8 Best Heat Protectants for Hair in 2022 How to Prevent Hair From Heat Damage

Table Of Content

• L'Oreal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Weightless Blow Dry Primer
• SheaMoisture Sugarcane Extract & Meadowfoam Seed Silicone Free Miracle Styler Leave-In Treatment
• These Heat Protectants Will Protect Strands Without Breaking the Bank
• CHI 44 Iron Guard Thermal Protection Spray

Her successful beauty blog and YouTube channel led to her evolving into a content creator for beauty and lifestyle brands that she continues to work with today. Sunnie’s love for design and visual aesthetic goes far beyond her talents as a hairdresser. This leave-in treatment caused a sensation when Drew Barrymore tested it out on a piece of toast—and only the area covered with Instant Recovery Serum didn't burn. We’ve tested many top-notch flat irons to achieve those pin-straight, supermodel styles worn by Emily Ratajkowski, before we realized that the first step is actually a great primer.

L'Oreal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Weightless Blow Dry Primer

Fortunately for you, there are plenty of ways to keep your hair looking great, protect every strand, and keep your bank account full. We've rounded up the best heat protectants available at the drugstore, for hair that’s as safe as it is slayed. Frizz is usually solved with a flat iron, so this John Frieda spray tackles both heat damage and fuzz by instantly smoothing and creating a protective barrier with hydrolyzed keratin. While protecting your hair from heat, Burg says to look for treatments that are rich in oils. “Our Promote Treatment Mask doubles as a heat protectant due to the levels of Baobab and flaxseed oils that hydrate and protects strands,” he says. I’ve had this heat protection in my possession ever since my mom first blow-dried my hair.

SheaMoisture Sugarcane Extract & Meadowfoam Seed Silicone Free Miracle Styler Leave-In Treatment

We rounded up the best heat protectant products you can buy from a combination of Beauty Lab top-tested formulas, editors' picks and stylers that contain the key ingredients mentioned above. No matter your strand type or texture (curly, fine, dry or colored) read on for healthier, protected hair. [product-summary-view][/product-summary-view]We rounded up the best heat protectant products you can buy from a combination of Beauty Lab top-tested formulas, editors' picks and stylers that contain the key ingredients mentioned above. Depending on your preference and specific hair needs, you can use heat protectants on either wet or dry hair since they come in a variety of formulas—from mists to serums to creams—that can coat the entire head from root to tip.

These Heat Protectants Will Protect Strands Without Breaking the Bank

The Amika Heat Defense Serum felt like practically nothing on our hair yet still dispensed plenty of heat-protecting benefits. A top performer in the GH Beauty Lab's volumizing styling products test, this blowdry mist not only protects hair against heat but also helps make fine strands look voluminous and full all day long without any heaviness or that crunchy, tacky feeling. "I like this product better than the volumizing spray I get at my salon," a tester said. For both heat protection and smoothing benefits, look no further than this powerhouse spray formula from Matrix.

111 best heat protection sprays to keep hair healthy, tried and tested

Naturally rich in oils, vitamins and minerals, this product is all about maintaining healthy, shiny hair and it does so by creating a shield that protects hair from heat up to 230 degrees. Bonus points for the fact that it also contains a UV filter to prevent sun damage too. Oh, and if you have naturally fine or flat hair then this really helps to bolster volume. Incorporating a leave-in conditioner with heat protection into your hair care routine is a great step toward safeguarding your hair from heat damage, says Tang.

Shu Uemura Netsu Design Blow Dry Cream

“Redken’s Acidic Bonding Concentrate Leave-In Treatment repairs, strengthens, smooths, color-protects all hair types, providing heat protection up to 450°F,” says François. The formula works to reinforce broken protein bonds in your hair, which makes it ideal for preventing breakage in dry, damaged, and color-treated hair. Many heat protectants use silicones to do this, which coat the hair and can make it difficult for other products and nutrients to penetrate the hair shaft. The ingredient gets a bad rap because of all of this, but it's totally fine to use as long as you're not allowing it to build up. "Silicones are used in the heat protectants to act as a protective barrier, helping to avoid heat damage," says Los Angeles-based hairstylist Larisa Love. Be sure to avoid overdoing it with the amount of product you're using, and wash your hair regularly to get rid of any remnants.

CHI 44 Iron Guard Thermal Protection Spray

Brigitt is a writer, editor and craft stylist with nearly 15 years of experience. She specializes in lifestyle topics, including home, health, parenting, beauty, style, food, entertaining, travel and weddings. She has written for Glamour, People, Good Housekeeping, Women's Health, Real Simple, Martha Stewart, Apartment Therapy, The Spruce, and more. To deliver long-lasting megawatt luster, the brand looked within, and took note of the makeup of the hair in order to formulate this primer.

Matrix Total Results Mega Sleek Iron Smoother

Created for natural hair textures and a range of curl types up to 4C, this heat protective mist from Pantene contains polymers that form a protective barrier on hair, which reduces moisture loss from the heat of styling tools. We like that it also has conditioning ingredients to smooth strands to silky, shiny perfection. When it comes to achieving your healthiest hair ever, it’s not often that there’s a one-size-fits-all solution. Hair care is so incredibly personal and the products that experts recommend tend to vary based on hair texture, length, colour and lifestyle.

14 Best Heat Protectant Sprays for 2024 - Heat Protection Spray for Hair - BestProducts.com

14 Best Heat Protectant Sprays for 2024 - Heat Protection Spray for Hair.

Posted: Wed, 29 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Designed to streamline your hair routine, Djerf Avenue Beauty’s breezy styling mist addresses two concerns in one. Doubling up as a heat protector, the formula contains hero ingredients, such as aloe vera, hydrolyzed wheat protein and linseed extract that work to repair, hydrate and strengthen hair while soothing the scalp. "As a curly girl, frizz maintenance is typically tough—but Verb's Ghost Oil makes it so much easier," says Sam Olson, assistant news editor (and source of serious curl envy around the Cosmo office). "Once I style and diffuse with a blowdryer, I run two pumps throughout my hair to bring back shine and moisture. If I want to revive my hair again without washing, I top it off with more Ghost Oil." Protect and plump curls with this spray that boasts crambe abyssinica seed oil, sunflower oil, and jojoba oil to nourish before you begin heat styling. The more porous your hair is, the more quickly the product will absorb—so, for example, a cream heat protectant may be best for high-porosity hair, while a spray may be best for low-porosity hair.

Additionally, heat protectors include nourishing components that moisturize and restore hair. Some of them protect against UV rays, as well.” That barrier protecting your hair offers a handful of additional benefits including less split ends and brittleness. Ultimately that means less frizz and straight hair which is soft and easy to style.

When you’ve worked long and hard to get your natural hair to its healthiest, bounciest state, you don’t want to forfeit your curl pattern due to damage caused by temporary straightening. With the right products, you can have the best of both worlds and go in and out of curly and straight styles with minimal curl casualties. The best heat protectants will help your curls bounce right back while giving you the desired sleek, static-free look. This is my personal heat protectant spray of choice, because my hair is the texture that is always knotty and tangled. A generous spritz of this post-shower, however, and any brush or comb simply glides through my strands. It’s conditioning and hydrating, protects hair up to 230 degrees, but my personal favourite thing about this product is that it actually cuts down on blow-dry time.

A favorite of Cut Shop contributor Morgan Evans, this Drybar heat protectant doubles as a lightweight yet effective detangler. It works well on all hair types (especially fine curls) and is best used on wet hair before a blowout or comb out. If you like to style your hair with a hair dryer and curling iron, stylist Sarah Potempa recommends a flexible, lightweight formula that plays well with tools like the Nexxus Weightless Style Prep & Protect Leave-In Hair Spray.

Right before curling or straightening my hair, I always spray this mist from my roots to my ends. After using this for over a month now, I can see a difference in how my hair looks — there’s less frizz, my hair doesn’t feel stiff or crunchy, and I love the fruity and floral scent, which lingers for a long time in my hair. Because my hair is pretty thick, I do go through this product faster than cream formulas I’ve tried, but because of the results, I don’t mind repurchasing it more frequently. To help you find the right heat protectant, we spoke to four hairstylists about what to look for and which formulas work best depending for different hair types and textures. There are some pretty remarkable ways this protectant kept our fine, delicate hair from singeing and sizzling on the plates of hot tools. Not only was our hair not scorched, it managed to make our hair look thicker and more voluminous, despite having just slathered our strands in Gisou’s sticky honey-based oil.

The 16 Best Heat Protectants and Blow Dry Primers 2024

Table Of Content

• Sun Bum Revitalizing Air Dry Cream
• Shop the best heat protectants
• Kristin Ess Style Assist Blow Dry Mist Heat Protectant Spray
• Shu Uemura Color Lustre Thermo-Milk Blow Dry Primer
• Oribe Impermeable Anti-Humidity Hair Spray
• Bumble and bumble Invisible Oil Primer
• Kenra Professional Thermal Styling Spray

This weightless spray won't create any scalp-irritating buildup but provides an ample heat barrier to keep hair healthier and shinier. Sometimes we still needed to apply an additional serum to our ends as they still looked a little dry after using the primer, but considering how well it worked otherwise, we’re more forgiving of this con. Another notable feature about the formula is how airy it felt on our hair—truth be told, sometimes it was hard to tell how much we applied but we’d rather take this over the alternative of a heavy, sticky spray. In fact, some studies link red algae to quicker hair growth, giving us hope that we could see fuller hair with continued use. Melanie Rud is a Chicago-based writer with 10 years of experience covering beauty. Brook remains committed to her clients in Los Angeles and New York delivering timeless, relevant styles, and inspiring beauty that impacts her community.

Sun Bum Revitalizing Air Dry Cream

Additionally, you should think of heat protectants as a way to mitigate damage, not fully prevent it. Choosing a lightweight heat protectant is very important—anything too heavy can make your hard-earned styles fall flat. Yet if it takes too long to absorb, you could run the risk of touching wet hair with a hot flat iron which leads to sizzling and steam. Sticking with products that opt for plant-based ingredients, like those found in the Shu Uemura Netsu Blow Dry Cream, or any that leave out silicones and sulfates, such as the dpHue Color Fresh Thermal Protection Spray, should keep you in the clear. When evaluating haircare products, Good Housekeeping Beauty Lab scientists first distribute label-masked products, including various brands and price points, to a panel of women across the nation.

Shop the best heat protectants

“Absolutely,” says Katelyn Ellsworth, founder of The Roslyn, a salon in San Diego. “Heat protectants are the barrier between your hair and direct heat.” These products contain humectants—like panthenol and propylene glycol—to seal moisture in the hair cuticle and fend off frizziness and flyaways, she explains. Ultimately, applying a protective barrier before going in with a blow-dryer (or other heated hair styling tool) will not only give you a smoother, longer-lasting style, but also protect your strands from the heat of those devices. Coils, curls, waves, and straight hair types can all reap the benefits of this ultra-versatile protectant.

14 Best Frizzy Hair Products 2024 for Sleeker Strands - Allure

14 Best Frizzy Hair Products 2024 for Sleeker Strands.

Posted: Tue, 23 Apr 2024 11:00:00 GMT [source]

Kristin Ess Style Assist Blow Dry Mist Heat Protectant Spray

The hero of the anti-frizz hair product line is Kérastase's morpho-keratine complex, a combination of amino acids, wheat protein extracts and ceramides that coats the hair fiber to leave it smooth and frizz-free. Similar to hair oils, anti-frizz serums, like this one from Morracanoil, are great for taming unwanted puffiness, flyaways, and static without adding excess bulk to your hair. Smooth a few drops throughout the bottom half of your hair while it's damp to help minimize frizz as it dries, then reapply as needed throughout the day to smooth things out and restore hydration. The blend of oils including mongongo, coconut, American palm seed, and broccoli seed, hydrates hair to nourish and protect strands. "All hair, no matter the texture or the shape that strands make, is structurally the same, and so the principle of thermal protection remains the same," says François.

“Joico’s Heat Hero is an aerosol spray for dry hair that is lightweight also protects up to 450°F,” says Love. “It’s paraben-free, acts as a heat-activated split-end mender, and is laboratory tested using pollution particles showing it protects against pollution too.” In addition to all of that, it will leave your hair with a healthy, glossy sheen. As someone who spent years of my life straightening my hair — primarily during my preteen years when I hated my curly hair — I know the importance of a good heat protectant.

Moroccanoil Intense Smoothing Frizz Control Serum

Finally, we analyzed our findings and compiled this list of the best heat protectants on the market. From sprays and creams to options for fine hair and tight curls, we’re sharing the heat protectants that are officially Byrdie-approved. Looking for a solid drugstore option for the best heat protectant that's stylist-approved? Consider the OGX Protecting + Silk Blowout Quick Drying Thermal Spray, which protects hair against heat as high as 450 degrees.

Oribe Impermeable Anti-Humidity Hair Spray

When it came to our head of flyaways, this serum had an immediate and impressive impact. We only continued smiling at our reflection as we noticed less static and overall dryness, with a bout of increased nourishment around our ends every time we styled our hair. When every ingredient counts, it’s hard to pinpoint one as the hero, but buckthorn oil and its army of 18 different amino acids, vitamin C and fatty acids in tow, comes pretty close. This jack-of-all-trades oil preserves hydration within each strand, while strengthening hair follicles and encouraging new hair growth.

We appreciate how undetectable it feels (even on our generally oily hair) and the fact that it even offers some static-smoothing benefits. Staticky strands are an unavoidable part of having naturally textured hair, and we should embrace it...except when it’s time for a sleek style. This straightening serum is up for the job of canceling static when applied to wet hair before setting or blow-drying. Better yet, it reduces drying time to make your DIY blowout easier on your arms and your locks. This budget-friendly heat protectant is a steal for those with thick, natural hair. It adds light hold to help your blowout withstand the elements, and pure shea butter hydrates curly and kinky strands while protecting it from temperatures up to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Kenra Professional Thermal Styling Spray

KERASOUL Heat Protection Serum is packed with the goodness of saw palmetto, pygeum, nettle root, vitamin E and niacin. Regular use of this serum may reduce hair loss, promote hair growth, treat dandruff, lock in moisture and strengthen your strands. This non-irritating hair serum promises to protect your hair against UVA rays and helps to maintain a healthy growth cycle. The brand also claims that their product is free from cruelty, sulphate and paraben, which makes it safe to use. This conditioning spray not only protects your hair from damage but boosts its moisture levels too, making hair smoother, softer and much easier to get a brush through if your tresses are prone to being unmanageable.

Its soft and woody scent will have you spraying it on your hair each and every day. If you’re a skin-care enthusiast who’s newly into hair care, say hello to the hair serum from Amika. After applying one to two pumps on damp hair, this serum shields hair from heat styling and blow-drying. It’s the perfect product for those who like to keep it simple, and are already a pro at applying skin-care serums.

I've been applying it diligently ever since, and I've noticed wayyyy fewer split ends and less overall damage. For maximum frizz control, Hill suggests using not just a single styling product, but the full shebang with an anti-frizz shampoo and anti-frizz conditioner, too. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we love. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. For more than 150 years, Harper’s BAZAAR has been the preeminent fashion and beauty resource for women at every age.

Those of us with dry hair are not strangers to styling products that hydrate our strands, but also envelop our whole head in a thick, heavy feeling. Yet, the mist here was fine, even, and settled nicely from root to tip, averting the familiar crisis of slicking back heavy hair into a messy bun. Sure, it’s a little pricier than other protectants but we think it’s worth spending a little extra considering how, aside from a hairspray to hold our styles in place, we didn’t need to apply our usual finishing products, like rich oils and leave-ins. DpHUE's formula is mildly scented and prevents dyed hair from fading under UV exposure. This paraben-free formula works like a heat protecting toning spray for color treated hair, with ingredients that help re-hydrate and smooth your cuticles. This hair serum is a step down from hair oils in terms of weight, which makes it a great option for fine hair.

We’ve turned dpHue before when we wanted to keep our blonde hues bright and strands glossy in-between visits. Similar to those two color-centric formulas, this protective spray is free of gloss-stripping additives, like sulfates. Instead, the base of the formula is tocopherol, also known as vitamin E, to gently hydrate our hair and supply it with the nutrients it needs to be strong and healthy.

The featherweight formula seals moisture in the hair cuticle and adds an extra layer of protection from heat for a brilliant, silky finish—without weighing down strands. Goddard recommends products that are oil-based sprays, those made of herbal extracts, or ones that are silicone-based. Whether you’ve always used heat protectants or are guilty of skipping this step when using hot tools, below are eight recommendations from the pros. Using heat protectants can literally be the saving grace difference to help your hair continue to thrive, Goddard adds.

There are a variety to choose from, but this one is specifically for protecting hair against thermal damage. Drugstore heat protectants work just as well as their more expensive salon counterparts, says stylist Kevin Kelly. But it's important to select options that are silicone- and sulfate-free—especially if you have color-treated hair or are prone to scalp issues caused by product buildup.