Sexy Hair Spray Clay - A New Addition to My Holy Grail Hair Products!

If you've seen a picture of me from the last, oh, ten years or so, then you know I'm never seen in public without a bump in my hair. Sometimes it's bigger, sometimes it's smaller, but it's always there. It's a little trick I use to create the illusion of having a less round face - height on top, layered length on the sides. Ya gotta work with what ya got, am I right?

The most common question I get is "Who does your hair?" (One time at the grocery store, a woman jumped (yes, literally jumped) right in front of me and said, "I love your hair! Who does it?" Scared the daylights out of me. It's just hair, people! LOL!), but the second most common is "How do you do "the bump"?" - everyone wants to know about "the bump". I've even given mini tutorials in restaurants and elevators. Ha!


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If you've ever tried to do a bump - even a small one - then you know that it works best when your hair is dirty. It's virtually impossible to get any height to stay in when your hair is freshly shampooed. With the help of a good dry shampoo, I can usually go 4-5 days between shampoos, and in the past, my bump always looked best on days 3-5. I wasn't about to go "bumpless" on days 1-2, so I had to find something to hold that bump.

I've been using texturizing powders for the past few years, and they work - but the down side is that they also leave your hair feeling really tacky. For days. And you have to be careful as you're applying them. Too much can be a disaster, not enough and you might as well not bother. Hairspray alone just wasn't enough - not even the super hold formula. Mousses, root lifters, volumizing sprays - none of them worked. I have a lot of hair - it's thick and it's about to the bottom of my bra strap in the back - and the weight of it pulls the crown flat unless there is something very strong holding it in place.


A few weeks ago, I came across Sexy Hair's Spray Clay. The official description is "a non-traditional clay in a spray form". It's a texturizing spray that offers a "7" hold, which is pretty strong. It's an aerosol, which I figured would go on fairly dry (love that), so I would be able to flat iron my hair and backcomb it right away. Since a full-size can (4.4 oz.) was $18.95, I checked to see if it was available in a travel size, so I could try it without spending $20. I found a seller on Amazon who had two small cans for $6.75 and free shipping, so I ordered it right away.


Can I just say that this stuff is amazing? It's now my holy grail bump product. With this, my Spornette teasing brush, and my Sonia Kashuk bristle hair brush*, my bump looks as good on days 1-2 as it does on days 3-5. Actually, my bump looks better than ever with this - and it stays in better and looks smoother. This stuff rocks! If I don't brush out my bump at night, when I wake up in the morning, my bump is still there, and I can smooth it over and not necessarily have to re-do it. Let me clarify: If I'm staying home, I don't re-do it, but if I'm going out, I re-do it because that's how I roll. I'm semi-high-maintenance.
(*This Sonia Kashuk brush was purchased for about 4 years ago, and is supposed to be a reasonably-priced alternative for the very pricey Mason Pearson brush. I hated it at first because it will not go through my thick hair. I put it away for a couple of years and then pulled it out one day and discovered that it's perfect for smoothing over the backcombed hair of my bump!)

The Spray Clay sounds like it would be sticky or stiff, but it's not. It sprays out in an almost dry aerosol. Just like my beloved Sebastian Shaper Hairspray (not Shaper Plus - I hate that stuff!) I section the crown of my hair and spray the individual sections just before I flat iron them. The hair is perfectly soft after I straighten it! I can't even tell there is anything on it. I then take the teasing brush and backcomb (brush?) that section of my hair, and smooth it down. Normally, my clean hair is almost impossible to backcomb, but with this, it backcombs well and maintains the volume. After I finish all of the sections, I smooth the top again, crisscross my part in the front, and use hairspray (Sebastian Shaper first, then Aveda Firmata) to hold everything in place. In the photo below, I have a smaller bump (and you can see my face looks a little fuller!), but we rode on a speedboat, and all I did was pull my hair back loosely in a low ponytail during the ride. The bump survived it just fine!


If you have any issues with keeping volume at the crown, I recommend giving Sexy Hair Spray Clay a try. I'm going to recommend it to my hair stylist! I may even gift him my second small can just so he can give it a try. I feel like I won the lottery, folks - this was a major find! I hope they never stop making it!

Do you have problems keeping volume in the top of your hair?