Everything I Use to Smooth Out My Frizz: From Hair Gloss to Dryer Sheets

I figured I’d start with things that help me prevent flyaways. For years, I’ve been diligent about choosing the right shampoos and conditioners for my hair type, but that hasn’t done much to keep the flyaways in check. Whathashelped is adding a gloss. Glosses don’t actually eliminate the flyaways, but they give my hair a glassy, reflective shine that makes everything look healthier and more polished. You realize pretty quickly that half the reason flyaways look bad is because they dull the overall effect of your hair. Add shine back in, and suddenly the frizz is less distracting and more like part of a normal, healthy head of hair. There are tons of options, but my favorite so far has been Amika’s Flash, a 60-second rinse-out mask you apply after washing and conditioning your hair. It uses amino acids and UV filters to hydrate, soften, and add a glossy shine while smoothing strands and protecting color. It makes my color look brighter and my hair so lush and healthy that the shine practically distracts from any flyaways.

Another, perhaps obvious, suggestion is a heat protectant. Even though we’ve established that most of my flyaways are new growth, we still don’t want to risk any breakage happening toincreasemy flyaways, so I always make sure that before I blow-dry or use my thermal brush, I get in with a heat protectant, my favorite one being Drybar’s Hot Toddy. It can be hard to know how well a heat protectant is working, but I’ve definitely not noticed any increase in flyaways since diligently using this, so we’ll take it!

Silk pillowcases are not simply a gimmick. Just about every stylist I’ve ever seen swears by them for keeping hair smooth. The fabric cuts down on friction while you sleep, so your strands don’t get roughed up against cotton pillowcases all night. Less friction means fewer tangles, less frizz, and fewer of those tiny rebel hairs that stand up straight in the morning. And if you stick with it, silk actually helps reduce flyaways over time by keeping everything sleeker and more aligned strand by strand. I tend to buy silk pillowcases on Amazon because that’s the cheapest way to get them in bulk. I’ve been particularly obsessed with sage-green ones that look really nice against my pale-green striped bedding.

Now that we’ve talked prevention, let’s get into management: what I reach for when I wake up and my flyaways are staging a full revolt. A friend brought me back a tiny taming stick from Japan that all her friends there swear by, and I get it. It’s a small wax stick that fits in your bag but smooths large sections of hair at once. It tames stray strands without flattening volume or leaving a ton of residue, and the precision is what makes it addictive — you can target a patch of new growth or that one rogue strand sticking straight up, and it actually stays put. It’s the thing you want on hand right before a photo or when you catch your reflection in a bar bathroom and realize your flyaways have gone feral.

The classic trick for taming flyaways is simple: Apply hairspray on your hands and press down on the top of your head. You’ve maybe seen your stylist do it at the salon. My favorite spray is the one from Crown Affair because it doubles as a shine booster. Is it the strongest hold out there? Not really. But it’s not sticky, it doesn’t have an overpowering scent, and it leaves your hair looking effortlessly polished from root to tip.

I’d be lying if I said I fully grasp the science, but the gist I’ve gleaned from the internet is that dryer sheets are coated with “cationic compounds,” which are basically ingredients that reduce static electricity. When you rub a dryer sheet over your hair, it neutralizes the static that causes strands to repel one another — a big reason frizz and flyaways happen. To use it, you basically take a clean dryer sheet and lightly glide it over the surface of your hair, focusing on areas that tend to stick up or get frizzy. It won’t weigh down your hair or make it shiny like a gloss, but it smooths flyaways and leaves hair feeling noticeably less chaotic. This is the best method if you hate the tacky texture of a hair spray or a wax stick.