If you’ve started wearing your hair with its natural wave, you might wonder when it’s best to diffuse your wavy hair.
Do you really need to diffuse at all?
When is the best time to diffuse?
Isn’t heat bad for your hair?
Are there products that I should be using?
Let’s answer all of these!
What are the advantages of diffusing wavy hair?
First of all, I know it hardly needs saying, but diffusing your hair will speed up the amount of time it takes your wavy hair to dry.
The alternative is air-drying and, let’s be honest, this can take hours. The thickness of your hair will make a big difference here, but thick hair can take upwards of 4 hours to fully dry. 4 hours and a lot of patience!
Another benefit is that you are likely to increase the wave and make it more defined. If you gently cup your hair as it dries, you will help set the wave into your hair.
Water is heavy and it can weigh down your hair. The more slowly your hair dries, the more chance the water has to ‘weigh down’ your hair and lessen your waves.
When is the best time to diffuse?
When to diffuse wavy hair depends on the look you want to achieve. Diffusing on soaking wet hair will achieve more of a defined wave, whereas waiting until your hair has started to dry will likely give you more volume.
For wet hair: Apply any leave-in conditioners and styling products and then start gently diffusing while your hair is still really wet.
For partially dry hair: Apply leave-in conditioner and styling products and then ‘plop’ your hair or simply let it air dry until it is only slightly damp. Diffusing from this point will give you more volume.
Extra tip: If you diffuse from partially dry hair you can also be slightly more vigorous with the diffuser. You can worry less about the wave pattern remaining perfect and can instead move the diffuser in and around your head to create more volume.
My best-selling product…
Isn’t heat bad for your hair?
There are 2 things to keep in mind if you are worried about heat damage on wavy hair, the temperature that you set your hairdryer to, and the products you are using.
Keep your hairdryer on the lowest heat setting. You have to go all the way up to 185C before you risk causing permanent damage. The lowest heat setting should be around 60C on most dryers.
Which products should I be using before diffusing my wavy hair?
Even at a low temperature, any heat on your hair risks removing moisture and drying it out. To combat this, I would recommend using a heat-protector. There are plenty of lightweight products that would be perfect for wavy hair. Here are a couple of my favourites:
You can use these in addition to any styling products. This is my favourite product for styling wavy hair.
In conclusion
When considering when to diffuse wavy hair, take into consideration the final look you want to achieve – it’s the age-old Team Volume or Team Definition debate!
Lauren xx
