Advice on hair that wont dry

Utopianonawa

Does any one have any advice for me? I have ALWAYS struggled with getting my hair to dry. I used to spend a least and hour and a half to blow dry my hair, back when i only wore it straight. That was before i knew about natural hair, and taking care of hair. And my hair was super damaged. After going natural, i quickly discovered i HAD to blow dry my hair, other wise it would never dry. Ok not never, but sometimes more than 12 hours. But blow drying makes my hair frizzy and look bad, even with a diffuser.

Fast forward to now. I cut off all my hair in march. My hair is somewhere around 2-3 inchs long. After i cut it, it was like a buzz, maybe slightly longer, but defiantly a buzz. (I know that sentence made no sense, i SHOULD be sleeping right now lol). I had no problems then. But now im having the same issues i had with my longer hair. Some how, even though my hair is like 2-3 inches long, It WILL NOT dry. As im typing this, its been 13 hrs since i wet my hair (wet. I did not even wash it), and i still have huge damp patches and random really wet spots. Now i admit, some of this may be due to sweat, but i did not sweat THAT much. Also its super humid. Thats also a factor. Also my hair is super thick. And super curly and kinky. For reference i have a mixture of 3c, and 4a curls, in all types of coils, ringlets and waves (small waves, s-curls i guess?? Idk). It is extremely low porosity (clearly), it is so hard, and annoying to get ACTUALLY wet. And then OF COURSE, it wont freakin dry! I have no idea if my hair is fine, medium, or coarse. Ive always been told its fine, and by most comparisons its fine, but i do have quite a bit of random coarse hair too, and everything inbetween.

Now i know products are a huge factor, i havent been sealing my hair at all. Its too hot, and my hair is too short, it always just ends up on my skin. So its not oils. However, i do use a ton of ecostyler gel. Ive tried using less and i end up looking like a mess lol. Ive tried blowdrying, but it only dries the surface, and it makes the surface frizzy and crusty feeling. But also its just too ****ing hot. So blowdrying takes forever, isnt effective, and leaves my hair a mess. But when i airdry, it usually ends up a mess anyway, due to being perpetually damp and humid.

Im at my wits end. Idk know what to do. Everything i do make my hair look bad. Its gotten to the point where im actually considering relaxing my hair, because i cant take it anymore. I LOVE my curls. But its ruining my life, and that isnt even a joke.

Slinkyhead

Don't give up yet! I know how that feels, I have hair just past my shoulders, Low porosity and lots and lots of fine textured hair 3a/3b. Without my secret weapon (not a diffuser lol) It would take my hair about 24 hours to completely dry. You're probably going to laugh, but my secret weapon..drumroll.... Microfiber dog towel! I can't afford to drop 20 on a towel so after seeing how well people loved the Deva towel, I tried to find out the blend it was made of and got close.. You want one thats 70%polyester 30% polymide or (80/20 is fine too). These are all over amazon. I like to put my stylers on very wet hair, whenever I use ecostyler, my hair is close to dripping then I scrunch out the excess, then I use my towel and scrunch gently again. This removes so much excess water, its amazing! Then I feel like I have a real shot at diffusing on cold, takes me only 30-40 mins depending on the dew point outside. Seriously though, that towel is everything to me, it forms my curls nicely and sets them at the root and removes so much water without giving any frizz. If i airdry after that, it still takes like 4-5 hours but I'll take it over 24 hrs and having to sleep on wet hair, waking up to who knows what. Since your hair is so short, I would say to almost blot with it or turban for a while and gently push the towel since you can't really scrunch at that length. The ecostyler will make the curls nice and shiny with it. Sometimes the ecostyler really does make it take longer to dry for me, in which case I'll use more of my light leave-in with a couple scrunches of warm water to keep the cuticle open to accept the moisture then put a bit less of the eco styler on. Doing everything in the shower with the heat from the water has been a huge help getting the hair to take in what it needs. toweldried/Damp styling is a no no for us lo pos. Don't give up! you're doing all the right things, feeding your scalp and soon your hair will grow and you'll be so happy. best of luck to you!

Glamourstruckk

My hair usually takes 48hrs to dry. I just roll with it. However, there are some things you can try to cut drying time down: Protein treatment or clarify if you haven't done them recently and gently squeeze out water after styling. The first two have worked for me and the third sometimes gives me frizz, it depends. You may also want to try sitting under a dryer. I do that after my hair has been air drying all day.

wavydaze

My curl type is not near yours but I had that problem especially when I was living in the tropics. One thing that really helped is bleaching my hair haha (I took it about 3-4 shades lighter). My hair definitely dried faster afterward. Otherwise I do a combination of air-drying and diffusing. It makes a huge difference having a really nice hair dryer. I splurged on an expensive one but it was worth it compared to cheaper ones i had in the past. This one doesn't like blow as much air out if that makes sense and helps keep the same shape of the hair/doesn't disturb the gel but still lets out warm or hot air so it dries. A lil hard to explain but it's not as "windy."

Do you scrunch water out of your hair at all (like with a cotton tshirt or microfiber towel) and/or do you wrap or plop your hair when it is wet?

Jessica.Wile

Glamourstruckk wrote: »

My hair usually takes 48hrs to dry. I just roll with it. However, there are some things you can try to cut drying time down: Protein treatment or clarify if you haven't done them recently and gently squeeze out water after styling. The first two have worked for me and the third sometimes gives me frizz, it depends. You may also want to try sitting under a dryer. I do that after my hair has been air drying all day.

48 HOURS?!! Good grief! 😵😵😵