These are our top tips from Curly Cuts for drying curly hair.
There are several ways to dry curly hair; each method can give different results! Let us go over diffusing and air drying, as both can be a source of confusion for curlies, especially diffusing.
It is hard to learn how to diffuse just by reading, so if you are a visual learner, we recommend you book a hair appointment with a diffuse dry, hydration and dry appointment or one of our curly training sessions.
Plopping curly hair
Plopping means using a cotton t-shirt or microfibre towel to position the hair at the top of the head to start the drying process (but not fully dry) without twisting or pulling. This one is hard to explain without videos. However, our curly training sessions help with our demonstration of plopping.
Plopping is excellent when you first step out of the shower after washing your hair. It will keep you from dripping everywhere while you get ready and leave your hair damp. The length of time you leave the plop in will vary. Some keep it up for just 5 minutes, some for an hour. Experiment to see what works best for you.
Air drying curly hair
Here are some tips for successful air drying.
Try not to touch your hair at all while it dries. You want to form what we call a cast. A cast is there to protect the curls whilst they are drying.
It is tempting, but disrupting the cast too early can cause frizz and may interrupt the formation of a cast. Think of it like a broken arm in a cast. The cast protects the bone. With curls, the cast protects the curls as they dry.
Try not to move your hair around too much. Flipping your hair around can break up the curl pattern you worked so hard to achieve with the styling process.
Help! I have flat hair at the roots.
If you find that your hair is flat at the roots and want more volume, then there are a few ways to achieve this. You can clip the roots of your hair around your crown or anywhere you want more lift using metal root clips, claw clips or afro metal picks. Afro-metal picks work great on long hair! Apply these to the hair when it is wet, then remove them when the hair is dry.
How to diffuse dry curly hair
You can dry your roots by hovering the diffuser a few centimetres above your scalp. Diffuse dry until you start to just set a cast. Then to encourage more curl, flip the head upside down. Continue to use the diffuser to cup the hair in small sections and pull the hair up to the head.
Make sure you remove any root clips, or afro metal picks before tipping the head upside down to diffuse dry.
If you do not want to encourage the curl more, continue hovering dry with the head upright.
How to break up the cast
When the hair is dry, it is time to break up the cast. The breaking up of the cast is what curlies refer to as “scrunch out the crunch”. Gently scrunch the dry hair to reveal the soft curls. When the cast gets broken, the hair should not feel stiff anymore. If the hair feels sticky or tacky, then this means that it is too early to scrunch and the hair is not dry enough yet. Some like to sleep in their cast at night with a satin/silk hair bonnet or buff over the top, then scrunch out in the morning.
Dyson supersonic hairdryer
It can be tricky to learn to diffuse, but practice makes perfect! Our top tip is to invest in a Dyson dryer. Alternatively, if you want to have a play first with a diffuser, you can purchase universal diffuse dryers that fit most hairdryers at Curly Cuts. Our team at Curly Cuts can also show you how to best work a Dyson dryer or a universal diffuse attachment.
Comment below your favourite curly drying techniques ????
