"Air" support needed...

[aileendq]

...Okay, sorry for the military reference, but seriously...

I've been a member here for a while. All of you have given such excellent advice and sound support in my hair growing, I have to say thanks.

I have been having moderate success with the whole Dominican blowout in terms of length retention, but just not enough, or perhaps not fast enough.

So, today I decided to air dry only, and to hell with the results. Why did I do this today? Well, to begin with, I have been so inspired by all of you natural/ curly ladies. I also recently purchased a mountain bike and plan on riding every other day for health reasons, so I would need to start washing more, and I REALLY don't want to be blowfrying or rollersetting my hair every other day. It's just too time consuming and too much heat.

Third reason? It's freakin' hot here in Boston today...

So here I sit, reading all your great posts, steeling myself to remain seated & not make a mad dash for the blowdryer as my hair slowly dries and loses quite a bit of length in the process.

So, any words of encouragement would be appreciated. My hair is only to my shoulders in front, and just below in the back, so any styling tips would be greatly appreciated...

TIA...

 

[CarLiTa]

Hey, are you natural? b/c even if you're not you can still airdry. Before LHCF whenever i attempted to airdry, i would sit there and watch my relaxed hair turn into a huge, unmanageable afro... here I learned to put moisturizer and stuff on the wet hair so that it sort of airdries straight

but anyway, you don't have to WAIT for it to airdry. Put in up into a ponytail, make a bun, and u're good to go! or u can kinda speed up the process by using the blowdrier for a few minutes like I did the other day, on low, of course and then let it airdry the rest of the way. You can also do two french braids while it airdries... don't know any other methods, but airdrying is good! just be patient, it'll work

 

[Neroli]

Are you relaxed or natural?

If natural, I'm not sure how to help.

If relaxed, then you MUST "shape or set" your wet hair in some manner before air drying: rollerset, ponytail, scraf method, wrap, bantu knots, whatever. If you just leave it hanging by itself after washing, it will frizz (at least my does!). So, my suggestion is to use a leave-in and/or serum on freshly washed hair and figure out some way to "shape or set" your wet hair so that it dries straight. I am 4b relaxed and I do rollersets and airdry or use "cool" setting on hooded dryer and my hair comes out straight and bouncy every time. HTH

 

[moda]

Have you tried braidouts or twistouts. I have been airdrying my hair for the past 6 months and I no longer follow up with heat. There are quite a few styles you can achieve when airdrying your hair, my album has pics of different styles I tried.

 

[aileendq]

Thanks, guys. I am somewhere between relaxed and texurized. I considered the rollerset airdry method. I had put Loreal Unfrizz Smoothing Treatment along with a leave in. I would have to leave the rollers in overnight (not sure I would actually sleep)

I'm not sure the wrapping method with work because I don't think my hair is long enough. Plus, it's got these goofy layers
that I think are the remains of the breakage I was experiencing and the front & sides are only barely shoulder length, so when I wrap I had to put a zillion pins in to hold the layers.

I'm at a loss here...I'll try the ponytail with curlers at the end method tomorrow...

If anyone learns anything new clue me in.