Heat Wave: What to Put On Before the Blow Dryer

We are not going to tell you to break up with your blow dryer. Heat does its damage on the passes you did not need, on the sections you went over twice because the first pass did not take, and on hair that was never detangled before the tool touched it.

Ten products for the layer between hair and the tool. Some are heat protectants in the classic sense, a spray you mist on and forget. Others earn their place because they add slip, control, smoothness or humidity resistance while you style, which means fewer passes and less fighting with the same section. A blowout cream, a six-in-one styler, an anti-humidity spray for the days the weather undoes everything, and a conditioning spray that has been protecting hair since before heat protection was a category.

Protection is not invincibility. Use the buffer, lower the temperature, reduce the passes, and let the styling product do the part of the work you were asking the heat to do.

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