Hairspray Hacks to Help Your Life…But Not Necessarily Your Hair — Hacks #13

Hairspray…

Does anyone under the age of sixty still use the sticky glaze for its intended purpose?

Perhaps on movie sets. Or on prom night or one’s wedding day. Or in the odd beauty salon to freeze the perfect coif when your stylist desires you parade it to the outside world of wind, dust, and sunlight?

Environmentally conscious creatures gave up the ghost of old-fashioned aerosol cans eons ago. Why? Because they contained chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that cause substantial damage to the atmosphere’s ozone layer.

An international 1987 treaty, the Montreal Protocol,¹ signed by 191 countries banning the use of CFCs, has successfully reduced ozone damage.² Current aerosol manufacturers have replaced CFCs with other substances. To my knowledge, the non-aerosol versions don’t contribute to the environmental problem, or at least not in the same fashion.

Whether you abstain from using the product is a personal choice. But, the handy dandy lacquer has myriad beauty, household, and hardware uses aside from shellacking one’s mane.

Does anyone recall the Aqua Net preserved bouffant beehives of the 1960s, the era of “go big or go home?”

✅️ Cleaning pet hair and lint

Is your furniture or car seat covered with pet (or human) hair, and you’re without a lint brush? Unaware of this tip, a matted scotch tape blob was my go-to lint brush replacement of eons past.

Remove hair in a flash by spritzing a generous amount of hairspray onto a cloth. Immediately dab up loose hairs that will cling to the sticky cloth. (Note: It’s recommended to first test in an inconspicuous spot).

Try this also for picking up lint.

✅️ Keeping shoelaces tied

Are your kids’ shoelaces proverbially untied? That seems to be a given with sneakers unless they’ve mastered the foolproof double-knot tying method, which by the way, I didn’t learn until much later in adulthood.

This may sound goofy, but hair-spraying the laces prevents them from untying. Yahoo for moms and dads!

✅️ Extending shoe polish

Are you an aficionado of non-tennis shoes — you know the old-fashioned, charming footwear spiffed up with shoe polish still preferred in many countries outside the USA? (It’s true…wanna immediately be spotted in any foreign country as American? Wear athletic shoes).

Spraying a coat of hairspray on top of fresh shoe polish sets the color, makes shoes shinier, and prolongs the shine.

Note: I’d not try this on your pricey Ferragamos or Guccis without confirming with your friendly cobbler that it won’t damage the leather.

✅️ Preventing screws from slipping

Is the recently tightened screw on the wheel of your office chair already slipping again? What is it about office chairs anyhow? I kept a screwdriver in my desk drawer.

Tighten the screw as best you can. Then coat the head with hairspray. Once it dries, a polymer seal is created, preventing the screw from loosening. Problem solved!

✅️ Taming unruly eyebrows

Have you awakened to wayward eyebrows that developed a haphazard dancing life of their own during the night?

Spritz hairspray onto your finger. Then, gently swipe your finger over each brow (start at the inside corner and work outward).

Just like with your locks, the spray holds wild brow hairs in place. Yes!

✅️ Keeping flowers fresh

Don’t we always want to prolong the life of a fresh bouquet for as long as possible?

Spray the underside of flowers 12 inches from the petals and leaves. The dried film extends freshness.

✅️ Preserving a Christmas wreath

Isn’t the pine aroma of a fresh Christmas wreath the absolute best holiday scent?

Similar to the hack above for fresh flowers, using hairspray on a fresh wreath will have the same effect as on the flowers by sealing in moisture.

✅️ Keeping your zipper up

Have you looked down to embarrassingly note your zipper is undone and then immediately glanced around to see if anyone else has noticed?

Spray the zipper with hairspray. There will be no more slip-downs. I have one pair of shorts where the zipper invariably slips, so I shall try this hack instead of the safety pin-under-the-pull trick.

✅️ Fixing slippery shoes or boots

How do you prepare your new footwear’s slippery soles? I used to scuff them up with a pair of scissors. But how much easier is this to avoid slip-sliding in those new boots or pumps?

Spray the bottoms of the shoes with a layer of hairspray. It creates traction and stops the soles from sliding so you can walk worry-free.

✅️ Eliminating price tags or other sticker residue

Isn’t the gummy residue from price tags that seems destined to last the duration of the newly purchased item annoying?

The fix: Coat the spot with a layer of hairspray and let sit for 10 minutes. The alcohol breaks down the remaining adhesive allowing you to wipe it away with a wet cloth. This I shall indeed be trying!

✅️ Pest-proofing a pumpkin

Are you Halloween and Thanksgiving decorators interested in displaying jack-o’-lanterns while keeping them safe from hungry critters such as squirrels?

Apply a generous coat of hair spray to the outside. Animals dislike the strong smell and sticky texture, so they’ll avoid touching it. (Note: Reapply after a rain).

✅️ Threading needles

Even if not a seamstress or a tailor, most of us still sew on the occasional button, yes?

When you go to thread the needle, even if you’ve been sewing for years, there’s a frustrating few seconds of desperately poking the limp thread at the hole. This intensifies with aging eyes, too.

What you need is hairspray, which stiffens the thread and makes it much easier to pass the thread through that opening.

✅️ Getting rid of static

Are you worried about messing up your hair when taking off a hoodie or a pullover?

Spray the underside of clothing with hairspray to stop static cling. You can also spray your comb or brush to help tamp down rising hair.

Footnotes:

1. https://www.unep.org/ozonaction/who-we-are/about-montreal-protocol

2. https://www.noaa.gov/stories/4-facts-you-might-not-know-about-ozone-andmontrealprotocol#:~:text=Chlorine%20and%20bromine%2C%20released%20by,impact%20on%20the%20ozone%20layer.

References:

1. "Hack My Life" television program

2. https://www.bumbleandbumble.co.uk/stories/20-surprising-ways-to-use-hairspray

3. https://signaturefillingcompany.com/18-life-changing-hairspray-hacks/

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Victoria🙏😎

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