Blow-drying my hair...

[adelaidejane]

Okay I'm not ordinarily as girly as all this, but I need to know how the HELL I can blow-dry my hair.

My hair is thick and dry, and a few inches below my shoulders. It's frizzy, it kinks like mad, and I've got little fluffies and flyaways everywhere. Basically, if I believed in reincarnation, I'd swear that it's a punishment for spitting over the handrail in a former life. I am not a patient woman, and the few times I've tried to blow dry my hair, I get frustrated with how long it's taking, give up halfway through, and end up looking like... well like not terribly presentable.

I guess my question is: Is there a trick to it? Am I going about it all the wrong way? Can I hire a slave to do it for me? From whence do such slaves come?

[mcnicks]

May I suggest detachable pigtails?

[Sulis]

I wouldn't bother, personally... It's hard to do. (can you tell I've given up on mine!) If you need to speed drying time, blowdry halfway and let it airdry the rest of the way. Otherwise, wash your hair the night before and let it dry while you sleep. If it's as thick as mine, it may still not dry by the morning, but it'll be better.

For the dryness/frizziness, hot oil treatments are wonderful. Take a few tablespoons of olive or sweet almond oil, put them in a glass, and set the glass in a bowl of hot water to heat the oil. Work it into your hair, starting at the ends, wrap your head in a warm towel for half an hour, and then wash your hair as normal. Works wonders! You can even add a couple drops of essential oil, if you want a nice fragrance.

[adelaidejane]

May I suggest detachable pigtails?

:laughing9:

[adelaidejane]

Okay. I have decided to forget about blow-drying my hair. The outdoorsy breeze is God's Hairdyer, right? My hair looks better when I add some no-frizz or mousse to it wet, then just let it dry. That kinda tousled, just-crawled-out-of-bed look. Not quite as cute and perky as Meg Ryan, but still nice. :mrgreen:

So thank you for the advice (especially thanks Sulis - I have written down that hot oil recipe and named it "The Sulis Hot Oil Treatment" :) ), but I think I'll leave blow-drying to the experts.

*cookies!*

[merrihart]

Yeah, I have similar hair, AJ. And blow drying murders any attempt to look good at all. :?

[adelaidejane]

^ I blowed it dry yesterday (which is what prompted this frustrated thread), and I looked... well my hair looked surprised. If my hair had eyebrows, they'd've been arched right up to heaven. I tried putting a headband on, but I looked like Peg Bundy. SCAR.y.

My main problem is, about four years ago I had two tiny plaits either side of my face - "Angel plaits", I call them (after the character in Home & Away). I did them really tight, and so I hardly had to redo them at all. That led to that part of my hair becoming brittle and weak, and now instead of hair I have two tufts of... weirdness. It doesn't stick *out* as such, but it certainly doesn't lay flat like the rest of my hair should. Also I have this inexplicably thicker, shorter tuft of hair RIGHT on my part, maybe about halfway along. It's le tres annoyinge.

[vindemiatrix]

Not only does blow-drying, even at a low heat, totally FRY my hair (coloured too much, too often) it's far too thick and long to even bother trying. I have more hair than anyone I know and it takes hours to do anything with it. Straighten, curl, cut, dye, WASH... it's all so much effort, I'm not adding MORE in.

[Aquamonet]

I just dry half and leave the other half to dry. Mainly cause I get fed up of sitting still drying my hair. It seems to work, but then my hair isn't naturally dry.