Homemade salt water spray damaging?

[Dr. Girlfriend]

I mixed up some homemade salt spray to make beachy waves, and while I really like the results I wonder if it's not damaging. I've had to trim since I started using it, but that was my quadannual trim to get rid of splits from the ill thought out blonde highlights I had around 2010 that I colored over to get rid of.

I used 2 tablespoons of sea salt, 2 teaspoons of coconut oil, and about a tablespoon of hair gel mixed with 12 ounces of water to make it. I spray it on about once daily, scrunch it up, and then don't mess with it at all and then wash it out after about 4 days. It doesn't seem to make it really dry or anything. Does this sound like it would be terribly damaging to my hair?

[rock007junkie]

Not really, salt could be a little bit drying but you are already counteracting that with using oils.

[MaryO]

I've been wondering the same thing- haven't tried it yet but as soon as I get the go ahead here I definitely will! ;-)

[torrilin]

Yes, it's damaging. Salt is drying. But if you've got the sort of hair that gets wavier as it gets drier, there probably isn't a good way around the situation.

In your position what I'd do is use a more moisturizing overall routine to help compensate for the damaging effects of the styling choice. That said, if I'm actively growing I trim every 6-12 months to deal with split ends, so you're trimming 2-4x as often as I would, and it's entirely possible that the drying effects are minor enough that your frequent trims would handle it.