You know the old adage, “The hair is always smoother on the other side of the fence?” Okay, so that might be a modern adaptation, but the idea that women want a hairstyle that Mother Nature had no intention of giving them is certainly nothing new.

When I was a young girl I begged my mom to let me get a perm, and she adamantly refused. I eventually made peace with my straight strands, but the next day I hit puberty and woke up with a mop of curls coming out of my head. The last two decades or so have subsequently been marked by my evolution of hair straightening methods, going from a clothes iron to a blow dryer to a clunky flat iron to a tourmaline, ionic, ceramic, blessed-by-the-Breck-girl-herself high tech flat iron. Needless to say, I’ve become somewhat of an expert of the art of the blow-out.

I’m not going to lie, a good blow-out takes time. I’ve got my method down to about 25 minutes, but it’s an arduous and sweaty 25 minutes that I don’t want to endure each and every morning I insist on not looking like the Cowardly Lion. Over the years I’ve picked up some tips for making one 25 minute hair taming session last me the better part of the work week:

1. Do it right the first time. A good blow out will hold up well, a mediocre blow out will just get more mediocre. Invest the extra time to leave no kink un-smoothed, and your time will pay off down the line.

2. Hands off! If a greasy scalp is driving you back to the [shampoo] bottle the very next day, you might benefit from following a no-touching rule. Every time you rake your fingers through your part for a quick tousle or twirl a lock of hair around your finger as a nervous habit, you’re transferring oil from your hands onto your hair and stimulating your scalp, which in turn increases natural oil production.

3. Stagger your styles. Days one and two after a blow out should be fair game for free flowing locks. Days three and four are better suited for a half-up style or a low pony tail.

4. Master the touch up. Even the best blow out takes some work to maintain. A quick 5 minute session with the flat iron or the blow dryer can make it look brand new, though. Usually the top layer of hair and the layer closest to your neck take the hardest beating from sweat and humidity. You’d be amazed at what touching up just those two layers of hair can do to revive a frizzy blow out.

5. Do as our forefathers did – Powder that wig! There are a variety of styling products available to assist us lazy girls in our efforts to avoid re-wetting. Hair powders are available in both aerosol and non-aerosol sprays, as well as liquid-gels that are applied with a fine-nozzled applicator. I personally prefer the aerosol spray variety, and have my best success when I apply it along 4 or 5 vertical parts along my scalp, letting it dry completely before running a brush through.

Not all beauty has to be painful! Master these tips and you can shave hours off your weekly beauty routine. Seriously, who couldn’t use better hair and more time?

When Anna isn’t fighting Mother Nature, she’s talking about life in her twenties and the Life Of A Sportsfan’s Daughter.