Hold Up: Is Air-Drying Actually Better For Your Hair? Hairstylists Weigh In

Raise your hand if your hairstylist has ever told you that heat styling is a one-way ticket to unnecessary damage. This means, along with avoiding straighteners and curling irons, you should air-dry your hair to keep it as healthy as possible, right? Well, that might not be the case. In a now-viral TikTok, cosmetic chemist Javon Ford purports that new studies illustrate that using diffused heat to dry hair is actually less damaging than air-drying.

If this information goes against everything stylists have told you for, well, ever, you’re not alone. Does air-drying actually damage hair? Is it time to pick up your hair dryer and perfect your at-home blowout skills? Don’t worry – we have all the answers. PS spoke with two professional hairstylists to get to the bottom of this and figure out once and for all if air-drying your hair isn’t as beneficial as we once thought.