Air-Dry Your Hair Perfectly With These Expert Tips

The art of air-drying your hair is truly a tricky one. Unless you're one of the rare few who has perfect, I-woke-up-like-this hair every time, you know that the entire process is a gamble. Sometimes, air-drying your hair leaves you with soft, effortless body and natural texture, but sometimes, it leaves you with a tangled style that's half wavy and half straight and requires way too much time to fix.

To help you take a break from heat styling and perfect your technique, celebrity hairstylist and Cricket brand ambassador Melissa Peverini shared her expert tips on how to air-dry your hair specifically for your hair type, ahead. Keep scrolling to learn more.

Melissa Peverini is a celebrity hairstylist and Cricket brand ambassador. Peverini is known for her work with celebrities like Kate Upton.

In general, curly hair has a learning curve but once you get your styling methods down, you'll be left with beautiful, bouncy curls — even when air-drying. "For curly hair, use a wide-tooth comb while hair is wet," Peverini tells PS. "Next, coat hair with a curl cream and twist your strands, alternating some forward and some backward into rope-like sections — this will leave perfect curl formation." Our current favorite curl cream is the Seen Curly Creme ($27).

Wavy hair is one of the easier hair types to air-dry because of your natural loose texture. We'd suggest prepping the hair with a product like the R and Co Cool Wind Perfect Air Dry Creme ($36). "For wavy hair, you can use the rope-twist technique to enhance your wave, but twist hair in larger sections," Peverini says. "Once dry, break the sections apart using a detangler comb and the results are soft waves."

For straight hair, brush your hair out while still in the shower to remove any tangles before towel drying by scrunching hair upward. "Position your part and apply your favorite serum or mousse," Peverini says. "As it begins to dry, shake the hair through the fingers lightly, but do not rake through. This will help give body to straight hair."

"It's best to wash your hair a couple hours before bedtime, since you don't want to go to bed with wet hair," Peverini says. "This also saves time getting ready in the morning." If you go to sleep with wet hair, you run the risk of sleeping on it, which can lead to creases or flatness in the hair.

Your towel can be responsible for frizz if you're not using the right material. "Use a microfiber towel to scrunch hair dry," Peverini says.

No matter if you're heat styling or air-drying your hair, a silk pillowcase can help eliminate frizz. When you sleep, you create friction by tossing and turning. The soft silk fabric allows hair to move without any tugging. Check out all of our favorite silk pillowcases.

"If you want extra volume when air-drying, use a small hair claw at the top of the head while hair dries to give lift," Peverini says. "These can also be placed around the head for more shape and root lift." Find your favorite here.

If your hair air-dries with less than desirable results, you can have a do-over — without rewashing your entire head, that is. "Mist it with some water or a leave-in conditioner and then try to reshape it," Peverini says. Our current favorite option is the Unite 7Seconds Leave-In Conditioner ($38). Worst case scenario, opt for a ponytail or messy bun.

Jessica Harrington is the senior beauty editor at PS, where she writes about hair, makeup, skin care, piercings, tattoos, and more. As a New York City-based writer and editor with a degree in journalism and over eight years of industry experience, she loves to interview industry experts, keep up with the latest trends, and test new products.

Renee Rodriguez is a staff writer and social producer for PS. She writes across all verticals, but her main areas of expertise focus on fashion and beauty content with an emphasis on reviews and editor experiments. She also produces social content for the PS TikTok and Instagram accounts.