How to Get Silky Hair if You Are a Guy

Co-authored by Patrick Evan

Last Updated: April 27, 2023 Fact Checked

Nobody wants straw for hair, but many hair care products marketed for silky hair are aimed at women. To get silky hair if you are a guy, you'll need to comb the hair care aisle for a gentle shampoo, natural conditioner, and natural hair oil; rinse your hair daily but wash it sparingly, and skip styling products with drying ingredients altogether. Treating your hair gently overall should greatly assist your efforts. While exact routines may vary depending on hair type and quality, getting silky hair can actually be quite simple as long as you go about it the right way.

Method 1

Method 1 of 4:

Choosing the Right Products

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1
Choose a gentle shampoo. To keep your hair silky, you need to keep it clean, but not too clean. The natural oils in your hair are what helps to keep it strong and healthy, but those oils can also trap dirt and become greasy, making you hair dirty. You need to strike a balance between too much cleaning and not enough to have silky hair, meaning that a gentle shampoo is an essential part of your cleaning routine.
- Try to use shampoo made with natural ingredients, and avoid shampoo with strong artificial fragrances. These dry out the hair over time and affect the hair's ability to form its own natural oils. Read the ingredients and avoid shampoos with parabens and sulfates. It’s especially important to avoid sulfates if you have curly or wavy hair.^{[1] X Expert Source
  
  Patrick Evan
  Professional Hair Stylist Expert Interview. 17 January 2019.}
- Even if you are not a child, children or baby shampoos can be quite effective in maintaining silkiness and using a minimum number of ingredients. These are usually gentle on the hair and on the eyes, as well as pretty cheap and available, making it an effective purchase, regardless of how old you are.
2
Use natural conditioner as well. One of the best ways to get silky hair is by regularly conditioning, even if you're not washing your hair. Conditioner helps to strengthen the tips of your hair, keeping the individual strands strong and healthy, avoiding split ends and other hair problems that can affect the texture of hair. Just as you would with shampoo, look for conditioner that lacks in artificial fragrances and dyes.
- If you have a short hairstyle, you will not be able to avoid getting conditioner on your scalp. Use a mild or volumizing conditioner to keep your hair from getting weighed down.
- Though they're commonly marketed to guys, Try to avoid using Two-in-One shampoo and conditioner combos, as well as body wash-shampoo combos, which won't allow you to condition your hair separately, and can have a long-term drying affect, counteractive to the purpose of conditioner. Buy separate products.
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3
Consider using natural hair oils. Depending on the natural oiliness of your hair, it may be good to supplement your cleaning routine by combing a small amount of oil into your hair, which can help enrich and strengthen it, as well as create the silky texture that you desire. Coarse hair is commonly treated by combing some variety of oil into it daily, or a few times a week. Rather than replacing anything in your hair routine, hair oils are great to use in addition to your usual hair care products like shampoo and conditioner.^{[2] X Expert Source

Patrick Evan
Professional Hair Stylist Expert Interview. 17 January 2019.} Good natural oils for the hair include:
- Coconut oil
- Olive oil
- Argan oil
- Gingelly oil
- Moroccan oil
- Mustard oil
4
Avoid the use of styling products. Hair gel, mousse, and spray are the quickest way to gunk up your hair and leave it feeling like straw. Use natural oils and caps to help style your hair if necessary, and avoid the use of styling products. If you must use artificial styling products, rinse them out of your hair thoroughly at the end of the day and condition your hair with natural oils to help replenish them.
- Most styling products involve alcohol, which leech the moisture from your hair and ruin its ability to stay moisturized naturally. Don't get in the way of your body by using styling products, let your body work for you.
- If you really want to use styling products, try waxes and pomades made with natural oils and beeswax. These products allow you to style and moisturize your hair at the same time.

Method 2

Method 2 of 4:

Washing Your Hair

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1
Rinse your hair daily. For the silkiest hair, it's good to rinse the dirt and grime out at the end of each day to keep your hair clean and smooth. Using clean fresh water to rinse your hair will help to keep the healthy effects of the natural oils, and will make it easier for them to replenish. It's not necessary to shampoo your hair daily, and doing so will dry your hair out in time.
- If you can't take a whole shower, combing a wet comb through your hair, or even rinsing your hair in the sink can be a perfectly effective way of keeping it clean. If you do take showers daily, you don't need to shampoo every time.
2
Don’t wash your hair too often. In general, it’s best not to wash your hair more than once every three days. Depending on how oily your hair is naturally, you may need to shampoo more or less often. For some people, once a week is sufficient to keep hair clean, lustrous, and healthy, while others may want to shampoo as often as every other day.
- Use shampoo sparingly, no more than a small pea-sized amount. Wet your hands and create a lather in your hands before massaging it into your hair, focusing on the tips of your hair and working in toward your scalp. Massage gently and rinse thoroughly with warm water.
- If you don’t use any heat treatments (like straightening or blow-drying your hair) and your hair is not dry, you may be able to wash your hair every day.
3
Condition the tips of your hair. Some people elect to condition their hair more regularly than shampooing, perhaps choosing to shampoo once a week and condition the hair three times throughout the week to keep the hair feeling silky, depending on the health of the hair and the oiliness. Use the same technique as when you wash with shampoo, then rinse thoroughly with warm water.
- It's very important to get all the shampoo and conditioner out of your hair every time you wash. If you have longer hair, it's somewhat difficult to get it all rinsed out, which can make your hair gunky and sticky when it dries and forms a residue.
4
Towel dry your hair. After rinsing, shampooing, or conditioning your hair, you need to dry it with a towel as much as possible, then let it dry on its own in the air. Drying your hair gently and slowly will help it stay strong and healthy, creating a silky shine.
- Avoid using blow dryers that involve directly heating your hair, which has a tendency to dry hair out and make it bristly. Don't heat-dry your hair.^{[3] X Expert Source
  
  Patrick Evan
  Professional Hair Stylist Expert Interview. 17 January 2019.}
5
Massage natural hair oil into your scalp after shampoo is used. A few times a week, after using shampoo, it's a good idea to use one of the natural hair balms described above to comb gently into your hair. Coconut oil and other types of natural oil can be scooped onto a fine-tooth plastic comb and combed directly into the hair, or can be massaged into the follicles with the hands, then combed out for the same effect.
- Avoid adding hair oil more than once or twice a week, or you can weight your hair down unnaturally and attract more dirt, making it difficult to keep clean. Use hair oil or tonic sparingly.

Method 3

Method 3 of 4:

Using Styling Tools

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1
Comb your hair every morning. Combing your hair is absolutely essential to keeping it feeling silky and clean. Tangled bedhead will always be difficult to manage and will serve to damage your hair and keep it feeling coarse and rough. Use a fine-tooth plastic comb and run it through your hair a few times each morning to work out the tangles and leave your hair healthy and silky.
- If your hair is especially tangled, use a small dab of oil on the comb to help work it through and treat your hair. You can also use a little bit of water. Depending on the thickness of you hair, it may be more appropriate to brush it, especially with coarse hair.
2
Use a flat iron. If you have coarse or curly hair, a flat iron can help you achieve a silky texture. However, keep in mind that flat ironing and other heat-based treatments can damage your hair, so use a few protective measures:
- Flat iron your hair while it is completely dry. Wet hair is much more susceptible to heat damage than dry hair.
- Use a heat protecting spray, cream, or serum on your hair before straightening.^{[4] X Expert Source
  
  Patrick Evan
  Professional Hair Stylist Expert Interview. 17 January 2019.}
- Avoid going over the same section of your hair more than once.
3
Blow-dry your hair. Blow-drying your hair can also help keep your hair silky. You can take a few precautions to prevent your hair from getting dried out or heat damaged from excessive blow-drying:^{[5] X Trustworthy Source American Academy of Dermatology Professional organization made of over 20,000 certified dermatologists Go to source}
- Towel dry your hair before blow-drying it. This can cut down on drying time and reduce the risk of heat damage.
- Comb a protective serum through your hair before blow-drying.
- If you’re trying to achieve a smooth and silky effect, use a boar bristle brush to gently pull your hair taut during blow drying. Dry from the roots of your hair down to the ends.

Method 4

Method 4 of 4:

Keeping Your Hair Healthy

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To keep split ends under control and to keep your hair feeling silky, it's a good idea to get it cut regularly. Even little trims help to keep your hair strong, and help it grow more evenly. It's also a good idea to consult with a hair care specialist who can diagnose your issues, recommend products and further techniques if you want to keep your hair feeling silky year round.
Extremely short hair is hard to make feel silky in any way, while longer hair comes with a host of care and cleanliness issues. If you want to have silky hair, growing it out to somewhere between one and three inches will give you enough length to be able to run your fingers through it and style in a multitude of ways, but it won't be so long as to be unwieldy.
Coloring gray hair is one of the quickest ways to fry it out and burn it. Using coloring treatments destroys the natural oils in the hair and makes it very difficult for it to stay strong and healthy. The health of a head of hair is much more important to all around looks anyway, than the color, so embrace the suave sophistication of those gray hairs and roll with it.
4
Minimize your exposure to sunlight. Sunlight will bleach your hair, dry it out, and leave it feeling coarse. If you want silky hair, you want hair that's well cared for and not left out to fry in the sun. Take care to avoid excess exposure and to treat your hair well with natural oils after being out for too long.
- Wear a hat with a wide brim if you know you're going to be out in the sun for very long. Protect yourself from harmful UV rays by keeping your hair tucked up in a hat and away form the sun.
5
Take vitamin supplements. It's important that you have essential nutrients and vitamins as a part of your healthy diet to keep all parts of your body, hair included, healthy. Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Biotin, Iron, and Zinc are all directly related to the texture and health of your hair.^{[6] X Expert Source

Patrick Evan
Professional Hair Stylist Expert Interview. 17 January 2019.} Eat foods rich in vitamins and minerals, and take supplementary vitamins if necessary.
- Foods like almonds, carrots, bananas, dark chocolate, pumpkin seeds, and bean sprouts are all excellent foods to integrate into a hair-health diet, rich in right right combinations of vitamins and essential nutrients.
- Eating 100 grams or so of red meat can help enhance the production of Keratin, a protein which keeps your hair and nails healthy and shiny. Fish is rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, which help to keep hair lustrous.

Expert Q&A

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Question

What are some of the most common causes of hair damage?

Patrick Evan
Professional Hair Stylist
Patrick Evan is the Owner of Patrick Evan Salon, a hair salon in San Francisco, California. He has been a hairstylist for over 25 years and is a Thermal Reconditioning Specialist, dedicated to transforming difficult curls and waves into sleek, straight hair. Patrick Evan Salon was rated the Best Hair Salon in San Francisco by Allure magazine, and Patrick's work has been featured in Woman’s Day, The Examiner, and 7x7.

Patrick Evan

Professional Hair Stylist

Expert Answer

Hair damage at home can come from drying the hair roughly with your towel and brushing wet hair aggressively. Another reason is heat damage, which happens from using blow dryers, curling irons, and flat irons.

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Question

What vitamins make your hair soft?

Patrick Evan
Professional Hair Stylist
Patrick Evan is the Owner of Patrick Evan Salon, a hair salon in San Francisco, California. He has been a hairstylist for over 25 years and is a Thermal Reconditioning Specialist, dedicated to transforming difficult curls and waves into sleek, straight hair. Patrick Evan Salon was rated the Best Hair Salon in San Francisco by Allure magazine, and Patrick's work has been featured in Woman’s Day, The Examiner, and 7x7.

Patrick Evan

Professional Hair Stylist

Expert Answer

Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Biotin, Iron, and Zinc all help keep your hair healthy. You can try taking them in a supplement or getting them through your diet.

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Question

What product makes hair soft and silky?

Patrick Evan
Professional Hair Stylist
Patrick Evan is the Owner of Patrick Evan Salon, a hair salon in San Francisco, California. He has been a hairstylist for over 25 years and is a Thermal Reconditioning Specialist, dedicated to transforming difficult curls and waves into sleek, straight hair. Patrick Evan Salon was rated the Best Hair Salon in San Francisco by Allure magazine, and Patrick's work has been featured in Woman’s Day, The Examiner, and 7x7.

Patrick Evan

Professional Hair Stylist

Expert Answer

Look for shampoo and conditioner that are made from natural ingredients. Additionally, avoid products that contain artificial fragrances, parabens, or sulfates. You might also add a natural oil to your haircare routine, such as argan oil.

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Tips

Just remember, it won't grow overnight. Be patient and take good care of your hair.

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Repeat the wash cycle once every three days, though when showering you should always rinse your hair, regardless of whether you are doing the wash cycle or not.

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If you’re maintaining a short hairstyle, damage is less of a concern than if you’re trying to grow your hair out. While overusing styling tools or shampooing too often can dry out or damage your hair, they are also good ways to create a silky texture when used properly.

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