The 13 Best Heat Protectants, Tested & Reviewed
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Save your strands from breakage and brittleness with this simple step.
InStyle / Reese Herrington
Heat protectants are the SPF of haircare: Professionals tell us that you absolutely need to use one every day, or, in this case, every time you use a hot tool, to avoid causing irreparable damage. As celebrity stylist and curly hair aficionado, Nai’vasha Johnson says, “a heat protectant serves as our hair’s health insurance insurance.”
Coating your hair in a safety blanket may sound like a bit of a downer, but these multitasking formulas are more than just a coat of armor between your hair and the sizzling hot styling tool you’re aiming to use. These weightless barriers seal the cuticle to protect strands, block frizz, supercharge shine, and leave it feeling silky, soft, and totally touchable.
Sound unbelievable? We thought so too, so we nabbed a roster of InStyle editors across a range of hair types and textures, and tested the buzziest, most popular heat protectants out there. Over five weeks, we intensely scrutinized every aspect of these heat protectants, from the way they made our hair look and feel, to the scent to just how long we had to wait for them to absorb. Then we scorched our strands with hot tools at 450 degree heat to see just how well they defended our hair. We awarded bonus points to products that also nailed other benefits we long for, like a boost in hydration, glossy radiance, and no trace of a flyaway. Then we compared notes, scored, and ranked each product to create this list of options that can really do it all.
Best Overall: Shu Uemura Netsu Design Blow Dry Cream
What We Love: The lightweight formula is chock-full of vitamins and proteins that left our hair feeling moisturized, and more voluminous.
What We Don’t Love: It doesn’t hold styles in place—you’ll need a hairspray for that.
This multifaceted cream from Shu Uemura seemed to be part heat protectant, part luxurious salon treatment, earning it the prized top spot on our list and our vanity. Not only did this spray effectively protect our strands from heat damage, it also tackled frizz and zhuzhed our lifeless, flat strands so well that we considered ditching all of our other styling products in favor of just this one.
What makes this cream a triple threat is the hearty dose of beeswax in the formula, releasing a tsunami of moisturizing fatty acids and strand-strengthening antioxidants that gave our hair such a noticeable softness and glossy shine that we felt like even our grown-out highlights had a new life and radiance to them. Even better, the protein-rich castor oil in the formula keeps working as the cream continues to sink into strands to repair frazzled ends and prevent new ones from starting.
Considered a blow dry cream, it applies the same way that a salt spray or hairspray would, except that the mist is a milky cream. And we could tell right away that this was a highly concentrated formula that wasn’t fooling around, evidenced by the lack (read: zero) of crimp marks or flyaways left behind after we straightened it. We were particularly thrilled with the way it kept the hair around our fringe smooth, giving us hope that we can finally master the art of the micro French-girl bang. Actually, throughout testing, our confidence grew in its protective abilities—we didn’t even worry when we bumped our flat iron up to a higher temperature than normal.
Sure, it’s a little pricier than other protectants but we think it’s worth spending a little extra considering how, aside from a hairspray to hold our styles in place, we didn’t need to apply our usual finishing products, like rich oils and leave-ins.
Price at time of publish: $42
Type: Cream | Key Ingredients: Beeswax, castor oil | Heat Protection: Up to 450 degrees | Size: 5 oz
Best Budget: CHI Total Protect
What We Love: Ingredients like hydrolyzed silk and vitamin E, give this cream hair-resorting benefits to help reverse damage from color treatments and heat.
What We Don’t Love: When applied to dry hair, the cream is a little sticky upon initial application.
Chi is no stranger to making affordable products that actually work, and this gem of a primer gives the gift of a shiny halo all around our heads. This formula relies on the conditioning properties of hydrolyzed silk to bestow this angelic glow. It also makes the cream’s texture feel velvety and nourishing, likely the reason it’s been shown to help heal and restore protein to our strands from all the time we spend under foils coloring our hair.
Additionally, UV absorbers which boast similar benefits and work alongside vitamin E act as an iron curtain against heat damage, both man-made in our hot tools and nature’s UV rays. We also appreciate the inclusion of lavender and peppermint extracts that may help spur hair growth. We hope to see the fruits of that with continued use, but in the meantime, we’ll just be enjoying the calming herbal scent of a ritzy spa.
The only aspect that gave us pause was that our hair felt a little sticky when we initially applied it to our dry hair. It made us worry that the moisture would cause our hair to steam if we used a flat iron or leave us with a tacky finish, but our doomsday qualms were soon quashed when we ran our fingers through our silky smooth hair after styling it—no steam hijinks here.
Price at time of publish: $17
Type: Cream | Key Ingredients: Silk, vitamin E, UV absorbers | Heat Protection: | Size: 6 oz
Best for Damaged Hair: Olaplex No. 9 Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum
What We Love: Damaged hair will thrive again—and this time, the antioxidant-rich ingredients in Olaplex’s patented bond-building system ensure it will be better protected from heat and environmental factors.
What We Don’t Love: The added fragrance lingered on our hair all day.
No one is safe from split ends, but one look at our brittle texture and fried ends reveal that we haven’t always been the most diligent with keeping our hair hydrated. And to be honest, we weren’t expecting a miracle, given the messy, vulnerable state our hair was in, but somehow, Olaplex managed to repair and strengthen our strands.
What makes Olaplex special is the formula’s one-two punch starting with the brand’s proprietary bond-building system, leaning on the antioxidants, proteins, and amino acids provided by red algae to block hair from potential threats, such as pollution and UV radiation. In fact, some studies link red algae to quicker hair growth, giving us hope that we could see fuller hair with continued use.
Together with nourishing emollient panthenol and shine-boosting citric acid, the serum coated our hair in a lustrous vibrancy we’ve only ever seen in shampoo commercials. Despite relying on many rich oils to deliver gorgeous results, an even bigger surprise was that the cream felt weightless on our hair and absorbed in under 20 seconds.
Basically, we only have nice things to say here, but we should note that the serum has a floral aroma that lasted all day, but we’re fans of peonies, so we loved catching a waft here and there.
Price at time of publish: $30
Type: Serum | Key Ingredients: Bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate, red algae extract | Heat Protection: Up to 450 degrees | Size: 3 oz
Best for Dry Hair: Moroccanoil Perfect Defense Heat Protectant
What We Love: Argan oil revives dry, brittle strands without weighing down our hair or leaving behind a sticky residue that dampens hair.
What We Don’t Love: We had to brush the product through our hair to avoid it getting clumpy.
It’s no surprise the styling product that worked best to bring our hair back from the brink of dehydration relies on a foundation of argan oil to get the job done. Although many products and brands take advantage of the ultra-moisturizing and protein-restoring properties of this nut oil, Moroccanoil, the brand behind some of our favorite dry shampoos and hair treatments, developed a formula that sets it leaps and bounds above the competition.
Along with humectants panthenol and glycerin, the primer taps argan oil to seal the cuticles shut and lock moisture in, imparting a silky, glossy finish. Radiance aside, this dense oil pulls double duty by acting as a forcefield between hair and sun damage.
But that’s not all: When we dug a little deeper into the formula we uncovered shiitake mushroom, rosemary, and sage, all of which work to strengthen and maintain the health of the hair, and all its conditioning, shine-enhancing effects.
Those of us with dry hair are not strangers to styling products that hydrate our strands, but also envelop our whole head in a thick, heavy feeling. Yet, the mist here was fine, even, and settled nicely from root to tip, averting the familiar crisis of slicking back heavy hair into a messy bun.
Price at time of publish: $30
Type: Spray | Key Ingredients: Argan oil, panthenol, octyl acrylamide | Heat Protection: Up to 450 degrees | Size: 8.1 oz
Best Lightweight: Amika Blockade Heat Defense Serum
What We Love: This formula only consists of nourishing ingredients that feel weightless on our strands, but it still includes everything to protect them from damage.
What We Don’t Love: It’s not the most hydrating serum we’ve used.
We’ll admit that we were a little skeptical about applying a thick serum to our hair (they have a reputation to be a bit sticky), especially given the fact it can be used on wet or dry hair. But whichever way we spritzed this Amika protectant—damp, dry, or somewhere in between—it never left a tacky, sticky residue.
Amika’s not exactly known for subtly, evidenced by the brand’s whimsical psychedelic packaging, except, it seems, when it comes to the simple, but powerfully curated, list of ingredients in this primer. If the packaging is what first catches your attention, it’ll be the visible results that turn your head next.
When every ingredient counts, it’s hard to pinpoint one as the hero, but buckthorn oil and its army of 18 different amino acids, vitamin C and fatty acids in tow, comes pretty close. This jack-of-all-trades oil preserves hydration within each strand, while strengthening hair follicles and encouraging new hair growth.
Without a ton of heavy oils, which can be great for hydrating hair but can take us to greasy status pretty quickly, we feel the protectant could work well into our summer haircare routine, when our strands typically require less moisture than dry, winter months.
Price at time of publish: $30
Type: Serum | Key Ingredients: Sea buckthorn oil | Heat Protection: Up to 450 degrees | Size: 1.7 oz
Best for Frizz: Briogeo Farewell Frizz Blow Dry Perfection & Heat Protectant Crème
What We Love: A trio of emollient-rich oils drenched our hair in moisture, effectively smoothing hair and taming flyaways after one use.
What We Don’t Love: It takes a little longer to dissipate into the hair than other options.
When it came to our head of flyaways, this serum had an immediate and impressive impact. We only continued smiling at our reflection as we noticed less static and overall dryness, with a bout of increased nourishment around our ends every time we styled our hair.
This didn’t come as a total surprise, considering Briogeo is a frizz-taming savant and the genius behind some of our favorite frizz-fighting hair masks and shampoos. Similar to those formulas, this protective cream also taps argan and rosehip oils, whose slight heaviness slicks down errant flyaways, but coconut oil is the true star of the show here. It made our hair feel moisturized and lustrous, and we’re keen on the fact that coconut oil also works as a natural protector against heat by preventing protein loss and further damage.
Packed full of so many oils, we were worried the creamy primer might feel oppressive or wet—or, worse, give us a greaseball look—but it proved to do just the opposite. As long as we rubbed the gel between our hands before applying, it distributed evenly in our hair, and by the time we finished blow drying any initial residue had totally disappeared.
Price at time of publish: $26
Type: Cream | Key Ingredients: Rosehip oil, coconut oil, argan oil | Heat Protection: Up to 450 degrees | Size: 4 oz
Best for Curly Hair: Mizani Heat Screen Hair Protectant Spray
What We Love: Luxuriously moisturizing, the spray left our curls feeling well-nourished and looking bouncier and better defined.
What We Don’t Love: Though the scent is heavenly, it is strong and can cause competition with the fragrances from other lotions and perfumes.
It’s a fine line for us curlies to walk: We need all the hydration help we can get, but without causing our spirals to become heavy and fall flat. Yet, this Mizani spray protectant shows that small and simple can most certainly be mighty. With a lightweight mix of conditioning ingredients, such as tea tree oil and propylene glycol, we got better-defined bouncier coils, ringlets, and waves.
Seriously, our hair looked healthier after just a few uses, and gave us so much shine, likely due to the addition of rose water. This super hydrator often flies under the radar, but it’s brimming with vitamins and antioxidants to soothe the scalp and protect our color-treated hair. With the addition of salicylic acid, a natural surfactant, the formula naturally mitigates oil production.
To further combat that crunchy feeling some curl-enhancing products supply, the mist flowed in a wide, even steam—and never once jammed or clogged, a true feat—to help curb our inclination to keep on spraying, and instead of overdoing it, we swathed our hair in protection, root to tip.
Another one of the spray’s more salient features is its intoxicating, garden-fresh scent which leads noses to it like a cartoon to a pie on a windowsill. The only downside is a more noticeable fragrance meant we had to opt for an unscented body lotion while wearing it.
Price at time of publish: $25
Type: Spray | Key Ingredients: Rose water, glycerin, tea tree oil | Heat Protection: Up to 450 degrees | Size: 8.5 oz
Best Drugstore: Verb Glossy Shine Spray with Heat Protection
What We Love: For less than $20, this spray gifts hair with shine, softness, and hydration while using similar ingredients as pricier brands.
What We Don’t Love: It doesn’t offer as much protection as other heat protectants.
In a few words, (and for even fewer dollars) Verb created an affordable product that gave us everything we wanted in a great heat protectant: Just a single spritz made our strands feel softer, look fuller and bouncier, and prevented our ends from looking dried out and frazzled.
However, what sets it apart from others is its ability to transform dull hair into a luminous, nearly reflective sheen—a result we can attribute to an impressive lineup of hydrating vegan ingredients, including shea butter, citric acid, and peach, and rosehip oils. Squalane, a naturally-occurring lipid in the skin, is another front-running ingredient here, too, since it acts as an emollient and antioxidant to strengthen and nourish our hair and scalps.
Though it only offers protection up to 425 degrees (a relatively lower threshold than others on the market), it provides a serious amount of value for the price.
Price at time of publish: $20
Type: Spray | Key Ingredients: Peach oil, rosehip oil, squalane | Heat Protection: Up to 425 degrees | Size: 6.5 oz
Best for Fine Hair: Gisou Heat Protecting Spray
What We Love: Filled with natural ingredients taken directly from the source, our fine, delicate hair seemed to better withstand heat and looked fuller.
What We Don’t Love: The formula is so light it was hard to tell how much we applied to our hair.
There are some pretty remarkable ways this protectant kept our fine, delicate hair from singeing and sizzling on the plates of hot tools. Not only was our hair not scorched, it managed to make our hair look thicker and more voluminous, despite having just slathered our strands in Gisou’s sticky honey-based oil. And what’s even sweeter is that the brand sources its ingredients sustainably from a bee garden, so you can feel better about your purchase.
Along with honey, glycol helps the hair cuticle retain moisture, in turn giving our strands extra radiance that make us just want to touch and tousle it. Meanwhile, propolis, a material that bees use to build hives, is another key ingredient that has anti-inflammatory and hair-strengthening benefits. As a bonus, we felt better leaving the house without a hat since the formula has a UV filter for an extra layer of safety against the sun.
Another notable feature about the formula is how airy it felt on our hair—truth be told, sometimes it was hard to tell how much we applied but we’d rather take this over the alternative of a heavy, sticky spray.
Price at time of publish: $41
Type: Spray | Key Ingredients: Mirsalehi propolis, honey | Heat Protection: Up to 446 degrees | Size: 6.8 oz
Best Detangling: Living Proof Restore Perfecting Spray
What We Love: Our hair drank up all the softening and shine-imparting benefits in this lightweight, spray formula, which was so nourishing, we’d guess it was a leave-in conditioner.
What We Don’t Love: We had to thoroughly brush our hair after spritzing to avoid a tacky finish.
By softening our hair with a brilliant concoction of relaxing plant-based ingredients, like beetroot and artichoke extract, and emollients like glycerin, Living Proof’s Perfecting Spray calmed our tender, reactive scalps from the pain caused by raking combs through tangled strands.
Where many creams caused our fine hair to fall flat instantly or leave our curls looking like we got caught up in a rainstorm, this gentle mist amped up the volume and helped hold our styles all day. It absorbed fairly quickly too, around a minute on dry hair, but we had to ensure it was thoroughly brushed throughout our hair to spread it out, or else we could still feel it on our hands.
Here’s the silver lining: We actually noted that its slightly tacky texture lent the spray to act as a very light hairspray by providing more texture and body that helped curls and waves retain their shape.
Though these are all applaudable factors, we were most concerned with how well it would save hair from the harmful effects of our hot tools, especially on natural hair, but we were so pleased with the results.
Price at time of publish: $32
Type: Spray | Key Ingredients: Glycerin, beetroot extract, artichoke extract | Heat Protection: Up to 450 degrees | Size: 8 oz
Best for Straightening : Bumble and bumble Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil Heat & UV Protective Primer
What We Love: By absorbing into the hair quickly, this oil primer is a master at combating frizz and helped our straight styles last longer and look sleeker.
What We Don’t Love: When used alone, the protectant still left our ends a little dry.
We’ve tested many top-notch flat irons to achieve those pin-straight, supermodel styles worn by Emily Ratajkowski, before we realized that the first step is actually a great primer.
This silky oil sank into our hair with lightning speed. So fast even, we could instantly use our hot tools after using it, without fear of a puff of steam rising from our flat iron. What’s more, instead of undergoing the frustrating experience of seeing our straight hair puff up the second we step outside, we were euphoric that it stayed sleek and static-free, even after trekking outside in the rain. This major durability is likely due to the inclusion of some of our favorite strand-smoothing emollients, like coconut, argan, and almond oils, which also happen to be mighty blockers against the effects of overexposure to heat from UV rays.
Sometimes we still needed to apply an additional serum to our ends as they still looked a little dry after using the primer, but considering how well it worked otherwise, we’re more forgiving of this con.
Price at time of publish: $32
Type: Oil | Key Ingredients: Coconut oil, argan oil, macadamia oil | Heat Protection: Up to 450 degrees | Size: 6.2 oz
Best for Shine: Kérastase Résistance Ciment Thermique Blow Dry Primer
What We Love: Our strands soaked up the nutrient-rich formula of proteins and ceramides to become shinier and stronger.
What We Don’t Love: It may not protect dense, thick hair as well.
Kérastase understood that with strength comes shine. To deliver long-lasting megawatt luster, the brand looked within, and took note of the makeup of the hair in order to formulate this primer. As a result, this primer is like a bulging muscle for hair.
Take, for example, its inclusion of ceramides, a lipid that helps hair retain moisture by acting as a laminator between your strands and anything that can cause brittleness, like the heat from our hot tools. Split ends? Those are left in the past along with dullness, static, and breakage.
Although this protectant is advertised as a cream, we felt the consistency was more on par with a silky serum instead, given the way it instantly melted into our thin, fine hair like a dream. One note here: It may take more product than a heavier cream to evenly coat and protect denser hair types, but that’s not wholly unusual for coarse, thick hair.
We think of the primer a little like the same kind you apply before makeup: It prepped the hair before we styled it and helped better hold our styles—our hair even looked soft and bouncy after an intense gym session.
Price at time of publish: $37
Type: Cream | Key Ingredients: Pro-keratin complex, ceramides, tamarind extract, plant sap | Heat Protection: Up to 450 degrees | Size: 5.1 oz
Best for Colored Hair: dpHUE Color Fresh Thermal Protection Spray
What We Love: The formula leaves out sulfates, silicones, and other potentially harmful ingredients that could strip color and lead to dullness.
What We Don’t Love: It leaves behind a light residue that lasts until you blow dry or brush out your hair
After spending hours—and a pretty penny—in the salon chair poring over hair inspo snaps with our stylists, the last thing we want is a hot tool to shorten the lifespan of our highlights. Enter: The dpHue protection spray.
We’ve turned dpHue before when we wanted to keep our blonde hues bright and strands glossy in-between visits. Similar to those two color-centric formulas, this protective spray is free of gloss-stripping additives, like sulfates. Instead, the base of the formula is tocopherol, also known as vitamin E, to gently hydrate our hair and supply it with the nutrients it needs to be strong and healthy. And, in turn, our color-treated hair lasts longer and looks richer.
We’re also fans of how easily it sinks into our hair, and though we felt a little residue, we’d liken the feeling more to a super light flexible hairspray rather than a sticky, tacky texture. It definitely didn’t stop us from running our fingers through it.
Price at time of publish: $28
Type: Spray | Key Ingredients: UV absorbers, limonene, vitamin E | Heat Protection: Up to 450 degrees | Size: 5 oz
Our Testing Process
To start, we spent dozens of hours carefully selecting the most popular heat protectants to test. Next, each InStyle editor took a heat protectant home to integrate into their routine over the next two weeks, rating the product on how efficient it was at protecting their hair from the heat from blow dryers, flat irons, and curling irons. We also asked them to consider if it was easy to apply, how it felt on their hair, and if it left their hair with any other benefits like smoother strands or less frizz. The heat protectants that earned our top scores are featured on this list.
InStyle / Jessica Juliao
What to Keep in Mind
Type
Most heat protectants are either a cream, serum, or spray. Regardless of your hair type, Nai’vasha always recommends a lightweight formula that won’t cause strands to look slick and oily. The Amika Heat Defense Serum felt like practically nothing on our hair yet still dispensed plenty of heat-protecting benefits.
Additionally, Olya Iudina, a stylist in New York City, recommends anyone with thin or medium hair types use sprays or serums. Meanwhile, those with thick, coarse, or curly hair may benefit most from a cream or balm “as they’re a little bit heavier and add more control while blow drying,” she says. We like the powerful humectants found in Briogeo Blow Dry Perfection & Heat Protectant Crème.
Ingredients
Our experts agree you should seek out oils, such as coconut and sweet almond, in a truly fantastic heat protectant as they coat the strands and “create a protective barrier when activated with heat,” says Johnson, who adds that since these oils are also super lightweight they won’t lead to wilted styles.
Iudina also suggests looking for formulas with protein, like spirulina protein, which “works great for frizz control and smoothness,” she says. We’re fans of the Kérastase Résistance Ciment Thermique Blow Dry Primer in this regard because its formula has proteins and amino acids galore that strengthened our hair and boosted elasticity.
Weight
Choosing a lightweight heat protectant is very important—anything too heavy can make your hard-earned styles fall flat. Yet if it takes too long to absorb, you could run the risk of touching wet hair with a hot flat iron which leads to sizzling and steam. Sticking with products that opt for plant-based ingredients, like those found in the Shu Uemura Netsu Blow Dry Cream, or any that leave out silicones and sulfates, such as the dpHue Color Fresh Thermal Protection Spray, should keep you in the clear.
Your Questions, Answered
Does heat protectant work?
Yes, just take it from the pros: “Hair should never be exposed to heat without this barrier,” says Johnson. She adds that heat protectants function like a barrier between your hair and the high temperatures from hot tools. To form this barrier, formulas usually feature ingredients like coconut oil, amino acids, and proteins that shield the hair cuticle from damage. Additionally, many formulas include hydrating emollients like squalane and glycerin to combat any dryness caused by heat.
Additionally, you should think of heat protectants as a way to mitigate damage, not fully prevent it. There are other steps you can take to maintain the health of your hair like not setting hot tools above 300 degrees if possible, wearing a hat if you’re in the sun for a long time, and incorporating conditioning hair masks into your weekly hair care routine.
How do you use a heat protectant?
Of course, the number one rule is always to use it before applying any kind of heat – that means blow drying, hot rollers, flat irons, and curling wands. Whether you’re using a cream or a spray, the key to applying any heat protectant is ensuring it's distributed throughout the hair. Just like with sunscreen, if you miss a spot it’s prone to the adverse effects of heat.
If you’re using it on wet hair before you blow dry, Nai’vasha recommends applying it directly after towel drying the hair. “If it’s a spray, delicately and thoroughly mist from roots to ends, then, paddle brush throughout for even distribution,” she says.
The same can be said for creams—separate your hair into even sections and apply it liberally. Be sure you wait for it to fully absorb into your strands before going over it with your hot tool. You can usually tell by touching your hand to your hair and noticing if there’s a significant amount of residue.
Why do you need a heat protectant?
Simply put, a heat protectant shields “your hair from heat, which may burn your hair, cause split ends, make your hair dry and lifeless,” says Iudina. Additionally, she adds, it can help your color-treated hair last longer. Without this safety net, hot tools strip your hair of its natural protein, making it weaker over time, disrupting natural curl patterns, and causing increased breakage.
What is InStyle Picks?
Did you notice the InStyle Picks seal of approval at the top of this story? That means our team of testers has reviewed every product on this list using a unique methodology to ensure it's really worth your time, money, and attention. We may get samples for free to try but we never promise positive (or any!) coverage in exchange. Put simply: InStyle Picks are products we love, and we've put them to the test to be sure you will too.
Why Shop With Us
Irene Richardson is a writer covering fashion and beauty trends. For this story, she compiled insights from the team of InStyle editors who tested each product. She also spoke with hair experts Olya Iudina and Nai’Vasha Johnson to learn the key features and ingredients of high-quality heat protectants, as well as tips and tricks on how to incorporate one into a routine.
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