WHAT Are You Putting on Your Hair?!
There are many different products on the market that swear that they protect your hair from heat. If you’ve ever used any of them, you may know that just because that’s what they say it doesn’t mean it’s true.
In fact, I know from experience they can do the opposite of what it says on the bottle. There have been many times when I’ve ended up with a greasy or oily crowning “glory”. Some even make the frizz worse. Some can even FRY your hair!
With these bad experiences behind me, I thought it would be a good idea to pass on some of the products you should definitely stay away from when you’re trying to master your curl game.
The following products might actually leave you thinking you’ve done the worst thing ever to your hair.
This spray is supposed to protect your hair from all the damage you do to it when you curl and straighten, but I’m not sure it does much more than add all kinds of smelly stuff you don’t really need. Coating your hair doesn’t help protect it. It just weighs it down and makes it feel unnatural. This stuff might not hurt your hair, but it’s expensive and won’t do anything to protect it.
My husband is a computer technician, and he uses alcohol to clean up computers that have had liquid spilled on them. You know why he does that? Because alcohol dries things out quickly, REALLY QUICKLY!
Anyway, that’s only important to you because there are products out there for your hair that include alcohol. This seems like the worst idea in the world to me. If it can dry out the innards of your body, it can dry out your hair beyond recognition. Don’t put this stuff on your hair before using heat tools! You need something nourishing that will encourage growth and strength. Not something that will dry your strands until they break.
Find a non-alcohol based hair spray if you have to set curls for a long time, or only use it after you’re done curling. Then, you can wash it out before you put any more heat on your locks. If you put it on before you curl, you run the risk of the alcohol reacting with the heat and actually BURNING.
Ok, this one is not true across the board. In fact, for thick or coarse hair titanium is a great material that will get your hair straight or curly without a lot of frizz. That being said, it’s not great for thin hair unless you use it on the lowest heat.
In actuality, you shouldn’t really use it on thin hair at all because you can get a good ceramic iron for much less. If you have a titanium iron you love, crank down the heat if your locks are thin. For thick hair, just curl away!
If you’re trying to get some extra body into your hair, using products only made of protein is a no-no. Having extra proteins in your products can help strengthen your hair, but that only works if it’s equally paired with moisturizers that balance out the proteins so it doesn’t get flaky and broken.
By filling your hair with protein alone you’re basically asking for it to dry out so it breaks off when you curl. That’s not what you want. It NEEDS moisture or putting heat on it will be your worst nightmare.
There are some sprays that might help to keep your hair healthy and minimize breakage, but that isn’t always the case. No matter what the outcome of using the spray is, and no matter how helpful it has the potential to be, spraying anything on your hair that will stay wet when it’s time to put heat to it is a BAD idea. Instead of protecting your hair from heat, you’re actually frying it.
If you want to use a spray or product that is going to protect your hair from heat, use it before you curl. Spray it everywhere that is going to be exposed to heat, and let it dry completely. THEN you can use your curler or whichever heated device you want. You’ll skip the dreaded sizzle, but still protect your locks.
Overall, as long as you are careful of what kind of heat you’re putting on your hair, you will probably survive. That being said, it’s pretty easy to dry it out or make it lifeless because you’re putting too much product or the wrong stuff in it.
I’ve done it. We’re all probably guilty of it. It’s better to take your time and work on a lower heat than it is to sear the strands by accident. Read the labels on any product before you buy, and you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble.