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It’s no secret that I tend to prefer mousse over gel on my wavy hair. When comparing mousse and gel, gel will usually win out in offering more hold and more definition. If your goal is to hold your waves as long as possible between washes, to keep frizz at an absolute minimum, and/or to maintain as much definition as possible, these are all reasons why you may opt for gel.
Plus, many people use mousse and gel both!
My blog post comparing 10 types of wavy hair mousse has been a popular article, so I thought I’d do a gel comparison post as well. This has been 2 months in the making, as I’ve tested each of these across 3 days each, and some of them I had to try multiple times.
If I didn’t get a good cast over all of my hair or otherwise thought my first test run may have been ‘off’, I tried a second time. Ps – if you aren’t familiar with gel casts check out my blog post what is a gel cast. My goal was to find the best gel for wavy hair, and to rate the gels based on various factors – to help you guys decide which one(s) you’d like to try.
The routine I used to test with:
As I’ve proven in a blog post before, technique matters more than product – by far. So for the sake of making sure my results were fair and truly representative of the products, not my techniques, I did my best to use the exact same routine when testing each gel.
I used a quarter amount of Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Shampoo, and a half-dollar amount of Johnson’s Kids strengthening conditioner. I applied the shampoo to my scalp, and the conditioner to my strands from about my ears on down. Next, I washed my hair upside down, and used a wide-tooth comb while I had conditioner in my hair.
I did squish to condish, then rinsed my hair. At the end of my shower, I use my hands to pull my hair off the back of my head, then scrunch, twist to the left, scrunch, twist to the right, scrunch. I plop for 10 minutes, then apply gel. From there I pixie diffuse upside down for about 5 minutes, then flip upright, and continue to diffuse each section of my head in 1/4 sections.
I always start with the front left as that is my straightest section. Then front right, back left, back right. Check out my how to diffuse wavy hair blog post to see 4 different diffusing style tutorials.
There were a couple of gels where using the above technique did not work. For a few gels, they absolutely need your hair to be soaking wet when applied or they’ll provide disastrous results. I’ve compared damp styling vs wet styling before and I generally really prefer damp styling.
However, some gels really have to be used on soaking wet hair to work well. For a couple of these, on the second use, I applied them to wet hair rather than damp. The gels that I used on soaking wet hair are Uncle Funky’s Daughter, Eco styler gel, and Curlsmith in shower style fixer. These will be very “producty” or even stay sticky if you use them on damp rather than wet hair.
I tried to leave my hair down during each day, and would ‘pineapple’ it at night, while sleeping on my satin pillowcase. Check out my post how to sleep on wavy hair if you want to learn more about those.
I did no refreshing on days 2 and 3, for the sake of showing how these gels will hold up without refreshing. They all would hold up better and longer if refreshed, most likely.
Best Gel For Wavy Hair
What you consider to be the best gel will largely depend on your styling goals and preferences. I personally prefer big volume, and long-lasting hold. Definition is also important to me, at least as far as ensuring that my hair doesn’t lose its shape too much.
I am not necessarily seeking the most definition possible, and I don’t love frizz, but avoiding any sign of frizz isn’t a top priority. With all this in mind, my favorite gel was the Dippity Do Girls With Curls Gelee. This really surprised me as this isn’t a gel that I hear a whole lot about. I found that it gave me big volume, nice definition, and was long-lasting.
| Product | Amount | Cast | Definition | Volume | Frizz level | Long lasting | Clump Size | CGM | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hairitage By Mindy To The Max | 2 handfuls | Medium | Good | Big | Medium | 2 wearable days | Medium | yes | yes |
| Briogeo Curl Charisma Gel | 2 handfuls | Medium | Average | Low-med | High | 3 wearable days | Med-Large | Yes | Yes |
| Garnier Fructis Spray Gel | 2 handfuls | Hard | Average | Medium | Low | 3 good days | Medium | Yes | No |
| Aussie Instant Freeze Gel | 3 handfuls | Medium | Good | Medium | Low | 2 good days | Small | yes | No |
| Garnier Fructis Pure Clean Gel | 2 handfuls | Med-hard | Good | Big | Average | 3 wearable days | Small | Yes | No |
| LA Looks Mega Shaper Gel | 3 handfuls | Hard | Average | Medium | Low | 3 wearable days | Medium | Yes | Yes |
| Jessicurl Spiralicious Gel | 3 handfuls | Soft | Average | Big | Medium | 2 good days | Medium | Yes | No |
| Dippity Do Gelee | 3 handfuls | Soft-med | Average | Big | Avg-high | 3 good days | Medium | yes | Yes |
| Harry’s Sculpting Gel | 2 handfuls | Extra hard | Very good | Low | Low | 3 great days | Med-large | yes | No |
| Biosilk Rock Hard Gelee | 2 Handfuls | Extra hard | Low | Medium | Medium | 2 wearable days | Medium | Yes | Yes |
| Giovanni L.A Hold Gel | 3.5 handfuls | Soft | Low | Big | Average | 2 wearable days | Big | Yes | No |
| Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Gel | 3 handfuls | Soft | Low | Big | Avg-high | 2 wearable days | Big | Yes | Yes |
| Curlsmith In-Shower Style Fixer Gel | 1 handful | Medium | Great | low-avg | Low | 2 good days | Medium | yes | No |
| Eco Style Argan Oil Gel | 2 handfuls | Soft | Good | Low | Average | 1 wearable day | Big | Yes | Yes |
| Uncle Funky’s Daughter Curly Magic | 10 pumps | Soft | Great | Low-avg | Average | 1 wearable day | Big | Yes | No |
Best Gels For Reducing Frizz In Wavy Hair
- La Looks Mega Shaper Gel
- Harry’s Sculpting Gel
- Curlsmith In-Shower Style Fixer Gel
Best Gel For Long-Lasting Hold In Wavy Hair
Best Gel For Definition In Wavy Hair
- Curlsmith In-Shower Style Fixer
- Uncle Funky’s Daughter Curly Magic
Best Gels For Volume In Wavy Hair
- Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Gel
- Hairitage By Mindy To The Max Gel
- Garnier Fructis Pure Clean Gel
- Jessicurl Spiralicious gel
- Dippity Do Gelee
- Giovanni LA Hold Gel
Wavy Hair Gels That Won’t Make Your Hair Crunchy
- Uncle Funky’s Daughter Curly Magic
- Jessicurl Spiralicious gel
- Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Gel
Best Cheap Gels For Wavy Hair
- Garnier Fructis Pure Clean Gel
- La Looks Mega Shaper
Comparing Gels On Wavy Hair
Day 1, 2 and 3 with Hairitage by Mindy to the max gel.
Hairitage by Mindy To The Max Gel Review
This gel comes in a tub, is a bit runny like egg whites, yet sticky. The stickiness made it a little hard to glaze onto my hair. It has a strong, complex scent. I kept going back and forth between whether I liked or disliked the scent. The gel is sort of a brownish color which may be considered unsightly by some.
I liked how this gel gave me big volume on day one, but it’s not particularly long-lasting, which is a major downside for me. It’s about $8 for an 8oz container, which isn’t super high, but I just don’t see enough special about this gel for me to repurchase. The protein in this gel is Avena sativa (oat) peptide.
Overall, I like Hairitage By Mindy To the Max gel, it’s just not special.
Days 1, 2, and 3 with Briogeo curl charisma gel.
Briogeo Curl Charisma Rice Amino + Quinoa Frizz Control Gel Review
This is one of the more expensive gels that I tried, this sells for $20 for a 5.5oz container. The scent of this one is light and fresh, I found it really pleasant. It’s a bit on the thinner side for a gel, and isn’t sticky which makes it easy to apply. Overall this one just was too light of a hold for me, I think.
I tried using it multiple times because I thought I may have applied it poorly the first time, due to the flat roots it gave me. I found the same thing on a repeat attempt.
I’m not sure why it doesn’t want to hold my texture at my roots, I had recently clarified so it is not a build-up issue. Maybe my roots are lower porosity or stayed wetter longer and that made a difference for this gel?
When in a cast, my clumps were particularly skinny, though once I scrunched out the crunch they became a bit bigger than usual. My hair felt “producty” with this gel, which I never like, but I particularly dislike my hair feeling producty with a higher-end product.
I typically expect higher end products to mix better with my hair, and this didn’t which I found disappointing at this price point. There are several proteins in this gel, Hydrolyzed Quinoa, Keratin Amino Acids, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, & Hydrolyzed Soy Protein.
Overall, Briogeo curl charisma gel just wasn’t for me.
Garnier fructis spray gel on days 1, 2 and 3.
Garnier Fructis Spray Gel Review
I’ve occasionally seen Garnier Fructis Spray Gel raved about in wavy/curly hair groups. I also recall a Manes By Mell video where she said really watery gels or spray gels may be particularly well suited to wavy hair that is easily weighed down.
For that reason, I was excited to try a spray gel. This one is very affordable at about $3.5 for a 8.5oz bottle. I had to try this one multiple times before I could get decent results with it.
Using the spray nozzle is just not practical with the hair density that I have. I have to apply quite a bit of gel, and when you spray this gel it just mists your hair. I attempted to pump the spray bottle several times in a row, quickly, and it would get blocked with gel.
Still, I tried to just spray my hair using the spray nozzle to get decent coverage. I about wore my fingers out trying to push that nozzle down! And then I barely got a cast! I knew it was likely the result of just not getting enough gel into my hair.
The next time, I gave in and took the nozzle off and just poured the gel into my hand and used it that way. When sprayed, this felt almost like water, it was so thin. When I took the lid off, I was surprised to find it’s actually quite chunky in texture. It has a slightly sweet, mild scent.
When I used a couple of handfuls, I got a pretty solid cast, and was pretty happy with my results. My boyfriend said this may have been his favorite results, actually. I wish it was a little bit longer lasting, and the spray function just isn’t realistic for application, for me.
I do like how it performed, though. Perhaps this gel in the spray style would work well for people with low density hair? Another note – my hair seemed to have a lot of frizz with this gel when wet, but once dry it wasn’t frizzy.
Overall, I liked how Garnier Fructis Spray Gel performed but I had to use it in a way that it isn’t intended to be used.
Aussie Instant Freeze Gel on days 1, 2 and 3.
Aussie Instant Freeze Gel Review
This is a really commonly recommended gel for people starting the curly girl method. It’s affordable (about $3.50), available in lots of stores, and glycerin free. Glycerin is known for causing issues if the humidity level isn’t ideal for humectants. So, if you live in Florida you’ll likely have lots of people recommend this product or other glycerin-free products to you!
I live in Michigan and it does get pretty humid here in the summer, but I have rarely noticed significant differences in how my styling products perform, glycerine or not. So, I’m not really conscious of avoiding glycerin myself, but I know that is a big ‘selling point’ for many.
This gel is a little on the thick side, and slightly sticky. I find it to provide a medium strength cast, and to have a medium level of hold. The results I get seem to favor definition over volume, which isn’t my styling preference.
I typically prefer hard hold products, and volume over definition. This gives me two good days of hair, but the third is only so-so, which is a bit less than I prefer to get out of a styler.
Overall I think Aussie Intant Freeze Gel is good for the price, but isn’t particularly well suited to my style goals.
Garnier Fructis Pure Clean Gel on days 1, 2 and 3.
Garnier Fructis Pure Clean Gel Review
Garnier Fructis Pure Clean Gel is an affordable curly girl approved gel that is available in lots of stores for around $3.50. It has sort of an artificial lemon scent, and is a thin texture that is somewhat sticky when applying. It gave me a medium to hard cast, and was pretty long lasting, especially for such an affordable gel.
My day 3 hair had more definition remaining than I typically see. It did seem to give me smaller clumps than usual, but this isn’t something I personally care too much about.
My hair felt very smooth (conditioned?) the whole time that my hair was drying, which isn’t always the case when I have gel in my hair. The cast was strong but not super-strong, yet I did have a bit of a hard time scrunching out the crunch.
I had to scrunch longer, and fluff my roots which I don’t often have to do. I usually have no issue scrunching out the crunch. If you’re someone who regularly does struggle with a cast being too strong, this may be too intense for you.
Overall, Garnier Fructis Pure Clean gel gave me good results and really long-lasting hold. Great budget gel!
LA Looks Mega Shaper Gel on days 1, 2 and 3.
La Looks Mega Shaper Gel Review
I used LA Looks gels (mega shaper and sports versions) almost exclusively for the first two years that I embraced my naturally wavy hair! So, this gel has a piece of my heart, I suppose! I don’t find much difference between this mega shaper gel and the sports gel.
They’re incredibly affordable at just $2 for a 20oz container. They are a bit thick in texture, and somewhat sticky. They provide a hard cast, and give me 3 days of wearable hair. This mega shaper gel has one protein, keratin amino acids, in it.
Overall, LA Looks gels are good gels at an unbeatable price.
Jessicurl Spiralicious Gel on days 1, 2 and 3.
Jessicurl Spiralicious Gel Review
When I was new to the curly girl method, I watched a YouTuber who recommended higher end products than I could justify buying. Jessicurl products were among some of the cheaper products that she recommended at the time, and I still thought they seemed a bit pricey (About $17 for an 8oz bottle). So, it took me a long time to ever get around to trying this one, but I was excited to!
People often say that higher-end products tend to be more concentrated, so a little goes a long way. At first, I tried using less of Jessicurl Spiralicious gel than I would of a cheap gel. It didn’t give me a cast at all, so I knew I needed to use more like my typical amount…but that was a bummer when considering the price.
When I used the right amount, I got a soft cast. This gel (and all Jessicurl products) are available in multiple scent options, and in fragrance-free which is great for those with allergies or sensitivities. The Spiralicious gel is glycerin-free. It is marketed as Jessicurls harder-hold product, but it’s still pretty light hold.
I found it to be average with frizz and definition, but gave good volume, which is my styling preference. I was pretty happy with my day 1 results, and day 2 was pretty decent as well, but day 3 really fell a lot. For me, the price point of this made me hope for more.
Overall, I thought Jessicurl Spiralicious was pretty average-performing, and not worth the price.
Dippity do gelee on day 1, 2 and 3.
Dippity Do Gelee Review
I mostly bought Dippity Do Gelee on a whim. I was purchasing some other gels (for this blog post) through a curly hair product swap group. The person I was buying other samples or partially-used products from told me she had this as well. I just threw it in as another one to try.
I had remembered a YouTuber I followed years ago saying she really loved the Dippity Do Girls With Curls Defining Cream – but I had bought that a couple of years back and didn’t really care for it. I hadn’t really heard much about any other products from this line. I’m so glad that I did decide to buy this, because it’s my new favorite!
This gel has a sweet, mild scent and is really thick and clumpy in texture. It’s bright pink which is kinda fun. My initial expectations weren’t very high because it gave me a cast that wasn’t particularly hard. I typically find that I need a hard cast to get long-lasting, good results.
Based on the cast strength, I expected my hair to fall flat on day 2 or at least by day 3. I definitely lost some definition each day but my day 3 hair was still well-defined, just in bigger, looser waves. I like how it looks and it definitely held up more than usual. Getting this level of long-lasting hold from a product with a soft to medium cast is really cool.
I also like how it gave me big volume, and decent definition. This sells for around $12 for a 11.5oz container, making it a bit more expensive than I typically buy. I am cheap! The results were exactly what I am for though, so I’ll be repurchasing this, for sure. The protein in this one is hydrolyzed wheat protein. This is glycerin-free!
Overall, I loved Dippity Do Girls With Curls Gelee, it gave long-lasting results that suited my style preferences!
Harry’s sculpting gel on days 1, 2 and 3.
Harry’s Sculpting Gel Review
Harry’s Sculpting Gel is marketed towards men. It’s available at stores like Walmart and Target, though it may be located in the shaving aisle rather than the hair aisle. My grocery store has a Harry’s brand display in the shaving aisle that includes all of their products.
I wanted to try this gel because I had heard that it has a really intense level of hold. My hair typically does well with hard hold products, so I was curious to see if this would be even better than what I’ve used before.
I read online that a little goes a long way, so I used less of this than I typically would, and I found that you really can get away with using less. This sells for $8 for a 6.7oz container, so it’s really quite affordable when you consider that a little goes a long way.
It has a pretty strong scent that makes me think of men’s body wash or deodorant. I like the scent well enough, it’s just not really how I Typically prefer to smell myself. A scent isn’t a huge factor for me, I can overlook this, but if you are really particular about your scents and are a woman who doesn’t want to smell ‘manly’, this may not be for you.
The gel is thick and VERY sticky, I had to get my hands wet multiple times while applying this gel so that my hair wouldn’t stick to my hands and make a mess. It’s a little bit hard to apply. Yet, I found it easy to use because the stickiness of this gel makes it really easy to tell which portions of your wet hair have gel in them, and which ones may need more.
I can see this being particularly helpful for people who are new to using gel and are struggling with even product distribution. Another unique thing about this gel was the outside of my hair dried much faster than the inside of the clumps.
Typically the ends of my hair dry before the roots, but this gel seemed to cause my hair to dry on the outside of each clump, then the inside later. I stopped diffusing because I thought my hair was dry, only to realize the inside of the clumps were still quite damp.
The cast that it gave me was extremely hard, the hardest cast I had ever had before. It gave great definition, though the volume was a little low. I typically go for big volume, so this is a slight bummer to me. However, the fact that I was still very happy with my day 3 hair is really a strong selling point for me, with this gel.
I had never had my hair look this good on day 3 without refreshing before. Although this is a definition-over-volume type of product, I still really liked it thanks to how long the style lasted.
If you like really soft feeling hair, this isn’t the gel for you. My hair remained feeling somewhat stiff even after I scrunched out the crunch for a long time. This gel probably isn’t ideal for anyone who has struggled to get the cast off with softer hold products, either.
I do like soft-feeling hair, but the slight stiffness this provided didn’t feel sticky or producty, it just felt firm/stiff. For me, sometimes I’m happy to trade off softness for longer lasting, better looking hair.
Overall, Harry’s Sculpting Gel didn’t offer the volume I prefer, but has great definition and is really long lasting. I’ll continue to use it.
Biosilk Rock Hard Gelee on days 1 and 2.
Biosilk Rock Hard Gelee Review
I’ve gone back and forth about whether I should include Biosilk Rock Hard Gelee in this post or not. I was sent a sample that was only enough to do my hair once. I do wonder if I had multiple attempts to use this gel in different ways, if I may have found a way to make it work better for me.
Anyway, this was just a single-use experience that I had, so take this all with a grain of salt!
Biosilk Rock Hard Gelee is an extremely sticky gel, you have to keep wetting your hands or your hair will just stick to your hands as you try to apply it. It gave me a really firm, hard cast which I typically take as a very good sign that my style will last a long time. I was surprised that despite the hard-hold, I didn’t get very good definition or volume from this gel.
I had read that a little goes a long way with this gel. Perhaps I would have gotten better definition if I had used more? I did get a cast over all of my hair, but it was softer in some places than others. At the same time, even after I scrunched out the crunch, my hair remained feeling stiff and producty, so in a way it felt like I had used too much gel.
My hair hadn’t fallen too badly on day 2, but I just couldn’t stand how my hair felt so I re-washed earlier than usual. If I were to try this gel again, I’d try using less and adding in a lot of water to mix it with (or applying it to soaking wet hair) or I’d try using more, to see if either of those would give me better results.
I also found that the ends of my hair were really misshapen, due to the gel making my hair so sticky that it tried to stick to my diffuser while I was diffusing.
Overall, Biosilk Rock Hard Gelee gave me poor results, but it may be a matter of learning how to use this particular product.
Giovanni la hold Gel (strong hold) on days 1 and 2.
Giovanni La Hold Gel
I see this gel recommended pretty frequently in wavy and curly hair groups. The Giovanni brand in general seems to be known for making light products that tend to work well with wavy hair. I saw someone say that this gel goes a long way, so at first I tried using a small amount.
I found that it looked okay at first, but that my hair fell faster than usual. So I tried it again, using more gel, and still found that my hair just didn’t last as long with this gel as I see with some other gels, particularly on my straighter side. I think it just doesn’t have strong enough hold from wash day on, to support my more fragile, looser waves on that side of my head.
Giovanni la hold gel is a light, fresh scent. It squirts out in a skinny line but is about average thickness and stickiness. I found it fairly easy to apply. It only gives me a soft cast, doesn’t offer as much definition as I’d like, but gives good volume. It seems to give big clumps, which I know some people really prefer.
It’s affordable at about $7. It’s protein and glycerin free. It does feel a bit producty in my hair, which is part of why I gave up on this after 2 days. Overall, I felt Giovanni La hold gel doesn’t have strong enough hold or long-lasting hold, and feels producty.
Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Gel days 1, 2 and 3.
Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Gel Review
By now many of you know that Not Your Mothers Curl Talk Mousse is my favorite mousse, and I use other Not Your Mother’s products fairly regularly, too. So, you may be surprised that I just recently tried the gel for the first time!
Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Gel says it is medium hold, but their mousse says it’s soft hold and it’s actually hard hold in my opinion. So, I was curious to see how this would perform. The scent matches other products from the curl talk line if you’ve smelled those. I find it slightly floral and fairly light.
The texture of the gel is slightly thin/watery, and is not sticky. It gives me a soft cast, and less definition than I’m used to, but big volume. If I were comparing just my day-1 results, this may have been my favorite result. I just love how big and fluffy my hair looks! I also like how it’s fairly soft and not producty.
Sadly, that softness and less hold means that my hair falls faster. I thought day 2 was okay, but day 3 fell a lot. The ‘day 3’ picture here actually makes my hair look a bit wavier than it really was, I think.
If I were someone who would wash my hair everyday, I would love this gel. I just find that to be way too much hassle, so the real downside to this one is, it just doesn’t have long lasting hold. The protein in this one is keratin amino acids.
Overall, I loved the day 1 results from Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Gel, but the results were not long-lasting, making this a bad match for me.
Curlsmith In Shower Style Fixer on days 1, 2 and 3.
Curlsmith In Shower Style Fixer Review
I see Curlsmith all over the place, it seems. I’m a pretty frugal person, so the price point has kept me away for a long time. I had heard so many good things about the Curlsmith In Shower Style Fixer gel that I was excited to give it a try.
What I had heard about this gel was a little goes a long way, you MUST apply it to soaking wet hair, and it feels weightless once it’s in your hair.
I did apply this one to soaking wet hair, as recommended. This may be part of why I didn’t get as much volume as I usually do, as damp styling gives better volume than wet styling.
The texture of this is quite thick and lumpy. It claims to have extreme hold, but it didn’t give me a hard cast. I got an even cast, it was just softer. Maybe I would get a harder cast if I used more? It definitely did feel weightless in my hair.
Once I scrunched out the cast, my hair felt almost product-free, and was very bouncy. That really soft, weightless feel is such a nice feeling! It gave me really great definition, but low volume.
I thought my hair looked good on days 1 and 2, but fell quickly on day 3, making day 3 not very wearable. That significant loss of definition on day 3 is a real downside for me, particularly at a higher price point.
Overall, Curlsmith in shower style fixer provides great volume and feels great in my hair. It wasn’t long enough lasting, though.
Ego Style Argan Oil Gel on days 1, 2 and 3.
Eco Style Argan Oil Gel Review
Eco Style Gels are really affordable ($2-$4 for different sizes) and available in lots of stores. They come in tubs and are pretty thick, somewhat sticky gels. I had used other Eco Style gels before, and found them to work pretty similarly.
So I just decided to use one for this post and I went with the Argan Oil version. I knew this gel doesn’t work well on damp hair, so I used it on wet hair.
I’ve found that Eco Style gels do go a bit farther than some other gels, and if you accidentally use too much they can flake, so err on the side of using a bit less.
I got a soft cast, with good definition and low volume. I believe the low volume is caused by the light hold. My waves just need a lot of hold to support their shape, and this just doesn’t have enough. It holds my waves some, but bigger, looser waves than I typically get with other gels.
This may be a good option for people who are looking to loosen or elongate their waves a bit. It gives really big clumps which I can also see appealing to some. The biggest downside for me is how the results just don’t last very long. This only gave me 1 day of wearable waves.
This gel is really cheap, but I still just don’t want to have to re-style my hair that often. The protein in this is hydrolyzed wheat protein.
Overall Eco Style Argan Oil gel didn’t have enough hold for me.
Uncle Funky’s Daughter Curly Magic Gel on days 1, 2 and 3
Uncle Funky’s Daughter Curly Magic Gel Review
I hesitated about including Curly Magic in this comparison. It’s often debated if Uncle Funky’s Daughter Curly Magic is actually a gel or not – but the bottle does call itself a gel. This is a very popular product, but it’s one that people typically use if they are going to layer other products with it, often one with a harder hold.
Still, I thought there was value in seeing how this product acts on its own. With this, or with any product, you can always combine products to try to get different results.
When I first tried Uncle Funky’s Daughter Curly Magic, I had been told a tiny bit goes a LONG way, so even one pump is too much for most people. My hair is dense, so I’m used to having to use more than people think anyone should have to use. When I heard ‘one pump is a lot!’ I decided to use two pumps. Two pumps is roughly a quarter-sized amount.
The first time I used it, I used it on damp hair. This was a disaster! IT felt like there was glue in my hair after it was dry. I was able to pick gunk off my hair. It was bad! The next time, I tried again on soaking wet hair – and felt like absolutely nothing was in my hair – it dried like it would if I didn’t style it at all – no hold or definition.
I realized I needed to use way more, so I tried 8 pumps, which wasn’t quite enough. The final time, I finally got good coverage with 10 pumps. This is still a bit less than I’d usually use of other gels.
When I get good coverage, Uncle Funky’s Daughter Curly Magic gives me a soft cast. It’s a very thin, eggwhite type consistency.
When wet, this seems to give me a lot of frizz, but once my hair is dry it’s not frizzy. It gives really great definition, and makes my curl clumps really thick. It doesn’t give me a lot of volume, so i’d say this is probably best for people who prefer definition over volume.
Due to the light hold, my hair does fall apart fairly quickly. It only gives me 1 day of good, wavy hair when used by itself. Due to the light hold, my hair feels very soft and natural if I only use this. It is about $15 for a 12oz bottle.
Overall, I found that Uncle Funky’s Daughter Curly Magic gives me good definition and bigger curl clumps, but doesn’t offer much hold at all.
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This was a super helpful set of comparisons, it’s always so hard to know what to try even in general terms, but seeing the multiple days of how it was wearing on you was perfect.
I literally owe you my life. I could NOT for the LIFE OF ME find anyone else with similar hair having sub-par results with the Curlsmith In-style Fixer. I LOVE YOU.
Haha, awe! You are too sweet. So glad this helped you find products that work well for you!
Hi I this post was very useful but just 1 question- is frizz level high mean that there is lots of frizz or that it contains the frizz to a high level?
I used high frizz to describe when I had a lot of frizz, so products where I said I had a high frizz level didn’t do much to help reduce my frizz. 🙂
Thank you so much, I am always searching for somebody with the same hair texture as me and it’s so difficult to A find someone and B have them making constructive reviews. This is amazing!
Thank you! It was really time consuming to do the testing, document it and write it all out but I was hopeful that it would be helpful for people so I’m glad it has been for some!
If a gel has a strong cast does it mean that the hold will last longer or that it provides good definition? or both? also what do you think about flaxseed gel? does it give a good enough hold for us wavies?
Getting a hard cast usually means the hold will last longer and it should give good definition, but it’s not a guarantee. It’s more of a correlation than a causation, I believe. I have not had good luck with flaxseed gel myself, but some wavies do. It seems to me like there are differences in hair type that make flaxseed gel, custards (like kinky curly curling custard) and moisturizing gels (like curlsmith souffle) provide a hard hold, and for other hair types it doesn’t. I have the type of hair where those products don’t give me a good cast. I think they may work well on dryer and/or hair that has coarser individual strands than what I have. My hair is naturally moisturized and my strands are fine.
This was so helpful, thank you so much for spending the time to document this with so much detail!
omg. thanks for posting this. products here in Asia are way more expensive than in us!! so this is really helpful so that I can cut down on costs!! I’m looking forward to trying la hold gel!!
I am learning A LOT here.. I am unclear how to determine which products have protein. I’m mostly using Quidad right now.. heat and humidity get and mousse and trying to decide how to wash. Right now using up
The diva curl no poo co wash or sometimes ouidad cleansing oil shampoo. Ouidad clairifyer monthly. I wet it soaked it every morning to style and air dry but I want more bounce and have straighter spots at times so I think protein would help. Im going to read through more of your links. I just reached the overwhelmed point 😜 but really happy to have found this and that we have similar hair so I can learn. I have not been excited about any of the drugstore/target brands but maybe I will try and be more patient seeing that you choose Not Your Mothers and others.
Have you tried any of the Quidad line? It’s pricier but to see how it compares or for people willing to fork out more if it’s in fact worth it for any products?