For a haircare brand, Olaplex has a lot to offer. It’s a label best known for its hero mask (the reparative No 3 Hair Perfector), but there are conditioners, serums, oils, and a dry shampoo, too. However, what’s new to the Olaplex label falls into a product category that we almost can’t believe that the brand — known for damage repair — waited until 2023 to release: a heat protectant.
This is not just any average heat protectant that acts as a spray-able insurance policy when hitting your hair with high heat. The Volumizing Blow Dry Mist promises lightweight volume (think: bouncy blowdry minus the rollers) and protection from heat and humidity (which means it cuts frizz). There isn’t much need to layer on additional serums, oils, gels, or flyaway creams. For summer, it sounds like a magic bullet styling product.
Olaplex Volumizing Blow Dry Mist
Heading into the thick of July, our editors were excited to test drive the new £28 blowdry mist to see how it compares to other Olaplex products and heat protectants we’ve tried. Find our reviews, organised by hair type and texture, below.
If you have short, thick hair:
“I recently had quite a few inches chopped off my hair, so it’s in a sort of flipped, French bob style. I went short for a reason: I’m too lazy to style it. I simply apply a hair cream throughout my lengths and rough-dry on medium heat. But I want more structure to my hair. Could this be the answer? This is both a volumiser and a heat protector, so I spritzed it through towel-dried hair and rough-dried like usual. Somehow, it cut my blowdrying time in half and I was surprised by just how much volume and texture it lent my strands. Is there such a thing as too much? I had to use a bristle brush to tease the flipped over section into shape, but this took mere seconds. If your hair is too soft or slippery and it falls flat after styling, this is for you. My hair kept its shape for almost eight hours and I didn’t need to use any hairspray. My ends did feel a little dry, though, so next time I’m going to use it in conjunction with a moisturising cream or serum. Thankfully, it’s not humid in London right now, but I’m adding it to my holiday stash to see if it really does shield against frizz like the label says.” — Jacqueline Kilikita, Deputy Beauty Director
If you have long, fine hair:
“No offence to Olaplex, but I don’t use its products. I don’t colour my hair and I only heat style it gently (using the round brush attachment on the Dyson Airwrap) once, maybe twice a week, so it’s not damaged. Plus, I’m wary of any product that’s going to add weight or make my fine hair feel sticky, which often happens with bond builders, like the Olaplex conditioners and masks. However, this spray does something for me. As a heat protectant, it’s great; it’s super light, speeds up my blowdry, and smells fresh, kind of like laundry. I section my hair and spray it through before I use the blowdryer. Afterwards, I find that my hair has extra bounce at the ends, volume at the root, and it feels soft all the way through. It’s all I use in my hair and I’m happy with how it’s holding up — not frizzing — in this humidity. Since using it, a handful of people have complimented my hair, particularly how ‘healthy’ it looks. I’m crediting this to the Blow Dry Mist because I’m about three months overdue for a trim.” — Megan Decker, Beauty Editor
If you have Type 4 hair:
“I’ve tried a lot of Olaplex products, but I’m not a diehard loyalist. Mainly because I have a ton of hair and it has about 19,000 textures, so it’s hard to measure the effectiveness. A ‘volumising’ hair mist seems like something I don’t necessarily need in my arsenal (my hair already has lots of volume) but I really liked this as a blowdry mist. It usually takes me a solid 45 minutes to blowdry my hair with my typical products, but this cut the entire experience nearly in half. This is astonishing considering how much hair I have. Within 25 minutes, I had blown out my entire head. My hair was smooth and even voluminous in its own way. I followed all the directions on the bottle and it worked out well for me. I’ll definitely be grabbing this one again.” — Amanda Mitchell, Senior Beauty Writer & Stories Creator
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