Please help !!! How do you ladies dry your hair to minimize breakage + shedding?

[Fatemah]

Alright, so here's my situation: I have straight, knee-length hair with thinning ends.

My routine: I gently rinse my hair with water every day, and then follow with a rinse of ACV (1 tbsp diluted in about a gallon). About every other week or so, I'll wash with a wee bit of garnier fructis length and strength shampoo and condition with a big mess of trader joe's moisturizing conditioner.

I usually wash when I wake up for morning prayer (at around 4-ish am) and sleep with my hair down over a satin pillow.

I smooth a few drops of coconut oil through my hair almost every day after its dry (when I wake up for REALS) and really deeply oil the night before my wash.

My hair is pretty dry. I bet I could go for a few months without shampooing if I really tried, but shampooing helps to reduce the crunchiness that sometimes happens with my hair. (What IS that crunchiness??)

Also, I don't really eat as well as I'm supposed to. I guess I should really try to increase my protein intake. I tried taking biotin for a while, but my legs got HAIRY as heck.

So my question is: How do you guys dry your hair completely? I feel like sleeping with wet hair has caused my hair to weaken from the scalp quite a lot. I didn't used to wash as much (but I have to rinse with water every day nowadays for religious reasons) so I figure that water is weakening my hair. I have a lot more flyaways and my braid is thinner at the bottom than it is at the top. (That never used to be the case.)

I think I should just stay up after the prayer and let my hair drip dry over an ironing board or a clothesline. But im just sooo sleeepyyy and I never feel motivated enough. Are there any hair-drying short cuts? I do dry the length by wrapping my towel around it. I need to get my scalp nice and bone-dry though. Any ideas?

Also, how do you sleep with your hair in a bun? These days I sleep with my hair either in a braid or down, but it's getting too obnoxiously long to continue doing that. My bun is pretty big, so I don't think I could sleep comfortably with it on.

[jacqueline101]

I dry mine with a turbie towel and air dry the remainder of the way. I comb ends up and gently with a wide tooth comb.

[swearnsue]

When you go back to sleep, with your wet hair over the satin pillow, have a fan in your room. Having the air circulating will help. Could you sleep backwards for that part of the morning? Put your pillow at the foot of the bed and have your hair spread out over the footboard of the bed?

That's all I can think of. My hair is short and I live in a dry climate so I don't have any direct experience to share but I hope you will find a solution soon.

[meteor]

It takes me hours to dry my hip-length hair. So I'm afraid at knee length, there is really no fast and healthy way of drying hair.
Also oiling your wet hair will further lengthen your drying time. Oil creates a film on top of wet hair, preventing some of it from evaporating.

Have you tried stretching your daily water washes? Are you sure they are necessary?
I can't find this study, but I remember this 24-hour test on hair immersed in water, and it showed that some hair protein was lost in water. Water is slightly alkaline (and our scalps are acidic), and water over very long time does damage hair in wet and fragile state. Add to that the problem of water hardness (if your water is hard), and you can see how it's not optimal to keep your hair wet.

Oh, and I love your routine, by the way! I just think you may not need to rinse such long hair every day, unless you really get it physically dirty.

[AmyBeth]

I've read on LHC that damp bunning is really good for hair. Also if you try to sleep with a bun, keep it on the top of your head so it may not bother you as much. Although I have never had knee length hair! I sure hope to someday.

[winship2]

Salaam alaikum wa ramadan mubarak. I don't know if you follow a particular scholar, but I believe that some scholars say that washing the scalp, and/or passing wet hands over the hair, is sufficient. Of course we are also living in a climate that makes it difficult to dry such long hair, which is different than the circumstances of the Prophet, peace be upon him. I wonder if it's possible for you to lightly dampen your hair? I assume you have already thought of asking for an opinion that addresses your problem, but I thought I would mention this just in case it's helpful.

[Fatemah]

Haha, it's a religious thing. Muslims have to do this shower called a "ghusl" when we engage in sexual intercourse, so yeah it is necessary.

We also ghusl after we're done with our period. It isn't much water, actually. I braid the length of my hair, cup my hands together and fill them with water and "pour" the water over my head three times, gently massaging my scalp after each rinse. The length of my hair gets slightly damp, and then dries in about 10 minutes. It's just the hair at the back of my head that stays wet cuz it's so darn thick.

So in reality, it's not my "long" hair that I'm rinsing; rather, it's the scalp, where the sweat comes from.

I don't ACV every day; maybe 2-3 times a week, when I feel my hair needs some shine boost. So it's pretty much dry mostly.

I really think I should invest in a water purifier for my shower so that the water doesn't get too hard and alkaline. Thanks for the tip. These days I've been rinsing my hair with water that I get from the fridge's filter :P
It's clean and cold and I thought my hair would benefit. I just moved, so I'm not sure how my hair is handling the water here so far.

[Fatemah]

And by "when we engage in sexual intercourse" I mean after, of course.

Ha!

[winship2]

OK... From your first post, when you talk about drip-drying, it sounds like you're washing the whole length of your hair every day, but in your second post you say that you're washing just the scalp every day. If it's just your scalp, you could try more intensely absorbent towels like microfiber or paper (let the paper towels dry overnight and re-use-- they work really well, and possibly a dryer on cool. I don't think you can do much else.

[Fatemah]

Huh, that's a really nice idea. I didn't realize oiling before washing would prolong drying time so much either.

What exactly is a microfiber towel?