Hair : The Correct Way To Blow dry Maltese Hair

In Malta, we are blessed with many beautiful things but one thing we definitely aren’t blessed with is weather-friendly hair and easily manageable hair (although the latter one does apply for a lucky few) The weather in Malta tends to be very humid, enabling our already rather coarse and frizzy hair to guess what ? Frizz.

So how do we beat the frizz and get long-lasting smooth and sleek hair? I sat down with Gordon Mayo, CEO and director of Toni and Guy Malta and asked him a few questions.

Q&A with Gordon Mayo – The Correct Way To Blow dry Maltese Hair

My first question is a bit of a story. Over the years, I’ve had many disastrous blow outs. There has been many a time when I have had to watch my hair frizz into a puff ball, merely an hour or two after leaving the salon. However, on occasion, irrespective of ongoing humidity, I have also seen my blow dry withstand the climate and perform a miracle – remain sleek and smooth for a few days. This leads me to believe that there must be different techniques in existence for blow drying hair. Am I right?

Gordon – Yes, there are two different ways to use heat styling – Cohesive Setting or Heating Set. The latter method is the one that should be used on frizz-prone hair – it basically involves drying out all the moisture using a heating element set on the highest setting. The bonds of the hair will be stretched and moulded into a new shape. The first method does not use as much heat and is generally used on less frizz-prone hair to simply shape it.

My next question is of course about the damage all this heat must be doing to our hair. 

Gordon –  Luckily enough, our frizzy hair tends to have more cuticles protecting the hair shaft and can withstand more heat. However, heat protecting products should always be used – no blow dry should be performed without the use of heat protection. Many of these products are actually heat activated and will give off a smoke signal when the hair is readily straightened which means – stop.

Next, I want to know what happens in severe humidity / dew?

Gordon – The heating set technique the hair is no longer an absorbent so it will reject the moisture in the air and remain straight. 

But what about steam?

Gordon – Steam is dangerous – if steam or hot water makes contact with hair that has been set using heat se.t then the bonds will be broken and the hair will frizz.

Any other tricks?