Saigon Humidity and Frizz: What Newcomers Notice First

People who move here from a dry climate tend to report the same things in the same order. First the heat. Then the rain. Then the discovery that their hair has stopped doing what it used to do. It is wider than it was. It has developed a wave nobody asked for. The style that was quick at home now comes apart somewhere between the front door and the office.

This is not damage, and usually not the shampoo. It is the air.

Why the same hair behaves differently here

Hair takes up moisture from the air around it and gives it back again, more or less continuously. The shape it holds is kept partly by bonds that loosen when hair is damp and set again as it dries. That is the mechanism behind blow-drying, and behind frizz.

In dry air, hair that has been dried into a shape tends to stay that way, because there is little moisture around to loosen it. In humid air the moisture keeps arriving, and the shape you set in the morning is gradually renegotiated. Strands swell unevenly, some lift away from the surface, and the outline you started with becomes a softer, wider one.

Two things follow. Hair that was straight in a dry country can look wavy here, and hair that was gently wavy can look properly curly. And frizz is not really about getting wet: the heavy air before a storm can do as much to a style as the rain.

The rainy season pattern

During the wet months, roughly May to November, the air stays heavy for long stretches, not only while it is raining. Newcomers tend to plan around the downpour, which is obvious, and get caught out by the hours either side of it. A style that depends on staying exactly as it was set is hard to keep in these months, and planning for movement, instead of trying to prevent it, causes less frustration.

The morning: how you dry matters more than what you use

Most of what can be done about frizz happens while hair is drying, because that is when the shape is set.

1. Dry the roots properly. Hair left to finish drying on its own sets in whatever direction it happens to fall, which is rarely the one you wanted.
2. Point the airflow down the length of the hair, root to end, rather than at it from underneath or from the side. Blowing against the way the surface lies roughens it.
3. Rough dry first, then finish deliberately. Get most of the water out with your hands, and bring in a brush only for the last part, when the shape is actually being set.
4. Finish cool. A cool blast at the end, while the section is still held in shape, helps it settle before you let go.
5. Leave dry hair alone. Brushing once it is fully dry separates strands that were sitting together and adds volume where you did not want it. If you have wave or curl, this is a common cause of frizz that people do not realise they are creating.

Product has a role, but a smaller one than most people expect. A little oil or cream spread through the mid-lengths and ends before drying, applied with the palms instead of dropped in one place, gives the surface something to work with. Starting with less and adding is easier than the reverse.

A normal day here also means moving repeatedly between cool, dry indoor air and warm, damp outdoor air, which is why a style can look settled at breakfast and unfamiliar by mid-morning. The people who find this least annoying stop treating the morning shape as the only acceptable one. Decide in advance what you will do with it once it moves, instead of deciding at 2pm in an office bathroom, and carry something small that lets you change it: a clip, a fabric tie, a comb.

Tying it up without setting in a dent

Tying hair back is the obvious answer to a humid afternoon, and it comes with one trap. Hair tied while damp sets into whatever shape it is held in, which is how a tight elastic leaves a bend behind.

• Where possible, tie hair that is already dry. Tying damp hair is a decision about how it looks when you take it down, not just how it looks now.
• Wide fabric ties and claw clips spread the pressure more than thin elastics do.
• If you always tie it in the same place, that is where the bend settles. Moving it around keeps the pressure from landing in one spot.
• Braiding damp hair is a way of deciding the shape it sets into, instead of leaving that to chance.

The same is true of a helmet. Putting one on over damp hair sets a flat band the way a tight elastic does, and most days here involve at least one trip on a bike. If you ride in the morning, it is worth getting the roots properly dry first, or tying the hair in a shape you are happy to keep.

What a haircut can and cannot do about it

Weight, layering and the way ends are finished all affect how hair behaves in humid air, and a cut planned for a dry climate does not necessarily suit this one. What no cut can do is take the moisture out of the air, so no shape is immune.

The most useful thing you can tell a stylist is not “make it less frizzy” but how you actually dry it in the morning, how much time you have, and whether it spends the afternoon tied back. A shape that suits a rushed routine is a different shape from one that assumes an unhurried one.

Humid air is not going to stop being humid. What changes the result is a morning routine built around that, and a shape you are willing to let move by the afternoon.

A note from emo.

If you have moved here recently and your hair is behaving unfamiliarly, say so when you book rather than after the cut. The climate you came from, how you dry your hair, and what it does by mid-afternoon give a stylist more to work with than a photograph does. emo. Hair Salon is in District 7, at 14 Raymondienne in the Starhill area of Phường Tân Mỹ, near Crescent Mall and Phú Mỹ Hưng.

We speak English, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean.

To book, call us or message us on Zalo. Online booking is also available, but please note the booking page is in Japanese only.

• Phone: 0707 177 290
• Zalo: Message us on Zalo
• Online booking (Japanese only): Book via Reservia

emo. Hair Salon
14 Raymondienne, khu Starhill, phường Tân Mỹ, Quận 7, Ho Chi Minh City (near Crescent Mall, in Phú Mỹ Hưng)
Tue–Fri 9:00–19:00 (last cut 18:00) / Sat–Sun 9:00–18:30 (last cut 17:30) / Closed Mondays