeesha]

Like Madora I first gently squeeze, then wrap my hair in a dry towel and squeeze some more with the towel around.

Then I wait until the "top" of my hair is dried and then make a half-up bun so that the part around the neck dries faster.

That doesn't sound so effective like other methods here, but it's hardly any work. *g* And the bun helps to prevent frizz too.

[torrilin]

Normally it takes 5-6 hours for my hair to dry completely. However... yesterday I used a new shampoo and my hair dried in less than an hour. I was in total shock. If it's repeatable, I'm gonna be very pleased.

[luxepiggy]

I'm a straightie so I don't know how feasible this is for you, but I basically do madora's steps 1-3. Then I remove the towel, fingercomb, and repeat steps 2-3 with a new, dry towel, remove the towel & fingercomb again. If necessary I repeat until my hair no longer soaks through the new towel after 10 minutes. At that point I remove it and fingercomb one last time.

[aenflex]

Believe it or not - using cones helps my hair dry faster. When I was on my own no-cone tangent, my hair took forever to dry, up down or whatever, despite it being pretty thin. When I went back to my cone routine I noticed right away how much faster my hair dryed?

[lapushka]

Mine takes that long to dry also. That's why it's still blowdried in part.

You could wash in the evenings and go to sleep with it wet. Wear a turbie for 10 minutes, then put a towel over your pillow and drape your hair over it so it can dry overnight. Wouldn't recommend this in winter time! Great for summer nights, though!

Or, turbie for 10 minutes, let it dry about 50-75%, then blowdry the rest.

[Olivia23]

I first wrap my hair up gently into a towel for about 10 minutes or so, then I take it out and start headbanging LOL! Really it works! I saw a girl on youtube who flips her head all around to dry her long hair, so I tried it and it dries so much faster now!

[Kristin]

I blowdry my bangs and roots on top and then sleep on it wet or damp. It's still damp in the morning, but at least I'm not walking around in the cold with wet hair.

[Amraann]

I have to ask .... Are you drying quick for work?

I do not have any idea how long it takes my hair to dry. I wash it about once a week and then put it up for a day or two.
So maybe you can do that if you have to go out. I do not work outside my home so I do not worry about the office look.
But I think a bun wet or not works for almost any situation.

[loralie]

Comb! and comb and comb and comb.

Out of the shower I squeeze any excess water out of my hair in a towel, gently. Then I load up with lots of leave in, oils, etc, and fingercomb. Once I'm done that I get out my wooden wide toothed comb and comb continuously. Comb out your part, then comb back away from your face, then down again. This helps straighten my hair and dry it faster than just leaving it alone.

[Bene]

A good microfiber towel works for me. I wrap my hair up in it for about 15-20 minutes. Leaves my hair just damp.

[milagro]

Combing and finder-drying are good for straight and sleek hair, guys. If yours is 2 and up any such manipulation will give you a huge frizz and poof :mad:

OP I can only suggest going to bed with damp hair. If I wash my hair at night I plop/towel-dry for about 20 min, air-dry till the bed time, then wrap it in silk scarf or a mesh scarf and sleep on it. When weather is hot I don't wrap and just put it away from my face.
In the morning it's almost dry, a little messy but usually not frizzy. But this method can give flat areas, in back and top usually. And frankly, I hate sleeping on wet hair, just the feeling of it :)
HTH