Do Blow-Drying & Straightening Damage the Hair?

Hi, girls!

I’m sure many of you read the post’s title, sputtering and answering without hesitations – YES, OF COURSE, IT’S LOGIC AND OBVIOUS. I’m glad you know about the dangers of using flat irons and blow-dryers. Too bad many people still don’t know why hair gets damaged because of devices that (let’s face it) we can’t do without. To be honest, none of us is going to give up blow-drying. So, what can you do to weaken the damaging power of the blow-dryer? Is there a way to minimize the damage and loss so hair doesn’t suffer? Enjoy reading!

A bit of theory first.

To keep soft, strong and healthy, hair needs ingredients that deliver nutrients, reinforcement and – most of all – hydration. Without them, tresses get weak, brittle, bounceless and simply over-dried. Heat makes hair lose water from the inside. Blow-drying and straightening destroy the hair at an alarming speed. A flat iron is the worst evil; the tool boldly burns the strands and their structure can’t be rebuilt. To make things worse, using a blow-dryer the wrong way can give you both hair and scalp problems; the skin gets dry, irritated and extremely fragile. Mind that in summer hair’s non-stop exposed to the high temperatures – due to both devices and strong sunlight. This ‘hot cocktail’ works like an explosive mix for hair.

Blow-dryers & flat irons – how can you make them less destructive for your hair?

Giving up blow-dryers is really hard but we can reduce using a straightener just for special occasions, big night-outs, important meetings, etc. Many of us use a dryer on a daily basis but following a few rules is enough to make heat styling much safer for the hair.

How to blow-dry the hair to keep the damage away?

1. Buy a high-quality blow-dryer. Girls, remember that a good dryer must have the temp control and cool airflow function. It’s perfect if it has the ionic technology. What makes a good purchase? A dryer that doesn’t attack your hairdo with extreme heat. Sometimes it’s better to invest more money and buy the one that treats our tresses gently.
2. Blow-dry your hair after squeezing out the excess of water. In other words, if you towel-dry, you slightly reduce the blow-dry time. Consequently, a high temp doesn’t affect your hairdo so long. Remember you should never pull the strands to avoid damaging their structure.
3. Blow-dry stage: keep the dryer at a distance – as far from the hair and scalp as possible. You don’t direct the most intensive source of heat on hair so the damage isn’t as drastic. You neither irritate or burn the scalp if you keep the tool at a safe distance – far away from the scalp 🙂
4. Heat protection spray or lotion is an amazing invention. Apply it to hair before every blow-dry routine. It works when you go to the beach as it protects hair from the sun exposure. As a result, hair doesn’t lose water from the inside. The products create a protective layer on the hair surface, minimizing the destructive action of high temps. Heat protectants are ideal for the winter time, too, when we’re in rooms with dry air and central heating.
5. While blow-drying, don’t use the highest temps; if you do, water’s going to vanish from the inside of your hair. Yes, the blow-drying will take more time but there are more benefits of using cool temps. They keep cuticle scales from raising thus leave strands soft, shiny and bouncy. Hair’s smooth and luminous. The ideal solution involves using the cool airflow for fixing the hairdo after drying it with warm (not hot) temp. In this way you seal scales of hair for the intensified shine. Ionic dryers give a spectacular smoothing effect and fight static.
6. Oil your hair 🙂 Natural oils work a billion times better than heat protection products as apart from creating a protective coat on hair, they penetrate the hair structure and fix broken disulphide bonds. Oils reduce blow-dry time and are free from silicones, parabens and dehydrating alcohols (that, too bad, are included in synthetic, heat protectants). Thanks to natural oils, no blow-dryer is posing a threat 🙂

How to curl and straighten the hair in a safe way?

I’ll probably hear a sound of disappointment because, sadly, there’s no safe way of curling or straightening hair with a hot tool. I guess not much is going to change. I know some of you can’t do without a flat iron. Why don’t you try less invasive straightening balms or ionic brushes? You’d better put the straightener deep in the bathroom drawer and use it once a month tops. If you really have to straighten, use hair oils and do hair oil treatments as often as possible. Flat irons are most brutal towards hair ends so cut them down regularly to keep them from splitting and burning.

Have a nice day! 🙂