Favorite Spray Moisturizer/Definer?

Hisreputation

What's your favorite spray-in moisturizer and/or definer and why?

Impending summer has brought me back to this forum after an extensive absence. I have nearly waist-length hair that is basically straight except for the whispy bits around my temples and the nape of my neck. Those short sections can be easily styled to 2c/3a given the right conditions [read: summer hummidity]. If I don't style them, it looks like I've got horns sticking out on either side of my head, and if I do, I look like a Jane Austen transplant.
Right now, styling involves pulling my length into some kind of bun/updo and misting the whispies with water. A bit of tapping and scrunching and they do their thing. I've been sulfate-free for more than four years.

I need to get some kind of leave-in conditioner for my length, and wondered if it was possible to get something that would also help enhance my curly bits.

See photo for example of my dual personality hair! That's a pretty extreme version--the curls don't usually wrap around my head like that.

naturecat

You have lovely hair! I think you are a true curly, but the length weighs down and pulls out your curl for the waist length hair. The curly bits are the short bits. It would be helpful to know your hair properties in order to make any recs. Hair width, porosity, hair density etc. I have a feeling you have some in common with me--when my hair was longer I was more like a 2b, but now that it's cut short I'm more like a 2c/3a. I think fine hair is particularly susceptible to this--is your hair fine?

Also wanted to add, if you want to enhance your curl, two things:
A) Gel, esp hard hold gel
If your hair is fine, protein treatment. The easiest one is with gelatin.

Therese1

I've been getting extra curl definition from sea salt sprays lately. I use two: one by John Masters and one by Sevi. The John Masters one can be drying, while the Sevi one can be too moisturizing and even greasy on my fine hair. I use one or the other depending on the state of my hair at the time (in the humidity, the JM one works great, but if my hair is dried out, the Sevi one is better).

Hisreputation

Oh goodness. Hair properties have always been a struggle for me. I'm basically average to low for thickness, density, and porosity---I think. My hair is definitely not coarse, thick, or dense.
My hair does kind of seem easily weighed down, and my scalp is given to oil (especially now that it's summer). Shea butter is too much for me. If I want to curl my hair, overnight rag curls work best for longevity. Heat styling usually doesn't hold up, but I don't really use product so maybe that would make a difference.
If I leave my hair down to dry, it takes maybe 2 hours? If I twist it up, it'll still be kind of damp 6+ hours later.

naturecat

With that drying time, you're high porosity probably. If your hair is indeed thin-medium width and you don't use protein on it, you may want to consider doing a protein treatment on it, or at least finding a conditioner with some protein in it (or styling product or some such). Yes, product makes a difference. Virtually everyone on this board uses product (with few exceptions). Many of us would have much straighter, less defined hair without product.

curlypearl

This post is good - important question.

macher

Therese1 wrote: »

I've been getting extra curl definition from sea salt sprays lately. I use two: one by John Masters and one by Sevi. The John Masters one can be drying, while the Sevi one can be too moisturizing and even greasy on my fine hair. I use one or the other depending on the state of my hair at the time (in the humidity, the JM one works great, but if my hair is dried out, the Sevi one is better).

Isn't sea salt spray bad for your hair?

curlypearl

I have the same question as macher. I'd love to use a product with some sort of salt spray (or mag sulfate) but our curl chemist (Tonya McKay) and others warn that it can really dry out hair. I guess if you don't have particularly dry hair it's ok to use once in a while. My hair tends to be quite dry because I color it.

JD.GameAccou

I have those same whispy pieces on the sides too. They never grow long enough to pull back into a pony or bun. If i'm not careful they'll stick straight out at the sides. I have fine, high porosity, 2B hair. I've found RE:Coil or Jessicurl Sprialiscous (sp?) defines and brings out my curls without weighing them down or drying them out.

But nothing short of using barrettes will "tame" these wayward curls... I'm trying to embrace them and accept that its just part of being a curly/wavy.

Therese1

About the sea salt spray, yes, you do have to be careful. I will say that I haven't found the Sevi one to be drying at all. In fact, sometimes it seems to make my hair greasy. The John Masters one can definitely dry your hair out, so I just use a little bit, and I make sure that my hair is already very well moisturized. I don't use the John Masters one in the low dews because my hair is just too dry already.