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Air Dry VS Diffuse Wavy Hair – Best Way To Dry Wavy Hair

August 23, 2020 by Emily Evert 15 Comments

There is an affiliate link in this post.

Air Dry VS Diffuse Wavy Hair

Is air drying or diffusing better for wavy hair?

Both of these photos were with no product like gel or mousse. Each way was done just two days apart, my hair was not cut in between. I don’t consider either of these good results, my hair doesn’t do well without gel or mousse. Still, my hair has more volume and a tighter curl pattern when I diffuse.

**Update, November 2020. I wanted to update this post to try to give some comparison of air drying or diffusing with mousse. See the graphic below. I used the same products as I had used before, but to try out air drying with a fan to speed it up. I also did a lot of microplopping to try to encourage volume and waves despite air drying. This broke my clumps up into smaller pieces than I would usually have.

So, I don’t think the clump size shown in the photos below are ‘fair’ comparison. Still, this gives you an idea of the volume difference an the difference in the tightness of my waves. Diffusing helps a lot with volume, and it helps a lot with keeping my waves tighter. Air drying lets my waves loosen up quite a bit before they dry.

Air drying is on the left, diffusing is the photo on the right. In both I used NYM curl talk shampoo and conditioner, and suave captivating curls mousse.

air drying vs diffusing wavy hair results with mousse

Is Air Drying Or Diffusing Better For Wavy Hair?

Diffusing wavy hair may help your hair to dry in a tighter hair pattern, and with more volume, but will likely introduce some frizz. If you want tighter waves, diffusing is best. If you prefer elongated waves or are worried about damage, air drying is best. 

So – should you air drying or diffuse? It totally depends on what your hair goals and hair concerns are! Keep reading to learn more details about the pros and cons of air drying or diffusing wavy hair.

The benefits of air drying wavy hair

Air drying is a great option if your top hair priorities are to avoid frizz and damage, and are less concerned about volume or tightening your texture. If your ultimate goal is to protect your hair from heat damage, air-drying is your best choice.

The benefits of diffusing wavy hair

Diffusing wavy hair is a great option if you want to maximize volume and curl tightness, and aren’t as worried about frizz. Diffusing also helps the hair dry quicker, making it a good time-saving option.

Psst…if you are looking to maximize volume, check out this post: 13 tips for maximizing volume in wavy hair.

The best of both worlds?

If you want to strike a balance between the benefits of diffusing vs air drying, there are ways to try to achieve that. You can diffuse on low heat and low speed. Diffusing on a lower speed will take longer than diffusing on high heat or high speed, but will do less damage to your hair.

Low speed will also introduce less frizz. You can even hover diffuse to keep heat further from your strands. You can also diffuse part way and air dry the rest. How long you want to diffuse is up to you. Some may just diffuse for 5 minutes and then let the rest air dry, others may diffuse until almost completely dry. The balance you want to strike is totally up to you.

Going outside to air dry is another possibility that may slightly speed up the process. However, consider the weather. Going outside before your hair has dried if it is humid or windy may introduce frizz.

How long does it take wavy hair to dry?

Wavy hair can take anywhere from about 20 minutes to 10+ hours to dry, depending on thickness, porosity and length. 

How long your hair takes to dry can vary a lot depending on your hair thickness, porosity and length. Whether you are air drying or diffusing will be a major factor as well. If your hair takes several hours to air dry, this may be a good reason to diffuse your hair instead of air drying.

If you use mousse or gel, you’ll want to refrain from touching your hair until it’s totally dry. It can be really challenging to not touch your hair if it takes several hours to dry!

My wavy hair is a bit past collar bone length, and very thick. I had microscopic hair analysis done last year. It found that my roots were low porosity, while my lengths and tips were high porosity. It’s possible that may have changed, but I haven’t noticed big changes in my hair, so I am guessing it hasn’t changed much.

How long does it take thick long wavy hair to dry

How long does it take long thick curly hair to air dry?

My mid to high porosity, very thick, long wavy hair takes about six to eight hours to air dry if I don’t use gel or mousse.

Currently, I don’t know how long it would take my hair to air dry with gel or mousse if 100% air dried. I did run an experiment to come closer to air drying. For the sake of this post, I used the same shampoo, conditioner and mousse as I had used to diffuse in the past.

Except this time I used the mousse and then didn’t diffuse, but instead sat in front of a fan on ‘low’ speed. Not 100% air drying because of the fan, but a lot closer to air drying than diffusing. It took 5.5 hours of sitting in front of the fan for my air to dry with mousse in it.  Without the fan, I think it would literally take a whole day!

When I diffuse my hair, it takes longer to dry if I use gel or mousse vs when I have no product in it. My hair taking longer than 6 to 8 hours to air dry with gel or mousse just doesn’t feel practical for me, and sitting in front of a fan that long isn’t practical either most days.

That’s the primary reason why I choose diffusing. To save time. However, other people say their hair will air dry in 1 hour. If your hair naturally dries quickly, that makes air drying more practical.

How long does it take to diffuse thick long wavy hair?

It takes me about 35 minutes to diffuse my long, thick wavy hair dry if I have no products in it. If I use mousse, it takes about 45 minutes to diffuse, or about an hour and 20 minutes to diffuse if I use gel. 

This is part of why I prefer mousse over gel!

How to diffuse naturally wavy hair

How to diffuse wavy hair?

Update – I have a new blog post showing 4 tutorials for diffusing wavy hair. It also shows results for all 4 methods so you can see which methods are best for various styling preferences.

I currently use a couple different methods of diffusing. For the first two years that I followed the curly girl method, I did pixie diffusing. I learned how to pixie diffuse from this Real Life + Curly Girl YouTube video below.

How To Pixie Diffuse Wavy Hair

More recently, I learned about hover duffing from the Manes By Mell YouTube channel. I have found that hover diffusing gives me more bounce to my waves, and just a less stiff look and feel to my hair. I’ve also found that hover diffusing requires more movement, which causes my waves to separate into smaller curl clumps sometimes.

Sometimes I really want fat curl clumps, and sometimes I really like the bounce. So, I have been using different diffusing methods on different days.

How To Hover Diffuse Wavy Hair:

Best hair diffuser for wavy hair

Blow dryers and diffusers come in a wide range of price points. Personally, I think any dryer that has a couple of heat and speed settings will do. You probably want the option to diffuse on low to medium speed, and low to medium heat if you want to pixie diffuse. If you want to hover diffuse, you probably want a higher heat and higher speed.

Having a blow dryer with both options gives you the full range of diffusing possibilities. Most affordable blow dryers will have multiple heat and speed settings. I don’t see any need to purchase high-end blow dryers. Not all diffusers will fit on all blow dryers. The end of the blow dryer is called the barrel, and barrel sizes can vary.

When I was new to the curly girl method, I bought the Xtava Orchid diffuser on Amazon because I saw a lot of other curly girls using this diffuser. It is designed to fit blow dryers that have a 1.8 inch barrel. I just went to my grocery store and picked up a pretty cheap blow dryer that had that barrel size.

It was the Revlon pro collection salon performance turbo hair dryer. I believe it was around $25-$30. I have been using this blow dryer for over 2 years now and it’s still working well. The Xtava orchid diffuser is a bit unique in it’s size. It is VERY big. Even when my hair was all the way down my back, I could load all of my hair into this diffuser at once.

The extra large size doesn’t seem particularly beneficial to me, because I have to diffuse my hair in sections to avoid it drying in a funky way. I do like the spikes/prongs because those allow me to carefully load my waves/curls around the prongs. I’ve seen other diffusers that are nearly flat inside.

My recommendation would be to buy any diffuser that has good-sized prongs, and any blow dryer that has a few heat and speed settings. The price can change at any time, but at the moment I’m writing this, the Xtava Orchid Diffuser is available in a blow dryer bundle for about $50, which is a bit less than what I paid for a cheap blow dryer at my grocery store ($25-$30) and the Xtava orchid diffuser on its own ($30).

More questions about diffusing?

I have received a lot more questions about diffusing than I answered here, so I made a new blog post: Your questions about diffusing wavy hair answered.

Filed Under: Curly Girl Method Tagged With: air dry vs diffuse wavy hair, benefits of air drying hair, benefits of diffusing wavy hair, how long does it take thick wavy hair to dry?, how long does it take wavy hair to dry?, how to diffuse wavy hair?, Is it better to air dry or diffuse wavy hair?

Trackbacks

  1. Wavy Hair Curl Patterns Explained | Wavy Hair Chart - Wavy Hair Care says:
    November 27, 2020 at 9:10 pm

    […] different if I don’t use gel or mousse, or if I diffuse or air dry. I have a whole post about air drying vs diffusing wavy hair if you’d like to see and read about how it make a difference in my hair […]

    Reply
  2. How to Modify The Curly Girl Method For Wavy Hair - Wavy Hair Care says:
    November 27, 2020 at 9:10 pm

    […] might be your friend. I have a detailed post about air drying vs diffusing, and the pros and cons of both. There certainly are reasons to choose either way. However, the […]

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  3. What is A Hair Cast or Gel Cast & How To Create One - Wavy Hair Care says:
    December 20, 2020 at 7:39 am

    […] you want to avoid touching your hair as much as possible until it is 100% dry. I have a blog post comparing air drying and diffusing if you’d like to see the pros and cons, as well as photo results of each of those […]

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    December 31, 2020 at 8:02 am

    […] Does air drying or diffusing work better for wavy hair? […]

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  5. 18 Ways To Make Wavy Hair Curlier - Wavy Hair Care says:
    February 27, 2021 at 9:13 pm

    […] wave pattern. For some (myself included) this difference is really significant. I have a post on air drying vs diffusing if you want to see the difference it makes for […]

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  6. Under $20 Simple Wavy Girl Method Starter Routine From Walmart - Wavy Hair Care says:
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    […] hair is exactly the same so you’ll likely want to experiment with various techniques (like air drying vs diffusing, rightside up vs upside down styling and more) to learn what you like […]

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  7. How To Fix Frizzy Wavy Hair - Wavy Hair Care says:
    February 28, 2021 at 6:43 am

    […] dry instead of diffuse. In my blog post about diffusing vs air drying I share how diffusing is helpful for me. I diffuse every single wash day, air drying isn’t […]

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  8. Day 2 Wavy Hair: How To Refresh With Water - Wavy Hair Care says:
    March 6, 2021 at 7:56 am

    […] drying will produce less frizz, but diffusing may produce less volume. I have a post on air drying vs diffusing if you’re interested in seeing the […]

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  9. How To Diffuse Wavy Hair 4 Ways: Step By Step With Pictures - Wavy Hair Care says:
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    […] have a whole post on air drying vs diffusing wavy hair already. So I’ll cut to just talking about […]

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  11. On Diffusing Wavy Hair: Your Questions Answered - Wavy Hair Care says:
    October 30, 2021 at 5:32 am

    […] my how to diffuse wavy hair tutorial that includes 4 different diffusing styles. Then there is my air drying vs diffusing wavy hair post that compares/contrasts those two […]

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  12. How To Make Natural Wavy Hair Looser | How To Get Beachy Waves - Wavy Hair Care says:
    February 10, 2022 at 9:42 pm

    […] find that diffusing makes their curl pattern tighter. Air drying can do the reverse. See my post on air drying vs diffusing to see the difference it makes on […]

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  13. How To Take Care Of Fine Wavy Hair - Wavy Hair Care says:
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  14. Naturally Wavy Hair Care May Not Be Right For You If... - Wavy Hair Care says:
    February 28, 2022 at 4:25 pm

    […] need to diffuse to get good results..and to avoid waiting all day on my hair to dry. Check out my air drying vs diffusing wavy hair post to see what I mean. That may not be true for you […]

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  15. Curly Girl Method Basics - Wavy Hair Care says:
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Wavy hair care blog owner

About Me

My name is Emily, I have been blogging since 2009. I found the curly girl method in 2018, which helped me to discover my naturally wavy hair. Since then, I’ve continued to wear my hair wavy, reading and watching tons about wavy hair. This blog is where I share what I’ve learned, in hopes of helping others. More about me and my backstory can be found on my about page.

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