The aqueous hair fixing composition contains 0.1 to 30 percent by weight of at least one thickener, e.g. acrylic acid polymer; 0.1 to 25 percent by weight of a film-forming polymer ingredient which consists of vinyl acetate/crotonic acid copolymer, acrylic acid/acrylamide copolymer and/or methyl vinyl ether/maleic anhydride copolymer and 45 to 99.8 percent by weight water. This aqueous hair fixing composition necessarily contains no organic solvents, no cationic surfactants and no cationic polymers and a physiologically acceptable acid or base is added to it to adjust its pH so that the film-forming polymer ingredient is at least partially precipitated.