Post Punk Kitchen Forum

So I spent my youth as a loyal Aquanet user (purple bottle, always) and I've emailed them a few times to see if they test, and got no reply (sadface) so I bought Bedhead Hard Head, and it's really similar to the Aquanet, just a nice strong hold. But then I found out that Tigi were bought out by a company that tests, and I'm back to square one.

Any ideas? I don't like Paul Mitchell's aerosol hairsprays, the hold isn't great and they make my hair look stringy. The Ion spray from Sally Beauty Supply sucks, it does nothing. I hate pump bottle spritzing hairsprays, they're too wet and too direct. I want something that coats my hair into a nice toxic big messy helmet.

I have big hair - grew up with Aquanet (white can) and use aerosol, however the company does not test but is owned by a tester so I will not post my go to brand. However I see these pop up as vegan and might try them out...I need cheap hair spray since it takes a lot to get my hair Peggy Bundy big!

http://www.whiterain.com/hairspray_uneh.asp
Beauty Without Cruelty Aerosol Hairspray

Not in my big hair budget:
http://www.bloom.com/jonathan-product-f ... 10-oz.html

I forgot about the White Rain one, it's not great, and it flakes. I didn't know BWC had an aerosol spray, I'll look for that.

I checked non-testing brands on the Peta list and I'm going to look into sprays from Rusk, L'anza, AG, and KMS. I'm hoping I can find travel size of all their firm hold stuff, as well as the Jonathan Product one you posted. I hate buying full sized product and then it doesn't work.

Still taking suggestions though! I love hearing about people's HG products.

I'm not a huge hairspray user, but I like Jonathan's aerosol hairspray. It's pretty expensive for drug store hairspray, but it does its job. Here's their website: http://www.jonathanproduct.com/

But Jonathan is not drug store brand...

I found this - I do not know if Renpure is sold in stores but Amazon has it for $6.99 a can:
http://www.amazon.com/Renpure-Organics- ... B004CDQ6HW

Jonathan is sold in the normal (not fancy salon) product section of my local drugstore (duane reade/walgreens) - right next to the l'oreal.

I haven't tried it, but I've heard good things about Unite hair spray. I'm going to try it next.

ETA: http://shop.unitehair.com/products/finish/go365-hairspray

That is odd....I have only seen it in the high end side of Ulta & at Sephora.

yeah, since walgreens bought duane reade they've been trying to make the duane reade stores fancy (which is not all bad, they're selling sweet & sara marshmallows now too!).

Aerogel is pretty awesome.

I totally don't mind high end recommendations for hair stuff, that's the one thing I'm not cheap about because I feel like I can tell the difference in quality between the expensive stuff and the cheap stuff. With the exception of Aquanet, which is the best thing ever, and I wish they would respond to my emails and tell me that they're CF and vegan and snuggle puppies all day long. But yeah, I wear $1 elf shadow primer and $1.99 Wet n Wild lipstick, but I get the fancy schmancy hair junk.

Is it really wet? Because it sounds like it would be. Otherwise from reading about it it sounds awesome.

No, it's not wet. It's an aerosol spray that dries stiff.

Awesome, I'll check it out!

I want a aerosol that does not make me look like dandruff shoulders and I can brush out at night and restyle the next day.

You can brush out some of the Paul Mitchell sprays, and they don't flake, but the hold is not good. If you just wanted a light little mist to keep your flyaways tamed it would be fine, but if you want hairspray that beats your hair into submission and holds it there real good, then the PM stuff is not for you.

Back in my big hair days I used to use KMS when I could afford it and it was the best. But that was the 80s so no telling if it's the same anymore.

just bumping this thread to see if there's any updates!

jessilkewhoa - did you find something that you liked?!?!

i'm suddenly needing to curl my very thick, mildly wavy hair into bouncy curls and needing the curls to last for hours. feels impossible. no clue what kind of hairspray to buy.

Jessi you are cracking me up. I don't have any recommendations really. I have a 4 year old can of Aveda light spray that is ok for me for the few times I use it, but it wouldn't give you toxic helmet hair. I will try the White Rain on next. In the 80's my sister and I both went through an entire can of hairspray a week and our only bathroom at my parents house, well the tiled walls were always sticky as hell from the spray. Everything was covered in a sticky film. I used to use the cheapest spray which smelled like licorice. Oh, the 80's...

do you remember that Aussie spray that smelled like artificial grapes? My best friend used to spray her hair with it in the hallway between classes in middle school.

yeah, I'm no help. I have a hippie spray from Shear Miracle Organics that is fine for just setting my hair but it's not super strong.

I've been using the Awapuhi Wild Ginger Finishing Spray from Paul Mitchell and it's pretty good. Not Aquanet good, but better than anything else I've tried. No flakes either.

does it smell good?

It smells a lot like Origins Ginger Essence perfume, so if you like that then yes. I think it smells fantastic. A lot of the products in the Awapuhi Wild Ginger line have keratin in them, so not vegan, but the hairspray is fine.