Interesting experience with a blow dryer

I am growing my hair, so I try to treat it with kid gloves. No perms, coloring, or any other chemicals used. No blow dryer or curling irons, either. I wash it, condition it, and only comb it a few times a day (along with a gentle scalp massage when I wash).However, I just wanted to play with a new hairstyle, so I used the hair dryer to blow it dry. First of all, I should tell that you my hair is extremely healthy and the conditioner of it is generally normal with a tendency towards oiliness. It's usually very shiny and smooth. Well....after using the hair dryer, it looked stick straight obviously, but it also had an almost dry feel to it. It isn't all one-length and I swear I could see the end of each and every little hair! I looked carefully for split ends and didn't see any, yet with the cuticle all roughed up from blow-drying, it almost gave the appearance of split ends.Now...if my hair is very healthy with no chemical processes on it and it looked that way, I can only imagine how a blow dryer affects hair that perhaps isn't so healthy!!When my hair gets longer, I will try desperately not to use the hair dryer. But the one thing I do like about it is that I love just hitting the roots a little bit with it for more body. The longer my hair, the less body I get. I'm thinking that I could bend over, zap the roots for literally a few seconds then hit them again about once every five minutes or so, about 4 times. That way I'd get the benefit of getting some body without all the harmful heat of the hair dryer!The one positive thing I'll say about short hair is that I have more "body" than I know what to do with! In fact, I'll often wear a cotton scarf when my hair is wet to hold down the hair because it just has too much body for my own personal taste.Jena