Abiotic stresses including drought are major crop production constraints. However, specific functional phenotypic markers induce resistance against these stresses. Therefore, a study was initiated to study the variability, inheritance and selection of epicuticular waxes and leaf hairiness along with low cell membrane injuries with in F₂ populations derived by crossing the H. annuus × H. argophyllus lines. All the studied traits were re-evaluated after 15 days interval for three times to study the influence of time interval over the values of the traits. The epicuticular waxes values were insignificantly affected and could be averaged across time interval. The leaf hairiness depends on the time only with a small degree and cell membrane injury showed more sensitivity to the time interval. The studied parent populations showed contrasting values of the traits. The F₁ hybrids had mean values of the three studied parameters in the range of parent lines, but some of F₂ individuals extend beyond this range (Parents and F1). The two-step selections maintained high variability especially of leaf hairiness for set of F₂ individuals (H. annuus CMS-20 × H. argophyllus 1806). This dependence pattern is characteristic for the genotype. The most of selected F₂ individuals were characterized by the low epicuticular waxes and high leaf hairiness. Simultaneous selection of F₂ individuals with high values of leaf hairiness or epicuticular waxes but with low cell membrane injury was possible. The high values of leaf hairiness and epicuticular waxes not guaranteed the low CMI value. The selected plants were transferred to the field, where they were further studied for narrow leaf, high fertility and silver canopy color. Selected material will be promoted as the candidate of inbred line. The study could help to increase the abiotic stress tolerance and functional diversity of sunflower.