Not All Hairspray’s Are Created Equal

Girls, ladies and women, we have all been there: you have a big night you’ve been looking forward to for ages! You have everything planned from your outfit to your shoes and what color nail-polish you are going to wear. It is the day of the event and you decide to do some last minute retail therapy and buy yourself some new hair spray. You go to the most prestigious salon in town and have a chat to the hairdresser, who tells you this new amazing hairspray is the best thing since sliced bread, and you leave the salon feeling lucky to have come across this great technology right when you needed it.

You begin your preparation ritual for the evening, having an extra long bath, treating your hair, shaving, exfoliating, and applying a mask to your face. Then you get dressed, perfect your make-up in a way that even Revlon would have been impressed with, and now for your hair! When you dry and style it, it looks great, then you apply your new advanced generation hairspray, just a little all over like the professional advised, and yes, you look hot!

A quick once over in the mirror, shoes on and you are out the door in a record two and a half hours from when you started. You’re driving to your friends house to pick her up and you catch a glimpse of your hair in the rearview-mirror. Surely those dull drooping strings aren’t part of your design! You rush to your friend’s door, barely say hello, then race to her mirror.

Aargh! What happened to the full bodied shiny style you saw only fifteen minutes ago? Why does your hair look a shade darker than usual and why are those bits all stuck together? You grab a comb and try to perk it up, but nothing improves. You borrow hairspray from your friend but the two combined seems to form some sort of super glue effect and it’s just getting worse. You contemplate whether you have time to shower and wash it again, but you know you don’t.

Although your hair probably doesn’t look anywhere near as bad as you think it does, if you’re not 100% happy with it, you won’t feel confident and happy with yourself. Anyway, you head out for your function feeling disappointed and silly for trying something new on a night out.

One of the most important rules of hairspray use is always know your product before you rely on it.

There are so many different hairsprays on the market, and so many unique types of hair, you may have to trial many before you find one that is your perfect match. Not all hairsprays are created equal, and the days of the shiny, crystallized, stiff looks for everyone are in the past. Using hairspray doesn’t mean you have to have a unmovable mass on you head, and if you prefer a natural look it should be yours.

The Science Of Hairspray

Hairspray is a liquid which you spray on your hair that is sticky and sets quickly. It is basically a liquid plastic which joins to make a coating, then the liquid evaporates and the film that remains dries. Over time, the chemistry involved in creating hair spray recipes has become so complex and involved it is an art form of it’s own. There are so many qualities to be considered such as whether it’s flexible, and if it’s strong hold, extra strong, maximum, or ultra strong. Does it smell like apples or more like fly spray? What environment is it designed for? And what hair type is it meant to be used on? Finding all the qualities you want, then finding the brand to suit your hair is the challenge, but the odds are in your favor and once you do find it, you will probably be loyal for life.

The reason we use hairspray is to hold our hair in position once we style it. Some only need a little bit of help to keep their hair in place, and others who have more stubborn hair need maximum hold.

A flexible hair spray is one that is light to medium strength and will let your hair still move around naturally while keeping the style.

Strong, extra strength or firm should keep your hair still while you’re active or in bad weather or if you need to keep a sophisticated hairstyle in place.

The hair sprays that have the strongest hold usually dry very quickly and really do freeze your hair in place through difficult conditions. They will normally be called maximum strength, ultra strength or freeze.

Purchasing Hair Spray That Will Work For You

Once you have decided how strong you want your hairspray to be, there are other properties to take into account. There is a wide range of scents, which are usually brand specific, and you don’t want one that you find unpleasant or even worse that irritates you. You can purchase unscented varieties, or almost any flower or fruit you can think of. Try to match it to your shampoo to get the most out of the fragrance you choose. Also, beware of cheap and nasty hairsprays that can smell like fly spray. You may think the smell wears off in a few minutes but other people can notice it.

Depending on your hairstyle, you may need to spray a continuous light weight film over your entire hair, or perhaps you prefer to spurt it in burst here and there as you go along. This will determine whether you need a pump spray that is non-aerosol or an aerosol, and both are good for their own purposes. An example would be if you to try to use a pump on a fine full-bodied hairstyle, the weight and moisture could destroy your hard work.

In today’s climate, you might want to consider a hairspray that has some protective characteristics such as UV filtering, moisturizing or even color protection if your hair is dyed. You can buy some hairsprays that are designed specifically for particular hair types like frizzy, curly, damaged or fine. If you have trouble with your hair being flat try the lighter volumizing variety which is made to lift, add volume and give shine to lifeless hair. Nowadays there are some new formulas that claim to not be sticky and have no shine, if that s something you may prefer. And of course there is the colored variety which is also available with glitter, and both are a novelty product for most people.

It can be a good idea to have a few hairsprays on hand to suit different styles and conditions. If you are playing tennis and wearing a visor out in the sun you may want a maximum hold with UV sun protection, whereas if your hair is up in a bun and you just want to curl your wisps up a little, then a non aerosol, more flexible spray should be your choice.

How To Use the Hair Spray you choose

In most cases, you should use your hair spray on dry hair. The idea is the use it as the last step in your styling procedure and let the film set and stay in place. If you brush it, wet it, or go out in terrible whether, the coating on your hair will break up and become ineffective. If you do use hairspray every day, you should be sure to wash your hair with a good clarifying shampoo regularly to avoid build-up which can cause dullness and cuticle damage.

To prevent disasters occurring at times when you need to rely on your hair spray the most, you should spend some time experimenting with different varieties. There are so many brands surviving on the market for a reason, and that is because we all have unique and individual needs. A punky Mohawk hairstyle is going to require a completely different hair spray to a naturally curly and long style. Find the spray that you like the smell of and has a good balance of hold for your style and how it feels. This way your hair should be at it’s best every time.