Drying the hair seems one of those gestures so automatic that we do without thinking. But just ask a professional to discover that, in reality, drying is one of the steps that most deteriorates the hair fiber if not done correctly. The reason? The sum of small mistakes that, repeated day after day, fade the shine, weaken the cuticle and take away the hair’s movement.
Drying is an art, and its technique defines the final finish as much as or more than the cut or color, I have been assured by the experts I have spoken with on this topic. Therefore, if you want your mane to have a salon finish (and not the look of a bad Monday), it’s worth reviewing the gestures you are making in front of the mirror.
Carlos Fernández, a hair stylist and technical director of Eolux, sums it up with a simple but essential maxim: “The ideal is always to dry the hair in the direction of the cuticle. That is how you are taught to do it so as not to tangle it or harm it. But over time, stylists adopt incorrect usage habits, causing damage sometimes difficult to repair.”
That downward direction, from the root to the ends, is what allows the cuticle to stay sealed and the shine intact. Before turning on the dryer, Fernández reminds that there is a step that should never be skipped: “Essential to detangle the hair before starting the drying, and of course any heat protection is valued by the stylist, as long as it does not contain any harmful product for the hair. Any cumulative residue damages the fiber,” he states.
“What you should try to do is use the right brushes both when wet and when dry. Avoid using straighteners. And of course the act of drying with brushes and sticking the nozzle onto the hair mid-way is the worst aggression the fiber should ever be subjected to. It breaks, loses shine and the color degrades,” explains the trainer from the Eolux brand of ionic hair dryers.
The most common mistakes when drying hair (that we all make)
Alberto Sanguino, a hair stylist and Education Manager of Llongueras, has it clear: almost all of us dry the hair badly. The most common mistakes are, as the expert explains,:
– The eternal towel. “When you get out of the shower, you wrap yourself in a towel and you stay with it for a long time. You’re giving it an undesired shape and retaining moisture for too long.”
– Too-wide nozzles. “They don’t define the hair and make the drying imprecise.”
– Sticking the nozzle to the hair. “That makes the hair damaged and dehydrated. It’s very dangerous. Most notice that it polishes more, but you’re basically charring the hair.”
– Drying head-down without technique. “It is done terribly. You bend over but dry the mid-lengths and ends, and when you lift your head the roots remain wet. If you do it, do it only to dry the roots.”
The perfect drying, step by step
Sanguino proposes a simple, almost therapeutic routine: “When you get out of the shower, towel dry without rubbing, pressing the hair to remove moisture and not open the cuticle. If you can, let it air-dry for a while: it’s better for the excess moisture to evaporate at room temperature.”
The next step will make the difference between hair with shine and hair without life. The secret lies in how you apply the heat, explains Alberto Sanguino: “If you have to start with the dryer, start there indeed, with a wide nozzle or without a nozzle, applying heat to the mids and ends, drying them, but in the direction of the cuticle. What matters is that the focus of the air, the direction of the air, goes in the direction of the cuticle, that is, along the hair.”
Once most of the moisture is removed, it’s time for the polishing. “If you do it that way, when you are about to polish the hair with the brush, you bring the nozzle a little closer to the dryer, but you do not touch it. With one or two passes you will have the hair completely polished, because you have basically dried about 95% of the hair, with your fingers, with the paddle, without sticking the nozzle and following the direction of the cuticle,” says the trainer from Llongueras.
In short: drying the hair correctly is a matter of technique, patience, and respect for the hair fiber. It is not about smoothing at all costs, but about protecting the natural shine and maintaining hair health in the long term, because, as the experts say, the secret of a good hairstyle begins long before the brush: it starts with drying.
