I love my straighteners but out of fear of wrecking, or more precisely burning my hair I always, always use a heat defence/protection spray before both blow-drying and a little before straightening. In my quest to find THE BEST protection spray I have come across many different branded products; purchasing items in price ranging from the £5 mark to the £20 mark give of take a few pounds. One of the early products I tried was the Toni and Guy 'Iron-It' heat defence spray which claims to protect your hair from heat damage whilst styling, and as Toni and Guy are or is a well-known and reputable brand I thought they'd be a safe bet/starting point.

I first used this spray before blow-drying my hair, spraying the product over my head and then brushing it through whilst wet, after which I began blow-drying my hair:

Expected Results:

Shiny, healthy looking hair
Almost straight appearance (It is called Iron-It)
Few fly-away, frizzy hairs
Smooth, soft-to-touch finish

Actual Results:

My hair didn't look any shinier and healthier than before
My hair was no straighter
Numerous fly-away hairs sticking up on top
An almost matte and slightly sticky texture to the dried hair

Clearly 'Iron-It' was not a good product to use as a heat-defence spray before blow-drying. So test-one...FAIL.

Secondly, and on a different occasion for fairness, I used the 'Iron-It' spray before straightening, applying and brushing the spray over dry hair.

Expected Results

Smooth, healthy looking hair
Manageable and straight hair, smooth in it's appearance with no fly-aways and a sleek look
Soft to touch

Actual Results:

Again my hair felt sticky and a little greasy and had little shine, in all actuality the spray had done more to 'dull-down' my colour rather than make it appear healthy and well-cared for. Also, as final condemnation for the product, although it smells ok when you first spray it onto your hair a couple of hours later it smells stale. Not good, and you will find that this stale smell lingers with you throughout the day until you wash your hair, far from having any positive comments from anyone regarding my hair when I used this product I only had a solitary: 'did you go to the pub or something earlier' from my partner who thought he could smell old beer, smoke and other nasties on my hair!!!! Needless to say I immediately re-washed my hair and chucked the product!