When you are removing the excess water from your hair, make sure you squeeze and don't wring your hair. This can cause breakage. Take the hair between your palms and squeeze.
Towel Drying the Right Way
The first step after washing your hair is to remove excess water, but how you do this matters greatly. Avoid the instinct to rub your hair with a towel, as this can cause friction and lead to breakage. Instead, gently squeeze the water out of your hair with a towel.
Squeezing out the hair follicles can disrupt the hair removal process and damage the hair follicles, potentially causing scarring and hyperpigmentation. Squeezing can also introduce bacteria into the skin, leading to infections and even breakouts.
No, it's not harmful to wet your hair without washing it. In fact, doing so can help refresh your hair and scalp, especially on days when you don't want or need to use shampoo.
If you're short on time and using a towel is just not possible for whatever reason, at least squeeze out some excess water to allow your hair to soak up those conditioning ingredients that will keep your hair moisturised. Make sure that conditioner only goes on the mid-lengths and ends of your hair.
First things first: gently squeeze excess water from your ends. Wringing it out can cause more friction (aka wet hair's worst nightmare), resulting in more breakage. Use your fingers or a wide-tooth comb for detangling duty. Start at the ends and work your way up to the roots.
Extended exposure to conditioner can cause product buildup, particularly if the conditioner contains heavier ingredients. This buildup can leave your hair feeling sticky and stiff and may even clog hair follicles, leading to weakened strands prone to breakage.
Potential Drawbacks of Daily Hair Wetting
Moisture Loss: Excessive water exposure can strip the hair of its natural oils and moisture, leading to dryness, frizz, and breakage, especially for those with dry or damaged hair.
While it's not “bad” for your health in the sense of causing disease or permanent damage, the hair's increased fragility when wet can potentially lead to mechanical damage over time, especially if you toss and turn a lot during sleep.
Every time you pluck a hair from the root, it causes trauma to the follicle, resulting in inflammation. This often leads to a small spot at the sight of removal. Each hair you pluck also leaves an opening for bacteria, and how often do you clean your tweezers?
Use a soft t-shirt or microfiber hair towel. Continue to remove excess water by gently blotting and squeezing with your soft t-shirt or microfiber hair towel. If you have long hair, tie your hair up into a turban and let the microfiber towel absorb the rest of the excess water for 10-15 minutes.
But there is a definite exception to this rule: wet hair. Wet hair is far weaker than dry hair, being more susceptible to breakage and damage from just about anything – heat and pulling on the hair strands are more likely to damage wet hair than dry. Hair is made up largely of a number of proteins called keratins.
The best way to dry your hair is to let it air dry under the fan as much as possible. However, some experts believe combining air and blow-drying is healthier than just air drying. It is good to let your hair air-dry seventy percent of the way and then blow-dry till they become dry ultimately.
Hair is one of the most effective clog builders inside plumbing drains. In fact, you're almost guaranteed to cause a clog in your sink drain or somewhere downstream in your home's drainage system or residential sewer if you push any quantity of hair down a drain.
Researchers found the hair's cell membrane (the material that 'glues' hair cells together) was only damaged in the naturally dried group due to staying in contact with water for longer. They also found that using the proper technique when blow drying is better for the health of your hair.
Bottom line: Occasionally going to bed with wet hair isn't catastrophic. Just don't make it a regular practice. “Drying your hair to at least 75 percent before bed, using a microfiber towel, and applying heat protection for blow-drying can safeguard your hair and scalp health,” Dr. Stephens says.
Wet hair doesn't cause hair loss in both males and females, but certain behaviours or conditions can contribute to hair problems or worsen existing issues.
Believe it or not, the simple act of repeatedly wetting your hair alone can be bad for your hair. "Wetting the hair repeatedly (and then using heat to dry it) can weaken the cortex and cuticle layers of the hair," Longsworth says. "And if the hair stays wet for extended periods of time, hygral fatigue can be an issue."
But here's a surprising fact: Air drying can cause more damage to your hair than blow drying it, depending on your technique. “It may seem counterintuitive since we're all aware of heat damage,” hairdresser Dejan Garz explains.
This is one of those situations where the answer depends on your hair type, according to trichologist Angela Onuoha. She says dry brushing is better for straight and wavy hair, but “for curlier textures, brushing it wet is healthier.” Let me explain why and then we'll move on to more practical matters.
Generally, he says, the range is somewhere between once a day and once a week. “If you have very fine or thin hair, you may need to wash more often, while those with thick or curly hair may need to wash less often,” says Dr Elizabeth Bahar Houshmand, a double board certified dermatologist and hair health expert.
Build-Up: Your hair could begin to feel coated, heavy, and sticky as a result of the ingredients not being washed out. Since most conditioners are formulated with heavier ingredients, if left on the hair, they have the potential to cause buildup on both the scalp and hair.
Leave hair oil on overnight. The trick here is to use the hair oil as a pre-treatment. The gentle active ingredients of a hair oil do not harden but instead moisturize and soften the hair. Pro tip: Work the hair oil into your entire hair in the evening.