The Drying Game — Safely Dry Wet Strands With The Aquis Waffle Luxe Hair Towel

I have a confession: I hate blowdrying my hair. Literally hate it. Now, don’t get me wrong: I love going to the salon and getting it professionally blown out, but doing it myself? Not so much. See, I have a lot of hair, which makes blow-drying incredibly time-consuming, plus my strands aren’t exactly cooperative — my hair is curly but has been color-treated for over a decade so it doesn’t coil like it used to, which means a diffuser and some curl-amping products might not cut it, and I’m prone to frizz, which is always a challenge. I always end up straightening it, and it takes a lot of dexterity to twirl my hair brush vigorously enough to smooth out stubborn strands. By the end of each session, I feel like I have carpal tunnel. And here’s the worst part: when I go to the gym and sweat, my hair is quick to frizz up, so that my blowouts tend to have a lifespan of 2 days max.

So, when I heard about the AQUIS hair towels, I was intrigued — particularly when a friend said that, since discovering this magical towel, she hadn’t blown out her hair in a month. A month? It sounded heavenly. And so, as soon as I received a sample of the AQUIS Waffle Luxe Hair Towel ($35 at Sephora.com), I put it to work.

How is this different from any other towel? Well, the AQUIS Waffle Luxe Hair Towel features ultra-fine fibers that are woven to create channels (hence the waffle-like pattern) that wick water away quicker than cotton towels – allegedly 5x faster than cotton towels, at that. And because the fibers are smoother than silk, they don’t snag cuticles or cause friction that could lead to breakage. After washing your hair, then, you can reach for this towel, gently squeeze out any excess water (never rub wet hair!), then  flip your hair forward and wrap it in the towel to create a makeshift turban. You can then leave the towel on until your hair feels damp — as opposed to sopping wet — and style it.

Now, the towel isn’t going to completely dry your hair, but it will take hair from wet to damp so that you don’t have to rough-dry your hair when it’s soaking wet, which can lead to damage. And if your hair is naturally straight or you’ve got curly strands, you might be able to get away with air drying strands once they’re damp and just adding a bit of product to smooth out unruly strands, give curls more volume or definition, tame split ends, and so on.

Here’s me wearing the AQUIS Waffle Luxe Hair Towel (and pardon the horrible lighting, y’all!):

I love how soft this towel is — it actually feels luxurious. But I have to caution that, if you have a lot of hair, or your strands reach past your shoulders, you’ll probably want to invest in the Waffle Luxe Long Hair Towel, which retails for $45. The regular length towel was a bit too short for me, and wrapping all of my hair in it was tricky, so that at times, some of my ends would poke out. Also, I have a big head (I’m not being funny here — I literally had to find a satin-lined sleeping cap for someone with a larger head because the regular-sized one was squeezing my head so tight, I was waking up with headaches!), so it was a struggle to wrap this towel around that super-sized dome and then manage to wrap it and secure it in place. At one point, I just put a butterfly clip on it since the towel kept coming loose!

Now onto the important part: what does the towel really do? In my experience (and I’ve been using this towel non-stop), it really does make hair significantly smoother and less prone to frizz. That said, I found that it doesn’t dry my hair particularly fast — certainly not five times faster than a cotton towel. Then again, that may be due to me using a shorter-than-necessary towel. Still, when my hair was damp, it already looked smoother and softer than it typically does if I attempt to air-dry it. Could I skip the blow-drying altogether? Not really. On some days, my hair would cooperate enough that, with a little bit of smoothing cream along my hair line and some leave-in anti-frizz protection, I could go out the door and still look relatively put-together. Here’s a photo taken on a day when I’d used the AQUIS Waffle Luxe Hair Towel, then simply applied a bit of smoothing cream:

As you can see, my hair is presentable in that photo but there’s still a bit of frizz along the hairline. It was the weekend, and I didn’t want to fuss over my hair too much, but had I wanted a more polished look, I would’ve still needed to resort to heat styling.

But here’s the thing: if your hair is already close to dry and it’s looking smooth and frizz-free, the blow-drying experience isn’t an odious ordeal. It’s also way quicker, so you’re not submitting your hair to unnecessary damage from all of that heat. On days when I’ve blown out my hair after using the towel, there’s been considerably less moaning and groaning involved. And that, for me, is reason enough to love this towel.

In fact, ever since I started using this towel and sleeping with a satin-lined cap, my hair has looked a lot healthier, so there really is something to be said for protecting your hair from unnecessary friction. Also, it’s important to remember that wet hair swells, which leaves it more vulnerable and prone to breakage. By keeping hair nestled in this towel as it dries, you’re effectively protecting it at its most fragile time. Over time, this makes a huge difference in the health of your hair so, if you’ve got color-treated, processed, damaged, or dry hair, this towel can be a game-changer.