How To Tame Frizz When Air Drying/Blow Drying

Struggling with taming your frizz?

Frizz, we all hate it; but very few of us know how to prevent it. Frizz is caused by an open hair cuticle allowing moisture from the air inside the hair shaft, are sealing the cuticle with a blast of heat from a blow-dryer or other hot tool and finishing your style with a multitude of serums, such as amethyst oil. Despite all the hours spent straightening or curling your strands every morning and trying countless anti-frizz creams and oils, your thick hair only held the style a small fraction of the time before reverting back to its natural state. Next time you check yourself in the rearview mirror, you are shocked that your hair went back to its normal crazy state.

Not only is it possible to style thicker hair with less heat, but it’ll also look amazing and feel healthier in the end. To achieve frizz-free, defined natural waves, understand that it's all in the wash and dry.

Perfecting the wash-and-dry technique is key to a low-maintenance routine for thicker or coarse hair.

Step 1. Skip shampooing too much.

Many times we add too much Shampoo tends to exacerbate the increase in oil in the scalp. So laying off all the shampoo! (At the very least, cut your usage to once or twice a week if you can stand it.) Most good shampoo will detox the scalp and help the oil factor anyway.

After cleansing and massaging the scalp, add more cleansing cream or conditioner to the bottom half of your hair, making sure to evenly coat it all. Rinse as normal.

How do you air-dry your hair? The answer seems obvious: Do nothing and let nature take its course. But if you want your hair to look smooth and frizz-free, there’s a little more effort involved. We talked to hairstylists to find out how to ensure that nature is drying your hair more like a high-powered Dyson rather than a blowdryer at a cheap motel. Read on for their tips.

1. Moisturize Your Hair

If you want smooth, glossy, frizz-free hair, the first step is making sure that the cuticle — the outermost layer of your hair — is closed. (Yes, unlike pores, the cuticle really does open and close.) Luckily, you’re probably already using conditioner, which closes the cuticle for you, sealing in moisture to keep your hair smooth and soft. It’s okay to skip shampoo depending on your hair type, but all of our experts agree that you should use conditioner. (If you want to go the extra step, you can also use a strong hair mask to give it a little more conditioning).

2. Rinse With Cold Water

After you wash out conditioner, rinse your hair with cold water. It doesn’t need to be ice-cold, but it should be colder than room temperature.

3. Brush in the Shower

Now take a wide-tooth comb or Wet Brush, and comb through your hair. Glory in your hair looking like glass or a shiny sea-otter pelt. This is when hairstylists agree your hair is best — it’s smooth, it’s moisturized, and it’s shiny. (Note: You want to do this in the shower, not afterwards, because this is when you can comb it without breakage. But more on that in a bit.)

4. Set Your Hair

Do you want your hair to fall flatly and prettily over your ears, young Sofia Coppola-style? Do you want your hair to have a side or center part? Then do the modern version of a “set” — make sure that you section your hair into that part when it’s wet, so that it naturally goes into that style as it air-dries.

5. Add Smoothness

If you want your hair to look extra smooth, consider adding some more product. Some light leave-in conditioner or a smoothing serum can ease it along, and also help close the cuticle.

6. Avoid Towels

Every single expert interviewed for this story agreed: No matter how fancy your towels, don’t let them touch your hair. “Cotton fibers only,” stresses Townsend. Wrapping your hair in a regular towel dries it, but also dries it out, explains hairstylist Holli Clarke. Plus towels can create knots and snarls.

Many suggest using old T-shirts or microfiber towels. Justine Marjan (the Global Stylist for TRESemmé) also suggests squeezing your hair, rather than rubbing it, to remove moisture. “Just squeeze the water out of it,” she explains. “If you rub it, that increases friction and frizz.” Most curly-haired girls already do a variation of the technique called plopping.

7. Stop Touching It

Being lazy actually works for your hair when you get it to this point. Your hair is in its most fragile state when it’s wet. Go against most people’s natural inclination to brush it again: This is when it’s most tender and prone to breakage. Townsend explains that brushing or even hand-combing it opens the cuticle again, making it vulnerable to damage and frizz.

8. Or Put It Up in a Braid or Bun

If you do want to add texture to your hair, when it’s damp, twist it into a very loose braid. “I do this all the time,” says Townsend. Other variations of this trick include spraying a wave spray and/or a sea-salt spray, pinning it into a loose bun, and then letting it dry. Marjan likes pinning hair into loose loops all over the head to create waves and removing it when it dries.

9. Let It Dry

Relax and chill.

10. Be Accepting

Despite your best efforts, you may have some frizz and flyaways. If you do have a few errant hairs, My favorite trick is to spray hairspray into her hair or onto a brush and use it to brush the hairs down. It tames them without smashing them. If you simply must use a blowdryer, Redken Creative Consultant Guido Palau suggested blowing out just the hair around your hairline to keep it smooth. It’s a trick hairstylists often use backstage when they want the hair to look air-dried but also polished.