Flippy bobs, bouncy blowouts, defined curls, and slicked-back buns all share one thing: the best styling creams make any hairstyle look great and stay put. The experts agree that to level up your hairstyling cream, adding this holy grail hair product to your beauty shelf is crucial. “Styling creams are extremely versatile, multi-functional, and an essential tool in your hair product arsenal,” professional hair stylist Samantha Draper tells Vogue.
Considered the ultimate multitaskers, styling creams boast a plethora of benefits—hydrating hair follicles, holding styles, fighting frizz, and protecting against heat damage, all in one product. Below, shop the 8 best styling creams, no matter your hair texture or desired look.
Vogue’s Favorite Styling Creams:
In This Story:
Best Multipurpose: Rōz Hair Evergreen Hair Styling Cream
- Why We Love It: A new staple in professional hair stylist Samantha Draper’s arsenal, she reaches for this buildable formula to achieve several different styles on her clients. “It can be used on dry hair to smooth fly aways and define a curl, as well on damp hair to create a seamless cool curl natural dry look.” Vegan beeswax in the formula creates a non-sticky, medium hold, with pea protein to refine dry damaged ends, Draper adds.
- Key Ingredients: Shea butter, vegan beeswax, pea protein
- How to Apply: According to the brand, start with a dime-sized amount of product and apply to dry lengths and ends. Add as need until your desired look is achieved.
- Benefits: Smoothing, hydrating, medium hold
- Best For: Slicked back hairdos, taming flyaways, smoothing any hairstyle with flexible texture
- Size: 2 fl oz.
Best For Frizz: Living Proof No Frizz Smooth Styling Cream
- Why We Love It: If Living Proof founder Jennifer Aniston is known for anything other than her famed acting career, it’s her great hair. If you too are hoping to create your own frizz-free ’90s blowout at home, look no further than Living Proof’s No Frizz Styling cream. The buildable cream conditions dry, frizz-prone hair with a nourishing blend of shea butter and emollients for a more manageable, smoothed out style.
- Key Ingredients: Shea butter
- How to Apply: According to Living Proof, this styling cream is best applied to clean, damp hair from roots to ends before using a blow dryer or hair drying brush.
- Benefits: Smoothing, hydrating, color safe, cruelty-free, silicone free, heat protection
- Best For: Super sleep hair styles—straightened or pulled back.
- Size: 8.0 fl oz.
Best for Flippy Bobs: R+Co Bleu Proper Molding Paste
- Why We Love It: When this beauty writer made the big chop from waist-length to a bob, professional hair stylist Travis Speck was the master behind the drastic transformation. To lock in the nostalgic flipped-up hair ends, Speck reached for his favorite style cream—R+CO’s molding paste. A sticky, gritty paste, the smallest amount goes a surprisingly long way. A blend of rice bran wax, wood extract, and biotin helps to provide the appearance of thickened hair strands while holding styles in place firmly without a crunchy appearance.
- Key Ingredients: Rice bran wax, wood extract, ginger extract, pea protein, biotin
- How to Apply: For a flippy bob, Speck uses a dime-sized amount of product, emulsifying it in his hands before applying it to damp hair ends to dry the hair upwards. You can also apply a bit more product on dry, styled hair for a flexible hold.
- Benefits: Defining, thickening, texturizing, firm-yet-flexible hold, paraben free, sulfate free
- Best For: Gravity defying styles and flipped out bobs
- Size: 1.7 fl oz.
Best for Curls: Pattern Beauty Styling Cream
- Why We Love It: Indeed, you’ve noticed Tracee Ellis Ross’s stunning bouncy curls—the A-lister’s brand is designed with textured hair in mind, and your natural curls will surely thank you for this decadent cream, which features an ultra-nourishing blend of naturally-derived emollients and oils that work together to deeply moisturize curls, coils, and tight textures and protect styles from breakage and damage. Pattern Beauty also suggests using their styling cream to set various protective styles like twist outs, braids, Bantu knots, and more.
- Key Ingredients: Shea butter, cacay oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil, cocoa butter, sweet almond oil
- How to Apply: Apply on wet hair to define your curl patten. You can also apply to dry hair before styling or braiding.
- Benefits: Moisturizing, vegan, cruelty free, color-safe, paraben-free, silicone free, phthalate-Free
- Best For: Natural textured hair, curls, coils, and protective styles
- Size: 15 fl oz.
Best for Dry Hair: Color Wow One Minute Transformation
- Why We Love It: Color Wow has a quick fix for dehydrated hair in need of an instant moisture surge. While many styling creams are best used on freshly washed wet or damp hair, this one is ideal as your go-to in between washes and before heat styling. A double threat, Color Wow’s styling cream tackles frizz and adds a dose of shine thanks to a nourishing blend of avocado oil, glycerin, and emollient ingredients rich in omega 3s.
- Key Ingredients: Avocado oil, glycerin, hydrolyzed wheat protein
- How to Apply: Apply a quarter sized amount onto dry hair before heat styling, brushing through for even distribution.
- Benefits: Smoothing, heat protection, shine, alcohol-free, paraben-free , sulfate-free, vegan
- Best For: Dry, dehydrated hair
- Size: 4 fl oz
Best for Blowouts: Oribe Imperial Blowout Transformative Styling Crème
- Why We Love It: End the woes of attempting to recreate a salon-worthy blowout at home: Oribe’s blowout cream is the only styling product you’ll need for the entire process—from heat protection to smoothing frizzy flyaways and creating a flexible hold for your freshly created bouncy blowout. A blend of plant collagen, biotin, and caffeine works to not only strengthen your hair cuticles but also perk up your follicles for a bit of volume. Meanwhile, the blend of botanical oils naturally rich in antioxidants nourishes hair strands while preventing against UV damage.
- Key Ingredients: Plant collagen, caffeine, biotin, niacinamide, edelweiss flower extract, lychee extract, watermelon extract
- How to Apply: For the best results, apply on damp hair from roots to ends before blowdrying hair (we recommend using your favorite hair drying round brush).
- Benefits: Heat protection, moisturizing, frizz reduction, volume, flexible hold
- Best For: Bouncy blowouts—from heat protection to smooth, silky results for a fresh-from-the-salon look.
- Size: 5 oz.
Best for Shine: Drybar Liquid Glass High-Gloss Smoothing Blowout Cream
- Why We Love It: POV: You want a gloss right now but don’t have time to book an appointment. Drybar’s blowout cream can help you achieve that high-shine, glossy look—no appointment necessary. A combination of jojoba and sunflower oils with hemisqualane (a plant-based alternative to silicone) imparts shine, hydration, and reduces frizz. After a few pumps of evenly distributing producting, and then heat styling with your favorite hair-drying tool, you’ll find everything smoother and shinier than before.
- Key Ingredients: Hemisqualane, jojoba oil, sunflower oil, castor seed oil, sunflower seed wax
- How to Apply: According to Drybar, apply two to four pumps into your palms, emulsifying it in your hands before working through towel-dried hair from roots to ends. Pro tip: adjust the amount of product used based on your natural hair density, using less pumps for fine hair and more for thick hair.
- Benefits:
- Best For: Super shiny heat styled hair
- Size: 3.4 fl oz.
Best Hydrating: Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream
- Why We Love It: For nearly two decades, Moroccanoil has been championing the benefits of argan oil. This styling cream acts as a conditioning leave-in treatment, best applied before any flat irons, curling irons, or hair dryers come into play. Argan oil, a powerhouse of essential fatty acids, antioxidants, and vitamin E, deeply nourishes hair while conditioning agents reduce static. Use immediately after a wash or in between shampooing days to add hydration back into your hair. This not only helps prolong blowouts and other styles but strengthens your hair follicles over time.
- Key Ingredients: Dimethicone, argan oil, citric acid, behentrimonium chloride
- How to Apply: Use on damp or dry hair, applying one to two pumps from the mid-length of your hair, taking special care with the ends to prevent breakage and split ends.
- Benefits: Moisturizing, frizz reduction, prolonging blowouts in between washes
- Best For: Dry and damaged hair types
- Size: 10.2 fl oz
What does a styling cream do?
From the name alone, if you’ve assumed that styling creams are meant to keep your look in place and perfect your favorite hairstyles, you’ve assumed correctly. But experts say they really are multi-functional. “No matter which one you choose, a styling cream helps to tackle flyaways and frizz. It creates memory within the hair by holding your style and volume, leaving your heat style or air dried wash and go feeling shiny, protected, finished and healthy looking,” Draper tells Vogue.
Ranging in density, styling creams can be lightweight and buildable to thick like butter. A simple rule of thumb in choosing the best hair styling cream is to consider your hair type: lightweight products are better suited for fine hair, while thicker, heavier-weight creams will offer more flexibility and hold for thick or coiled hair.
How To Apply Styling Cream
Draper explains that there’s no one-size-fits-all method to applying a styling cream. Instead, she encourages you to first consider the style you’re trying to achieve, which will ultimately impact the best application process. “If you’re looking to create a slicked back bun or ponytail, styling cream can be applied to dry hair, in between washes, on day three or four post-wash hair,” she says. “Additionally, a soft, buildable cream can be used on wet hair prior to a blow dry, as well as after on dry, styled hair for a shiny, sleek finish.”
No matter when you apply your styling cream, the key is to make sure you’re evenly distributing the product by combing it through with your fingers, a wide tooth comb, or a detangling brush. Pro tip: if you have more oily-prone or finer hair, avoid placing styling creams near your roots entirely.
Meet The Experts
- Samantha Draper is a New York-based professional hair stylist at Soho salon Suite Caroline.
- Travis Speck is a senior stylist at New York salon Suite Caroline with over 20 years experience.
