Tips to prevent hair drying out while flying?

[Mlarmour]

This year I am doing quite a bit of travelling, mostly short flights of about 1.5 hours but I am also doing one long haul flight to america. I generally have quite dry hair that does dry out very easily, especially when I fly. When I went to Thailand, my hair was dried out from the flight despite the fact I had deep conditioned the night before the flight. When I came back from Thailand, the combination of the heat and the sea water, combined with the fact my hair was already dried out, I had straw like hair. It had ever been that dry. Admittedly part of that was my own fault as I didn’t really take care of my hair. However even when I’ve flown to Europe, I’ve come away from the flight with dry hair. My skin dries out like crazy of flights too because of the recycled air, so I moisturise regularly to combat this.

Is there a way I can prevent my hair drying out from flying? Especially when it comes to my long haul flight, I don’t want to have dry, frizzy hair in my holiday pictures.

[blackgothicdoll]

I fly a lot, often to colder places or places where I'll have to work in a data Center. In general neither me nor my hair like rapid weather changes. I don't know if your hair likes oil, but I apply more oil than I normally would and wear two dutch braids. Keeping my hair coated and braided up seems to help. Maybe you can bring a scarf to cover your head while you are on the plane, too.

I'd also like to hear other suggestions.

[Mlarmour]

I fly a lot, often to colder places or places where I'll have to work in a data Center. In general neither me nor my hair like rapid weather changes. I don't know if your hair likes oil, but I apply more oil than I normally would and wear two dutch braids. Keeping my hair coated and braided up seems to help. Maybe you can bring a scarf to cover your head while you are on the plane, too.

I'd also like to hear other suggestions.

My hair seems to like coconut oil, but I look like an oily mess whenever I use it, it looks obvious I have oil in no matter how little oil I use. I was planning on taking my coconut oil with me to do a heavy oiling. I’ll have to try other oils and see what it’s like. I didn’t even think to consider wearing a scarf.

[Patience32]

This is a great question....I always get dry, straw-like hair when I fly but never made the connection to the recycled dry air in the plane. I don't have any advice, just curious to hear the responses!

[Ylva]

Maybe trying to avoid humectants in your hair products prior to the flight could be something to consider. Although, I don't know what you use anyway. Just throwing it out there!

[Alexandrina]

Huh, I don't travel much at all, but am interested in this thread because it never occurred to me it would cause problems! Hope you find a solution.

[JennGalt]

Maybe trying to avoid humectants in your hair products prior to the flight could be something to consider. Although, I don't know what you use anyway. Just throwing it out there!

This is actually can make a huge difference for some people. Even just avoiding them in your leave ins might be enough to help. Some people are humectant sensitive. I can use film-forming humectants like aloe or flaxseed in leave ins, but the ones that work simply by attracting water molecules can actually transport moisture out of my hair and leave it even drier than before and brittle.

Having a head slathered in humectant-laden products is a major problem if you’re one of those people in an environment with recycled air, central heating or cooling, or humidity fluctuations. You might want to start keeping track and see if humectants are a problem for you, and if so then which ones. Notice how your hair feels the next day, too; it usually takes 12-24 hours for me to notice an effect, but it does sometimes happen sooner.

[pailin]

For me, short flights are not a problem, but the real long ones (Thailand - US with a bunch of layovers for me) are extremely drying. My hair got very dry on one of those once, but I found a good smt fixed it quickly. Since then, I've made a point of using a fair amount of leave in conditioner plus a bunch of oil. Then I braid it, and if it's a bit of a greasy mess, it doesn't matter. Then once I arrive home I wash my hair like usual and it comes out ok.
Avoiding humectants is a good idea, since in low enough humidity they can actually dry out your hair. I'd especially avoid something like straight-up aloe gel as a leave in.

[EdG]

Airplane cabins purposely have very low humidity to prevent condensation. There isn't much you can do.

I wash my hair after being on a plane because it smells like jet exhaust.
Ed

[milosmomma]

I'm pretty nieve to flying in a plane, but would damp bunning be of any help? My bsl hair would still be damp after a full normal day so maybe if you spritzed before you flight and secured in an updo it would retain it's moisture?