# Blow drying causes dry coat?



## 31818 (Oct 29, 2014)

mudpuppymama said:


> One thing that concerns me about frequent bathing is not so much the washing but the blow drying. It seems that blow drying would dry out the hair even if on low heat settings, unless you use a lot of conditioner which I don’t like to do. In my experience conditioner attracts dirt and builds up on the hair which then requires more frequent bathing. However, I am not experienced and only basing my opinions on two dogs and my own hair.





NN21 said:


> I do agree with the blow drying! Earlier on, we were a bit free with that and I saw the coat got affected. She did have a longer coat (4-5") at that time as well. So we flipped back to short puppy cut & started using a high-absorbent microfiber towel to soak up water as much as possible, with lesser blow-drying.


Curious about the answer to the questions raised in the posts above, I asked our long time (7 years) groomer and has been in the business over 20 years, Violetta, about this. She bathes, dries, grooms about 30/40 dogs a week. She bathes and blow dries Ricky every two weeks. 

She said, yes blow drying in some cases can cause dryness to both the fur and skin. But she said it is not a simple answer, it depends on some different factors.

She sees some dogs that are bathed and blow dried once a year. Their fur and skin is in terrible condition. She refuses to service these dogs because blow drying in this condition only makes matters worse.
Some people use poor quality shampoos and conditioners and these will dry out the fur more than blow drying will.
She sees dogs with acute and serious skin fungus (she is not a canine health care professional) and she says that the fungus causes serious dryness to both skin and fur, not blow drying.
Some dog breeds have naturally dry fur, it has nothing to do with blow drying
A dogs diet will often determine the condition of the coat
So what does she recommend to keep a dog's fur healthy and moisturized.

keep the fur clean. Bathe as often as needed to keep it clean
use high quality shampoos and conditioners
add supplements to their high quality meals to aid in maintaining a healthy coat
put the blow dryer on a medium setting, not hot and not cold, and keep the dryer constantly moving
continuously brush/flufff the coat while blow drying
We chose to keep Ricky in a natural, long, full coat because we like the look. Ricky's canine dermatologist recommends that Ricky be bathed once week with medicated shampoo and finish spray because he has some environmental allergies. However we have Violetta do it once every two weeks. I asked Violetta about the condition of Ricky's coat since it is being blow dried every two weeks compared to other dogs she maintains. She said that Ricky has a fabulous full, airy, lustrous coat, one of the nicest she has seen in all her years in the business. She said that blow drying has not caused any damage to his coat because we maintain it on a regular basis, use high quality materials, feed him a healthy well balanced diet with supplements, and Ricky is lucky to have "healthy coat" genes. So she said there is nothing for us to be concerned about blow drying his coat frequently.

So apparently the answers to the questions above is....it depends. Frequent blow drying may damage the coat and then it may not. It just depends on a number of interrelated factors..


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

I don’t think there is any one size fits all regarding bathing. Everyone needs to find out what works best for their dog. I believe in ”minimum effective dose” when it comes to baths, just like many other things. Another thing to to consider is how often the dog is thoroughly combed and brushed down to the skin. I do this every single day and her coat is in beautiful condition. She has no allergies. She never scratches. I gave her a bath last week and her previous bath was four months ago. The feet and legs can get dirty in between baths and I see no need to do a full bath if that is all that is dirty. However, this may not work for other people. I hope people with think for themself find out what works best for them.


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

Heat styling damages hair, it’s a fact. The question is how much heat it would take, and it depends on the cost. Just like in human hair, there is different hair porosity and texture so some hair will be more easily damaged. It helps to know the qualities of your own Havanese coat, but for most people that’s hard to know. For me, I didn’t have a groomer that works with a lot of Havanese to tell me, or experience touching a lot of different Havanese coats to compare, so it’s taken a long time to figure out. Conditioners and grooming sprays can help protect from heat, but there are drawbacks Mudpuppymama has mentioned in the past, because they require more frequent baths and can build up over time. Many people grooming at home use personal human hair dryers and the heat settings on new hair dryers are very high thanks to better heat protection products for humans. Watching the heat settings on those can help, and toweling or air drying for a few minutes before turning on the dryer means less heat exposure. I wouldn’t be able to decrease frequency because it would mean decreasing baths, which doesn’t work well for us, but it seems like a lot of Havanese can go longer without a bath than mine. Also, the benefits of drying my Havanese outweigh the damage from heat because of the density of his coat. Using a small about of silicone type grooming spray and heat from the dryer make a huge difference in releasing loose hair from his undercoat, and make the bath last much longer, and it keeps hair from spreading around my house since he loses more hair than the average Havanese (I think anyway, and it seems normal to lose more since he also has more than average). It’s harder to comb him out if he completely air dries. In a thinner, finer coat, this would not be an issue, and I also think that is the type of coat more likely to be damage prone.


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## sbowden.bowwow (Nov 19, 2021)

I use the cooler air on my blower. I also have a small heater in my bathroom so it's nice and warm. If the hair seems dry try using a little apple cider vinegar as a final rinse diluted with water. It's not only really good for the skin and hair but will keep fleas away. You dilute it and just leave it on the hair. I've also done an oil treatment I think it was VO5 hot oil treatment. That was recommended to me by a friend who shows. Maddie doesn't need conditioner but Zoey has a really thick cotton-type coat. Alberto VO5 Hot Oil Therapy


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