A hooded dryer is essential if you are serious about healthy haircare.
There are so many benefits that every woman should own at least one of them. Whether you choose to pay $300 for a Pibbs Kwik Dryer or just $20 for a Conair model, you will gain huge benefits as well as healthier longer hair.
In this guide, I’ll explain 3 benefits of hooded dryers: wet sets, air drying, and deep conditioning.
Wet Sets
Wet sets is a general term to describe any sort of style that requires “setting” the hair when it’s “wet” for a style when it becomes dry.
A roller set is a type of wet set. A doobie wrap is a type of wet set. You can also do a wet set with spiral rollers, curlformers, and perm rods.
The process is pretty much the same: Set you hair up for the style you want when dry.
Hooded dryers help with this by drying your hair quickly.
You can choose to use high, low, or medium heat which will determine how long you need to sit under the dryer as well as the thickness of your hair.
The heat of the dryer helps to set your hair according to the style you chose before drying.
Wet sets are a wonderful way to achieve straight hair without direct heat or to achieve super curly styles without direct heat. Click here to read my guide on how to roller set natural hair.
Speed Up Air Drying
If you’re not the type to wet set your hair, don’t despair. It is still worthwhile to have a hooded hair dryer!
If you are not wet setting your hair then you are probably air drying it at least occasionally.
Sometimes air drying can be frustrating for a number of reasons: it takes too long depending on thickness and length, you don’t like going to be with wet hair, or you hate leaving the house with dripping wet hair.
Hooded hair dryers are your solution. You can use them to speed up air drying or to finish it off.
Say you’ve been air drying your hair since 6pm and now it’s 10pm and it’s still not dry but you’re going to be ready for bed soon. Pop under the dryer for another 30 minutes or so and you hair will be dry enough to go to bed.
If you do your hair in the morning and are letting it air dry but you have plans to go out in the afternoon, you can immediately sit under the dryer for 30 minutes or so to get rid of some of the dripping wetness.
Then proceed to let your hair air dry until you leave the house.
Deep Conditioning
The number one reason all women should have a hooded hair dryer is for deep conditioning.
Deep conditioning with heat will allow the conditioner to penetrate more deeply into your hair because the heat helps to open up the cuticles in the hair.
If you’re not deep conditioning with heat, then you should start right away! You’ll immediately notice a difference in your hair when you rinse it.
Here’s a test to try:
- After shampooing your hair, apply your conditioner generously. Now, look in the mirror.
- You can still see the white globs of conditioner on your hair, can’t you?
- Now, go sit under the dryer on low to medium heat for 15 minutes.
- Look at your hair in the mirror. The white globs are all gone, right? In fact, you can probably not see any globs of anything.
- This is because the conditioner has penetrated so there aren’t a bunch of globs left.
- Now, try doing the same exercise except do not sit under the hood dryer.
- When you look in the mirror, some of the globs may be gone but most likely, most of them are still there.
- The heat of the dryer is amazing in allowing moisturizing conditioners and protein conditioners penetrate your hair!
Conclusion
If you don’t own a hooded dryer, I hope that I convinced you that you need to go out and buy one today!
You do not have to spend an arm and a leg on a hooded hair dryer but make sure to get one that is large enough for your head and rollers and is comfortable.
I will tell you that I initially started out with the cheaper version of a dryer and earlier this year I upgraded to the Pibbs 514 Dryer. It is the BEST hair investment I ever made! I absolutely love it.
Deep conditioning, speeding up air drying, and wet sets are all ways to achieve and maintain long healthy hair and also maximize your hooded hair dryer investment!