Hair Health - Thermal Styling Protection

Let’s talk about hair health. I think its common knowledge at this point that the environment, coloring, and heat styling can all damage hair. But it’s this last element that I want to focus on, damage from heat styling.

Obviously, applying heat to your hair everyday will eventually fry your strands, leaving them messy and injured. However, it’s easy to protect your hair while styling.

One of the latest hair trends is the heat protection sprays, with many flat iron companies, like CHI and FHI, producing their own protection sprays. The majority of these sprays contain a combination of proteins or herbs meant to shield hair from heat styling damage while improving hair’s shine and overall health. Here’s a rundown of some of the top heat protectants I researched.

1. FHI Heat Hot Sauce – This moisture-based protectant seeks to penetrate the hair follicle during heat styling, rather than simply coat the hair shaft. Using heat-activated jojoba crystals that dissolve into hair, the Hot Sauce formula also includes algae, shea butter, wheat protein, rosemary and witch hazel. Hot Sauce still contains alcohol and silicones, which many claim to cause further damage, but don’t seem to detract from the ultimate effect of the product.

In total, Hot Sauce received 4.24 out of 5 stars on Folica.com. Available in 2 oz. bottles for purchase from Folica.com and Stylebell.com, and other sites.

2. Sedu Moisturizing Heat Protecting Boost – Sedu offers several heat protecting boosts, but for the purposes of investigation, I’m choosing to only compare the moisturizing one. For normal to dry hair, the Moisturizing Heat Protecting Boost benefits from heat-activated Crodosone W wheat proteins, to infuse damaged hair with humidity resistant moisture to resist and repair damage. Downside, this boost may be a bit oily for certain hair types.

This Sedu Boost rates 4 out of 5 stars, and is available only from Folica.com in 8 ounce bottles.

3. CHI 44 Iron Guard Thermal Protection Spray – From the incredibly popular Farouk Systems, the creation of a thermal styling tool that combines ceramic technology with CHI quality. This spray intends to hydrate damaged hair from the inside out while increasing shine and luster. Some customers complain it rests a bit heavily on the hair, almost like hairspray – comes in an 8.5 ounce size.

Average rating is 3.54 out of 5 stars, available from Folica.com and BeautyChoice.com.

4. GHD Thermal Protector Spray – The GHD line is designed for hair types, offering heat protection for dry/coarse, normal to fine or weak/damaged hair. Each version comes in a 5.1 ounce bottle, and touts 50% extra protection during heat styling. All three contain sunflower seed oil and provide UVA protection against further damage up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Typical complaint is that the spray is bit stiff.

Receives mixed reviews, offers GHD name and expertise. Available for purchase from Folica.com and ShearUp.com.