Everyone wants an amazing head of hair. We want it to be full, thick, healthy, etc, but after years of bleaching, dyeing, heat styling, wrong products, health problems, we can experience damaged hair. Let’s start with what to do with wet hair after a shower to avoid damaged hair.
For more healthy hair tips, check out this blog post I did for a healthy scalp and hair growth!
When your hair is wet, it’s at its most fragile state. We have to take really good care of it to make sure it stays healthy and strong.
Don’t Brush Hair Right Away
Even though there are wet brushes, they can still cause snags in the hair and cause it to stretch and break. Wait until the hair is 85% dry or brush before and during your shower. I personally like a wide-tooth comb as opposed to a wet brush for my bleached hair.
Don’t Put Your Hair In A Towel
*Update 2022, I use a microfiber towel turban and am gentle when I am putting my hair in it. It helps speed up the drying process for me and is less heavy than a traditional towel.
Avoid keeping your hair in a towel after a shower. Towels can be heavy and pull in the front pieces of your hair breaking them. Same goes for a hair turban, it can pull on your hair causing it to stretch. Instead, try it with a towel (some say a microfiber towel or T-shirt to avoid damage and frizz) to dry it off and let it air dry 85%.
Don’t Just Air Dry
We don’t want to overheat our hair with heat styling tools, but blow drying your hair can actually be good. Make sure your hair is 85% dry and give a rough dry on medium or low. Yeah, it will take a little longer than it would on high heat, but your hair will be much healthier. If you need to straighten or smooth a stubborn piece, use the high setting for only a few passes, and resume to low heat. Blow drying helps get your hair out of its most vulnerable state faster, and done the right way can be better for your hair.
If you want to know how to blow dry your hair right, check out this video.
Don’t Sleep In Wet Hair
When you are sleeping you are tossing and turning and your hair is flying this way and that. This friction is causing breakage as well as frizz. There are even more health reasons not to sleep with wet hair, but we will leave it at that.
I also have an entire blog post on why you need a silk pillowcase, here!
Don’t Put Your Hair In A Ponytail or Bun
Not only are you pulling on your wet, fragile hair, but you are wrapping a rubber band, essentially, around your hair. That definitely is not good for your hair and it causes tension breakage. If you want to go to bed with braids and wake up with waves: have your hair be 90% dry, sleep on a silk pillowcase to avoid friction, and tie with a soft scrunchy.
Don’t Leave The House
Leaving the house with wet hair might look good on celebrities, but in reality, it’s not good for your hair. The temperature and climate is different than in your house and your hair can change texture causing frizz and uneven drying on your hair.
Don’t Aggressively Rub Your Hair
You know when you go to your hairstylist and they freakin’ shake and rub the crap out of your wet hair with the towel? Yeah, that’s not good. So don’t do it at home. It’s good to use a microfiber towel or t-shirt to dry your hair, but honestly, who does that? It’s more important how you handle your hair than the material. Be gentle!
All in all, remember that you need to treat your hair with care and be gentle when it’s wet.
Shop the products mentioned in the post here:
What are some of your hair tips? Leave them in the comments below!
XO, Annie
