Why are we drying natural hair with T-shirts

Why are we drying natural hair with T-shirts, what if we told you that the cure for frizzy, unruly hair is an old T-shirt? If you’re feeling skeptical, we don’t blame you.

It’s hard to look at that ratty high school gym class tee and picture it being the hair-taming miracle you’ve been praying for, but the trick we’re sharing below may just change your hair game forever. 

While there’s different techniques to this type of hair drying, I knew that because I wasn’t trying to create or maintain curls with T-shirt drying also known as plopping

I didn’t need to attempt anything special. All I needed to do was replace my towel with a T-shirt upon leaving the shower and hope for the best.

Apart from minimizing frizz, using a T–shirt also helps to reduce tangling and knotting that is experienced when using a cotton towel. 

T–shirts are ideal for drying wet hair because they don’t contribute much to the formation of knots and tangles. A towel will leave knots and tangles all over your hair

Because I only wash my hair once or twice a week, I spread this experiment over a fortnight. I wanted to be sure this wasn’t a one time fix for my frizz and to find out if this would benefit me more as time progressed. Basically, I wanted to know whether to make ditching my towels a permanent decision.

Drying natural hair with t-shirt vs towel

Using Bath Towels on Wet Hair

You’ve probably heard hair gurus advise against using regular bath towels to dry your hair. Why? Typical terry cloth bath towels can actually damage your hair. 

Unlike natural cotton towels, terry cloth towels are woven using two warp beams these two loops give terry cloth it’s rough texture. Its abrasive fibers are large and easily catch on to hair strands. 

When you run a regular towel on your wet hair, strands entangle with the fibers of the towel. Not to mention, it creates high levels of friction and results in damage to the hair cuticle.

As stated earlier, wet hair is super delicate and is prone to breakage. So if you use a regular towel to dry your hair, you’re more than likely gonna snap a few hair strands. 

While regular bath towels are absorbent, they soak up too much water — yes, that is possible. To explain, they strip too much moisture from your hair, leaving you with extra dry strands. 

Regular use of a terry cloth towel to dry hair will leave you with frizzy and rough hair. This spells a recipe for more tangles and even more damage. Not only will this make styling your hair difficult, but it stunts length retention.

Using a Cotton T-Shirt on Wet Hair

Hair experts warn against sleeping on cotton pillowcases, so using a cotton t-shirt to dry your hair is out of the question, right? Wrong! Although it seems a little contradictory to use a cotton t-shirt on wet hair is totally safe, here’s why:

The cotton used for bed sheets and pillowcases is way more coarse than cotton used for clothing. Similar to microfiber towels for hair, cotton t-shirts are soft and don’t catch on to hair or cause breakage. Also, the fibers in cotton t-shirts are woven closer together, so they absorb water without overdrying strands.

Considering the benefits of drying your hair with a cotton t-shirt, we’d say that this hair hack is worth trying! But before you go reaching in your dresser, we suggest that you choose a shirt that feels super smooth. To add, make sure it doesn’t contain embellishments that could rip hair strands.

How to Properly Dry Natural Hair with a T-Shirt

Now that you’re all caught up on the benefits of using cotton to dry your hair, we thought we’d give you a few pointers on how to properly dry your hair using a cotton t-shirt:

• First, take a clean t-shirt and gently squeeze excess water out of hair. Try not to wring or vigorously rub your hair. 
• Next, place your head in the opening of the t-shirt and press your hair to soak up water.
• Twist and wrap the t-shirt around your head, tucking the opening at the front of your hairline.
• For fine hair, keep hair wrapped for 10 to 15 minutes. For thick curly or coily hair, leave covered for 20 to 25 minutes.
• Undo your t-shirt wrap and reveal frizz-free and manageable hair! 

Can you dry hair with a t-shirt overnight

You can choose to leave your hair wrapped in a t-shirt overnight. the only draw back to this method, is the fact that you will leave the soaking wet t-shirt in your hair as it continues to soak up the water from your hair.

This would then transfer to your sheets, mattress and pillows and that would become very uncomfortable to be sleeping in a wet bed.

However, if you still feel to sleep with the t-shirt overnight, tack it in well to avoid the chance of it slipping off as you sleep.

The only precaution i want to give is to ensure the t-shirt is not too tight on your head. You need to be comfortable while sleeping.

Final Verdict on Why are we drying natural hair with T-shirts

Thanks for reading my post about Why are we drying natural hair with T-shirts, In terms of performance, we’d say that drying your hair with a microfiber hair towel or a cotton t-shirt yields many benefits. Both protect your hair against damage, as opposed to regular bath towels. Both hair drying techniques help maintain the fullness and health of your hair too.

Want to make the switch to a microfiber towel for hair? Shop our array of microfiber Turbie Twists and Turbie Towels! Please checkout my other blog post about How to wash baby’s hair without getting water in eyes