To provide a hair styling cosmetic composition which is excellent in hair styling property, hair restyling property and hair set retention property, even though being water-based and having a low viscosity, and is excellent in non-stickiness, smoothness, and light finish of the hair. A hair styling cosmetic composition comprising (a) a surfactant being solid at room temperature (25° C.) in an amount of from 1.5 to 12% by mass, (b) one or more substances being solid at room temperature selected from among (b1) a sugar alcohol, (b2) a sugar, (b3) a polyalkylene glycol polymer, and (b4) an inorganic salt, (c) a mono- to tetra-alcohol derivative and/or a sugar alcohol derivative, which are liquid at room temperature, and (d) a film-forming polymer, wherein the total amount of component (a) and component (b) is at least 6% by mass, and the viscosity of the system is at most 10,000 mPa·s (at 25° C. with B-type viscometer).
