Yes, many hair mousses are heat-activated and can be used for heat styling. They can provide added hold and protection when blow-drying or using other heat styling tools. Check the product instructions to ensure compatibility with heat styling and the best results.
Mousse adds volume, defines, controls frizz, and in many cases, offers heat protection. It's also, as we mentioned, typically applied to damp rather than dry hair. While many mousses do offer hold, it tends to be a light, workable hold.
Coconut Oil
This oil is one of the most popular natural heat protectant options out there. There are so many ways you can use coconut oil to protect your hair against the effects of heat-styling tools. Since coconut oil can make your hair a bit oily, we recommend applying just a few drops to your strands.
Argan oil, avocado oil, and refined coconut oil, all seem to be popular choices with good feedback from people who have used them as heat protectants.
First, What ARE Heat Protectants? Heat protectants add a protective barrier between your styling tool and your hair, sealing in moisture and fending off frizz. They often contain key moisturizing ingredients, like natural oils and fatty acids, but it's the usually the silicones and polymers that provide the barrier.
It's important to start with damp hair, as mousse tends to work best on damp strands. Spritz a heat protectant spray or creme evenly throughout your hair to shield it from the potential damage of heat styling. Then, start by taking a generous amount of hair mousse and emulsify it between your palms.
Straightening unprotected hair daily is one of the quickest routes to serious damage. Each time you apply direct heat without protection, you're essentially cooking your hair, stripping away its natural moisture and weakening its internal bonds.
Coconut Oil Heat Protectant: Mix melted coconut oil with aloe vera gel or water in a spray bottle. Shake well and apply to damp hair before heat styling. Shea Butter and Essential Oils Blend: Melt shea butter and mix it with a few drops of essential oils (like argan, lavender, or rosemary).
Things to Consider Based On Your Hair Type
For those with thick, coarse hair, using a leave-in conditioner can provide extra moisture and make the hair more manageable. However, these hair types will also want a protectant in conjunction with a leave-in conditioner when heat styling to prevent damage.
HEAT PROTECTANT SPRAY: Yes! Honey Heat Protectant Spray is designed to help shield your hair against heat damage up to 450°F. FOR ALL HAIR TYPES: Designed for all hair types, this heat protectant spray is the first step in your haircare routine to help prevent heat damage.
Hair styling using high heat can cause irreversible damage, but it doesn't have to. Heat protectants are an essential product for natural hair styling to protect, moisturize, & smooth whether you have thick hair or fine hair.
Quality heat protectants contain ingredients like humectants (like panthenol and propylene glycol), which preserves moisture and blocks frizz; amino acids (like keratin), to strengthen hair and provide antioxidants; and natural oils and extracts (like aloe), which protect and seal the hair's cuticle.
Mousse is a quick and easy addition to any haircare routine with visible, long-lasting impact. Apply mousse after you wash and condition your hair and before you start styling, to create both volume and textural definition along with heat protection.
Hair mousse is a super versatile foam that you can use to give some hold and definition to strands, as well as protect and tame your hair and give unruly curls some control.
When you should use your heat protection spray will depend on how it is formulated. Some sprays are meant to be used only on damp hair, while others are meant only to be used on dry hair.
Is it OK to straighten hair every day? According to hair stylists, it is not recommended to straighten hair every day as it can cause breakage, heat damage, and moisture loss. Ideally, you should be flat ironing freshly washed, conditioned hair and heat protected hair no more than 2 or 3 times a week.
Some people also claim olive oil can act as a heat protectant, but Zito does not recommend this. Extra virgin olive oil has a smoking point of 320 °F, Zito says, and many flatirons, wands, and curling irons reach temperatures much higher than that between 400 and 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Castor Oil
Castor oil is a natural heat protectant. It's one of the key ingredients of our natural heat protectant spray because it is extremely nourishing, hydrating, and reparative for the hair. It protects damaged hair from breakage by alleviating dryness.
While a leave-in conditioner can provide some protection, it may not offer the same level of protection as a dedicated heat protectant. Leave-in conditioner isn't formulated to withstand high temperatures, which means it may be unable to protect the hair against the full extent of heat damage caused by styling tools.
Use a heat protectant spray or cream
Using a heat protectant product every time you style your hair is an incredibly important way to prevent heat damage to hair. These sprays and creams have the ability to protect the hair fibre during heat exposure, as well as intensely hydrating each strand.