My hair has always been fine, and most days I'm grateful for its low-maintenance nature. I can wash it in the evening, wake up, brush it through and walk out the door.
But, on the occasions when I want to add in some bouncy curls or beachy waves with my best curling iron for fine hair, they used to drop out in minutes. It was incredibly annoying. That was until I discovered a product that changed everything - and guess what? It isn't hairspray.
This product has transformed my hair's ability to hold a style. I use it religiously when curling or blow-drying my hair, and the results are so impressive. Using this one mist, my hair actually holds a curl or style all day long, even sometimes for a couple of days, which never happened before. The best part? It's so affordable and easy to use.
The affordable hair product that keeps my curls in place all day long
If you're desperate for the big reveal, I'll put you out of your misery. My most trusted and beloved hair styling aid is L'Oréal Professionnel Tecni.ART Flex Pli Thermo Modelling Spray. Quite the mouthful I'll admit, but she's so worth it.
This lightweight spray can be used on wet or dry hair and is activated by heat to hold any shape created by your hair tool, all day. I mist it on slightly damp hair after roughly blow drying and just before I use my curling tongs. I apply it on the ends, brush through and leave it to air dry for a couple of minutes. The clever heat-activated spray holds whatever shape you've created without adding the dreaded crispy finish some styling products give. After I've sprayed my hair and curled it, I just brush it through.
If you like to shop around, our beauty team has sourced some alternative styling sprays that work on the same heat-activated principle.
Created by legendary backstage hairstylist Adam Reed, this gives flexible hold to styles and is blow dried in, much like Pli. The main difference here is that, instead of a salon-clean scent, this smells like fresh, green tomato leaf and rhubarb, inspired by Reed's grandmother's greenhouse.
This packs a lot into a small price tag, offering priming qualities and heat-activated hold like Pli, but also heat protection and conditioning ingredients. For this reason, it does have a slightly heavier texture than Pli, so it would be best suited to very dry or coarse hair, rather than ultra fine or thinning types.
The results are amazing. My hair is left so soft, yet my curls are intact for days. It's truly a miracle worker. I've tried what feels like every styling product on the market, and nothing has ever worked as hard as this has. It's never let me down - quite simply, I couldn't be without it.
In the image below, I've used the L'Oréal Professionnel Tecni.ART Pli Shaper on the left side of my hair and not on the right. This is after leaving my heat-styled curls for an hour and brushing them out. The bounce, hold, and natural finish the styling product gives is unmatched. So, if, like me, you have fine hair that suffers from hair-hold issues, this might just transform your styling routine.
It's also worth noting that I've often spotted this product in many a hair stylist's kit, so I'm in good company. I've worked on hundreds of photoshoots in my time as a beauty writer, and I often see this bad boy being misted through a model's hair to help the style stick around for long sessions under hot studio lights. If it's good enough for the pros, it's good enough for me
