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13 Best Heat Protection Sprays for Hair Straightening in 2023

Heat styling is all the rage, and probably will always be. Blowouts, flat ironing, wand curls-you name it! Sleek and shiny looks boost your confidence and make you feel beautiful.

But what’s the point in having straight hair if it only gives you limp, lifeless, damaged hair?

A good heat protectant is the foundation of safe heat styling, letting you get great results and keep your beautiful, healthy hair.

Here’s a list of the top heat protection sprays on the market today that have had amazing reviews, and I am sure you’ll find the best for your hair no matter it is fine, natural or curly.

ImageTitleEditor's RankPrice
Product ImageTop TopMatrix Biolage Thermal Protectant SprayBest for Fine HairSee Price
Product ImageTop TopAussie Hair Insurance Heat Protecting Shine SprayBest OverallSee Price
Product ImageTop TopTRESemmé Expert Selection Heat Protection Spray#1 Editor's ChoiceSee Price
Product ImageTop TopCHI Silk Infusion Restructuring Complex Heat Protection SprayRunner-upSee Price
Product ImageTop TopOscar Blandi Pronto Dry Heat Protect SprayBest for Dry HairSee Price
Product ImageTop TopPremium Nature Argan Oil Hair Protectant SprayBest for Damaged HairSee Price
Product ImageTop TopJohn Frieda Frizz Ease Flat Iron SprayBest for Frizzy HairSee Price
Product ImageTop TopL’Oréal Paris SLEEK IT Iron Straight HeatsprayBest for Curly HairSee Price
Product ImageTop TopTIGI Catwalk Haute Iron SprayBest for Colored HairSee Price

 

  • Some sprays contain ingredients to minimize the heat effect to colored hair
  • Fine hair or damaged hair needs extra-protection, you should pick spray with strongest thermal protection
  • The price for a heat protection spray varies from $10 to $20

 

Check out these 13 best heat protectant sprays that we recommend.

1. Joico K-Pak Protectant spray

Joico K-PAK Protective Hair Spray for medium hold 55% VOC 9.3 fl oz
  • It is recommended for daytime wear
  • antioxidants and botanical moisturizers provide extra nourishment
  • K-pak protective hair spray defines styles, adds moisture and helps prevent thermal damage
  • Infused with k-pak's hair protection system featuring triamine complex, it rebuilds, strengthens and protects dry, damaged hair

This hairspray by Joico sells at around $16 for ten ounces, so the price isn’t that bad at all.

It also contains hydrolyzed keratin proteins to protect the hair shaft and has antioxidants and botanical extracts to moisturize and strengthen your hair from the inside out, making it able to withstand heat even more.

The spray gives your hair moisture and shine, and can be used to blow-dry, flat iron or even to set a finished style!

It provides all-day hold with no stickiness and is a great choice if you want to flat iron your hair and then curl it or do an up-do.

  • Hydrolyzed keratin proteins moisturize and strengthen hair

 

2. Illumai Vibrant Primer Mist

The Illumai Vibrant Primer Mist is another lightweight heat protecting spray. It’s ideal for all hair types, whether ethnic, straight or color-treated, and even extensions!

It’s easy to use and can cut your styling time in half by making your hair easier to work with.

This spray conditions hair while protecting it, adding shine and moisture. It can even be used to detangle your hair before flat ironing!

However, this product is on the expensive side – about $22 dollars. Also, it’s free of silicones, which means there isn’t that essential barrier between your hair and the heat.

This opens your hair up to the risk of being damaged or fried by your flat iron.

The mist has great features and makes hair feel healthy, but for the price and the lack of silicones, it may not be the best choice for fine or ethnic hair.

  • With dihydroxypropyl peg-5 linoleammonium chloride extracted from vegetables, it will prevent tangling and thermal heat damage.

 

3. Matrix Biolage Thermal Protectant Spray – For Fine Hair

Biolage Thermal Active Spray | Heat Styling Treatment Adds Body & Volume | Paraben-Free | Vegan |...
  • Heat Protectant Spray: Multi purpose spray that protects hair against heat styling. Whether straightening, curling or blow drying hair, this treatment...
  • Benefits: Paraben- free and vegan styling treatment conditions and protects hair against damage while prepping for heat styling. Provides a medium hold for...
  • Additional Benefits: For use with heat styling tools, this spray protects against heat, but also gives hair a sleek, frizz- free look with added volume and...
  • Suggested Use: On clean wet or damp hair, spray all over before blow drying and styling. This product can also be used on dry hair to prep before styling...

The Matrix Biolage Thermal Active Setting Spray is a non-aerosol thermal styling spray that’s perfect for use on wet, damp or even dry hair.

It contains silicones and copolymers that create the much-needed barrier between the hair and your flat iron, and also contains nettle extracts and panthenol for moisture and strength.

The spray has a light hold and a great smell and can be used on fine hair to give body and volume without the greasiness and weight.

It sells at about $16 for 8 ounces, which isn’t cheap but isn’t expensive either, but this spray can give hair a dry, tangled feeling.

It doesn’t have much slip, so it can be difficult to comb through hair with or to blow-dry with.

All in all, the Matrix spray may be great at giving your hair moisture and protection, but its texture and price are a bit of a sore spot.

 

4. Aussie Hair Insurance Heat Protecting Spray

Aussie’s Heat Protecting Spray is one of our winners on the list. It offers a load of benefits and guess what?

It’s only $4 or so for 8.5 ounces! If the price alone doesn’t draw you in, the effects sure will.

The Aussie spray makes hair soft and shiny, adding moisture to your hair shaft to protect it from being dried out and damaged.

It also has silicones that protect your hair from being fried by the heat of your flat iron or blow dryer.

It also contains oils like castor oil that add thickness, shine, and moisture to hair strands.

The Aussie is a clear success – the price is amazing and it protects your hair from damage and dryness while making it soft and shiny. Win-win!

 

5. Paul Mitchell Heat Seal

paul-mitchell-heat-seal

Heat Seal by Paul Mitchell is one of the more popular brands on the list. Like the Matrix Biolage Thermal Active Setting Spray, it also sells at about $16 for 8.5 ounces, so it’s pretty affordable.

The Heat Seal adds body and shine to any hair type while simultaneously taming frizz and giving hair incredible hold that isn’t stiff.

It contains fatty acids that help to make hair smooth and healthy while giving moisture to your hair shaft.

It’s also humidity resistant, meaning that once you flat iron or blow out your hair using this product, even the rainiest or most humid of days won’t ruin your sleek look.

For the health and environmentally conscious people out there, the Heat Seal is also gluten and paraben-free.

It’s also cruelty-free – it’s made with only vegan ingredients! And if you’ve got colored hair, don’t worry.

This product is color-safe so it won’t wash out or damage your vibrant color in any way.

 

6. Tresemmé Keratin Smooth Heat Protection Shine Spray

This heat protectant by Tresemmé is one of the most popular ones on the market today.

It usually retails at about $10 for 8 ounces, which is very affordable when compared to other heat protectants of the same size.

This product can be used for either blow-drying or flat ironing. It has a great smell, not too overpowering.

Keratin strengthens your hair from within, and as the name suggests, the spray contains keratin protein and silicones to help protect your hair against heat damage, ensuring that you won’t end up with fried, stringy hair.

It also contains glycerin, a humectant that leaves you with smooth, shiny, and moisturized hair, even after flat ironing.

This product is great overall – it has a good price and delivers amazing results.

 

7. CHI Silk Infusion Restructuring Complex Heat Protection Spray

It smoothes all frizz and leaves hair shiny and tame, with no flyaways or static. However, it’s a bit on the pricey side, retailing anywhere from $15 to $20 for only six ounces.

It’s also a bit oily, which may cause your hair to be weighed down and greasy if you’re a fine-haired girl, or even if you use too much.

The smell is rather strange, sort of sweetish, but this isn’t a con for every user.

All in all, the CHI heat protectant has great features, but is rather expensive and maybe a bit too oily for you, depending on your hair type.

 

8. GHD Style Heat Protectant Spray

GHD’s spray is a lightweight heat protectant that gives your hair moisture and shines without weighing it down.

It has a really nice scent – it’s sort of botanical! It also has no oily residue, so you won’t have to worry about greasy, weighed down, limp hair or greasy hands from touching or even fixing your hair.

It contains proteins to strengthen and protect your hair from damage, and a huge plus – there’s castor oil in it too.

Castor oil is great for shine, thickness, and moisture. This spray gives a silky smooth finish with no heaviness, but there is a major con: the price.

GHD’s spray sells for about $19 us for only 4.1 ounces! It surely has great ingredients and features that work well for your hair, but the price is a factor to consider.

 

9. Oscar Blandi Pronto Dry Heat Protect Spray

Oscar Blandi Pronto Dry Heat Protect Spray, 4 oz
  • Defends hair against heat styling
  • 450 f heat protection
  • Dry spray formula protects.
  • All hair types

This spray contains PVP/DMAPA acrylates copolymer, an essential ingredient, which works brilliantly to prevent your hair from damage.

If you have ever visited a hair salon, any hairstylist will tell you that one of the important steps needed to be done to eliminate damaging and hair breakage.

You will notice that your hair becomes a little drier or curlier than usual if you skip this important step, applying heat protectant since your strands were exposed to the heat they should have not been.

 

10. Premium Nature Argan Oil Hair Protectant Spray

Argan Oil Heat Protectant Spray For Hair - Hair Heat protector Spray Thermal Protectant Spray For...
  • ➔Heat protectant spray for hair - our thermal spray is incredibly effective heat protectant spray for hair. Style your hair with heat shield for hair....
  • ➔All hair types - this thermal spray is hair protection from heat, you can use flat iron spray and be sure that this is perfect thermal protection for...
  • ➔Hair heat protector spray - remember that your body and hair needs special treatment and heat protectant spray is the best blow dry spray. Use heat...
  • ➔Smooth and sleek look - this thermal spray heat protectant for hair is great like argan oil heat protectant for hair. This heat hair protector not only...

Argan Oil Hair is the perfect heat protection spray for everyday styling. If you’re someone who regularly irons their hair, think about the negative effects it would have on your hair. This is where the premium nature Argan oil comes to the rescue.

It contains all-natural ingredients that are guaranteed to protect your hair from dryness, damage, and humidity. The protectant spray is free from parabens and chemicals.

Argan oil can be used as a hair conditioner that makes your hair silky and shiny. You can condition your hair from root to ends and let it sit in your hair before styling.

 

11. John Frieda Flat Iron Spray

Looking for a heat protectant spray that keeps your hair straight and frizz-free for three days? Look no further than John Frieda Flat Iron Spray!

Contains Keratin protein it removes frizziness from your hair and makes your hair glossy and sleek that will make you feel like a celebrity.

For curly or wavy hair beauties out there, enjoy 3-day lasting effects of beautiful, straight, and silky hair with this spray. The product doesn’t weigh down your hair at all.

 

12. L’Oréal Paris SLEEK IT Iron Straight Heatspray

Designed to work with any heat styling tool, The Loreal Heat Protectant Spray offers protection from heat up to 450 degrees and make your hairdo last for long.

It not only protects your hair from damage but also fights against frizziness, seals in moisture/ shine, and blocks humidity.

The application is very simple. All you’ve to do is spray on the sections of your hair before you flat-iron your hair or curl them. It will last for three days straight without any washes.

 

13. TIGI Catwalk Haute Iron Spray

Your hair is your crown. Therefore, hair protection is essential as regular hair styling makes your hair prone to damage, and frizziness of hair. What you need is the TIGI Iron Spray that is the perfect heat protection spray for hair straightening.

The ingredients inside the Iron spray provide shield to your hair and resist heat up to 230-degree centigrade.

Whether you’ve got hair damage from coloring or the humid weather doesn’t cooperate with your hair, you won’t get disappointed with this Spray that provides long-lasting shine to your hair and has an amazing fragrance.

 

Do they just simply prevent potential heat from hot styling tools?

Not just that, they include a lot of useful ingredients, which also add shine, and smooth out your hair.

Frequently using hot styling tools like hair straightener, curling iron, and hairdryer will make your hair lose its natural look, moisture, oil, and important vital protein, even cause further damage in hair structure.

These are necessary ingredients to provide your hair smooth and shiny look.

To preserve those ingredients and reduce the heat damaging as much as possible, you should apply to spray your hair with a heat protection spray period to hair straightening.

A little science behind the heat protection products, before we go further how it actually works and is it effective.

Here are what happens when your hair is exposed to high temperature, says, 130 degrees Celsius (equal to 265 degrees Fahrenheit)

  • Internal moisture of your hair starts to evaporates, yes they are leaving.
  • The chromophores, which define how to shine your hair is, are about to degrade.
  • As long as the hair is exposed to high heat, the hair structure, and its surface breaks, radically.

It even becomes worse if you straighten wet hair.

A study conducted by the Journal of Cosmetic Science revealed that heat protection spray with ingredients like PVP/DMAPA acrylates copolymer and Hydrolyzed wheat protein does have a protective effect.

However, the mechanism of how heat spray penetrates into the hair structure and strengthens it at high temperatures is still not known.

But possibly, they will limit the chemical reaction and prevent over-heating hair by buffering coating.

An article – The effects of water on heat-styling damage published on NCBI suggests that heat protectant spray should contain less water in order to prevent heat damage caused by water. In favor of volatile ingredients such as ethanol.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Do you put heat protectants on wet or dry hair?

Ans. You can use a heat protectant spray on either damp hair or dry hair prior to styling it. Just spray the heat protectant onto the hair, and avoid the scalp area.

Comb through the entire length of the hair after the application to ensure that it is spread evening. This will provide the best protection against the damaging effects of heated styling tools.

 

Q2. Does heat styling damage hair?

Ans. Yes, heat does damage hair. If left unprotected, heat causes moisture loss in hair- especially repeated uses. This will cause the hair to become dry which leads to frizz, split ends, brittle hair, and dull hair.

If you have damaged hair, you want to be particularly cautious about removing moisture from it. You will definitely need something that protects hair otherwise you will sustain further damage.

 

Q3. If you have fine hair which heat protectant should you use?

Ans. The best heat protectant for fine hair is CHI 44 Iron Guard Thermal Protection Spray. The formula is weightless, so it won’t weigh your hair down and is perfect for all hair types. It won’t cause a build-up of product on the hair and adds moisture to thin, fine hair. 

One of the ingredients in this protective spray is silk protein. This increases shine and adds moisture. It additionally increases hair strength.

This protectant protects the hair strands from incurring heat damage, seals the cuticles, eliminates hair breakage, and permits freestyling.

 

Tips – You may prefer picking heat protectant by their formulas and ingredients or even your hair types

 

Some of the best-selling heat protection sprays:

3 thoughts on “13 Best Heat Protection Sprays for Hair Straightening in 2023”

  1. My preference is the GKhair ThermalStyleHer. The best heat protectant I have ever used for my hair during the blow drying process. Very much effective against heat prior to styling. Truly an amazing product. Love it. 🙂 <3

  2. Interesting post, you mentioned at end of the post the fact that heat protection sprays are effective for protecting hair. But does it work the same for all hair types. My hair is very thick and curly, my friend hair is thin. She said the hair protectant is useless her.

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