Exactly how damaging is a blowdryer anyway?

[Kat Girl]

I have very delicate damaged hair that I have been nursing back to health (and growing out/cutting off damage) for the past 2 years or more. I have been doing really good about not using heat and not damaging it and it is a whole lot better than it was but still has a way to go. But I must say my hair does look and feel so much better when blow dried. Even if it is just the smallest amount a little bit goes a long way. If I do blowdry it is on medium heat and then cool, and doesn't take long at all given how fine my hair is. So the question is exactly how much damage does a blowdryer do? Is not blowdrying my hair now going to pay off that much later, or is the damage not even significant to matter?

[PeaceLoveHair]

I have pretty healthy hair in general. It tends to be able to withstand a lot of abuse ( when I used to treat it badly...). I do know that blowdrying is damaging, and its the #1 reason why I couldnt seem to grow it quite to waist length in the past. It would always get to "almost" waist length, but then the ends would split like crazy and I'd always have to chop of the last few inches. Not because of the hairdying (which i do every four months), because of the blowdrying, which I did every time I washed (2-3 times per week). Now that I've stopped, my ends are in great condition and I'm finally almost at waist length and I know I'll be able to make it to there without having to cut back. yay!!!

[PrincessTieflin]

Mine can handle the blowfyer.. But its much better with out it I have vowed to not let heat touch my length unless a special occasion..

On the other hand I DO blowfry my bangs.. and the damage adds up every 8 weeks or so.. sometimes less sometimes more.. But it all gets trimmed back off the bangs anyways.

[Kat Girl]

Thanks you both are right. My hair is getting much better without the blowfryer. It's just so hard to wait for it to grow and for all of the damage to grow out as well.

[meremor]

Okay I have a confession. I have F/M i/ii hair, and it gets GREASY. And if I sleep on it, it gets all stringy and looks like I styled it with a blow dryer. I'm also a runner and I sweat when I run. So that means I end up washing my hair pretty much every single day. And I blow dry it 99% of the time.

I really should stop - I wonder how much of a difference I'd see in my hair.

What do y'all do with your hair while you're sleeping to keep it from getting crazy? If I could overcome that, maybe I could lessen my blowfryer use.

[RocketDog]

I shower before bed probably half the time, and I usually wear my hair in as loose a braid as I can stand. It always dries crazy, but that doesn't matter because I always spritz my hair with water when I put it up in the morning. I very, very rarely wear it down, though, for a variety of reasons.

[mellie89]

To be honest, I blow dry anywhere from one to four times per week, and as far as I can tell, it doesn't do any significant damage. I trim every six months just to keep the ends looking nice, but I don't get split ends. I just prefer blunt ends to fairy-tail ends.

I have been blow drying my hair for my entire life, and I have always had soft, shiny, healthy hair. The only exception is when I was lightening my hair myself with a box color every other month AND straightening it several times per week. It was pretty trashed after following that routine for a while.

Use the lowest heat and speed settings that you can get away with, and let your hair air dry for awhile before you attack it with heat. :)

I think that if you really love how your hair looks and feels when you blow dry it, there's no reason to give it up. Just try to baby your hair in other ways; do some nice deep treatments occasionally, be gentle when you de-tangle, and give your ends a small trim every once in awhile.