And Why You Need to Use Them

Have you ever asked yourself if you need to use a heat protectant with your hot tools? And, if so, which one? I know I have. This is why I did a deep dive on the subject and found the best heat protectants for your type of hair and how you style it. So, do heat protectants protect your hair from the high heat of styling tools? The short answer is YES.

Thermal heat of blow dryers, flat irons, curling irons, curling wands, and hot rollers damage your hair. The effects can be worse on color-treated and highlighted hair that is already weakened from chemicals. High heat from styling tools can cause color to fade and oxidize, turning blonde highlights brassy (that yucky orange). Using a heat protectant with other nourishing ingredients will protect your hair.

Heat protectants are not one size fits all!

Keep reading to learn more. Or, select from the menu below to jump down to your hair type and style to find your best heat protectant options.

• Why Use a Heat Protectant
  • Toast Test
• How Heat Protectants Work
• How to Choose A Protectant
  • The 3 Things You Need to Know
  • Types of Hair
  • Key Ingredients to Look For
• Tips & Take-Aways
• My 3 Favorite Hot Tools
• The Best Heat Protectants For Your Type of Hair & Hot Tools
  • Best Overall
  • Best Multi-Tasking
  • Best for Dry, Damaged Hair
  • Best for Color Treated Hair
  • Best for Blondes
  • Best for Blow Drying
  • Best for Straightening
  • Best for Curling
  • Best for Coarse, Textured Hair
  • Best for Very Curly & Coily Hair
  • Best for Medium to Thick Hair
  • Best for Thin/Fine Hair

Why Use a Heat Protectant

Hair is made up of layers (see the hair structure image, below) and the heat from styling tools causes moisture to evaporate from the hair, damaging those layers. The result can be diminished elasticity, frizz, breakage, split ends, and lackluster-looking hair. Ever notice smoke coming off your hot tools? That’s actually steam from the moisture leaving your hair.

Just as sunscreen protects your skin in the sun, heat protectants protect your hair from the heat of hot tools. Speaking of sunscreen, heat protectants provide the additional benefit of protecting your hair from the sun’s UV rays, and that further protects colored and bleached hair from fading or oxidizing in the sun.

There is strong science proving that heat protectants work. A study by the Journal of Cosmetic Science showed that using hot tools “causes damage to the hair surface and the structural proteins in the cortex” and “that polymer pretreatment [heat protectants] prevents significant cuticle damage due to thermal treatment.”

Furthermore, according to the National Library of Medicine, “studies indicate that hair breakage can be reduced significantly when hair is pretreated with selected polymers” and that “pretreatments provide thermal protection against thermal degradation of keratin in the cortex as well as hair surface damage.”

Toast Test

How Heat Protectants Work

Heat protectants coat the hair surface to create a thermal barrier between your hair and your styling tools. That protective barrier contains ingredients, such as polymers and silicones, that slow thermal conduction by lowering and dispersing the heat exposure on your hair. This reduces the amount of moisture that evaporates and prevents your hair from overheating and drying out.

In other words, heat protectant makes the hair heat more slowly and evenly when it comes in contact with the heat of hot tools, thereby preventing your hair from losing moisture, overheating and drying out.

In addition to protecting your hair from the high heat of styling tools, a good heat protectant should be formulated with other beneficial ingredients that condition, hydrate and strengthen the hair as well as seal and smooth the hair’s cuticle. Working together, these ingredients can reduce damage to your hair as well as make your hair more manageable and easier to style.

How to Choose A Heat Protectant

Heat protectants come as sprays, serums or creams. There are three things you need to know to choose the right product for your type of hair and styling tool.

The 3 Things You Need To Know

1. What type of hair do you have?
   • There are four types of hair: straight, wavy, curly, and coily.
     • These are further divided into subcategories based on how tight or loose your curls are. And just to make matters more confusing, you could have two different types of hair on your head! I do…the bottom layer of my hair is straighter than the top.
   • Then, is your hair thick, medium (normal), or fine (thin)?
   • If you’re not sure what type of hair you have, check out the images below.
2. How will you be styling your hair?
   • Will you be blow drying, straightening or curling?
   • You want a heat protectant that works with how you style your hair. Many products can be used on damp (wet) or dry hair, some are designed to be used only on damp hair before blow drying and others only on dry hair before heat styling.
   • Then there are heat protectants formulated for specific styles. These products can help cut down on dry time, make your hair stay straighter or hold a curl better.
3. What temperature do you set your hot tool at?
   • Always keep hot tools at the lowest possible temperature to minimize damage, especially if your hair is already damaged or color treated. Pay close attention to the heat range noted on the product. If your heat protectant says it will only shield your hair up to 350 degrees, make sure your hot tool is not set higher or it will not be effective at protecting your mane.
   • Different types of hair are easier to style than others. Those with fine or mostly straight hair can use their styling tools at a lower temperature to get results than someone with thick, curly or coarse hair.

Types of Hair

Key Heat Protectant Ingredients to Look For

• Barriers – Ingredients such as copolymer or silicone coat the hair, creating a film to seal the cuticle and act as the barrier to the heat of hot tools.
• Strengthening – Keratin or rice, for instance, nourish the hair by strengthening the cuticle from within. Remember, hair is made mostly of keratin (refer back to the hair structure image above).
• Humectants – To moisturize the hair and minimize frizz, look for panthenol, propylene glycol, glycerin, or hyaluronic acid.
• Natural Oils – Grapeseed and coconut oils, for example, provide natural heat protection because they have very high smoke points. Other oils, such as sunflower oil, are natural sunscreens.

The Best Heat Protectants For Your Type of Hair & How You Style It

I scoured the internet in search of the best heat protectants most recommended by professional hair stylists, beauty editors and testers. From there I pared down the list to give you the best, most recommended heat protectants for your type of hair and how you style it.

Experts agree, using the right product for your type of hair and hot tool will protect and nourish your tresses while cutting down on style time. Less style time = less heat on your hair = less damage.

BEST OVERALL

This weightless, dry aerosol is packed with vitamins and argan oil to rehydrate dry, frizzy hair. It creates a glossy finish with soft hold while protecting your mane from heat and your color from fading. It also contains conditioning panthenol to promote healthier-looking and feeling hair. Moroccanoil Perfect Defense was on every beauty editor’s list – from Allure to Vogue – so, of course, I just ordered it.

A vitamin-fueled, nourishing spray that strengthens with biotin and protects with niacinamide. TRESemmé’s moisture-locking complex restores vibrancy and shine to dry, damaged hair. This leave-in spray is the best overall heat protector for under $10.

BEST MULTI-TASKING

HSI makes hot tools, so they know a thing or two about thermal heat. Their Argan Oil Heat Protector is a weightless thermal mist that detangles, hydrates, nourishes, smooths and protects your hair with argan oil and vitamins. Additionally, it speeds dry time, boosts shine, doubles as a leave-in conditioner, and it’s color safe. HSI does this all while being free of sulfates, parabens and phosphates. Wow! No wonder this heat protectant is highly recommended by beauty editors, professional hair stylists and Amazon reviewers, where it has almost 44,000 reviews!

With key ingredients like camelina oil, coconut oil and olive oil, Pureology Colour Fanatic provides over 21 benefits to prime, protect and perfect your hair. It seals in moisture to prevent split ends and breakage, strengthens, repairs, balances hair’s pH, and keeps your color from fading. Colour Fanatic also helps even out porosity and provides better manageability and shine while protecting your mane from heat without parabens, mineral oil or sulfates. Plus, it’s 100% Vegan.

We all know Sun Bum makes great sunscreen, so who better to protect our tresses from heat and UV. Made with natural ingredients like giant sea kelp extract, kukai nut oil, banana, coconut oil, tamanu oil and vitamin C, this lightweight spray protects your hair from thermal damage and breakage in addition to blocking UV rays to keep color from fading. It also speeds blow dry time, minimizes split ends, helps hair resist humidity, and eliminates frizz while leaving a smooth, sleek finish. Sun Bum Heat Protector Spray is vegan, gluten-free, cruelty-free, and free of sulfates, parabens and phthalates. It is the best multi-taking drugstore heat protectant.

BEST FOR DRY, DAMAGED HAIR

A lightweight reparative oil with a concentrated blend of botanicals to restore and strengthen damaged hair. Designed for all hair types, Olaplex No.7 Bonding Oil increases shine, softness and color vibrancy. It’s free of aldehydes, formaldehyde and DEA.

This multi-tasking spray requires blow-drying with tension to activate. Dream Coat Supernatural Spray contains a concentrated blend of botanical oils and heat-activated polymers that seal hair strands to restore dry, damaged hair and lasts through three to four shampoos. It protects against color fading, UV, rays, humidity, and heat styling while keeping hair frizz-free for days and providing a smooth, glossy finish. Plus, it’s sulfate-free.

BEST FOR COLOR TREATED HAIR

A lightweight mist that shields damaged, over-processed, color-treated hair from fading while protecting tresses from hot tools and UVA and UVB rays. Hot Toddy uses heat-activated rice protein to strengthen and protect hair while controlling frizz, hydrating the hair and adding shine without any sulfates, keratin, nut oils, gluten, parabens, or phthalates.

BEST FOR BLONDES

Designed specifically for blondes, this milky serum is formulated with hyaluronic acid and antioxidants to protect, strengthen, smooth and repair hair weakened from bleaching. In addition to protecting your lightened locks from the high heat of styling tools, Blond Absolu Cicaplasme Hair Primer also prevents your color from fading and yellowing.

BEST FOR BLOW DRYING

A lightweight, silicone-free cream that minimizes frizz and fly-aways and protects while blow drying. Briogeo Farewell Frizz contains rosehip, coconut and argan oils that seal the hair cuticle and hydrate hair from the inside out, leaving hair feeling smooth and shiny. It’s paraben- and phthalate-free, and safe for keratin, relaxed, colored and chemically treated hair.

I love the way Oribe describes its Royal Blowout mist, saying it will smooth “even the worst-behaved mop.” Sounds good to me! Rosehip fruit oil, avocado oil, argan oil, and Oribe’s Signature Complex come together to nourish and repair damage and split ends, restore healthier-looking hair, provide heat and UV protection, add moisture and shine, and speed dry time. Royal Blowout is free of sulfates, parabens, formaldehyde, mineral oil, and more. It’s highly concentrated, so use it sparingly from mid-length to ends.

Kenra Platinum Blow-Dry Spray is for medium to coarse hair and the Blow-Dry Mist is ultra-lightweight for fine to medium hair. Both offer weightless protection from thermal heat, prevent hair breakage, block humidity, and cut blow-dry time by 50%. Moisturizing argan and jojoba oils detangle, smooth and soften. Kenra Platinum Blow-Dry is safe for color-treated hair.

BEST FOR STRAIGHTENING

Infused with keratin proteins that are heat-activated by a flattening iron used at a temperature over 300⁰F, this spray seals each strand of hair to protect against heat damage without weighing hair down. John Frieda’s 3-Day Straight spray guarantees to transform curly, frizzy hair to pin-straight smooth for up to three days or until your next shampoo.

Formulated with hydrolyzed keratin and marula oil to protect hair against thermal heat and seal in shine, TRESemmé promises to give you stick-straight hair with a flattening iron or hair dryer. TRESemmé Keratin Smooth provides five smoothing benefits in addition to heat protection that will lock in your straight style: detangles, fights frizz, tames flyaways, adds softness, and boosts shine. Plus, it’s safe for color-treated hair.

L’Oréal employs its Fibralock Technology in a lightweight heat protectant that offers a sleek, straight look for three days while calming frizz, blocking humidity, and sealing in shine. SLEEK IT has a 4 ½ star rating from almost 51,000 reviewers on Amazon, many say they use this spray for blow drying and curling as well as straightening with great results.

BEST FOR CURLING

I just put this little gem in my Amazon cart because I’m a girl who likes to curl. This light, non-sticky spray not only protects your locks from heat, but it promises to help hold your curls or waves for up to 12 hours, and up to 24 hours when used with ghd’s Curve Collection of products. It combines protective polymers and conditioning agents to seal the hair cuticle for smooth, sleek-looking hair without parabens.

To protect and shape your hair, Kenra Thermal Styling Spray 19 is a heat-activated thermal spray that will give you a firm hold and control that’s not sticky while styling. The result is silky, shiny hair with no frizz or flyaways.

This versatile, lightweight mist preps and primes your hair for hot styling. Ouai Heat Protection Spray is formulated with thermal polymers to help hold hair in place until you shampoo again. It contains prickly pear extract and panthenol to minimize frizz and maximize shine, and has UV protection to keep color from fading. Ouai is free of sulfates, parabens, formaldehyde, mineral oil, and more, and it’s safe for keratin and color-treated hair.

BEST FOR COARSE, TEXTURED HAIR

Moisturizing shea butter takes center stage to nourish hair and reduce frizz and flyaways while protecting hair from damage caused by heated styling tools. Cantu Shea Butter Thermal Shield Heat Protectant is a lightweight spray best suited for those with relaxed, permed, textured, and color-treated hair. It provides a light hold and a smooth finish.

Packed with nutrients such as omega-7, which promotes elastin and collagen production, Amika Blockade protects against heat styling, prevents moisture loss and adds shine while making hair feel soft. This lightweight serum is safe for color-, keratin- and Brazilian-treated hair, and works great on relaxed hair.

BEST FOR VERY CURLY & COILY HAIR

This spray is designed for those with naturally curly to coily hair who want to protect those curls when straightening with a flat iron or blow dryer. A woman-owned company, Mielle’s Mongongo Oil Thermal & Heat Protectant Spray protects the curl pattern of your hair while protecting against thermal heat. It’s formulated with a hydrating blend of almond, argan, sacha inchi, and mongongo (of course) oils, to smooth away frizz and boost shine.

A weightless heat protectant created specifically for styling curly hair. Heat Screen contains copolymer, rice protein and rose water extract to reduce frizz, soften hair and add shine while protecting wavy, curly and coily hair when styling with flat irons, blow dryers, diffusers, and hooded dryers.

BEST FOR MEDIUM TO THICK HAIR

CHI makes great styling tools so they’re well-versed in heat protection. This highly recommended weightless spray protects your hair from the inside out, by sealing the hair cuticle to prevent thermal heat damage. It contains strengthening proteins and nourishing vitamins to hydrate, protect and minimize frizz and fly-aways while adding shine when blow drying, curling and straightening. All without added build-up, it’s also gluten, sulfate and paraben free.

In addition to protecting the hair from thermal heat styling, B&B’s bestselling leave-in treatment contains UV filters to protect your hair from the sun, preventing hair color from fading. A blend of six lightweight oils (argan, coconut, grapeseed, macadamia nut, safflower seed, and sweet almond) detangle, condition, hydrate and nourish hair while minimizing frizz. This milky serum spray is best for those with dry medium to thick hair and is color safe. Formulated without sulfates, formaldehyde, mineral oil, parabens, or phthalates.

BEST FOR THIN OR FINE HAIR

Recommended as the best drugstore buy by several beauty experts, this thermal spray will protect your hair from hot tools while cutting down on blow dry time. Formulated with hydrolyzed silk and quinoa to make hair shiny and manageable, OGX Silk Blowout promises “silky, sexy strands” and fuller-looking hair.

A weightless ultra-fine styling mist that protects against thermal heat, pollution, humidity, and winter static while keeping hair smooth for 48 hours without making hair sticky or stiff. Living Proof’s patented Healthy Hair Molecule “repels dirt to keep hair cleaner, longer.” It’s safe for chemically or color-treated hair and free of formaldehyde, gluten, oils, silicones, parabens, and phthalates.

Tips & Takeaways

Here are my tips and takeaways on heat protectants and styling with hot tools.

• Towel dry hair by twisting it up in a towel to absorb excess moisture before applying heat protectant. Do not rub! I use these microfiber twisty towels on my hair.
• Use a wide tooth comb on wet hair to prevent breakage and disperse product.
• Choose the right heat protectant for your hair:
  • Thin, Fine & Straight Hair — Use a lightweight heat protectant with a fine mist or spray that won’t weigh hair down.
  • Thick, Coarse & Curly Hair — Use a heavier heat protectant, such as a cream or serum, that will aid in styling.
• Always apply a heat protectant to hair before styling with hot tools, including hot rollers.
• Use a heat protectant that also contains other beneficial ingredients that condition, hydrate and strengthen; especially if you have dry or damaged hair.
• When styling, divide hair into sections, secure it with styling clips or butterfly clamps, and start styling the bottom sections first.
• Use hot tools at the lowest possible temperature that will give you results in order to minimize damage, especially if your hair is already damaged or color treated.
  • Thin, Fine & Straight Hair — Keep hot tools between 300-375 degrees Fahrenheit
  • Thick, Coarse & Curly Hair — Keep hot tools between 375-450 degrees Fahrenheit
• Keep hot tools moving as much as possible while styling…slow and steady from roots to ends.
• Try not to use hot tools on your hair every day. To minimize damage, try to limit styling your hair to once or twice each week.
• Flattening irons, curling irons, curling wands, and hot rollers should only be used on dry hair, not wet.
• Over time, heat protectants and styling products can build up on your hair leaving it looking dull and flat. Periodically use a sulfate-free clarifying shampoo to remove build-up, such as Aveeno’s Apple Cider Vinegar Clarifying Shampoo.
• Be sure to read product use and application instructions.
  • Some recommend applying product from mid-shaft to ends, others from the roots.
  • A handful of products do not need to be reapplied after every shampoo, such as Color Wow Dream Coat Supernatural Spray.
  • Apply product in sections and then use a wide tooth comb to work the product through your hair so it is evenly distributed.
  • If you let your hair air dry and then decide to style with a hot tool, use a heat protectant designed specifically for use on dry hair before styling.

What Hot Tools Do You Use

I have three favorite hot tools that I can’t live without: my Harry Josh blow dryer, CHI Lava flat iron, and BioIonic curling iron. I wear my hair in an array of styles and I’m very particular about my hot tools. Read my reviews at My Favorite Three Hairstyling Hot Tools I Can’t Live Without.

Please protect your luscious locks by using the right heat protectant for your type of hair and styling tool for the best results.

All prices are accurate and items in stock (unless noted otherwise) at time of publication.