On most weekday mornings, time is really at a premium. Let’s face it – we’d rather hit the snooze button (a couple of times) than spend 10 to 20 minutes yawning in front of the mirror while flat-ironing or curling our hair. But there are times where you wake up to a “poufy”, frizzy mane. Other times, there is quite literally a kink in your plans for a good-hair-day. What’s a girl to do?
We’ve put together a list of six goof-proof hacks that you can do to your hair the night before, so that your mane is at its best the morning after. After all, what is beauty sleep if you don’t wake up to beautiful hair that’s ready to take on the day? Read on to find out how to have a good hair day, every day.
1. Battle frizz
Frizzy hair is a daily battle that most women know all too well. Often, fixing this in the morning means straightening hair with a flat-iron, while applying liberal amounts of frizz-fighting hair products.
However, you can cheat your way into having at least 10 more minutes of sleep each morning by making some small adjustments to your hair-care routine. When washing your hair, leave your conditioner in for longer so that your hair can be as nourished as possible.
Also, try to treat your hair with a conditioning hair mask about once a week.
Most importantly, hair care products tend to be better absorbed when applied to damp hair rather than to dry hair. So instead of applying anti-frizz creams to dry hair in the morning, try putting them on damp hair at night and tying your hair in a loose bun to dry overnight (see point six below).
Taking care of your hair doesn’t just stop at what you put on your hair. Pay attention to what you put your hair on too. Sleeping on a silk or satin pillowcase will reduce a lot of unnecessary friction that may cause breakage while you sleep. You will also notice a reduction in split ends since silk pillowcases don’t dry out hair ends like cotton pillowcases tend to do.
An alternative is to use a silk scarf as a head wrap when you sleep, which is a great option if you want to leave in some hair product to work its magic overnight.
DV Tip: If you wake up and find that your hair is still frizzy, a quick fix is to spray some hairspray on a hairbrush before brushing your hair. This will tame flyaways and calm down the frizziness.
2. Brush those knots out
Before going to sleep, make it a habit to brush your hair. While you don’t exactly need to brush 100 times as per the old wives’ tale, you’ll definitely be happier in the morning if you’ve brush out all the knots before hitting the hay. This will reduce any pulling on tangled hair while you sleep. As an added bonus, brushing your hair regularly re-distributes natural oils from the scalp to hair ends, resulting in a less oily scalp and more nourished ends!
3. Pre-style without heat
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Chances are you’ve heard some version of this hair hack. If you want to wake up in the morning with hair that’s wavy or curly with minimal added styling, braid your hair at night and sleep on your braids. Different styles of braiding will give different results: do double French braids for a relaxed wave and cornrows for tight curls. Optionally, put your hair up in loose bun to create beach waves in the morning. When you wake up, release the hair and tousle it slightly, setting it with hairspray if necessary.
4. Oil it up
Hair oils are useful for maintaining and promoting hair health, especially when applied to the ends of your hair. Treat hair oils like an overnight mask for your hair by applying them before lights out. Your hair will soak up the oils through the night and thank you in the morning.
5. Dry shampoo – before bed
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This may sound crazy; we usually think of dry shampoo as a quick (read: lazy) alternative to washing our hair in the morning. It soaks up excess oils, adds volume to roots, and can be a great trick to nailing that bedhead-on-purpose look. But try using dry shampoo right before going to bed – now it’s allowed to work throughout the night to absorb sebum on your scalp, and you’re going to wake up with “naturally” voluminous hair. You’ll want to say #iwokeuplikethis, for sure!
6. Beware damp hair – unless you do this
It is generally recommended that you sleep with dry hair, since hair is most fragile when wet and most prone to breakage. However, there is a way to work this to your advantage and save some minutes that would have been spent on blow-drying. If your hair type is dry, apply leave-in conditioner and put your hair up in a loose bun using only bobby pins instead of hair elastics. If your hair type is normal to oily, spray some texturising salt spray before tying your hair in a bun. In the morning, let down your hair, tousle, and add a bit more spray to finish. Et voila! Guess you can actually snooze and not lose after all!
