The 10 Best Beachy Waves Products in 2020 – WWD
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There’s no hairstyle more synonymous with summer than beachy waves. What was once a passing trend has become a seasonal mainstay. The best part about them — even as summer comes to an end — is you can nab the look of unfussy yet artfully tousled tresses without dipping your toes in the sand, since there’s a plethora of products that deliver the best beachy waves. Salt sprays are essentially ocean air in a bottle and instantly add that dreamy texture and volume, even to limp locks.
To find the best beachy waves product for you, consider your hair type and texture. Wavy girls have the least amount of work to do, since all they need is a texturizing spray to separate strands and pump up their natural waves. Curly haired types are best off with a product that has some heft to loosen their curls a bit. Straight hair needs a mousse or light cream that will deliver grit and lift. Regardless of your hair type, another thing to look for is ingredients that will deliver volume, shine and soften hair, which will all fool anyone into thinking you just came from a day at the beach. These are the best hair products to nail effortlessly chic beachy waves.
1. Playa Endless Summer Spray
BEST OVERALL
This literally is a beach in a bottle — the lightweight spray is infused with sea salt sourced from California to play up hair’s natural pattern and texture. If you can’t take a vacation there this summer, at least your hair can. That’s not its only sea-worthy ingredient. It also contains marine collagen to nourish hair. Free of alcohol, it’ll never dry out locks or leave them feeling gritty or stiff.
2. Captain Blankenship Mermaid Sea Salt Hair Spray
BEST FOR MERMAID WAVES
Captain Blankenship jumped on the mermaid hair bandwagon early, so of course its Sea Salt Hair Spray delivers the waves everyone’s favorite mythical sea creature is famous for. Designed to work on all hair types and either wet or dry hair, the natural, clean formula is chock full of organic ingredients to boost hair health, including aloe vera for hydration and sea kelp extract, which is packed with vitamins and minerals. Atlantic sea salt brings on the wavy texture while rose geranium extract provides the beautiful scent.
3. Sexy Hair Texture Surfer Girl Dry Texturizing Spray
BEST FOR SECOND-DAY HAIR
When you need to breathe fresh life into second-day hair, there’s no better beachy waves product than this one. Ideal for hot summer days, it boasts 24-hour humidity protection while bringing on major shine. It adds just enough grit to create touchable texture, giving you the best excuse to wait another day to shampoo.
4. Ouai Wave Spray
BEST FRAGRANCE
When you’re all about truly effortless style, this is the beachy waves spray for you. Completely foolproof, just spritz this on for instant texture that can be reworked with your fingers. Incredibly lightweight, it’s infused with rice protein for hold and coconut water for hydration, leaving shiny locks behind. It works equally well on wet or dry hair. Its North Bondi fragrance is a head turner, with a blend of bergamot, Italian lemon, rose de mai, magnolia, lily, blackberry, violet, cedarwood, amber, patchouli, sandalwood and white musk.
5. Not Your Mother’s Beach Babe Texturizing Sea Salt Spray
BEST DRUGSTORE
Beachy waves on a budget can be yours. Natural Dead Sea salt and sea kelp take the spotlight in the ingredient list to look like you just stepped off the boardwalk. Any hair type will be left with tousled waves with a matte finish. It can be applied it to wet or dry hair and left to air dry, or use a diffuser to give hair extra oomph.
6. R + Co Rockaway Salt Spray
BEST NOURISHING INGREDIENTS
In case you couldn’t tell from the name and bottle, New York City’s Rockaway Beach is the muse behind this volumizing and texturizing salt spray. Spritz on the luxe spray to fake a day spent at the iconic beach. Nourishing ingredients help hair feel pretty on the inside too, with vitamin C to protect from free radical damage, sage to strengthen, balm mint to avoid color fade, yarrow plant extract for body and cranesbill to swell the hair shaft for volume. Sicilian lemon, tangerine, eucalyptus and green tea deliver the intoxicating scent.
7. Bumble and bumble Surf Spray
BEST FOR FINE HAIR
An OG saltwater-based styling spray, this classic creates matte waves, hold and volume for fine to medium hair with straight or wavy texture. Its ingredients are straight from the beach, so your hair will look like it is, too. There’s ascophyllum nudosum extract, a seaweed extract that softens, smooths and hydrates hair while boosting elasticity as well as taking down static to prevent flyaways. Macrocystis pyrifera extract is a kelp extract chock full of iodine and minerals to improve hair’s shine and manageability, plus there’s also magnesium sulfate, a.k.a. Epsom salts, which works as an astringent.
8. Moroccanoil Beach Wave Mousse
BEST MOUSSE
Fine hair that needs extra lift and waving power does best with a mousse and Moroccanoil’s Beach Wave Mousse is the trick. The texturizing mousse brings flexible hold that lasts all day with a natural finish. Unlike most of its beachy waves peers, the unique formula is completely free of salt. Ideal for a day al fresco, it contains UV filters to keep strands safe under the sun. Best applied to wet hair, the mousse formula provides better styling control so you can work your waves however you’d like.
9. Herbivore Sea Mist Coconut + Sea Salt Beach Wave Hair Mist
BEST NATURAL
Practically plucked from the Pacific Ocean, it uses the same exact salinity. The all-natural formula does it all, from hydrating to adding volume to refreshing hair to, of course, bringing on beachy waves. There’s sea salt to detox and cleanse hair as well as aloe water for moisture. Coconut and vanilla essential oils provide the delicious beachy scent. The fine mist works on all hair types.
10. Kevin Murphy Hair Resort Spray
BEST FOR AUTHENTIC TEXTURE
True beach waves are a little mussed and perfectly imperfect, which is exactly what this spray transforms strands into after a few spritzes. The oil-free texturizer transforms hair in seconds and has a strong hold. Pliable yet piecey, hair is also left with loads of shine.
