Perhaps you once went through a time where you flat ironed your hair, including your bangs, to a crisp before deciding to change your ways. Or perhaps you’re interested in hair health and want to know how products like oils, hair masks, and the like can affect your strands. In either case, you may have pondered where to acquire the best heat protection spray for hair and whether such items are even necessary.
Find out if applying a heat protectant spray for hair can genuinely protect your hair from the wrath of hot tools before you add yet more hair product to your rotation. Trefor Evans, Ph.D. at the Textile Research Institute in Princeton, who is also the director of research there, explains how heat damages hair and whether or not heat-protective treatments can stop it.
A: I’m concerned about damage because I use a hair dryer every day. WHAT IS THE BEST HEAT PROTECTANT FOR HAIR TO USE, AND DO THEY ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING AT ALL? A: According to Evans, using a heat protectant on hair can cover up damage caused by heat application but won’t stop the effects altogether. Although using hot equipment will always cause damage to your hair, you can reduce the consequences by choosing a low-temperature setting, advises the expert. Consider how heat affects your strands in the first place when weighing the benefits and drawbacks of continuing to use hair dryers or irons in your routine.
WHAT CONTRAINDICATIONS COME WITH HAVING HEAT-DAMAGED HAIR? Anyone who has accidentally touched their neck with a curling iron knows how hot those things can get. Evans asserts that reaching a hair dryer’s maximum temperature of 176° F for your hair is not a huge concern at all. The issue arises when discussing styling appliances like curling and flat irons, which frequently reach extremely high temperatures. He claims that the tools frequently reach 450° F, just a few degrees below the temperature at which hair would theoretically decompose (464° F).
Evans explains that you enter the danger zone after you reach a temperature of at least 392° F, if not a little more. ‘To bake bread, you typically preheat the oven to roughly 450 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature that your flat iron will reach is that. Although many hot tools have temperature settings that are lower, he points out that in practice many individuals prefer to use greater temps for more effective styling.
According to Evans, breakage and strands losing their tensile strength (which determines how much hair can be stretched before breaking) can happen when you apply heat to your hair frequently.
IS IT SUFFICIENT TO USE A HEAT PROTECTANT ON HAIR? Despite its name, Evans claims that even the best heat protectant for hair won’t shield it from harm. According to him, a cosmetic product leaves a single layer on the hair’s surface to aid in manageability. Is your hair going to be protected from 450° F by a thin coating? You might need to cover your hair in space shuttle tiles to shield it from that kind of heat. To put it briefly, the products don’t stop damage.
However, a hair heat protection spray isn’t completely pointless. According to Evans, “what these products do is disguise the consequences of the injury, so that you don’t notice it.” In essence, “these heat protection products are conditioners.” According to him, this means that they create a lubricating layer on your hair that reduces breakage and prevents snagging when you comb through it.
Although the damage is inevitable, Evans advises utilizing hot tools with lower heat settings to lessen their bad effects. He adds that it’s crucial to incorporate a good conditioner into your routine to deal with the inevitable damage. “Your hair type actually determines the appropriate level of conditioning,” he claims. If your curls are long and thick, you can withstand quite a bit of conditioning. If you have more fine hair, using a product with a high conditioning level or using too much product might weigh your hair down, he warns. Generally speaking, you should condition your hair as much as your hair type will allow without weighing it down, he advises.
You were correct if you thought that applying a product to your hair and getting complete heat protection sounded too wonderful to be true. However, using a low-temperature setting and properly conditioning your hair will help your strands if you’re not ready to give up using hot tools.
