Best Heat Protectants for Healthy Hair and How to Use Them

All right .

So today I wanna show you everything there is to know about heat protection .

So you never have to worry about damaging your hair .

Again , I'm gonna show you the three types of heat protectants , which ones are the best in each category and exactly how to use them .

But first , let me tell you a quick story about what you can expect from your hair after you know all this stuff , Leslie , my lovely salon co-founder is not a stylist .

So she struggled with her hair for years before we open the salon .

She , she used to put heat on her hair all the time without knowing how to protect it because of that .

It was always damaged and really short .

Her ends were always splitting and her hair was dry and brittle from the heat damage .

Here's a picture of her hair back then and here it is now much longer and much healthier now .

So wherever your hair is now , you will not be able to see its true potential until you learn how to protect it .

So let me fill in that piece of the puzzle for you and show you what your hair is capable of if you do me .

My name is Chris .

I own a hair salon called Live Love Lax where we test a bunch of products and bring the best ones to you .

I make these videos because way too many people have unhealthy hair and I don't want you to be one of them .

So this video is about heat styling and the number one rule of heat styling is don't do it unless you have a healthy hair routine .

If you're only using shampoo and conditioner and you go to heat style , you are going to get damaged , it is going to build up and it's going to ruin your hair .

A healthy hair routine only takes two products and makes your hair look 100 times better .

So I'll link it at the end of the video .

But for now let's talk heat protection .

All right .

So the first type of heat protectant is actually fake heat protectants .

We all know those slickster and the hair care industrial complex , they aren't exactly 100% truthful on their labels .

Back in the day , one of my clients asked me , hey , why do you guys use two heat protectants instead of just one ?

And I was like , what do you mean ?

We only use one ?

She was counting tri color fanatic and this is an absolutely amazing product , but this is not a heat protectant .

This is a leave in conditioner .

So why in the world would she think this is a heat protectant .

It's because it says it on the label , it actually has 21 benefits on the label and one of them is protects from heat .

But here's the thing , if a bottle claims to do 21 things , you can't take all those 21 benefits .

Seriously .

That's just the hair care industrial complex , throwing extra stuff on there to get you to buy it .

They will put whatever they can on this label because they know when you're looking at two products and one of them says heat protect them and all these other silly benefits , you'll be like , oh heat protection nice , but it's not nice because it doesn't really work .

They're tricking you into this .

So I want you to stop thinking of that just because it says heat protection does not mean that it's good .

Heat protection .

Heat protection is like a surgeon .

It's all or nothing .

You don't want to go to a surgeon that has 20 other jobs .

But on the weekends he works as a surgeon to make ends meet .

That's a ridiculous way of living your life .

So when you see a product like this leave in conditioner and it says heat protection , I don't care how amazing of a leave in conditioner .

It is , it is just a leave in conditioner .

It is not a heat protector .

And with that , let's give you the real heat protection .

I'll show you how to protect your hair without adding any unnecessary texture or crunch to your hair at all .

All right .

So , moving on to blow dry heat protectors .

These are ones that you wanna use when you're either blow drying your hair or using a blow dry brush .

They basically work the same .

So I'm gonna use them interchangeably blow dry , blow dry brush .

Same thing .

First off , you should know that blow dryers actually aren't that hot .

These are around 100 and 70 degrees and yes , it's hot to the touch .

But if you compare that to an iron that's 400 degrees , this is absolutely nothing .

Another thing to keep in mind is your hair actually doesn't get that hot when you're blow drying the next time your hair is wet and you do a pass with your blow dryer or blow dry brush , feel the hair afterwards .

It's actually not hot .

The reason it doesn't get hot on the first pass because there's still a lot of water in your hair .

So when the heat comes in , the heat goes into evaporating the water instead of warming up your hair , the whole thing is kind of like sweat evaporating , keeps us cool , but let's not get too science .

So with that in mind , the only time your hair gets hot is when the water is gone and when the water is gone from your hair , you're done , blow drying , it , move on to the next section .

The only way to really damage your hair when you're blow drying , it is to let the hair get hot by blow drying it after the water is gone .

So don't let your hair get hot when you're blow drying , when the hair starts to warm up , that means the water is gone , which means you're done .

If there's no water in your hair , you're done .

Blow drying , move on to the next section .

So knowing all this , we don't need a super strong hard core heat protectant when we're just blow drying .

And the hair care Industrial complex is actually doing us a solid hair .

I know .

Can you believe it ?

But they actually have heat protection built in to any good blow dry cream .

Now , I can't tell you how many clients have been shocked by the difference .

A good blow dry cream makes it's not just heat protection .

It also makes your hair look much shinier , much healthier .

It'll give you more volume , get rid of frizz and make your blow dry last much longer .

But for some reason , people think that they don't need a blow dry cream and it's a big mistake .

Not using a blow dry cream is like going on a really long road trip and refusing to use Google Maps .

It's right there for you and it's so easy and it makes your life so much better .

If you skip the blow dry cream .

I don't know what to tell you .

You might as well just skip the grocery store and forage and hunt and gather in the woods behind your house .

All right .

So let's talk about the best blow dry creams before I get distracted and go on .

A , the best ones are not just randomly picked , the best ones are picked for your hair type .

So , over the years I boiled down the world of blow dry products down into just three that can give you any look .

The first product is Red Ken's big blow .

This is amazing for fine and medium hair .

It'll give you volume body and movement .

If you think your hair is flat and boring , this is it .

And keep in mind all these blow dry creams get rid of Frizz , make your hair look much shinier and make your style last much longer .

Most people don't realize this , but the reason it makes your style last longer is because it gets it so much smoother .

The Frizz will actually ruin your hair and make it .

So you have to wash your hair more soon than you'd want to .

It's almost like food in a refrigerator .

If you buy it fresh , it's gonna last much longer before it spoils hair is the same except instead of freshness , it's smoothness , the smoother your hair is the longer it'll take before it gets frizzy and gross .

So the second blow to product is Plex Six .

This is amazing , is smoothing hair and getting rid of Frizz , but it does not give you volume and body .

So if you want volume and body and to get rid of frizz , you should combine it with the blowout and you'll get the best of both worlds because this is on the heavy side , you need to be very careful not to use too much .

You should never be using more than A P and if you have short hair , you're gonna be using less than A P .

And if you're ever combining it with another product , use like a half of a pee .

The third and final blow dry cream is Red .

Kens Frizz dismiss .

This is amazing for getting rid of Frizz , but it's a little heavy .

So you really only want to use this on coarse hair if you use this and you're still struggling with Frizz , you can always add in a little Plex six and that'll destroy the Frizz .

So we know how important it is to use a blow dry cream and we know exactly which the best ones are .

So now we need to show you how to actually use them .

A good starting point is to put a P sized amount in your hand .

If you have super long hair , you can use more than that .

If you have super short hair , you can use less than that for , for most people to have hair about to the shoulders , you wanna use a P size amount and then rub it together in your palms .

You don't want one big clump going straight onto the hair .

So you spread it out in your palms , so you'll get full coverage and spread it out all throughout the hair .

The best way to do that is to start with the bottom of your hair at the ends and then work your way up .

It's almost like conditioner where you don't want to put it really , really heavily on your scalp or else it'll make it feel gross and heavy .

So start from the bottom here and you wanna get both the underneath and the top , you can try get it in the middle , but don't obsess about that because we'll worry about that in just a second .

You wanna get the sides of your hand and the top , but only after you get it on the length of your hair .

So take what's left on your hands , put it on your sides , put it on your top and go from there .

There is a way to use these to get volume by putting on the top of your hair .

But that's an advanced class .

I'll do another video on that .

Let's not worry about that right now .

So after we've applied the product throughout our hair , the next step is to use a wet brush to help spread it evenly and get full coverage on your hair .

You're gonna pretend like you're detangle your hair , but really you're just spreading the product out .

There's no secret to this .

It's as easy as it looks .

You don't need to spend like 20 minutes .

You can do it in like 30 to 60 seconds and then you're just gonna start blow drying or blow dry , brushing this stuff .

Really ?

Isn't that hard if you know the cheat codes , this will work wonders for you if you follow it .

But please don't add any crazy stuff .

Don't add blow dry sprays or anything like speed up your blow dry time .

Stick with this .

You should only have leave in conditioner and the blow dry cream or creams .

And at this point to get the best results , I totally get it .

You have like 10 products on your shelf there and it's so tempting to use them , but I promise you don't do it .

Less is more hair .

People wonder why they have to wash your hair every day and oh my shampoo doesn't work and oh , I can never go two days without washing it because you're putting way too much in your hair .

All right .

So the third and last type of heat protectant is heat protectant made for an iron .

These are the big guys that can stand up to the 400 degree heat of an iron like nothing else .

So like we said , irons are twice as hot as a blow dryer .

So you must be using one of these to protect your hair .

You can't be using some wimpy heat protectant with emotional issues .

You need something strong these are made specifically for the heat of an iron .

If you're using something that has a bunch of other benefits and it just happens to have heat protection , do not use it .

You must use something specifically for this and only this .

So going on to my favorites here , you have two options for once .

It's actually not based on hair type , they actually protect all hair types equally .

Well , instead the way you're going to choose is based on your experience .

High 22 is great for home use if you just starting out .

So why do I recommend this for beginners ?

It's because a lot of people come in to heat protectant wanting to love it .

But when they use it , they don't know what they're doing and they use too much that makes the hair get crunchy and gross and you can feel the product in it so they stop using it and continue ironing their hair .

Not good .

Hot sets is really easy to use .

I'll show you how to do it in just a second here .

But for now know that if you don't know how to use one , if you're just starting out hot sets , 22 is the way to go .

The second and final option is Ken's thermal styling spray .

This is what we use at the salon every day .

It's amazing for getting styles to hold for a really long time , which is important for us because we're here in Florida and the humidity will just melt your style .

The downside to this is if you use too much , your hair will get crunchy and you'll be able to feel the product in your hair and it doesn't feel good .

You have to use a very specific amount enough to protect the hair but not so much to make it feel crunchy and it's not obvious where that line is .

So I only recommend this to people who really know what they're doing .

So which one you pick will be based on your skill and experience .

They both give amazing heat protection .

The only difference is how much hold it gives into your style .

So if you're not sure go with the hot sets or if you're pro go with the camera .

So let's get into how you actually use these products because it can get a little bit tricky .

There's no other products that you apply like this .

So it can be confusing for a lot of people .

First of all , you want full coverage , you don't just want to spray this on the outside and make a helmet .

It's not that type of protection .

You wanna give this all throughout your hair , not just on the outside layer , apply this section by section as you do your hair .

If you put it all over and try to make that work , you're probably gonna use either way too much or way too little .

So as you take a section of hair , you want it to be about two or three inches tall any bigger than that and you'll get bad iron results .

But as you take that section , you're gonna spray once for every six inches of length , you wanna make sure and hold it about a foot away from your hair .

So you get a fine mist .

If you go really up close , it's gonna be clumpy and be all in the same spot .

It's gonna feel gross after you have it misted into your hair , you're gonna a wet brush and spread it out .

And as you do this , it's super important .

If you skip this step , it's going to feel gross .

But as you smooth it out after you're done , your hair should be completely normal .

It shouldn't feel crunchy , it shouldn't feel wet , it shouldn't feel like it has any product at all .

If you can feel the product in your hair , if it feels wet , you used too much .

And that's OK .

That's why we do one section at a time and you always want to start in the back bottom , it's completely fine to mess up on your first section .

So take that side , look off your face , nobody's ever going to see your feel the bottom section in the back .

It's totally fine .

All you're gonna do is adjust on the next section above it .

If it's product or clumpy on the first try , no big deal .

Fix it on the next one .

And honestly , even if you mess up on the next section , nobody's gonna see that either .

The one thing that you really need to be worried about is to make sure you have it dialed in before you get to the top of your hair .

Because that's what everybody's gonna see .

You're gonna repeat this process all over your head .

You're gonna start in the bottom of the back , work your way up and then start on the bottom of the sides and work your way up .

And when you doing your iron work , you wanna keep in mind , take an extra second or two every time to make sure you're doing a good job .

You wanna give your hair at least three days rest before you hit it with the iron again .

And to do that , the best way is to make sure you do a good job .

So it lasts for those three days .

The worst thing you can do is iron your hair every day .

So you speed through it and do a crappy job spending all this time on it .

Make it last , do a good job and make it last .

It's much healthier for your hair .

This is one of those areas where you wanna work smart , not hard , do a good job up front ride that style for four , five days or as long as you can up to a week , whatever you can do , that's the lifestyle you want .

All right .

So congratulations .

You know , a ton about heat protection right now .

This is really all you're gonna need for the rest of your life .

And remember how we said at the beginning of the video that you have to have a healthy hair routine .

Otherwise , damage is going to build up and ruin your hair .

I'll link that in the description .

I'll also put a link for all the products in this video .

So thank you so much for watching this guys .

If you have any questions , go in the comments .

We usually have a pretty good discussion down there .

Thank you so much for watching .

Have a good one .