The 5 Best Hair Towels That Dry Your Hair Fast Without The Damage

It's a little weird to say that my life has been vastly improved by a wad of absorbent fabric, but it's true. I recently invested in one of the best hair towels, and since then, my daily routine has gone a whole lot more smoothly. No longer do I have to bend my neck like an ostrich to keep the towel on top of my head. No longer do I feel beads of cold water dripping down my back, or end up damaging my hair by twisting too hard.

Most stylists would agree that, believe it or not, you should never dry your hair with a regular towel. That's because hair is especially delicate when it's wet, and the texture and material of a regular towel is often too coarse and dry for fragile wet hair to handle. Your average bath towel also isn't too great at absorbing water, so if you do choose to blow dry your hair after towel drying it, you're not preventing heat damage as much as you could be.

Not only is a great hair towel effective at absorbing water without damage, but it actually stays on your head while you move on with the rest of your routine. These top rated hair drying towels can help you dry your hair faster with less damage. Keep scrolling for the best hair towels that dry your hair fast.

1. A Best-Selling Hair Towel That Majorly Reduces Styling Time
The DuraComfort Essentials Hair Towel is the number one best seller in hair towels because it dries your hair quickly without getting in your way. It's lightweight, super absorbent, and one size fits all. "This towel exceeded my expectations," one reviewer commented. "With this towel, my hair was much drier that blow drying took only 10 minutes greatly reducing overall styling time."

2. A Set Of Absorbent Microfiber Turbans That Are Perfect For Multitaskers
If you like to check your e-mail, clean your room, and do your makeup right out of the shower, you need something that'll stay in place. These microfiber hair towels have a button, an elastic band, and a lightweight design to keep the towel on your head no matter what, and without pulling or pain. They also absorb water quickly and come in a pack of two. Amazon reviewers love how much value you get for the price: "We love these! The 2 pack was perfect for my daughter and I - we use them after every shower and they definitely do absorb wetness quicker. Plus it's such a small wrap vs my huge towel I used to use to wrap my hair that usually came undone if bending over. This one stays put until you remove it."

3. A Bamboo Towel That Smells Fresh For A Long Time
Bamboo is an extremely popular material right now, and that's because it's soft, lightweight, dries quickly, and prevents the growth of bacteria. This bamboo hair towel absorbs water so hair dries quickly and with minimal damage, but it also smells fresh and clean for a long time: "[The microfiber towels] start to smell bad and I have to throw them away," says one reviewer. "This bamboo towel is AMAZING!"

4. A Large, Lightweight Towel That's Perfect For People With Long Hair
This large microfiber hair towel is soft and absorbent, and it's much bigger than others on the market. It's also got a fine waffle-weave microfiber design that's lightweight despite its size, and reviewers are saying things like, "Love that it is a large towel that can cover all of my extremely thick hair."

5. A 'Dream Towel' For Naturally Curly Hair
The DevaCurl Deva-Towel is specifically made for natural curls. It helps them to dry bouncy, healthy, and without frizz, and it can even allow styling products to set better by absorbing just the right amount of water. One Amazon fan raves, "This towel dries my hair very quickly. It is very soft and super absorbent. If you have long or thick hair, you need one of these. Plenty big enough to wrap around my head and twist up. I have just below shoulder length hair that is on the thicker side."

Thomasina Miers' recipe for Persian rice pudding with apricot and pistachios

If I could tell my younger self that one day I would be encouraging people to make rice pudding, I wouldn’t have believed it. It was the dish I dreaded most at school: stodgy, lukewarm and overcooked. However, sun-soaked trips to Mexico cured me of this aversion. There, plump and tender grains bathe in chilled scented creams, and the result is subtle and delicious. Here, I have taken a Persian lean with stunning colours from the apricots, saffron and pistachios; it’s fabulous served in warm weather.

Persian rice pudding with apricot and pistachios
You can make this a day or two in advance, so it’s perfect for parties, and it’s quite rich, so you won’t need much.

Prep 15 min
Cook 1 hr
Serves 4-6

90g caster sugar
1 litre whole milk
1 cinnamon stick
Zest of 1 orange
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g risotto rice, rinsed
4 tbsp double cream
1 tbsp orange blossom water
1 pinch saffron, soaked in 3 tbsp hot water
40g toasted pistachios, chopped, to serve
1 big pinch dried rose petals, to serve (optional)

For the apricots
150g dried apricots, plus extra to serve
2 tbsp honey
6 cardamom pods, shells cracked open
1 cinnamon stick
Zest of ½ lemon

Cut each apricot in half to make two thin discs. Put them in a small pan with 300ml water, the honey, cardamom seeds, cinnamon stick and lemon zest. Bring to a simmer, cook for 15 minutes, then take off the heat and leave to cool and infuse for at least half an hour (I make this the night before).

To make the rice pudding, put the sugar, milk, cinnamon stick, orange zest, vanilla and rice in a large, heavy-based saucepan set over a medium heat. Bring to a simmer, then turn down the heat to low. Simmer very gently for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice is completely soft – watch it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan towards the end of the cooking time. Remove from the heat, stir in the double cream, orange blossom water and saffron, and leave to cool.

Once cool, cover and put in the fridge to chill – you can do this a day or two in advance if you want to get ahead. When you’re ready to serve, discard the cinnamon stick and spoon the pudding into bowls. Top with a few apricots and a little syrup, sprinkle over the pistachios and rose petals, and serve.

And for the rest of the week
If you’re serving this to grown-ups, try adding two to three tablespoons of muscat to the poached apricots, for a luxurious finish. If you, like I once did, shudder at the thought of rice pudding, consider churning this recipe in an ice-cream machine with 600ml double cream and a few tablespoons of brown sugar – it makes an extremely good ice-cream.

A Higher Level of Nonsense

The prop list for Nunsense, which opens at the Philipstown Depot Theatre in Garrison on May 17 for a four-weekend run, gives a broad hint that this is not Doubt, Agnes of God, or The Sound of Music.

There is a chef’s toque, a tricycle, a boa, a puppet, a Carmen Miranda hat, a parasol, an intravenous line, and a whole lot of wimples. Broad humor is the order of the day with this hugely popular musical, which has logged more than 500 productions worldwide and been translated into 21 languages.

In 1986, the year after it debuted off-Broadway, the production won Outer Critics’ Circle awards for best musical, book and music for Dan Goggin. He has been looking after his dynasty ever since, including from Garrison, where he owned a home, where he still stores costumes and props and where, it’s said, he has been seen ironing habits. Insiders say it would not be surprising if he attended at least one of the performances.

The show centers on five nuns (played by Ursula Anderman, Laura Danilov, Julie Heckert, Liz Keifer and Melissa Shawcross) at the Little Sisters of Hoboken who are among the survivors after most of the order succumbs to botulism from vichyssoise prepared by Sister Julia, Child of God (Linda Speziale). The sisters decide to put on a variety show to raise the funds needed to bury the last four of their colleagues, whose bodies are frozen.

The show’s nearly all-female cast (the exception is the musical director, Todd Hulet, who steps in as Brother Patrick) and director Christine Bokhour have been getting in the habit of dancing in voluminous, floor-length garments — actually, the costumes didn’t arrive until this week, so there have been some guestimates about how best to avoid pratfalls.

During a recent rehearsal, the pretend nuns answered questions while practicing balancing plates and generally being silly. Keifer, who plays Mother Superior (and who played another old mother, Mrs. Paroo, last year in the Depot’s production of The Music Man), was fine-tuning her Irish accent. “This nun’s got a bit of ‘Shipoopi’ [a song from The Music Man] in her,” she said. “It’s less intense, but it gets Mrs. Paroo-y when I get excited.”

Asked about what made the show attractive to her, a supporting nun, Kalista Sale Parrish, said: “During this time when it’s hard to be funny, this femme-centered piece means we are free to be funny, without making fun of someone else.” Asked what she has learned, Danilov said: “If you wear a hoodie under your wimple, you can’t hear anything.”

The ensemble, which besides Parrish includes Anne Kane, Lourdes Laifer, Linda Raftery and Anna Stephens, is described as “jovial.” Asked to verify that it is, in fact, jovial, Parrish said with an authority born of personal experience: “It depends if we head to Dolly’s after rehearsal.”