Blown away! Here’s the scoop on blow dry bars and how to have more ‘good hair days’

Getting a salon-quality blow dry after a cut and color is one of our favorite parts of the beauty game. Hey, we’ll even make dinner reservations or plan an impromptu night out so that we’ve got somewhere to show our blow-out off. It would be a shame to waste such a good hair day on a night in with Netflix or melt away our hairspray at the gym, right?

Thanks to the growing popularity of blow dry bars, you don’t have to wait until your next hair appointment before you get a professional style. Salons are adding blow outs to their list of services and standalone blow dry bars are popping up across the country, with blow-outs being the only service offered. In addition to the blow-out craze, salon-grade hair styling products and blow-dryers are becoming more readily available so that you can perfect the blow-out at home.

Ready to be blown away? Here’s the scoop on how to get a perfect blow-out.

Visit a blow dry bar

They’re everywhere! The basic concept of “no cut, no color, just styling” isn’t necessarily new. (Just ask Grandma, who has a standing 9 a.m. Tuesday appointment at the salon to get her hair set). But today’s blow-out bars are appealing to those who want to look good fast, whether you’ve got an important client meeting, big date or are headed to a party.

You can typically get in and out in under 30 minutes and many places don’t require appointments: Just wash, blow and go.

Among the popular chains? Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who has said she has trouble blowing out her hair, invested in a chain of Blo Blow Dry Bars that are spread across the United States, Canada and abroad. DryBar, another popular chain, has locations in California, New York City, Texas, Georgia, Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.

In addition to the chains, there are lots of locally owned dry bars and many salons have begun offering blow-out services.

The cost? A blow dry will typically run you about $40.

At DryBar, a “Shirley Temple” is on the menu for those 10 and under and costs $28. You also can get a “Barfly membership,” which includes two blow-outs a month, a free birthday blow-out and 10 percent off products in the salon.

To get your money’s worth on a professional blow-out, follow up with a dry shampoo so that you can extend your ‘do. Drybar sells its signature Detox Dry Shampoo, $12 at Sephora. The dry shampoo absorbs oil while adding body.

Perfect your at-home blow-out

For years, we’ve been paying close attention to how our stylists dry and style our hair so that we can try to imitate the technique at home. (Just wait while we get our protractor out to try to measure the angle in which she’s drying our locks and what is the circumference of that curling iron barrel she uses to give us those perfect beach waves?) That’s why we rejoiced when salon-quality styling products (including those used by DryBar stylists) became available for our own use.

DryBar has a whole line of hair tools and products at Sephora.

Before you start drying and styling, add a heat protectant, like the Hot Toddy heat protectant, $33 at Sephora, which is a lightweight lotion that can protect your hair up to 450 degrees for a shiny finish. Section off your hair like a true pro with these Hold Me hair clips, $16 at Sephora, so that you can dry in sections.

Next, blow-dry your hair with a high-tech dryer. The highly rated Buttercup blow dryer, $195 at Sephora, features a super-powerful motor to get your hair dry, stat. Nanolonic technology helps break up water quickly for reduced dry-time. Nano beads within the dryer emit negative ions that seal and smooth the hair cuticle—which means less frizz, more shine and trapped moisture for healthy, hydrated hair.

Finally, finish off your look. A Mai Tai spritzer, $25, adds beachy waves and texture. Or, the Southern Belle volumizing mousse, $25, creates va-va-voom volume.