How does a $20 bottle of Aveda's Control Force hairspray compare to old fashioned Aqua Net which is priced around $2?

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In my attempt to cut corners and lower my overall budget, I decided to stage a battle between my $20 bottle of Control Force from Aveda and my brand new bottle of Aqua Net, which was $2 at the drug store.
My Aqua Net purchase was the first I've made in about 20 years. The last time I bought it, I was in my early 20's and my hair was big. Very big.

My mom is the one who motivated me to try Aqua Net again. On a recent vacation with her, I saw she had packed a bottle. The pink and silver can itself brought back good memories of trying to get my hair as big as I could back in high school and college.

I was so desperate to learn the art of having big hair that I invited the girl in my high school with the biggest hair to spend the night one weekend.

She actually gave me a tutorial on how to make my hair big. Her method of teasing her hair, spraying it with Aqua Net and drying it with a hair dryer worked perfectly. 

I felt like I had made a remarkable discovery that few people knew about.

Over 20 years later, my hair isn't super big as it used to be (thank God). But I still like to have a little lift.

My high school girlfriend Karen, who owns an Aveda salon, is the one who introduced me to Control Force. 

I've been using it for the past five years. I go through about five cans a year at $20 so that equals about $100 a year. Over the past five years, I've spent about $500 on hair spray.

Well, I've bought my last can of Control Force.

I'm going back to good old fashioned $2 Aqua Net which will save me about $90 a year or $450 over the course of five years.

It works just as well as Control Force. It's light, smells good and reminds me of my youth when my biggest concerns were having big hair, hanging out with my friends and making enough money to buy my first car.

Thank you Aqua Net for being the good old stand by that I can still rely on.

I've missed you.