The best heat protection sprays of 2024 for healthy, strong hair

The best for added volume

Are you a fan of a bouncy blow-dry? You’ll love this spray from Olaplex. It’s the secret weapon that your at-home styling regime has been missing until now and works to speed up drying time, add oomph to the hair and protect from heat damage all at once. The usage instructions advise you to apply close to the root to take advantage of its lifting potential, which is also good if (like me) you’re guilty of being quite forceful with the best straighteners on your roots and baby hairs at the front.

Though it works well at boosting volume at the roots, make sure you’re covering the lengths and ends of your hair, too, as otherwise they’ll take the brunt of the damage. The texture of this spray is very fine, which makes sense if the goal is to add volume, but it still felt like it had enough to it to give my thick hair added hold. While I wouldn’t say it added a huge amount of bounce to my hair, it certainly didn’t look flat or stuck to my head after styling.

The best for long hair

Unless you’ve been living underneath a rock for the past two years, you’ve probably heard about L’Oréal’s Dream Lengths Wonder Water. But if you haven’t, it's essentially a super speedy treatment that adds shine and gloss to the hair in just eight seconds. My favourite side-effect is the smell, to the point that I have (to my shame) been known to sniff my own hair.

So, as a long-time fan, I was keen to try more of the range. With the same signature scent, at just under £6 for 150ml the Heat Slayer Iron Spray is brilliant value for money. With daily use on mid-length hair, it should last six to eight weeks, meaning there’s no excuse for skipping heat protection. The formula is slightly milky, with an initial stickiness that absorbs quickly. Just be wary of the spray function; it’s quite punchy, so I found that, unless I sprayed from a distance (and even when I did), some areas were wetter than others. Another way around this is to spray some onto your hands and then smooth through your hair. .

The best budget option

Full disclosure: I straighten my hair a lot. Not just at home, but on the go with my best cordless straighteners, too. I’m also guilty of over-complicating my hair care routine, so always love when a product promises to streamline the process. This treatment spray promises to hydrate, detangle, smooth, add shine and protect against heat in just a few spritzes, which just about makes the rest of my best hair styling products redundant. It can only be used on damp hair, which is a bit annoying as I like to style mine between washes, but this is because of its consistency , which is quite thick and milky and therefore too heavy even for thick hair like mine when it’s dry. On damp hair, though, it’s brilliant and I could really feel its hydrating and nourishing properties as I brushed it through. After blow-drying and straightening, my hair was impressively soft. The scent is sweet, feminine and stuck around long after I finished styling, which always gets extra brownie points in my book.

The best for frizzy hair

Frizz is my number one nemesis when it comes to taking care of my hair. In fact, it’s the reason I’m so committed to my heat tools; I wouldn’t mind my natural curls so much if they weren’t constantly coated in a halo of fluff.

John Frieda is the first name in frizz and, from the same range as the iconic Frizz-Ease serum, I had high hopes for a fuzz-free finish with this heat protection spray. Frizzy hair develops when eloped thirsty strands reach out to the atmosphere in search of water, so it makes sense that the more moisture it has, the less it needs to look for this elsewhere. It’s true that the more I straighten my hair (and the more dehydrated it becomes), the harder I find my battle against frizz. Luckily for me, this spray is packed with humectants, which draw in that much-needed hydration. I found that a little went a long way – making it a total bargain – and my hair definitely looked and felt smoother afterwards without compromising on volume and movement. I just wish I could use it on dry hair, too, but it’s far too sticky for this (I tried).

The best for smoothing hair

If you want your hair to look (and smell) expensive, this is the heat-protecting spray for you. First and foremost, it's a detangling blow-dry spray designed for dry, fine to medium-thickness hair to help reduce knots and increase smoothness when styling. It’s packed with ingredients you’d expect to see in a facial serum – like lipids and vitamins – as well as special types of polymers that condition and smooth strands.

After using this, we found that our hair was much easier to blow dry and didn’t develop frizz and kinks. The spray itself is fine and far-reaching, which means a little goes quite a long way. The brand describes it as having a milky texture, but we’d say it’s closer to water (or skimmed milk at a push). This allows it to nourish hair without adding extra weight. Use alongside one of the best treatments for damaged hair to revitalise strands that need nourishment.

The best for flat hair

Not a problem I have personally experienced, but I know that those with finer hair can find that applying a cocktail of serums and sprays leaves their hair flat, weighed down and even a bit lifeless. If that sounds like you, this does-it-all spray might just be the perfect solution. Not only will it protect your hair from heat damage (stopping it from becoming dull and dehydrated), it’ll also increase softness and help your hairstyles to stay put for longer, with no need to reach for the best hair thickening products.

On the first spritz, this clear spray feels very wet, which is probably part of the reason it’s only recommended for damp hair. It is watery in texture but with a bit of stickiness to it, which is what grips onto any bouncy curls or waves you add via heat styling. I normally find my hair struggles to keep a wave on wash day, but this definitely helped to hold them for longer. The brand’s signature scent is a welcome parting touch, with a grown-up blend of frankincense, juniper wood and water lily that lingers until your next wash. Gorgeous.

The best for preventing colour fade

In my opinion, Bumble & bumble’s heat protection spray is the definition of an over-achiever. Not content with merely creating a barrier between heat tools and your hair, it also helps to smooth, increase shine and reduce frizz – all while limiting the damage from tools like hair straighteners. If that wasn’t enough, it’s also formulated with UV filters to stop hair from drying out in the sun and prevents colour fading, too. No wonder it’s the brand’s number-one bestseller.

When I first got my mitts on it a few years ago, the first thing that impressed me was the size of the bottle. Premium brands can have an unfair reputation for small sizes, but this chunky bottle will genuinely last you months. The product itself is oil-based (coconut, argan, grape seed, macadamia, sweet almond and safflower, if you’re interested), which helps to replenish moisture lost through styling or sun exposure. My thick and almost perpetually thirsty hair absolutely laps it up, but if your hair is finer, you may not need to be so generous with application. A must-try, especially if you regularly use hair tools, as even the best curling irons and hair dryers can wreak havoc on strands.

The best for all hair types

One of my main gripes with heat protection is that it can weigh my hair down and make it feel greasy. And, as my hair is naturally thick and curly, I don’t want to have to go through the rigmarole of washing, drying with the best hair dryer for curly hair and styling with the best hair straighteners for thick hair more frequently than I have to. Enter this little green bottle of goodness. The texture is a dry mist that seems to instantly melt into nothingness on my hair, meaning it doesn’t lose any of that just-washed bounce or freshness. That said, there are still conditioning elements in the formula in the form of jojoba and sunflower seed oils for extra nourishment – so hair doesn’t feel crispy and dry either. Better still, there’s no tell-tale “hiss” when you pass the irons over your hair, even when curling your hair with straighteners.

If you’re anything like me, getting ready in the morning involves throwing 80% of your wardrobe on the floor and straightening your hair against the clock, so Aveda’s Shampure Aroma is a welcome addition. It smells like a soothing pillow mist and is a welcome reminder to breathe every time I spritz it. An extra bonus.

The best for between washes

When it comes to heat styling, ghd is probably the brand I trust the most. I’ve been loyal to their tools since the early 00s, so they have my faith when it comes to styling products, too. Ghd’s heat protector has had a few different identities over the years, but their latest version, the Bodyguard Heat Protect Spray, might be their best yet.

A brilliant product for the time-poor, I find that one spritz is far-reaching enough to cover one side of my hair, so I only really need about nine sprays to cover three layers. It’s fine, lightweight and not even a little bit sticky, so even if you do go overboard and apply too much, you barely notice. The formula is dual-action, so it doesn’t just coat the hair to shield it from the heat, it also helps to flatten the cuticles for shinier, smoother hair that’s less likely to become damaged. Ghd doesn’t specify the temperature this protects to, but that their straighteners style at 185°C makes me think it's probably a similar number. A great choice for anyone with fine hair. If you're planning on investing in a pair of the best ghd straighteners, we highly recommend throwing in a bottle of this nifty spray, too.

The best for damaged hair

The Redken Iron Shape Thermal Holding Spray and I nearly fell at the first hurdle, as it took a good couple of minutes of shaking and spritzing to finally persuade any of the formula up the spout and out of the nozzle. So, if the same happens to you, keep persevering. I can only imagine our rocky start is down to the consistency of the formula, as the texture is not dissimilar to a milky serum. It’s heavier than I expected, so while I could spray with abundance on wet hair, I had to spray it onto my hands first when it was dry to avoid ending up saturating small sections.

The updated formula smells like a salon, and you can tell it’s a professional product as it is designed with styling in mind as opposed to just protection. It adds light yet flexible hold to the hair to keep your style in place for longer. I did find that my hair held better when using it, which meant I ultimately used less heat in general (and could even have a go at creating on-trend heatless curls with it on a sunny holiday) as I didn’t have to keep going over it in-between washes. Win-win.

The best for dry hair

Is it just me, or is clean hair always better on holiday? I think it’s the combination of the satisfaction of washing away a day’s worth of sand and salt, along with the deliciously sweet scents of summer hair products, that makes hair feel extra swish-able. So it won’t surprise you that the thing I loved most about Sol de Janeiro’s Milky Leave-In Conditioner was that it made my hair feel (and smell) like I’d just wandered out for dinner on a gorgeous, far-flung island. OTT? Maybe. But you can’t help how scents and products make you feel.

The aroma is the same as the brand’s cult Brazilian Bum Bum Cream, with notes of pistachio, salted caramel and vanilla all at play. Similar to the body cream, the leave-in conditioner also focuses on hydration. Although it comes out like a spray, the texture is more like a lightweight serum, which will appeal to those whose frazzled ends have a near-constant need for TLC (like mine). Not only did it leave my hair super soft post-styling, it also helped to keep frizz at bay – even on some very rainy days. Though the aim here is heat defence, I liked that this was more than just a heat protectant spray – there’s no reason you couldn’t use it to tame and smooth hair before air-styling, too.

The best for curly hair

Not everyone who’s lucky enough to have kinks and coils feels like they can wash and go, so if you tend to use a diffuser on your curls, or want to straighten and wave with the best straighteners for curly hair without the risk of disrupting your natural curl pattern, this is worth a try. I’m not big on leaving ingredients out (unless they’re dangerous), but Imbue makes a point on their packaging and website that this is alcohol and silicone-free – the first of which can dehydrate hair, the second of which can weigh it down. This omission, therefore, makes sense as curly hair is often naturally dry.

One spray yields a lot of product, which is great if your hair is thick like mine, but I imagine less ideal if it’s fine. For that reason, I’d say don’t spritz directly onto the hair when it’s dry (smooth with your fingers) and distribute through when it’s damp using a wide-tooth comb. It smells delicious (a bit like a kid's shampoo from the '90s) and has just enough stickiness to help encourage and hold your curls as an added bonus.