Product Review: TIGI Copyright Texturizing Salt Spray
TIGI Copyright Texturizing Salt Spray
Reviewed at 4 out of 5 stars (22 reviews) on Amazon, this product offers everything you want out of a salt spray and has been one of my top choices as a texturizing pre-styler for myself and my clients.
Disclaimer: my boss, that owns the shop I work at, is affiliated with this brand as a hair educator for TIGI. Therefore, we would use TIGI products and sometimes retail these products to our clients. However, we did not exclusively use TIGI, and I do not have any direct business relationship with the brand. This is going to be as honest of a review as I can provide, despite having that indirect connection with the company.
My Experience
So here's the thing, I don't think it's easy to find a salt spray here in Calgary. I have heard of this wonderful product that adds texture and hold to hair but feels lighter than a wax or clay. I've seen many videos of how a few spritzes into damp hair before blow-drying can give hair much more volume and life. Or if you have a bit of wave in your hair already, you can spray into it while giving it a scrunch to emphasize more of a beachy wave texture. A salt spray sounded like a cool idea to me, but I could never seem to find one at my local drugstore. It wasn't until I became a barber that I could finally get my hands on one and it was the TIGI Copyright Texturizing Salt Spray.
This is a product line that is a bit elusive and hard to get for the general public, and I have had to purchase it through the beauty supply store. Nowadays, the stock of this product is not consistent and even I struggle with finding the right place to get a bottle of this stuff. This is an absolute shame because I think it's one of the best salt sprays I have used and I highly recommend this product. I personally use it myself!
Positives
What I like about the Texturizing Salt Spray is that it offers more of a light-to-medium hold, but doesn't give an overall sticky feeling to the hair. It provides almost a soft grit to the hair, which is what I am looking for when it comes to a product that is meant to be applied before styling. I don't want to feel too much resistance as I run a brush or my fingers through the hair during the blow-drying process. I have tried salt sprays that feel too sticky and cause a lot of tugging in the hair while styling, and I have tried lighter salt sprays that don't match the hold of the TIGI Copyright. I personally feel that a pre-styling product should be able to take you to around 80% of the finished style, where you can see everything is in the right place before adding a wax or a clay to set the style for the day. On some clients, I found that the Texturizing Salt Spray on its own was enough to style the hair, and a finishing product was not even required.
Negatives
From my experience with the product, I find that it performs really well in adding texture and the perfect amount of lightweight hold to the hair. However, there are a few things about this product that I feel are drawbacks to consider before purchasing.
A downside of some salt sprays is that they can dry out the hair, and this can really be seen in folks with finer-textured hair. The result is that the hair clumps together and tangles up in places, which is not a desirable outcome for styling your hair. The Texturizing Salt Spray may not be as drying but it still has this effect on fine-textured hair, though I’d say not as bad as other salt sprays. This could be due to the product having hydrogenated castor oil in the ingredients (which is shown to moisturize and thicken hair [1]) and that somewhat counteracts the drying effect on fine hair. However, I think there are better products that can be used to help thicken the hair and work better for styling finer strands of hair and I plan to explore that in a future post.
Another thing about the TIGI spray that I will note is that the spray nozzle can get clogged up by the product over time and prevents a smooth spray. Sometimes it won't even come out of the bottle because of how much build-up there is in the sprayer, resulting in having to switch it into a different bottle altogether. I have experienced this across multiple bottles of this salt spray and definitely find it to be a big frustration when using the product.
Moreover, Amazon reviews showed two written reviews at 2 out of 5 stars saying that the product left them with crunchy, hardened hair. The 1 & 2 Star reviews make up 21% of the total reviews on the Amazon page. I am not too sure how they would have applied the product, and that could be a result that one would encounter if they apply it to dry hair. The instructions on the bottle say that the product can be applied to dry or wet hair and scrunched to bring out the texture. I prefer applying it to damp hair that has been lightly towel-dried, as I find that provides the most consistent results. Whether you decide to blow dry or let it air dry the rest of the way will be up to your preferences, but I find applying it to completely dry hair won't give you the same effect as promised.
Another negative, much like the TIGI Copyright Firm Hold Curl Cream, is that this product can be hard to find in stores. It can be purchased online through Amazon and even Walmart's Marketplace but through third-party vendors and not by TIGI itself.
At the time of writing this post, MyQuickMart is the name of the seller on Amazon for this product. They appear to have high reviews as a seller, however, I worry that because they are not TIGI that the stock of the product is not consistent. The price for the Texturizing Salt Spray there is $9.98 USD with a $9.37 shipping fee. That is going to be around $26 CAD, which is a fair price for the product! (Our shop sold the same product for $27 CAD when we had it in, but we've since been out of stock.)
Walmart's Marketplace offers the same product, sold by Extra Beauty Connections. Walmart's Marketplace does not feature reviews on the seller compared to Amazon, so it is hard to say how reliable Extra Beauty Connections can be in delivering. Additionally, this time the price of the product is $36.98 CAD. Even though I really like this product, that kind of price tag is a bit high, and I don’t think I’d spend that much for the Texturizing Salt Spray.
I think it's a hassle to source the right places to buy products from and I like having a reliable place to go to. I find third-party online retailers to be hit or miss with consistency. However, if that's your preferred method of getting products then you may want to go the Amazon route.
How to Use
As I mentioned earlier, this product is best applied to damp hair and allowed to dry either with blow drying or air drying. I’d say you want a good few sprays to saturate the hair. I will typically give 5-6 spritzes into my hair and make sure to run my fingers or a comb through my hair to spread it out evenly, then I will start to blow dry into whatever direction I want the hair to go. As my hair gets close to being completely dry, I begin scrunching my hair to manipulate its texture. At this point, the hair is completely dry and has the shape and texture I am looking for, and I will then apply a matte paste or a bit of clay to the hair to lock it all in place.
Some may find that they can use the salt spray on its own. If you have a natural wave to your hair, you can follow my guide for “wet-setting” hair. Basically, you would apply the product to damp hair, loosely style everything where you want them to be, and then let it air dry. After the hair is completely dry, you can run a brush through it and then give the hair a bit of a scrunch to re-emphasize the waves. Optionally, you can apply a matte paste or clay as well for added hold, but I suggest doing that when the hair is damp and let the product dry along with the Salt Spray.
Summary
I think the product performs well as a salt spray and would recommend it to anyone. It provides a medium hold, which is strong enough to be used on its own if you prefer using minimal amounts of product. The Texturizing Salt Spray doesn't dry out the hair, especially when used on lightly damp/towel-dried hair. Those with finer-textured hair may find that the product can cause the hair to tangle though. I'd say this is a great product for everyday use and for a majority of people in that straight-to-wavy hair type. I feel it is worth it at the $26-$27 price point, but not so much at $36-$37. As well, I would really like it if the sprayer was designed in a way where it didn't get clogged up. It's still good enough that I would just transfer it into another spray bottle and go from there, but I know that can be too extra for some people.
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