Road Test: Are microfibre hair towels worth it?

Time to throw in the (bath) towel.

As someone who dyes their hair every time I have a silly little identity crisis, my hair has gotten super damaged over the past couple of years, to the point where I’ve seriously considered shaving my straw-like locks off and growing out my natural locks.

So when it comes to hair care, I’ve tried pretty much everything the local market has to offer – keratin treatments, Olaplex, hair repair shampoos and conditioners, etc. The products I’ve spent money on to make my hair feel less like I’ve been on a four-day bender in the desert and more like a Pantene commercial model have made my uni student bank account suffer. Big time.

For more hair and beauty features, check out our Beauty section.

My hair care routine now consists of Grown Alchemist colour-protecting shampoo and conditioner, as well as an OGX hair oil (when it’s on sale). However, my hair still dries a little frizzy because of how coarse bleach has made my strands. But after coming across TikToks about the benefits of microfibre towels for your hair, I decided to put it to the test.

Why microfibre?

According to the University of Washington, microfibre is a polyester fibre that is split several times to ensure it is multiple times thinner than human hair – so it’s allegedly more gentle and absorbent on your hair than traditional towels. Considering hair is more fragile when wet, our strands are more subject to snags and breakage when we’re fresh out of the shower than during the normal day-to-day. So if you’re wanting to avoid breakage, it’s best to be as gentle on your hair as possible when it’s wet. 

Additionally, microfibre towels for your hair supposedly cut your drying time in half and reduce frizz due to the decrease in friction it causes on your hair and scalp. I will primarily be testing these two factors as someone with very coarse and damaged hair, with my main criteria being a) time to dry and b) frizz factor.

Accessibility

The first step to testing the effectiveness of microfibre towels is to, well, get one. Again, as a poor uni student, it’s ideal for me not to spend a lot of money on a hair towel I have no idea about, so I’m looking for a product that’s affordable and easy to purchase (meaning I don’t have to go hunt for a niche shop on the other side of the state to find one).

Searching online yielded $30 results from Adore Beauty, but also $12 options from Big W and Sportsgirl. Knowing that bigger brands sold microfibre hair wraps, I had a look at my personal superstore Daiso and, lo and behold, they had microfibre towels and hair caps. I purchased both for $14, which I was definitely pleased about. 

Results

As someone whose parents religiously ingrained the importance of having completely dry hair before going to bed, the claims of faster drying times definitely appealed to me. I’m a night-shower enthusiast and blow-drying my hair before bed yields very chaotic results even after oils, heat protection products and the cold setting on my hairdryer. 

I decided to compare the drying times with my normal towel versus the microfiber towel and cap, seeing if the microfibre really did reduce drying time as I’ve heard. I first used the microfibre towel to squeeze water out of my hair and then put the cap on while I did my night routine, finally taking it off and then air drying it until I wanted to go to sleep.

It took an hour and seven minutes for my hair to dry. For my normal towel, I squeezed the water out of my hair but noticed it was still dripping, so I had to wrap my hair in it while I got ready for bed. It was the same routine as the microfibre towel, however, it took an hour and 19 minutes for my hair to completely dry.

Overall, despite the slightly reduced drying time for my hair, it wasn’t halved like experts had claimed it would. However, what really impressed me was actually how my hair looked after it dried. Normally, my hair air-dries frizzy, with my layers sticking out at different angles of my head and forcing me to wake up earlier than usual to style it back into place.

However, with the microfibre towels, I was surprised to see my hair was in place and smooth. It definitely felt much softer than it did when I dried it with a normal towel, which I was really surprised about. My hair was easier to style (in that I didn’t really have to), looked healthier and ultimately felt much less grass-like than usual. 

Last thoughts

In conclusion, I was shook. I’ll admit, I had no expectations for microfibre towels – towels are just towels, if they dry my hair and body, they do the job. Why spend more money on my hair than I have to? 

However, the affordable options at Daiso really surprised me – my hair may not have dried in record time, but the results it yielded made me really happy. My hair dried the way it did before I put it through colour damage.

For more on the benefits of microfibre for your hair, head here.