My Airdrying Method

Air drying is more complicated than you would like to think. You would think that after conditioning your hair that you can add a leave in and a little oil or serum and keep it moving. Not really...

There are many things to consider when air drying:
1. What products will work for me?

2. How can I protect my ends?

3. How long will my hair take to dry?

4. How can I prevent frizzies?

5. How can I smooth down my hair?

6. What are my styling options?

7. How can I prevent breakage?

Well, let's discuss!

 I have to air dry with minimal product of my hair will be a weighed down mess. I stick to a cream leave in, either Giovanni Direct Weightless leave in or KeraCare leave in. Whichever you choose, I recommend you go with something you KNOW that works. When airdrying, I rarely leave my hair up to experimentation.

I used to seal immediately after applying my leave in with either coconut oil or a serum. Now, I didn't like how coconut oil felt on wet hair, but it dried soft and shiny but not as smooth as it could be. On the other hand, serum made detangling and smoothing easier, but my hair felt a little coated making moisturizing on coming days pointless as it was sealing out the moisture.

So, I just apply my leave in to detangled hair. I then smooth the top layer of my hair very lightly with my boar bristle brush. I'm almost grazing my hair with it. I tie my hair down with a black do-rag - the one with the long tails.

Preventing frizzies has to do with proper smoothing, not loading hair down with product. Choose the smoothing method than works best for you. Think low and gentle manipulation.

Previously, I was able to place my hair in a wet ponytail and keep it moving. I was texlaxed then. Now that I'm more processed, my hair couldn't take that. So after tying the do-rag and letting my ends hang out of the back, I roll my ends with a few flexi-rods.

The purpose to this is not to create a style, its simply to protect my ends. They are safely rolled on the rods. My hair will not be dry in the morning, so again, this is not for styling purposes. I cover my hair with a satin bonnet and call it a wrap.

In the morning, I unroll my rods and take off my dorag. My hair looks like this:

I then apply a dime sized amount of Jane Carter Nourish & Shine and a nickel size amount of coconut oil to my hair without disturbing the smooth crown. My hair looks like this:

I place it in a bun, clip, french braid, updo, etc. and go! All of this takes about 5 minutes.

To prevent breakage, I wait a day to change styles when my hair is just about dry. The end of this day is usually when I do my braidouts. I just braid my hair adding only coconut oil to my fingers and roll the ends. I prefer doing my braidouts on dry or almost dry hair because it's safer.

Posted in: My hair,Relaxed Hair