Post date: September 30, 2022 | Adventure
Everything You Need To Know About Sea Salt Spray | Best Sea Salt Spray for Men
Have you ever had a carefree day at the beach? Maybe played in some waves, gone swimming, and gotten your hair wet? Do you remember the tousled wavy texture that seemed to take over your hair after it’s had some time to dry? Well, if you do then you know exactly what Sea Salt Spray is meant to achieve.
Sea salt is a seemingly magical substance. Not only can it make most of what you eat taste amazing but it can help you look amazing as well. In fact, it’s interesting to think that sea salt, despite being one of the most abundant and resourceful materials in the ocean, on land, and in every cell in your body, has only been put into commercially available “salt sprays” since the end of the 1990s. You’d think it would have caught on earlier.
Salt spray is the perfect product for men with thinning hair or hair that is “flat” or “weighed down.” Applying sea salt spray to flat or thinning hair can give the hair a more voluminous, lively appearance and texture. Salt spray can also help accentuate and increase natural curls in hair, as well as make hair feel and appear thicker due to the increased volume.
So, with the wide-growing popularity of sea salt spray and the fashionable look it provides, we find ourselves more and more curious about it. What exactly is sea salt spray? What’s it made of? And how does that diverse combination of ingredients work together to provide us with an awesome and natural modern hairstyling product? All that and more in today’s article!
Real quick, for an awesome video on sea salt spray and it’s benefits, check out Volt Grooming’s YouTube Channel, and click here to subscribe! Now on to the article…
What is Sea Salt Spray?
Sea Salt Spray, or just Salt Spray, is a hairstyling product meant to give your hair volume, texture, and that classic wavy look that you’d come to expect from a day at the beach. It was made popular after it became commercially available in the late 1990s, and took the grooming market by storm with it’s combination of natural and safe ingredients that gave your hair hold, style, and texture.
We’ll talk more about the ingredients included in salt spray later on, because, believe it or not, salt and water aren’t the only two. There are many more ingredients in sea salt sprays that have very practical purposes.
Overall, sea salt spray is rather simple to use. Most salt sprays out on the market are simple bottles with spray caps that you use to spritz the solution directly onto your hair. More spritzes result in a greater effect.
How Does Sea Salt Spray Work?
Sea salt spray works to give your hair texture, volume, and waves due to nature of salt itself. Salt is a very good moisture absorber. In fact, salt is called “hygroscopic” because of its innate ability to pull moisture towards it. Have you ever found the salt clumping in your shaker? That’s because the salt has pulled enough moisture from the air alone to dissolve itself and reform in clumps.
When you apply sea salt spray, the salt evenly coats your hair and begins pulling away moisture and excess oils. This slightly dries your hair and causes that wavy voluminous look that many come to know and love. Salt spray can also be used as a dry shampoo, mainly because salt is such an effective de-moisturizer that it helps pull away excess oils that weigh down your hair and cause it to feel flat, lifeless, and even potentially sticky.
Don’t worry though, although salt spray is meant to slightly dehydrate your hair to provide the desired effect, it can be used sparingly, and the dehydration is minimal and usually non-damaging. Not to mention, there are other ingredients in salt spray (besides salt) that help to counteract the dehydrating effects, as we will now get into!
Ingredients in Sea Salt Spray
There are generally three categories of ingredients in a quality sea salt spray. “Quality” being the key word here. The first is the active ingredients, then the inactive ingredients, and finally the carrier ingredients.
Active ingredients help you directly achieve the effect you’re looking for in a good salt spray! This includes ingredients like salt, obviously. Inactive ingredients don’t help achieve these effects, but instead, help mitigate negative effects (like fight excess dehydration from the salt). And lastly, carrier ingredients just blend everything together (like water, etc.).
We can’t speak for the quality of every sea salt spray out there, but here are the ingredients in Volt Surf Salt Spray and why we chose them to make the best salt spray there is.
Various Salts:
The main active ingredient in salt spray is, you guessed it, salt. Salt is here to provide the texture and volume we come to expect from a good sea salt spray.
Although at the end of the day, salt is salt, it is also true that different variations of salt contain different trace materials and minerals. We like to combine various types of salt (Himalayan, sea, table, etc.) in order to create a blend to get the best of all (salt) worlds out there. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard (and we like that kind of thing).
Activated Charcoal:
I bet you weren’t expecting this one. Another active ingredient in Volt Surf Salt Spray is activated charcoal. Activated charcoal is added to aid the salt in absorbing excess oils, toxins, and dirt. This increases the cleaning and absorbing power of the spray and brings the added benefit of making sea salt spray a “dry shampoo” of sorts.
Sea Kelp:
Here’s the truth about sea salt spray: Bad salt sprays only contain salt and water. Good, high-quality salt sprays will contain extra ingredients that help keep your hair and scalp healthy and not so dehydrated.
Sea kelp is an ingredient in salt spray that is not absolutely necessary for achieving the desired effects of the spray, but makes all the difference when it comes to keeping your hair and scalp happy and safe from the damages of dehydration that salt and activated charcoal can cause. Sea kelp helps to soften and hydrate the skin underneath your hair which reduces the flaking, irritation, and itchiness that are common issues of bad salt sprays.
Kaolin:
Another added ingredient that helps mitigate negative salt spray effects is Kaolin, a natural mineral. Kaolin, also called “china clay” is a soft white clay commonly used in the production of fine china and porcelain. In fact, it happens to be a great fortifier and soft exfoliating material, perfect for use in your hair. While you apply the salt spray and rub your fingers through your hair to shape it, the kaolin goes to work gently exfoliate and scrub away debris and acts as a barrier between your hair and the outside elements.
Panthenol:
Panthenol, known as pro-vitamin B5, is added to the sea salt spray mixture to promote hair elasticity and improve the texture of damaged hair. It is a precursor of pantothenic acid (Vitamin B5) which is a natural component of your hair. Panthenol is often used to treat wounds, abrasions, sunburns and more due to its ability to increase cell turnover, essentially accelerating the healing process and helping promote healthy cell production.
Best Sea Salt Spray for Men
We’d be remiss not to vouch for our own Volt Surf Salt Spray as an excellent quality salt spray with both active ingredients and protectants. Our blend of salts and charcoal help provide the cleaning and styling properties you expect of sea salt spray, while our protectants help shield your hair from dehydration. But, in the case you should look elsewhere, keep in mind to search for ingredients that provide safety from the dehydrating nature of salt and other ingredients, whatever they may be.
The best sea salt sprays have ingredients such as sea kelp, panthenol, and more that help you manage the moisture in your hair, instead of ridding it completely. This way, you can still achieve the well-loved “beach-hair” look without compromising the comfort or health of your own hair and scalp!
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