5 Tips To Get The Best Results With Dry Styling

There are many alterations we can make to hair regimens to make it work for us. Take dry styling for instance. Some people like to style their hair while it is in a dry state to get optimal styling results that work for them.

For example, if you’re one who struggles with shrinkage or dull hair during the middle of the week, dry styling may be the way to go.

I find that when working with dry, stretched hair I am able to have a more voluminous fro. Also if by Wednesday my curls just aren’t popping the way I would want them to, I can simply brush out my fro and do a dry set to have a fresh look the next day.

In addition, dry styling is also great if it’s a little late in the day and you decide to wash your hair, knowing good and well there is no way it will be dry by the morning. You can wash your hair, let it dry completely, and then install your twist or braids, whatever have you.

Some may say there’s an art form to dry styling because of the high likelihood of less definition and dry frizzy ends, but it’s actually quite simple. Here are 5 of my top tips for those who wish to style their hair while it’s completely dry, as it applies to doing twist or braid outs.

1. Spritzing is Mandatory

Although we are working around the notion of dry hair, spritzing your hair with a water, or water-oil combination to add a little moisture to your hair is mandatory. Notice I didn’t say wet, but just spritz.

Moisture is one of the largest components for a style outcome of great to decent quality. If your hair is completely dry and you’re adding product you will notice you will have lessened definition the next day, as well as a visible appearance of product build up on your hair. I’ll go more into that in the next point.

Note: If you’re putting in chunky twist each night during the week for style preservation alone, you most likely will not need to spritz your hair with water unless absolutely necessary.

A good spritz combo is H2O + olive oil* + a few drops of your favorite essential oil (peppermint* is great for hair growth!)

2. Minimal product is key

I briefly mentioned above how you have to be careful with adding product to your hair when dry styling so that you don’t result in visible product buildup on your strands. Have you ever woke up the next morning to a white, cakey substance on your curls from your product? Eek! That’s the worst.

While spritzing your hair with a little moisture helps alleviate product build up by assisting with absorption, do know that you only need a little of your styler. Don’t go overboard and risk have a dull look to your hair the next day!

I will typically use the equivalent to a fingertip dab of a cream styler with a little more substantial amount of a non-flaking, oil infused gel for each twist.

3. Style in smaller sections for more definition

One of the biggest concerns with styling your hair while dry is loss of definition. The more definition we have the more likely our hair will last throughout the week.

One key to ensuring that you actually have defined curls the next day is to style in smaller sections. While there’s no need to go pencil thin, if you’re one who likes to style in chunky twists because it’s easier with shorter time consumption, you may want to shoot for a small to medium size instead.

4. Seal your ends

I cannot express enough the importance of sealing your ends. Even with a fresh trim and spritz there’s a risk of having free loose ends that will dry with no curl. This was one of the biggest issues I faced whenever I styled my hair dry. I would have defined curls but my ends looked frazzled and lack luster. Terrible and it basically killed my style.

Now, whenever I dry style, I make sure that I fully saturate the ends of my hair. About a half inch to an inch up should do the trick. I also make sure I add a little extra gel and twist the end around my finger, as I would do if I was wet styling, to make sure my ends are sealed and moisturized and won’t come out looking ehh the next day.

Also know that with fully wetting the ends of your strands alone there shouldn’t be an issue with drying in a couple of hours.

5. Rollers may be necessary 

To piggy back off of tip #4, with sealing your ends keep in mind that you can use rollers if you find that it works best for you. This turns a basic twist out into a twist and curl, or braid and curl for braid outs.

I would still saturate my ends completely with either water or a setting lotion and then roll about an inch or two up just to ensure your ends will be nice and curled in the morning.

Are you one who likes to dry style? What are your favorite tips to achieve optimal results?