How to Air Dry Your Hair—the Right Way

There’s good heat and bad heat. Stuck on the Q train in mid-August with no air conditioning? Bad heat. A poolside cabana in Cabo San Lucas? Good heat. Heat-styling your hair after every wash? Not so great heat. While a blow-dryer can give you a big, bouncy style, and a curling iron can truly be a magic wand, sometimes it’s good to give your hair a little break from heat, which can damage the outer layers of your strands and cause it to look friedand frizzy. Every once in a while (or as often as you can, really), a good old-fashioned air-dried style is just what the (hair) doctor ordered.

Air-drying your hair doesn’t have to mean that you’re sacrificing a smooth, done-up hairstyle. If you feel like you look a bit like a drowned rat after air-drying your hair, it could be that you’re just not doing it right (yep—there’s more to it than just wash and go). Below, we asked the experts how to air dry your hair the right way, so you can give your heat styling tools a little break.

Meet the experts:

Step 1: Wash your hair.

The Book of Genesis begins with clean hair in the shower. Ok, maybe not—but it should. To start your air-dried style, wash your hair with a shampoo and conditioner that makes the most sense for your hair type.

For curly hair types, look for a hydrating shampoo and conditioner to set the stage for a frizz-free style. Products like Rizos Curls Hydrating Shampoo and Deep Conditioner with fatty oils like coconut and argan will nourish and smooth each strand.

Straight or thin hair will want something with a little oomph (oils and butters can weigh hair down, especially if you don’t have a lot of natural lift). Volumizing products like the Best of Beauty-winning Andrew Fitzsimmons Body Volume Shampoo and Conditioner will help to add texture and bounce to lifeless hair.

Air-drying tends to leave hair a little frizzy, so if you have color- or heat-damaged hair, reach for a product like Biolage Strength Recovery Shampoo & Conditioning Cream, which uses squalane to smooth.

Step 2: Get rid of excess moisture.

Patience is the name of the game with air-drying, but soaking up some of the water your hair held onto straight out of the shower will prep it for leave-in products and speed up the process a bit. Hairstylist Devin Graciano recommends towel-drying the hair and briefly hitting the roots with a blow-dryer on cool to remove some water.

If you want a fully naturally-dried style or don’t have a blow-dryer handy, stick with the towel alone. “Gently squeeze excess water from the hair and wrap it in a towel,” says hairstylist Samuel Eugenio Rodney. “Do not rub the towel aggressively to absorb water. This can damage the cuticle and leave your hair feeling dry and frizzy.”

Rodney prefers a microfiber towel (vs. your standard bath towel), like the Kitsch Microfiber Hair Towel Wrap, to soak up moisture while minimizing the risk of damage. This one also has a button fastener and elastic edges to help keep it on, taking some of the origami work out of wrapping your hair.

Hairstylist Devin Toth also likes soft, cotton T-shirt fabric to soak up extra water. You can make your own wrap with an old (but clean!) shirt or buy one specifically meant for hair, like the Bread Beauty Supply Hair Towel.

Step 3: Apply a leave-in product.

As much as the right shampoo and conditioner matters, the product(s) you put in your hair after the shower will do the majority of the heavy lifting of your style. What you use depends on your hair type and desired look.

Curly hair types should apply a product that will help to define and smooth each coil. Curlsmith Weightless Air Dry Cream is made specifically for air-drying and has hydrating ingredients like jojoba oil, shea butter, and hyaluronic acid to prevent frizz. If you want to further define your curls or retwist them, look for a thicker curl cream like Pattern Styling Cream for Curly and Coily Hair.