Is Blow Drying Hair Bad: How To Decrease The Damage
It’s genuine that almost none of us would say no to a salon-quality blowout. But it’s additionally proper that we don’t have the time (or money) to generally go to our hairstylists for a professional-level do. That’s why most of us hold a blow-dryer on hand at home. So is blow drying bad for your hair? Yes. So how to decrease the damage? Keep reading.
Understanding Your Hair’s Anatomy
To understand how that happens, let’s take a closer look at the anatomy of your hair strands:
Cuticle As the external layer of the hair fiber, the hair cuticle is made up of lapping scales that are either nearly aligned (generally in straight hair types) or loosely arranged (generally in curled and oily hair types).
Cortex The middle layer of the hair fiber. It consists of keratin proteins and structural lipids.
Medulla The inmost layer of the hair fiber, it’s generally present in coarse hair. It’s a central region of loosely packed cells in a disorganized manner.
Cell membrane complex(CMC) The cement that holds hair cells together. There are three types of the cuticle – cuticle, cuticle-cortex, and cortex-cortex.
How Hair Gets Damaged
So, unhealthy hair can be the end result of hair getting damaged, the scalp turning weak, or both. When your hair turns stretched, rubbed, receives too dry, or receives moisture for too long, it will get damaged.
Also, your hair will get broken if your scalp receives broken by means of rubbing, getting too dry, or getting too moist for a prolonged duration (Like wilted fingers at some point of a bath, this softens the scalp and weakens the follicles). Additionally, the extended wet scalp can lead to fungal infection.
Is Blow-Drying Your Hair Bad
Heat damage is generally seen on the hair cuticles rather than within the fibers (i.e., the cortex and medulla). You can suppose your cuticles as the first line of defense against heat exposure from blow-drying hair. In which case, healthy cuticles mean your mane is less likely to suffer after a bout of blow-drying.
Of course, there’s a limit to the defensive powers of your cuticles. One study in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science advised that heat settings advanced than 284 degrees Fahrenheit beget damage to the cuticles that are unrecoverable (suppose frizzy-looking hair and split ends). At high temperatures of 392 degrees Fahrenheit, anticipate wholly damaged hair.
That’s because when you blast hot air onto wet hair, small bubbles form inside the shafts. This weakens your mane, making it more prone to dryness and brittleness. In other words, hello ringlet, tangles, and breakage.
Is It Good To Let Your Hair Dry Naturally
Circling back to the 2011 study on hair damage from blow-drying, one surprising result stood out air-drying damaged the CMC in the hair fibers while blow-drying did not. The implicit reason behind this is that when your locks come wet, the hair shafts swell up, including the delta layer of the CMC.
Unfortunately, air-drying is a slow process as it can take up to two hours for your permanents to fully dry that way. During this period, the CMC within the beaches is continuously exposed to water and stays bloated. The experimenters advised that this may be indeed more dangerous than using a hair-dryer.
5 Science-Based Tips To Minimize Damage From Blow-Drying
Condition First In The Shower
The secret to a salon-worthy shindig begins in the shower with your hair conditioner. It’s your apprentice when it comes to perfecting the look and sense of your permanents to make them more manageable.
Depending on the molecular weight of the component list, a conditioner absorbs into the hair cuticles and may indeed access the cortex layer. This helps to reduce disunion for smaller tangles and frizz while contemporaneously enhancing shine and smoothness. In fact, wisdom recommends regular exertion to “ recondition the hair ” after blow-drying.
Don’t Blow-Dry Sopping Wet Hair
Reaching for the blow-dryer first thing out of the shower doesn’t do your mane any favors. Contrary to what some people suppose, blow-drying sopping wet hair is one of the quickest routes to hair damage.
Rather, you want to gently squeeze out the redundant water from your locks with a microfiber towel, which is much more spongy than the usual terrycloth material. When towel-drying your hair, avoid roundly rubbing your locks as it’ll incite frizz. Once your hair feels about 70-80 dry, detangle it with a wide-toothed comb before you head to the coming step.
Use A Silicone-Based Heat Protectant
As its name suggests, a heat protectant helps telephone down hair damage during your blow-drying sesh. But you shouldn’t use just any heat protectant spray or serum. Science recommends a silicone-grounded heat protectant to unevenly distribute the heat across the face of the hair shaft. Doing so helps lower the odds of washing inside the filaments.
The function of Beauty’s custom hair serum is just what you need right before you switch on your blow-dryer. This silicone-grounded styling product is proven to:
- Reduce frizz by 70
- Increase shine by 26 times more than undressed hair
- Improve detangling by 75
- Thermally cover hair from damage up to 400 degrees
Mind The Heat Setting
It goes without saying that the more advanced the heat setting on your blow-dryer, the lesser the damage to your cuticles, and by extension, your mane. So, what’s the right temperature to aim for? One of the earlier studies preliminarily mentioned suggests sticking to fairly low heat of 140 degrees Fahrenheit when blow-drying your locks.
Tack On A Diffuser
As you’ve presumably endured firsthand, the snoot of utmost blow-dryers creates a strong blast of hot wind that throws your curl pattern (or straight beaches) off-course. But with a diffuser, the coliseum-shaped attachment more controls the airflow from your hair-dryer. This helps you achieve the haircut of your dreams without having to go in with an entwining iron or straightener subsequently.