The hack
Making a styling spray for your hair using salt, water and other items.
The promise
Salt spray – salty water – was responsible for that quintessential noughties hairstyle the “beachy wave”, so called because you looked like you’d been for a swim. It’s back on the spring catwalks at Victoria Beckham and Roksanda, but can you make it yourself?
The test
Bumble & Bumble’s Surf Spray was the ultimate styling product of my youth for that dry, matte “fresh from the beach” texture – minus the rogue bits of seaweed. The plethora of DIY recipes online share a common base method. I start by half-filling an old face mist bottle with water, add a teaspoon of sea salt and shake. Spritzed on my dry, curly hair and scrunched with my hands it just made my hair feel crispy. Another recipe suggests adding aloe vera juice or gel to the mix: this softens the crisp a little, but still feels underwhelming. Swapping the aloe for hair gel, as another recipe suggests, adds a smidge more definition, though some strands are positively solid. In my final endeavour, I a few drops of jojoba oil to this formula. Sure, it softens the gel a little, but my hair is still so crispy it audibly “crunches” when I move.
The verdict
A DIY spray is fast, cheap and worth a try, but best suited to straight, thick hair, but I’ll stick to Bumble & Bumble.
