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How To Dry Your Hair Fast

Dry Hair Fast

When it comes to our morning routines, we often haven’t got the luxury of time. Equally when we are getting ready for a night out, or a hot date we want to feel fresh for. Depending on your hair type and style, your hair may take from a few minutes to a couple of hours to dry naturally, and very few bosses would be impressed at you turning up to work, with sopping wet hair, intending to let it air dry! But nowadays some hairdryers are even boasting they are healthier for your hair than air drying, so change is a-coming!

Freshly clean hair makes a huge difference to how we look and feel, so if you’ve planned to wash your hair, going without it is not an option. Therefore, you need to know how you can dry it fast – so you don’t have to reach for the dry shampoo too often! We are going to talk you through the techniques you can use to get those beautiful locks dried quickly and get on with more.

Use A Towel

For when time is particularly tight, consider wrapping up our hair in a towel before you have even finished washing. Squeeze out the excess water first, then wrap it up in a towel straight away so that the towel can be absorbing the excess water while you wash. This is easiest when you are in the bath, but if you are in the shower, try a using a hair wrap instead, then stretch a shower cap over the top.

Hair caps are great options and a great tool to have at your disposal. They are super absorbent, they stay in place better than twisted towels, and they are smaller, making it easy to use a shower cap over the top. They also hold your hair back while you are applying your makeup! If you don’t already have one, you can get one here from Amazon.

Invest In the Best Tools

Invest In The Best Tools

Just like any task, having the right tools will make it far easier and quicker, and choosing good-quality models will save you time and money in the long run. Hair drying technology has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years, and the best models are far more advanced than your average $30 drug store dryer. While they are more expensive upfront, most high-quality, modern models use less energy than cheaper models, meaning you can save money over time, as well as all the time you will save yourself!

Far-Infrared Heat

Infrared heat forms part of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is the type of warmth that we feel from sunlight. Unlike ultraviolet light, which we also absorb from sunlight, infrared light is not ionizing radiation, meaning it does not damage our DNA. In fact, it is thought that infrared light can give us many benefits such as stimulating healing and tissue growth, soothing insomnia and improving circulation.

Infrared heat has now been incorporated into advanced hairdryers. It penetrates deeper into hairs, meaning that they are dried quickly, from the inside out, rather than just superficially. This is thought to be far gentler than traditional methods of hair drying, meaning it is much better for your hair as well as saving your time.

Ionic Technology

Another technology that has been developed to speed up hair drying is the use of ions in hairdryers. An ion is a charged molecule, meaning it is positive or negative. Ionic technology is incorporated into hairdryers in order to break apart water molecules, thereby increasing the surface area of the particles, meaning that they evaporate quickly. This means that your hair dries faster. It is also thought that this technology hydrates your hairs while drying it and helps it stay glossy!

Use The Right Hairbrush

When it comes to drying your hair, there are certain types of brushes it is good to use, and others it is important to avoid. For example, don’t use a boar-bristle brush when blow drying, or on wet hair at all, as it can damage your hair. Boar-bristle brushes are however great for smoothing dry hair and distributing natural oils down the strands.

Paddle brushes are reasonably good for blow drying hair, but be careful with the ones which have balls at the ends of the bristles, which can get caught in your hair and snag or tear it.

The best type is a vented brush which has smooth bristles. This will glide through your hair and the vents in the back allow the air and moisture to escape, rather than collecting as it would in other types of brush. This prevents local humidity around your hair and brush which would otherwise slow your drying down.

Choose Your Towel Carefully

You want a towel which is extra-absorbent. Microfibre towels stand out as being able to get you dry fast. Cotton is super absorbent, but it is less gentle on your hair and skin than microfibre, and it is thicker and often takes a lot longer to dry. Microfiber, however, is great for when you are on the go. It is also extremely absorbent and packs down well for travelling, plus it takes hardly any time to dry out.

Whichever you choose though, when you are towel-drying your hair, don’t rub it. Instead, flip your head over and shake your hair with your towel if necessary, and squeeze and blot your hair with the towel. Rubbing your hair will cause tangles and knots that will mean you spend even more time doing your hair in a hurry, as well as potentially damaging it!

Alternatives To Towels

If you don’t have a microfibre towel to hand, then grab an old (clean!) t-shirt. T-shirts are great because they are extremely absorbent, and they can also cut down on frizz, leaving you with sleek, dry hair. Plus, you can easily twist them into a hair turban so that you can dry hands-free!

Long-sleeved t-shirts are best, because you can secure them in place by the arms! Here’s how you can use your t-shirt to dry your hair, hands-free:

  1. Lay the t-shirt out on your bed or another flat surface. You want to have the neck and arms closest to you.
  2. Bend forwards so your hair is flipped over and in front of your head, and place you hair down the center of the t-shirt.
  3. Pick up the base of your t-shirt and flip it back over your hair to the nape of your neck, gathering your hair in the middle.
  4. Take the sleeves around the back of your head and tie a knot.
  5. If they are long enough, take them back round your head and tie a knot at the front too, to secure it more.

Similarly, using some products can dry your hair out a bit. Mousses and hair setting sprays often contain alcohol and some conditioners contain silicone can help dry your hair faster. Take care not to use these all the time though, as they can really dry-out your hair.

Hair Drying Tips

Hair Drying Tips

Here are some ways you can speed up your hair drying with a blow dryer:

  • Remove excess water before blow drying – squeeze your hair to ring out the excess water droplets, then squeeze it again with a towel, blotting out as much water as you can. It will make it far easier to dry with the hairdryer. Don’t rub it though, as this friction can put pressure on the strands and cause damage, or work knots and tangles into your hair.
  • Get out of the bathroom – sure, it is warm and toasty in your bathroom when you step out of the shower, but it is also very humid. Even with the best extractor fan on full speed, you will struggle to dry your hair quickly in the bathroom after your shower. Instead, step into your bedroom and begin drying there.
  • Concentrate on the roots – your roots are where your hair is densest, so it will take the longest to dry here. Spend more of your time focussing on the roots with your dryer, but keep the hairdryer moving. Don’t hold it in one place, otherwise you will cause damage from overheating, which is harder to take care of the higher up the strand it occurs.
  • Don’t dry your hair completely – you want it about 80% dry before moving onto the next section. This will reduce the chances of your hair frizzing and it will leave it easier to style. Plus, you will still have some heat and wind on one are of hair section when you are drying the next, so make the most of that and leave a bit of moisture in your strands.
  • Chase a brush through your hair – for when you are working on the different sections of your hair. The brush will spread out your hair strands, increasing the surface area so that the water evaporates faster. Plus, you can use it to style your hair. Choose a round/barrel brush for styling curls and shape the curls with the brush, or a flat brush for styling straight hair.
  • Use your attachments – combine your nozzle attachment with the brushing method we described above. This utilizes the larger surface area and focusses the heat and airflow onto your strands for more concentrated hair drying, cutting your drying time way down.
  • Focus on small sections – the smaller sections you use, the less time they will take to dry. Just as we have mentioned before, this is because the hair is less dense in smaller sections. Work through the sections methodically. Use hair clips to keep the sections separate.

If All Else Fails, Use The Elements!

Use The Elements

If you really are pushed for time, remove the excess water from your hair, as described above and use the weather to your benefit. As long as it is not cold, letting your hair dry in the sun on the walk to work, or turning up the airflow in your car isn’t such a bad thing, and it will dry even quicker is it is windy! Don’t try this in the winter months though; you don’t want to go out in the cold with wet hair and risk a cold!

Conclusion

There are some ways you can dry your hair off quicker. To get the best results, we always recommend having the high-quality tools. They are more time and cost efficient, so you can get your tasks done quicker. So if you are thinking about upgrading your hairdryer to one that can cut back on your hair drying time in the mornings and give you a few extra minutes in bed, read our review of what we consider to be the best hair dryers on the market at the moment.

Let us know in the comments box if you have any more tips for getting your hair dried quicker!

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