It’s a good idea to avoid heat on your hair whenever you can, but sometimes that call for using heat styling tools. A heat protectant spray can protect your hair from damage during such times.
You don’t have to buy costly products off supermarket shelves for that protection. For example, did you know you can try diy heat protectant spray using ingredients at home?
They’re affordable when prepared at home, made using natural ingredients, and trying out various variants and combinations is fun. Isn’t it? Let’s learn more about it before moving to the recipes. Shall we?
How Does Heat Damage Your Hair?
To understand why you must use heat protectants, you must understand how heat damages your hair. So, let’s start with that.
You must use a heat protectant when using heating tools for styling your hair. There’s no other way around it if you don’t want your hair damaged in the longer run.
Hair is our crowning glory and is more than just a beauty accessory. It affects our way of life and our confidence levels, so having a stunning mane is important.
So, why compromise on hair health or risk damage for styling? After all, you can do without worrying about damage when using a heat protectant, right?
Certain environmental factors can damage hair though we’re dealing only with heat damage here. For example, the scorching sun can damage your hair. So, when stepping out during sunny hours, use heat protectant sprays.
The job of any heat protectant is to minimize the damage done to hair by excessive heat. The hair damage happens because heat breaks strip off your hair’s natural oils by breaking down the hydrogen bonds of your hair. A heat protectant forms a protective layer on your hair shaft and slows down the speed of heat penetration, thus reducing damage.
Do Heat Protectants Really Work?
Yes, they do. As long as you choose the right one for your requirements, or in this case, the right ingredients for your recipe. They do their job – protecting your hair strands from heat damage.
Not just heat damage from heat styling tools; they can also protect against heat damage from the sun. But, of course, there’s no way you can fully avoid stepping out during the day. Can you? That’s exactly where homemade heat protectant spray, creams, or oils can come in handy.
Natural Heat Protectant Ideas
When choosing the ingredients for your DIY heat protectant spray, check the ingredients’ smoking point. Some oils have a lower smoking point, so using them will result in damaged or fried hair, as the oil will start burning your hair once the smoking point is reached.
So, choose ingredients with a higher smoking point to prevent damage or, worse, burnt hair. Ready for the recipes now?
1. Vegan Sunflower Spray
With a high smoke point of 440 degrees Fahrenheit, sunflower oil can greatly protect against heat. Combine that with the goodness of other ingredients, and you have a natural spray that would give commercial heat protectants a run for their money.
Things You’ll Need
- Aloe Vera Juice – 1/4 Cup
- Sunflower Oil – 2 Tbsps.
- Argan Oil – 2 Tbsps.
- Grapeseed Oil – 2 Tbsps.
- Geranium Essential Oil – a few drops
How To Make
Nothing special; add all the ingredients to a spray bottle and shake to combine.
How To Use
Shake before every use.
Apply to damp hair from midway to the tips. Style as desired. You can also use it on dry hair before using heat tools.
2. Grapeseed Oil
A light but very nourishing oil with a smoke point of 390 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s a great ingredient to protect your hair. You don’t even have to dilute it to use it!
Just take seven drops or less, depending on your hair length and volume, rub your palms together, and apply the oil from your hands to your hair. Start midway and go all the way to the tips. Style once you’ve got your hair heat ready!
3. Vegan Shea Mousse
Similar to silicones in natural thermal conductivity, shea butter protects hair from heat and sun damage. It also has a high smoke point of 450 degrees Fahrenheit, rich in essential fatty acids that suit natural and coarse hair, and shea butter is one of the best natural heat protectants out there.
Though this is not a spray, it’s so good that I had to add it here. However, you can go with other recipes if you prefer to spray better.
Things You’ll Need
- Shea Butter – 2 Tbsps.
- Avocado Oil – 1 Tbsp.
- Clary Sage Essential Oil – a few drops
How To Make
- Melt shea butter in your double boiler.
- Once melted, remove from heat and set aside to cool – you can also refrigerate it for a bit to make this step faster.
- Once it’s slightly opaque but not fully opaque or hard, add the avocado oil and essential oil to it.
- Whisk till the mixture turns fluffy.
How To Use
Apply to damp hair – starting from the middle all the way to the tips. Style as desired.
Notes
If you’re not looking at vegan or vegetarian options, you can also use butter, ghee, lard, tallow, or similar ingredients with dilutions according to their requirements.
4. Argan Oil
Argan oil has a smoke point of 420 degrees Fahrenheit and works great as a heat protectant while nourishing and nurturing your hair. You don’t have to do anything except apply it on your hair from the middle of your hair shaft all the way down to the tips.
5. Vegan Avocado Spray
Avocado can work great as a heat protectant with a high smoke point at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Things You’ll Need
- Avocado Oil – 2 Tbsps.
- Water – 1/2 Cup
How To Make
Nothing special; just add both ingredients to a spray bottle and shake to combine.
How To Use
Shake every use before and spray on your hair strands from mid-way to your tips before using heat styling tools.
Notes
You can use coconut oil or sweet almond oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, rice bran oil, olive oil, or even safflower oil the same way.
6. Vegan Coconut Oil Spray
These two form a great heat protectant combo with a smoke point of 350 degrees Fahrenheit for coconut oil and roughly 400 degrees Fahrenheit for sweet almond oil.
Things You’ll Need
- Coconut Oil – 1 Tsp.
- Sweet Almond Oil – 2 Tsps.
- Geranium Essential Oil – a few drops
- Conditioner – 2 Tsps.
- Water – 1 Cup
How To Make
Add all the ingredients to a spray bottle and shake to combine.
How to Use
Shake before every use.
Spray on wet or dry hair from the middle all the way down to your tips. Do this before using heat for styling.
Notes
You can use fractionated coconut oil or normal coconut oil for this recipe.
Cold climate can solidify coconut oil. Use melted coconut oil in that case.
7. Diy Aloe Spray
We all know aloe is a great soothing and nurturing ingredient for hair care. But, do you know you can use it as a heat protectant too?
Things You’ll Need
- Aloe Vera Juice – 4 Tbsps.
- Geranium Essential Oil – a few drops
- Conditioner – 1 Tbsp.
How To Make
Nothing special; add all the ingredients to a spray bottle and shake to combine.
How To Use
Shake before every use.
Spray on damp hair before using your hair dryer or other heat tools.
Spray once more, sparingly right after drying, just before styling.
Notes
You can also add oils to this recipe, along with aloe vera juice.
Why Should You Use a Heat Protectant?
You should use a heat protectant anytime you’re considering heat styling tools – be it drying your hair using heat or styling treatments that use heat to achieve the desired results. It can also protect your strands from heat damage from the sun whenever you’re stepping out during the day.
Yes, the smoke point of most oils varies a few degrees up and down depending on many factors. We have given the lower level of smoke points for the oils to be safer. Even so, make sure to keep it down by at least 20 – 25 degrees.
When combining different ingredients, use ingredients with closer smoke points to each other. That way, you won’t end up frying your hair when using a low smoke point ingredient with one that has a higher smoke point.
Shelf Life of a DIY Heat Protectant Spray
Depending on the ingredients used (when some ingredients you use are close to expiry or have an extremely short life), a homemade heat protectant spray will stay good for about 1 – 3 months. Using distilled or filtered water, you can extend the shelf life further and prevent mold infestation.
However, always prepare smaller batches and use them as quickly as possible. This way, you can avoid issues related to unseen microbes or mold. Besides, the fun of DIY – experimenting, so you will have more options when you prepare smaller batches for each trial!
Conclusion
Using natural ingredients for hair care is one of the best things you can do for your hair, health, and budget! Not only is going DIY pocket-friendly, but it’s also fun and sans harsh chemicals. Of course, you also know what goes into your product, and as we always say, if you can’t eat it, don’t put it in your skin – after all, they mostly find a way in.
Don’t have time for DIY recipes? Unfortunately, today’s hectic lifestyle doesn’t allow us to do a few things we may like to. But worry not; we’ve got you back with a broad range of premium vegan hair care cosmetics from Vitamins Revive.
Check out their online store and let us know how you like them. Try out these recipes and let us know how they worked for you. Questions? Comments? Feedback? Requests? Feel free to write back to us; we love hearing from our readers!
