Flash Drying: What Causes It and How to Deal With It

Have you ever carefully washed and conditioned your hair and then found that your locks felt dry almost before you could apply any hair products to your wet hair? So, instead of juicy clumps of curls, you’re left with a brittle, hard mess of frizz.

If this sounds familiar, you’ve experienced something known in the curly hair community as flash drying. It’s quite a common problem, so understanding it is essential for healthy hair. 

In this guide, we’ll look at the causes of flash drying and what steps you can take to avoid it.

What Is Flash Drying?

Flash drying is the effect of your wet hair feeling dry almost immediately after you’ve washed and conditioned it. It’s a problem that can affect your entire mane, but you might only experience it in small sections of hair. 

It affects how your hair looks and it leaves your tresses at risk of split ends and breakage. Flash-dried hair feels dry, stiff, and crunchy, and it might even look matted. It could almost seem like you didn’t wet your hair at all!

What Hair Type is Most Susceptible to Flash Drying?

Anyone can experience flash drying, but it seems to happen more often to people with very low porosity hair or high porosity hair.

The tightly closed cuticle layer of very low porosity hair can make water run off the strands like a duck’s feathers. This means the hair can struggle to absorb moisture and can also experience a buildup of hair products and oils, leading to dehydrated strands.

The hair on the top of your head tends to be more porous than the under layers as it gets more exposure to sun and heat. So you might find that your very low porosity underlayers flash dry, but the top layers don’t suffer from the problem as much.

High porosity hair absorbs moisture easily but will also shed water quickly. So, if you apply hair products that contain certain ingredients, like humectants or drying alcohols, it’s susceptible to flash drying.

Gray or white hair typically tends to be highly porous, so it can suffer more from this problem than more pigmented hairs.

Type 4 hair and coarse hair also tend to be very porous and lose moisture easily. So, if you have very curly, kinky hair or coarse hair, you might notice flash drying. If you’re unsure which type of hair you have, our Curly Hair Type Quiz will help you decide. Remember to consider other factors like hair porosity and density when you’re choosing hair products and styling techniques.

What Causes Flash Drying?

Human hair is porous and can absorb moisture, increasing the volume and diameter of the hair shaft. If you have high porosity hair, you’ll notice this effect in high humidity conditions, when the air contains more water molecules. The weather affects the movement of water molecules in and out of the hair shaft, and your hair can become frizzy. 

Whether it’s a hair care active ingredient, plant extract, or hair oil, the ingredients in your hair care products can also affect how your hair interacts with water. 

Several types of ingredients can cause flash drying, and the hair products you choose can have cumulative effects on your tresses. That’s why you might suddenly find that your hair reacts to products differently after you’ve been using them for a while. 

So, if you’ve noticed that your hair feels dry, brittle, and frizzy after washing, here are some of the main ingredients to look out for.

Humectants 

Humectants are hydrophilic ingredients, which means they can absorb water molecules. This makes them very effective moisturizers for natural hair. 

They work in two different ways, depending on the dew point. If the air contains more water molecules than your hair, the humectant absorbs moisture from the air and delivers it into the strands. 

However, if you apply large amounts of humectants in a very dry environment, the moisture content of the hair is higher than the moisture in the air. In this situation, the humectants can draw moisture out of the hair shaft, which causes flash drying. 

I’ve had flash drying happen to me with film forming humectants. But it doesn’t always happen, and usually layering a good leave in or curl cream under solves the problem.

Glycerin 

Glycerin is a very effective humectant which can help moisturize natural hair, leaving it soft and flexible.

However, if products containing glycerin are used in very dry conditions, they can absorb water from the strands, causing problems that range from a little stiffness to brittleness and matting. This effect is especially severe with products containing high amounts of glycerin (5-10%), which will feature glycerin near the top of the ingredient list.

Film formers

Film forming ingredients are used in many hair styling products. They help create a thin layer on the hair’s surface to make it look shinier, reduce frizz, or add protection. This happens because the film formers have electrostatic charges. Your hair has more negative charges so it attracts polymers that have positive charges.

However, film forming polymers can also cause flash drying, as the film will prevent water from penetrating the hair shaft and build up on the outside of it over time, resulting in dull and dry hair.

Film forming ingredients to look out for include:

• Dimethicone
• Polyquaternium-4
• Polyquaternium-11
• Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)
• Aloe vera
• Hydroxyethylcellulose

Hard Water

If you live in a hard water area, the calcium and magnesium ions in your water can build up on your strands, leaving them dry, dull, and vulnerable to flash drying. The minerals can also react with certain hair products to cause product-related stiffness.

Aloe Vera

Aloe vera is a fantastic ingredient and is very popular with new curly girls because its blend of starch molecules and protein molecules can deliver hydration into hair strands. However, this ingredient can also have the opposite effect, drawing moisture out of the hair and causing dehydration. 

Not everyone will experience this adverse effect, so feel free to continue using aloe if it works well for your locks. 

Alcohols

Alcohols like ethanol and isopropyl alcohol are often included in styling products as they evaporate quickly. However, they can also dehydrate your strands, especially if they appear high on the ingredient list as this means they make up a larger proportion of the ingredients. 

However, you don’t need to avoid products containing fatty alcohols like Cetyl alcohol, Cetearyl alcohol, or Stearyl alcohol. These are creamy softening or thickening ingredients that can have excellent moisturizing benefits for your strands.

Oils and Butters 

The fatty acids in butters and solid oils like coconut oil are fabulous for moisturizing your hair but can also contribute to flash drying. They melt at high temperatures, which makes them difficult to wash out of your hair at comfortable shower temperatures. This means they can easily build up on your strands.

How to Stop Hair From Flash Drying

If you experience flash drying with a new product or one that suddenly stops working for you, you can try spritzing your hair with water to dilute the ingredients. 

However, it’s better to avoid the problem altogether, so here are some steps to help:

Clarify your strands

Use a high quality clarifying shampoo like Malibu C Un-Do-Goo to remove product buildup from your strands. If you live in a hard water area, using a chelating shampoo such as sulfate-free Malibu C Hard Water Wellness will help break down the mineral deposits. 

Follow up with a deep conditioner suitable for your hair type to help rehydrate your strands if clarifying shampoos dry out your hair. 

Use a base layer

Layering a leave-in conditioner or a curl cream under a styling product will create a shield from the ingredients causing the problem. If aloe vera doesn’t suit your hair, be sure to choose a leave-in conditioner that doesn’t contain it.

I find that this is usually the easiest fix.

Check your products

Check the ingredient lists on your hair care products for film formers like Polyquaternium-4 and heavy oils like coconut oil or shea butter that can build up on your strands. You can try to reduce how often you use these products. 

Look for an alternative

Your final option is choosing different products without the ingredients that are causing your problems.

For example, you could switch from shea butter to lighter hair oils like grapeseed oil or jojoba oil, or start using styling products without film-forming polymers or denatured alcohols like Maui Moisture Quench Ultra Hold Gel.

If you live in a hard water area, it’s worth installing a water softening shower filter. Heat damage will also dehydrate your strands, so minimize your use of hot styling tools and always apply a heat protectant first.

FAQs

These frequently asked questions will help solve your flash drying problems:

Should I Avoid Aloe Vera to Prevent Flash Drying?

Many people can use aloe vera without any problems. If you find that your hair experiences flash drying after using aloe vera products, it’s better to look for other ingredients like jojoba oil or grapeseed oil to moisturize your locks.

What Does Wet Frizz Mean?

Wet frizz occurs when hair feels frizzy, stringy, and dry after washing. Instead of forming clean curl clumps, odd hair strands stick out all over. Flash drying can cause wet frizz, especially if you use styling products that contain denatured alcohols.

The Bottom Line

Flash drying can happen to anyone, and it can even happen suddenly after you’ve been using the same products for weeks or months. Discovering the exact cause of your issues can be difficult, as many ingredients can have this effect on hair.

So, if your hair suddenly feels dry, brittle, and matted straight after washing, stay calm. Clarify your hair to remove any buildup from your strands, and then test different products until you identify the cause of the dryness.

By pampering your hair with deep conditioning treatments and experimenting with different products, you’ll soon resolve your flash drying problem.