It turns out letting your hair air dry may be really bad for it

It can feel like you are giving your hair a bit of a break by letting it dry naturally every once in awhile.

But it turns out you could be doing more damage to your hair by letting it air dry instead of using a hairdryer. A study conducted by Annals of Dermatology found that drying your hair while it's still wet - but in a step-by-step way - is more healthy for it than letting it air dry. The research found that this is due to how your hair responds to being wet. The hair fibre swells and becomes weaker when it's damp, so leaving it to dry naturally means that its exposure to water goes on longer - and puts it at a bigger risk of damage. According to The Sun, Dr Tim Moore, the chief technology officer at ghd, explained in response to the research:

"Naturally drying hair swells the cortex, as it is in contact with water for a longer period. "Repeated swelling and slow drying of hair causes the cell membrane complex (the glue that holds the cuticle together) to crack, which damages the hair."

But it's not all good news if you're a fan of blitzing your locks with the hair dryer. Basically, using a hair dryer does cause more surface damage - like roughness, dehydration and the loss of hair colour - to your hair. But using the dryer 15 cm away from your hair, and in a continuous movement, ends up causing less damage than if you dry your hair naturally.