Once again, I am here to advocate for something small that I believe in in a big way, and it is this: If you’re cold and you don’t have a space heater, it’s time to consider all the things your hair dryer can do for you.
I have used this trick for years, mostly because I spent my 20s living in the most comically uninhabitable apartments New York City had to offer. I was fortunate enough to move into an apartment with real heat a few years ago, but this week, I am taking a special study-away class for grad school and, age the age of 30, have found myself living temporarily in a dorm—a freezing-cold dorm. My hair dryer is back by my side.
How to heat up your sheets (and yourself) with a hair dryer
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Some places (like dorms) have rules against space heaters. Some people have a reasonable fear of space heaters. This is where the hair dryer comes in. There are three ways to use the dryer for heat, and the first involves your blankets.
Once you’re home for the night, get under your sheets and blankets. They will be cold and I’m sorry about that, but it won’t last long. Hold them open and grab your dryer, directing the heat underneath, where your shivering body is. Never enclose the dryer under the blankets—this is a fire hazard. Instead, make sure it’s far away from your fabrics, directing the heat under them. Do this for about 10 to 15 seconds, then close the blankets around yourself, trapping the heat. You can repeat as necessary, but you’ll be toasty under there now.
How to heat up your clothing with a hair dryer
Because I am from North Dakota, I am familiar with a bunch of absurd hacks for staying warm, and it wasn’t until I moved to New York at 18 that I realized the ways of my people are unfathomably weird to outsiders. They did prepare me, however, for the indignity of apartment living. For instance, growing up, my mom always put my clothes for the day over a heat vent in our house overnight so they’d be snuggly warm for me when I woke up. (I was spoiled.)
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Later in life, I adopted this same method, with an adaptation. You guessed it—it involves my hair dryer. Lay your clothes out and blast them with your dryer. It doesn’t matter if you do this after a shower, in the morning, or before putting your pajamas on at night. As long as the filter end of your dryer isn’t covered up, you can even stick the nozzle right in your sleeves or pant legs. Do this only for a few seconds. It really helps.
The aggressive method
In my coldest apartment, I would just set the hair dryer down next to myself and let the heat envelop me while I worked. You, too, can do this, but you have to do it safely. First, I don’t recommend setting the dryer down at all; I’m older and wiser now. You can and should hold it facing yourself or find a way to hang it up. You don’t want whatever it’s laying on to overheat, and you’ll also notice that if you set it down, it will propel itself backwards. When it hits something, it could cover the vent. We don’t want that; it’s hazardous and means less air will flow through the machine.
Don’t do this for too long. It’s best to point it at yourself in bursts rather than sit there with it for an extended period of time like a makeshift space heater. The heat you generate with 30 to 45 seconds of full-on blasting will last a while. If you choose to use this method, you should be using a clean hair dryer, too. Follow your manufacturer’s instructions for removing hair and dust from the vent.