gel Archives - Wavy Hair Care

How Much Gel To Use On Wavy Hair

May 8, 2024 by Emily Evert Leave a Comment

A really common question I get from people who are relatively new to the curly girl method or embracing their wavy hair, is how much gel should I use? Also, how to tell if you’re using too much gel or not enough!

It’s a really great question to be asking, and it has a little bit of a complex answer. I recently did my hair with too much gel, and then again with not enough gel, so that I could show you through images what each of those look like.

How much hair humans have REALLY varies

First though, I wanted to give a visual for why it is so challenging to know how much gel to use on wavy hair. It’s because how much hair you have on your head can be VASTLY different from how much hair another person has on their head, even if their hair is the same length as yours and even if neither of you are experiencing hair thinning or baldness at all. I’ve read that people with dense hair can have 6x as many hairs on their head as someone with low-density hair. That sounds a little hard to believe, but the tiktok embedded below helps illustrate this fact.

@ciera.hamilton No wonder people always confuse us for twins 🥰 #braid #twins #fyp #foryoupage #thickhair ♬ Ice Age – B

How Much Product To Use On Wavy Hair

January 22, 2024 by Emily Evert Leave a Comment

Does Wavy Hair Need a Lot Of Products?

Wavy hair does not require a lot of products to be styled well. In most cases, using several leave-in products will weigh down wavy hair rather than helping it look better.

Does Hair Type Determine How Much Product I Should Use?

How much of a product (like gel or leave in conditioner) you can or should use is impacted by your hair density. Whether or not you can or should use certain types of products (like protein treatments, curl creams, etc) is somewhat determined by your hair porosity.

I have a blog post designed to help you determine your wavy hair type if you aren’t sure what yours is.

Does Hair Type Determine What Type Of Hair Products I Should Use?

Hair texture (straight, wavy, curly or coily) can give you some really vague guidelines for how much products and what types of products you’re likely to use. For example, wavy hair is generally naturally more moisturized than curly and coily hair so it doesn’t need as much moisture, and it’s easily weighed down. It also often needs more support from a product with hold. However, these are really general rules of thumb.

Learning your hair type in terms of properties like strand thickness, porosity and density will give you more customized information about what products to use, how much of them to use, and how many products your hair can tolerate. I have a blog post designed to help you determine your wavy hair type if you aren’t sure what yours is.

How Do I Know If I’m Using Too Much or Too Little Product In My Wavy Hair?

Wavy Hair Gel Questions & Answers

July 5, 2022 by Emily Evert Leave a Comment

I have a few blog posts about gel already, but I noticed that there were several questions I get related ot gel that I hadn’t answered yet, So, I thought I’d compile a blog post that is sort of Q and A style with gel being the core topic. So, here we go. If you want to see my other blog posts on gel, here are those:

What is a gel cast, why you want one, and how to create one

How to know if you’re getting a gel cast and reasons why you may not get one

Do I really have to use gel?

15 hair gels tested on my wavy hair (over 3 days each, with pics!)

Should I use gel or mousse?

How much gel to use on wavy hair?

This is going to vary a lot from person to person. Hair density can vary really dramatically, with some people having 1 hair per hair follicle, and others having up to 6 hairs per hair follicle. Meaning, some people can literally have 6x as much hair on their head as other people!

When you keep that information in mind, it can really help to explain why some people need to use way more gel than other people. Hair length can also make a big difference, of course.

Unfortunately, this variation in amount and length of hair means it’s not really possible to give a general rule of thumb such as a quarter sized amount or a golfbal sized amount and have that work for everyone.

I have very dense hair and I cover my palms with gel 3 to 4 times depending on the specific gel I’m using.

If you’re new and looking with how much to try to begin, here’s a rule of thumb I’ve heard. Gather your hair as if you’re going to put it into a ponytail, but then use your thumb and pointer finger to circle the ponytail instead of actually putting it in a hairtie. Hold your fingers in that same as you remove your hand from your hair. Use that size/shape as an estimate for how much gel to use in each 1/4 section of your hair.

To give an example, if you measure your ponytail and it’s about as big as a quarter, you’d use a quarter-sized amount of gel in four sections of your hair (Front left, right left, left back, right back). This would just be a starting point, and you’d analyze your results and then use more or less next time depending on how it went.

Ultimately, finding out how much gel you should use will require some experimentation. We all use too much, and we all use not enough, at some point! It’s part of the journey.

Hair follicle count information source: MindBodyGreen.com.