Need to dry your clothes in a hurry but haven’t got access to a tumble dryer? Don’t worry, your hair dryer has you covered!
Yep, the same gadget that dries your locks can also be used to dry wet laundry. But how do you dry clothes with a hair dryer? Find out below!
Drying clothes with a hair dryer is a convenient way to dry your outfits. Follow the method below and you’ll have dry items in no time!
Hints and Tricks to Consider
Tips to think about before you start drying your laundry with a hair dryer:
- Remove as much moisture as you can from your laundry, before you use a hair dryer to dry your items. If you don’t remove most of the water for your clothes, it’ll take an age for you to dry your washing with a hair dryer. In fact, trying to dry water-logged clothes with a single hair dryer will take you so long that the entire task may be pointless. So, remove most of the moisture first.
- Using a hair dryer to dry laundry takes time, so be prepared to spend time drying your wet item(s).
- Don’t blow dry your clothes with a hair dryer if you’re wearing them. You risk burning yourself and your clothing won’t have sufficient air flow. In turn, you could hurt yourself and damage your garment.
- Air flow is important, so try and hang your laundry up before drying it.
- You must continuously move the hair dryer around your item of clothing. Holding the blow dryer in one place will burn the material. It also means that your garment won’t be dried evenly.
- If you’re drying delicate materials with a hair dryer, choose the coolest setting on the machine. This should stop the garments from getting too hot.
- Always hold the hair dryer away from the item of clothing you’re drying. If you press the nose of the dryer against the material, you’ll likely burn the fabric!
- Using a hair dryer is great when you need to dry small wet spots on laundry. It won’t take you very long and it’s very easy!
How to Dry Clothes with a Hair Dryer
Follow the steps below to dry your clothes with a hair dryer.
If you’ve got a number of items that need to be dried, you will need to dry the items one at a time. This is to ensure that you dry each item of clothing thoroughly.
Steps to follow:
- Lay a large towel on a flat surface (like the floor or a table).
- Lay your wet item of clothing on top of the dry towel.
- Start rolling the towel up with the item inside.
- Push down on the rolled-up towel, so you extract moisture from your wet item. You can use your hands and arms to do this, or you can press down with your knees.
- Continue to do this until your item feels damp and you aren’t able to extract much moisture out of it. It might be worth having a second towel at hand, so you can swap the wet towel for a fresh one.
- When you’re done either pop your item back on the flat surface or put it on a hanger and hang the item up.
- Grab your hair dryer, select a warm temperature (not the hottest setting), hold the dryer away from your item of clothing, and then begin drying the item.
- Throughout this entire drying process you will need to move the hair dryer up, down and across your clothing in a quick motion. You shouldn’t hold the hair dryer in one place for too long as this will risk scorching the item.
- You should also continuously move your item of clothing around, so you can dry the pockets, seams, inside, back and collar.
- You will need to repeat the steps above until your item is completely dry.
Tip: When using a hair dryer to dry clothes, it’s important to make sure that your clothes are exposed to a warm temperature, but it’s also imperative that the item gets sufficient air flow too. So, if it is possible, hang your item on a hanger and dry it this way.
How Long Does a Hair Dryer Take to Dry Clothes?
There’s no exact timescale to drying clothes with a hair dryer because it all depends on a number of factors.
These include what material you’re drying, if you adhere to the method above, and if you have patience to carry out the drying tasks properly. Let’s look at this in more detail.
If you remove the majority of the water from your freshly washed laundry with a towel before using hair dryer, and then a warm temperature on the hair dryer, continuously moving it over the clothing, it may take you a just few minutes to dry one piece of clothing. This could be as little as five minutes in some cases.
If you don’t remove the excess moisture from your laundry, or you’re trying to dry a particularly heavy and thick item of clothing, you could spend a long time drying the item. This could be up to an hour in some cases.
In addition to this, if you don’t move the hair dryer around and you hold it in one place, you risk damaging the material you’re drying, and you won’t dry your garment evenly. In turn, you’d end up with a poorly dried item and an overall unsuccessful drying experience.
On the flipside, if you’re attempting to blow dry a single wet spot on an item of clothing, you can typically dry this spot very quickly. It could take you as little as a minute in some cases!
Is It Okay to Use a Hair Dryer on Clothes?
Yes, it’s okay to use a hairdryer to dry clothes.
However, you do need to be careful when you dry clothes in this manner. For example, you must make sure that you don’t use a very hot temperature to dry your item.
You also shouldn’t hold the dryer too close to the material, and should continuously move it around so you don’t burn the garment.
In addition to this, while drying clothes with a hair dryer is a great backup option if you’re in a hotel room or don’t have a line, a tumble dryer or a heated airer, you shouldn’t make a habit of drying clothes in this way.
Why? There are arguably better, less time consuming, and more cost-effective ways to dry laundry.
Bethan has a passion for exploring, reading, cooking and gardening! When she’s not creating culinary delights for her family, she’s concocting potions to keep her house clean!
