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So you took the plunge and relaxed your hair. As you hopped out of the stylist's chair, she probably mentioned something about air-drying your newly straight tresses. What's so hard about air-drying? Until you try it, you don't realize how complicated it can be. Air-dried hair can do a lot of strange things, from falling flat to becoming a frizz-fest. While using heat tools seems easier, keep your hands off that blow-dryer! Patience and practice will get you sexy, manageable air-dried hair.
1.
Blot your hair with a towel after stepping out of the shower. If you let your hair air-dry from a soaking-wet state it'll not only take longer to dry, but it'll also soak your clothes, your couch cushions and your shirt. What a pain. Gently blotting your hair with a towel removes the extra moisture from your hair. Don't aggressively rub your hair -- relaxed hair is brittle and easy to damage. Rather, squeeze the water out of your hair with a towel.
2.
Coat your hair in a leave-in conditioner. Relaxed hair is usually dry and snaps off easily. Give your locks a shot of moisture before they dry by raking a leave-in moisturizing conditioner through your tresses. Not only will your hair be softer and sexier, it'll smell great, too.
3.
Is your hair feeling a little snarled? Use a wide-toothed comb to gently detangle your hair. When your hair is damp, it's more prone to breakage, so keep your paws off brushes and fine-toothed combs. The leave-in conditioner should help the comb glide through your strands.
4.
Treat your tresses with a moisturizing frizz-fighting cream. The downside to air-drying is that hair tends to frizz. Applying a frizz-tamer to damp hair will limit this.
5.
Are your air-dried tresses falling flat? Use your fingers to lift the hair at the root while it's drying. Comb your hair in the opposite direction it normally sits -- you can use your hair part to figure this out. So all the hair on the left side of your part you should comb to the right, and vice versa. This'll help give your hair some extra oomph without resorting to blow-drying.
If you want extra volume, apply a little setting lotion and put your hair into two-strand twists before you let it air-dry. When the moisture is gone, untwist and you'll have natural-looking waves.
