Does Heat Protectant Make Your Hair Greasy?

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Choosing to use heat protectant spray before you heat style your hair is a great choice. It helps prevent heat damage to your hair. But with an additional product placed on the hair, is greasiness a side effect of using heat protectant spray?

Does heat protectant make your hair greasy?

Heat protectant sprays don’t usually cause your hair to be greasy. But they could also contribute to greasy hair.

Greasy hair is due to excess oil on the hair. And a heat protectant spray could either have oils or cause your scalp to produce more.

Below is a detailed explanation of how heat protectant sprays can make your hair greasy, and what you can do about it. 


Contents

What Causes Hair To Be Greasy?

Greasy hair is characterized by an oily and limp appearance and texture. This is due to the excess oils that are absorbed by the hair strands. The oils can naturally be produced by your scalp or they can also be from the different hair care products you use. 

Natural Oils

Oils on the hair isn’t actually bad for you.

Oils contribute to hair health and strength. But too much oil doesn’t look good. Who wants overly slick and limp-looking hair?

Although greasy hair doesn’t usually show up until after a few days of not washing your hair, there are instances that can make your hair greasy in just a day of not washing. 

Those with finer and thinner hair are more likely to get greasy-looking hair after just a single day.

That’s because it could easily be soaked with the oil.

Washing the hair often could also be a counterproductive strategy. Oil is produced by the scalp because the scalp is looking for it. Stripping off the oil too often could lead the scalp to produce more. 

Oils from Hair Care Products

Another culprit in greasy hair are the hair products you use. Some products may contain rich oils. Although these could help your hair become healthier, they could also make your hair look greasy. 

Sometimes, even if the products don’t contain too much oil, they can still make the hair greasy by stimulating the scalp to produce oil.

Some people may have this kind of reaction to the hair products, while others won’t. Because of this phenomenon, it can be hard to isolate what exactly is causing your hair to get greasy.


Does Heat Protectant Make Your Hair Greasy?

Heat Protectant Spray

There are different ingredients in heat protectant sprays  that make it effective. Such ingredients would include silicones, hydrolyzed wheat protein, acrylates copolymer, and quaternary. 

These protect the hair from heat damage in a variety of ways. Some coat the hair to prevent moisture loss, some prevent the hair from getting damaged by replacing hair proteins, and others simply protect it from heat damage. 

Occasionally, some “natural” heat protectants use Argan oil , a nutty-smelling natural oil that provides good heat protection as well as moisturization. It can expire if you don’t use it fast enough, so beware.

Although the other ingredients are meant to help keep the hair moisturized, they could also lead to greasy hair if they are not properly used.

Some hair types would work better with oily formulations but it may already be too greasy for others. 


How To Stop Heat Protectant Spray From Making Hair Greasy

If your heat protectant spray is making your hair greasy, don’t think of skipping it before heat styling something like titanium or ceramic flat iron. Heat styling without protection will just ruin your hair in the long run.

There is a way to work around it. 

1. Avoid Using Too Much Heat Protectant

The first thing you should do is to make sure that you don’t apply too much product. This is especially true if you have fine hair.

Fine hair can be easily saturated with oils and are easier to grease up as compared to more textured hair. Reduce the amount you use, but don’t skip it altogether.

2. Use Your Heat Styling Tools at a Lower Temperature

Also, consider running your flat iron or curling iron at a lower temperature. Once you’re comfortable that your hair is protected, you can slowly increase the temp.

3. Make Sure The Heat Protectant Is Good For Your Hair Type

Another thing you could do is double-check the ingredients and formulation of the product. Make sure the ingredients included are right for your hair type.

If your hair tends to easily grease up, choose hair protectant sprays that don’t contain rich oils.


Heat Protectant That Doesn’t Make Hair Greasy

MoroccanOil Heat Protectant

If we had to choose one spray, we would recommend the MoroccanOil Perfect Defense Heat Protectant Spray. It’s a great choice for those struggling with greasiness from heat protectants.

The Perfect Defense spray is infused with argan oil, which, as we mentioned, works well for those struggling with oil issues.

It’s a great place to start!

Moroccanoil Perfect Defense, 2 oz
  • Weightless, no,hold spray blends...
  • English (Publication Language)

Final Thoughts

Heat protectant sprays are essential when it comes to heat styling. However, using them could lead to greasy hair. Not all people will end up with greasy hair after using heat-protectant sprays… but it happens.

To avoid greasy hair after using a heat protectant spray, make sure that you only use a small amount of the product. Using too much can just saturate your hair with oils.

Additionally, you should also carefully select the products to use. Check the ingredients list and avoid those with rich oils if your hair tends to grease up. 

Written by Kayla Young

Kayla is the founder of LuxeLuminous. She has worked professionally in the tanning industry for years. She has been interested in esthetics since childhood, and has tried every hair, skin, and makeup product ever produced (more or less).