How to Air Dry You Hair and Look Presentable Afterward

I’ve mentioned already that I’ve been working out more, but trying to wash my hair less. Or, rather, wash it the same amount. It’s been a long term experiment with different towels and products, but I think I’ve come up with a few solutions. One is that I will still wash my hair, but just let it air dry. I haven’t air dried my hair since I was in high school, and it turns out you can air dry and not look like a feral greaseball afterward! All it takes is some good products and a plan.

It could be that I don’t know what I’m doing, or that the instructions aren’t clear enough, but a lot of leave-in styling products just leave my hair flat and crunchy. Kristin Ess Sea Salt Air Dry Mousse gives my hair the perfect amount of texture and body without leaving it crispy, crunchy, or limp looking. It’s truly the ideal air dry support system. I get out of the shower and before brushing my hair, I wrap it up in the Aquis Hair Drying Turban, mentioned here. I putter around, put in some laundry, get my lunch started, whatever. I just get the real soaking wet hair phase pass by. Then, after about 15 minutes, I unwrap my turban and pump out a golf ball sized amount of the Air Dry Mousse, then I apply it with my head flipped upside down. This is not something they recommend, but I find it helps me apply it more evenly, so I don’t end up with a huge amount on the crown of my head and none on the ends. Once I’ve scrunched in the mousse, THEN I brush my hair out. Again, I have completely made this up, but I believe it helps distribute the product throughout my whole head of hair. Now I kind of tousle it around a bit, and then divide my hair into three or four sections, focusing on upper and lower, and side to side quadrants. I twist each section up, no rhyme or reason to it, just twist it, and hold it up with a clip like one of these. Then I let that just chill out for awhile. A few hours maybe? The longer I can leave it the better. Then, when I take my hair down, it’s a bit wavy, a bit textured, and it took very little effort. I also didn’t do any unnecessary heat damage to my hair. The other bonus? Everything I use in this process is from Target and nothing costs more than $14.