Sea salt spray delivers an oil-absorbing mist to texturize and volumize hair, as well as to enhance your natural curl.
How and When to Use It
Sea salt spray works bets in medium or long styles, and as the last (or only) step in your styling routine. Spritz it lightly throughout your hair and scrunch your locks for a tousled, undone look. you can even comb it through to ensure an even distribution, then muss it up for a less defined style. The salt provides a light-to-medium hold by absorbing grease and oil.
Its best on wet hair (for enhanced curls or textured straight hair), but can be used on dry (also for texture, or acting as a dry shampoo between washes). Pro tip: If you like the scent, you can sometimes spritz it on your body, too. Sprays like Herbivore Botanicals Hair Texturizing Spray have all-natural ingredients so they wont irritate your skin.
Drawbacks of a Salt-and-Sun Style
Some people find that the salt in these sprays creates build-up or dries out their hair. To combat that effect, try a product thats loaded with moisture. PARLOR by Jeff Chastain Moisturizing Sea Salt Spray, for instance, includes almond extract to soften strands as it texturizes. Otherwise, be sure to wash your hair two or three times a week with a reparative conditioning shampoo, to help balance out the natural oils that keep your hair healthy.
When it comes to nailing that perfectly messy, post-swim beach hair, you don't have to spend a day by the ocean. Enter sea salt sprays, aka surf or wave sprays, which include (of course) sea salt to give your a naturally textured and tamed look. Some are even packed with ingredients to promote the appearance of thicker hair.
Best At Providing A Strong Hold
Clay Effect Style Spray Baxter of California Read MorePurely Coconut Texturizing Spray Alaffia Read More
Read more: Best Hair Products for Men
Five years ago you likely would've found only a couple of quality sea salt sprays on the market. Now, there's almost too many to count. That's why we tried and tested a bunch of sea salt sprays for the past year to find the best one for virtually every type of mane. Ahead are some of our favorites to achieve that devil-may-care hairstyle.
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Best At Providing A Strong Hold
Texturizing Sea Salt Spray
Purely Coconut Texturizing Spray
How To Apply Sea Salt Spray
Sea salt spray is best when applied to damp hair. There are a few sprays out there that work for dry hair but if you want to emulate true beach hair then stick with the latter method.
First, give a couple of spritzes onto your hair then run your hands through it to start working the product into place. You want to make sure you massage the spray enough to wear it reaches your hair follicles that way you can fully enhance your waves and curls.
Read more: Best Shampoos for Men
Once the sea salt spray is worked into your hair you can either let it air dry or use a blow dryer. Using a blow dryer with sea salt spray will help inject more volume into your hair and give more control.
The main difference in using a blow dryer is your hair will look more tamed. Going with the air-dry option will essentially let the sea salt spray work all on its own.
Can Anyone Use Sea Salt Spray?
It's worth mentioning any individual can use sea salt spray. Those with straight hair typically will get a more textured, messy effect. And those with curly or wavy hair will see those features accentuated more (and even maximized).
Make sure you pay attention to the types of sea salt spray you're buying. Some sprays are formulated much more differently than others.
Read more: The Best Grooming Products You Can Buy
For example, if you have thick hair you will want to avoid sea salt sprays that maximize volume. Guys with thick hair already have a high level of volume, so adding more might create one of those giant puff-ball situations.
And for those who use color-treatment or keratin-treatment, you should be super picky in what you purchase. You either want to use sea salt spray sparingly or look for an alternative like .
For the past two years, we consulted with Men's Health's Grooming editors and writers on the top grooming products for men. Experts including our Grooming Editor Garrett Munce and Senior Commerce Editor Christian Gollayan put a myriad of sea salt sprays to the test and evaluated their effectiveness, scent, and value. We also considered top-reviewed sea salt sprays that had at least 100 five-star customer ratings on e-commerce websites that we trust.