The Definitive Guide to Air-Dry Hair

3 min read

Spare yourself the self-made sauna created by a midsummer bathroom blow-dry. There are several benefits to air-drying your hair—and with the right steps, lineup of frizz-control products, and grasp of your hair’s texture and how it dries naturally, you can save both styling time and potential damage in the process. The technique, although relatively low lift compared to others, does require some work upfront, along with regular maintenance to ensure your hair is healthy and in solid shape to let nature take its course. So whether you’re looking for a reprieve from the summer heat or want to take a break from styling tools for a bit, experts share exactly how to master the air-dried hair look.

Prep properly

Once you’ve laid a strong foundation to prevent frizz and drying out, an air-dry style or a wash-and-go is pretty fuss-free. The difference between a styled air-dry look and one that suggests you stepped straight out of the shower and into the wild is how well you prep the hair before it air-dries. Gina Rivera, celebrity hairstylist and founder of Phenix Salon Suites, tells ELLE that you should start with a good moisturizing shampoo and conditioner, paired with deep conditioning the hair once or twice a month. The chances of frizz forming as hair dries lessen if hair is free of product buildup and moisture has been replenished. This will also set the stage for the styling products you’ll apply next.

Style for your texture

Before air drying, take note of your hair’s porosity. Knowing how much moisture your hair absorbs and retains will factor into how quickly your hair dries, your styling options—for example, a twist-out or braid-out may not be the ideal choice for air drying if your hair is highly porous. It’ll take forever to dry and set the style, and will determine how long you can go before refreshing the style. As a quick guide, high porosity hair soaks up moisture but may take a long time to dry, low porosity hair doesn’t absorb moisture easily and dries out quickly, and then there’s a middle ground that’s a combination of the two.

Your hair’s thickness and texture matter, too. Rivera says that if you have fine hair, “blot gently with a soft towel, apply your product like a smoothing cream, and let it dry. For wavy hair: apply product to damp hair, emulsify the product evenly on your hands, then take a section and gently scrunch the hair. For curly hair: Apply your curl cream, then let the hair completely dry before separating the curls.” Hairstylist Brittney Ryan adds that for coily curls, twist sections for more definition; and for straighter hair looking to add some texture, loosely braid your hair to help air dry with a soft wave.

Choose the right products

Air drying will extract moisture differently from blow-drying. The products you apply can either speed up or slow down hair drying, so choose wisely. Adding the right moisturizing products when your hair is still wet is key. Ryan says to always start with a leave-in conditioner like her go-to, Innersense’s Sweet Spirit Leave-In Conditioner. It’s tempting to want to keep scrunching and touching your hair as it dries, but avoid messing with it too much, as this will only make it frizzy. “Add your air-dry styling cream and/or a light curl cream or oil at the ends if your hair is naturally drier. Use a microfiber towel and gently blot hair instead of rubbing. And then leaving it alone,” she adds.

Refresh and reset

According to Ryan, you can typically refresh air-dried hair after one to three days, depending on your hair type. “Lightly mist with water or lightweight leave-in conditioner and then add a small amount of your styling product to reshape curls or smooth frizz. Finish with a drop of lightweight oil on the ends if needed,” she suggests.

Rivera also adds that dry shampoos work well on the areas that need to be refreshed without a full wash, and help add body to oily or limp sections.