DIY: Salt Spray/Detangler

If you've been reading this blog since the beginning, you know that Maud and I started it as a part of our senior project, and that we were originally going to create a magazine to go along with it (hence 'stella magazine.' haha). Well, um, tha'ts not going to happen (cough cough), but we are going to do two photoshoots, which we will then post on this blog so it looks like we tried. One of those shoots is going to be '80s themed, since we feel like that encompasses a lot of the Spring and Fall trends, and one is going to be a culmination of a lot of trends (sheers, florals, chiffon, tiers, ruffles, lingerie-inspired, etc), that we're going to be shooting on a beach. Since it's going to be on a windy beach, we figured any super-structured hairstyles would be a wash, so we're going to try something along the lines of loose, slightly messy waves as seen in the shows below:

Balmain, Emporio Armani, DSquared, Missoni:

I like this style because it's easy, and it would move nicely with the wind. Plus, all that salt spray would just add to the messy waviness of the hair. Here's where it gets difficult. We're using one of the models in another shoot that morning, where we're going to tease/hairspray the life out of her hair (sorry Alex...) and we don't have time to wash her hair in between shoots. So I was trying to think of a way to untangle her hair quickly, and had an A HA/duh moment: detangler, AKA leave-in conditioner. This stuff is basically watered down conditioner, so it's easy to make. But then we also have the problem of quickly texturizing and waving both the models' hair for the beach shoot. We need their hair done before we actually get to the beach, where we'll have no electricity, fewer supplies, etc. So I needed an easy way to wave and texturize their hair as well. And now we have the genius moment.

I modified a recipe from Glamour's Girls in the Beauty Department Blog to create a detangling, texturizing, wave-inducing salt-spray. I know. It sounds extremely complicated AND too good to be true, but it's not!

Take a big spray bottle (it needs to hold about 12 ounces). Fill it with 8 ounces of water, a teaspoon of fine salt, a dab of drugstore hair gel (the runnier the better), and 2 teaspoons of coconut-scented conditioner, and shake well. Now, the originial recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of conditioner, but since we needed extra detangling power, I quadrupled it. And I used a deep conditioner (Aussie's 3 Minute Miracle, which is bleh but smells yummy), which is like 2x more concentrated than conditioner, so I basically used 8x more conditioner. Hehe. It sounds like it would make your hair look nasty, but it doesn't, I promise. I'd recommend using this on wet hair, since it will encourage more of a wave and was a much longer probability of making your hair look greasy if you overapply, but dry hair works too, just use a little more sparingly. To apply, spray liberally on all of your hair below the tops of your ears. Any hair above that is on the crown of your head, which means it's near your oil glands, and putting extra conditioner on top of oil glands is never a good idea. Scrunch all your hair vigorously (this encourages the wave even more), and let hair air dry--that's right, NO BLOWDRYER.

I actually tried this, on dry hair no less, and I have to say, it's awesome. I basically have Barbie hair (it's uber thick and falls like a hair curtain, like Barbies or My Little Ponies). I want messy, bedhead hair, but my hair is not a fan. This spray actually got my hair to have not only texture, but it looks messy! In a good way. That's a serious, serious acheivement.

Image Sources: Balmain: style.com, Emporio Armani: style.com, DSquared: style.com, Missoni: style.com