Is hairspray bad for hairgrowth?

[Ansaphone]

Since I can currently only wear a part of my hair up, until it is long enough, I am using hairspray on it to fix it. Apart from this, I also use a flatiron, but this one I always only use with heatprotectioner.

Now I wonder: is hairspray bad for the growth of my hair? I was told it grows very fast but since I have a year to go still, I do not want to slower the growth...

[Loreley]

I don't think it affects hair growth. :confused: But it's very demaging.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=79

[Ansaphone]

Even if I use it about three times a week? I only spray a tiny part after I have washed my hair.

[Athena's Owl]

The thing about hair growth is simple when you get this concept down:

No matter what you do to it, your hair is going to grow longer. What matters is how well you treat the hair you already have.

Now hairspray as a fixative - hairspray itself uses ingredients that are drying to hair, like denatured alchohol and butane. The way hairspray works is - well think of it as a very light shellac or spray glue. Once it dries, your hair stays in the shape it dries in, with the hair all kind of glued together. Break the bond with finger-combing or combing or touch-up restyling, and those bonds break apart.

Now if you look at hair under an electron microscope, you'll see that a hair shaft has these scales on it. This is the hair cuticle. healthy undamaged hair has them all in place, not overly raised or ruffly. You can do all kinds of things to disturb this orderly placement and damage your hair, but i'll just be concerned with what hairspray does - when hairspray is applied, the alchohol and butane alone are enough to raise the hair cuticle into rufflyness.

Once it dries, and you force it apart with fingers or a comb, some of those scales are sticking to the bonding agent left behind by hairspray.

Between hairspray and the flat iron, I'd say you're not doing your hair any favors

[alwayssmiling]

Athenasowl - that makes perfect sense to me. It got me thinking do you think styling gel acts in the same way? IE glueing the hair together. Will gently washing product out be better than brushing it out? Thanks

[kwaniesiam]

Aloe gel is a natural alternative to using hair spray. So is flax gel, which I find to have better hold. You can do a forum search for some flax gel recipes. Hairspray is damaging and will dry out your hair, but in moderation and depending on your goals you should be okay only using it occasionally and in small amounts.

[jane53]

Pantene hairspray is horrible on my hair.

VO5 hairspray is very gentle and effective.

Gels won't work for me. Nor will aloe for what I need.

[lemonmelon]

Would hair wax or pomade be an alternative? I don't know how damaging they are but it seems like at least they wouldn't be as drying?

[jane53]

If Ansaphone's hair is anything like mine, gel, pomade, or wax will smoosh and weigh her hair down and make it look a mess.

A light misting of VO5 spray doesn't damage my hair.

Pantene? YIKES!!! (Backs away in horror)

[Fractalsofhair]

I would say a flat iron is much more damaging than hair spray, because heat protection sprays just prevent the flat iron from catching on your hair, not preventing it from boiling. I've been known to tease my hair for special occasions and practically coat it in hair spray, and it's fairly non damaging compared to a blowdrier on my hair. I'd also suggest gel, or just an alcohol free hairspray that is as gentle as you can get it. Also, if your hair is short, bobby pins do wonders, and you can easily leave it down till APL ish without a lot of damage depending on your hair type.

Using an alcohol free hairspray and not brushing after spraying is probably not too harmful, though it can tear cuticles, it wouldn't boil the hair shaft like a flat iron does. Nightshade has lovely pictures of the damage from a flat iron, and from hair spray.

[Pandora.]

I used to use hairspray EVERY SINGLE DAY. I have stopped using hairspray completely for nearly 2 months now. Back when I was using hairspray, I wasn't even aware of how damaging it was, but now...OMG. :O :/

I would say it made a contribution to damaging my hair. I noticed that the section of my hair I always used to apply hairspray on did grow slightly slower. I'm not sure if that's the case for others, though.