Wella Eimi Thermal Image 150 ml

Product Information

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. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.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. da Gama RM, França-Stefoni SA, Sá-Dias TC, Bedin V, Baby AR, Velasco MVR. Protective effect of conditioner agents on hair treated with oxidative hair dye. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2018;17(6):1090-1095. doi:10.1111/jocd.12484 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. Sharifi N, Hamedeyazdan S, Shokri J, Monajjemzadeh F. Argan oil as a pretreatment of human hair before exposure to oxidative damage: Attenuated total reflectance and protein loss studies. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2022;21(10):5010-5017. doi:10.1111/jocd.14885. Jin M, Chen YL, He X, Hou Y, Chan Z, Zeng R. Amelioration of Androgenetic Alopecia by Algal Oligosaccharides Prepared by Deep-Sea Bacterium Biodegradation. Front Microbiol. 2020;11:567060. Published 2020 Sep 29. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.567060

Oh JY, Park MA, Kim YC. Peppermint Oil Promotes Hair Growth without Toxic Signs. Toxicol Res. 2014;30(4):297-304. doi:10.5487/TR.2014.30.4.297 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. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. What We Love: The formula leaves out sulfates, silicones, and other potentially harmful ingredients that could strip color and lead to dullness.

What We Love: Our strands soaked up the nutrient-rich formula of proteins and ceramides to become shinier and stronger. 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. 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. 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.” 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.

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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. 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. 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. 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. Huang ZR, Lin YK, Fang JY. Biological and pharmacological activities of squalene and related compounds: potential uses in cosmetic dermatology. Molecules. 2009;14(1):540-554. Published 2009 Jan 23. doi:10.3390/molecules14010540