u/bleumariine

This is the last post in a series of posts documenting my experiments with a silicone serum and several popular gels. I’ve had great fun trying everything, but chile I’m tired!!! 😪 

I was asked what I thought about mousse in the previous post. I said my experience was dissatisfying because it didn’t give me enough hold and frizz control in humid conditions. I said I’d try it again with a silicone serum underneath, and that is what I did this weekend with a half-full bottle of mousse I dug out of my cupboard.

The mousse is the Giovanni Curl Habit (purple bottle) with VP/VA Copolymer as a primary hold ingredient and Vinyl something something Methacrylate Copolymer as a secondary hold ingredient. These are great hold ingredients, but I don’t know if I’d recommend the product because the formula is stuffed with a smorgasbord of heavy oils (coconut, olive, avocado), bit of a red flag if your hair is easily weighed down. I hate when companies throw heavy oils into hold products… why would I want all these oils when my leave-in has more than enough?

This is a regular pump bottle that spits out a bubbly and irregular foam, not a pressurized aerosol can that dispenses golf balls of mousse with the consistency of shaving foam.

As with the previous post, the underlying routine is exactly the same. Clarifying shampoo, 2-in-1 conditioning mask and leave-in, silicone serum, bounce curl brush, HOLD PRODUCT GOES HERE, diffuse, SOTC with silicone serum.

Image 1: Giovanni mousse as my sole hold product

Image 2: Giovanni gel (my fave from the last post) followed by Giovanni mousse on top

There seems to be an even split between people who prefer mousse before gel vs those who do mousse after gel. For the sake of consistency I went with mousse last 

Images 3 & 4 from my archives: since someone wanted to see my hair in its natural & undefined state. This is freshly washed and air-dried hair with some leave-in. No bounce curl brush, silicone serum, hold product, diffuser, nothing at all. It’s not disastrous or anything, but I definitely cannot go out looking like this (and imagine the frizz by midday).

Right off the bat: using a mousse as my primary hold product makes my hair look as close to its 3A subtype as possible. It’s less weighty than gel, so it doesn’t elongate my ringlets as much. Because I can apply mousse closer to my scalp than gel, it’s easier to have consistent root-to-tip definition.

Adding a conservative amount of gel for extra hold and longevity (image 2) doesn’t appear to affect the overall look. Would it be better if I did the mousse first then gel after? Does the order matter?

I can’t figure out if these results look better than my gel-only results, so I’ll you guys decide. I’m completely overwhelmed by the assortment of hold products I have on hand. I don’t know what I’m gonna stick with now that I’m at the end of my experiment. I’m very happy with the results I got using just gel, but I do like how the mousse preserves my ringlety curl pattern. I guess I could combine the two, but I’m wary of product creep and don’t wanna use more stuff than strictly necessary.

I shun LLMs for the most part, but Gemini is baked into Google Search, so it’s impossible to avoid it 100%. Supposedly a top of the line AI, so they say…

All it does is hallucinate info, contradict itself, and lie. I deliberately used it without context to test its ability to give out objective information, and it failed with flying colors. There is no substitute for DYOR and community-sourced advice.

I wash my hair everyday, sometimes twice a day if I’ll be exposed to chlorine, because my climate is muggy as shite. It’s the kind of muggy that makes your eyeglasses steam up and turns your scalp into a sweat lagoon. I took the opportunity to try four different curly HG gels I got in a recent haul over the span of two days.

The underlying routine is consistent across all pics. Humectant-rich clarifying shampoo, 2-in-1 conditioning mask that doubles as a leave-in, silicone serum, freestyling with bounce curl brush (no sectioning), GEL GOES HERE, microfiber towel, diffuser, then SOTC with same silicone serum.

I used approximately the same amount of gel each time. Because I use a silicone serum under gel, and again to SOTC, any frizz that I may experience from a sub-par gel formula is largely counteracted by the serum, so I can‘t give you the fairest assessment of these gels’ frizz-fighting properties.

Image 1: Schwarzkopf got2b Ultra Glued (PVP + Acrylates Copolymer)

Image 2: Giovanni LA Hold (VP/VA Copolymer)

Image 3: LA Looks Extreme Sport Blue (PVP)

Image 4: Not Your Mother’s Flash Freeze (Polyquaternium-69 + PVP + Methacrylate Crosspolymer)

Ranking my faves:

Winner: Giovanni. Moderately strong hold that leaves hair feeling cotton soft without sacrificing durability, softest feeling of all 4. Amazing juicy clumping action, brilliant and shiny finish, glycerin-free which makes it perfect for humid climates. Most no-BS ingredient list of all 4. Has some botanical extracts that contribute to a nice almost herbaceous scent, but nothing overpowering

Runner-up: got2b. Very strong hold, has glycerin but it’s low on the list. Really nice clumping action and shine similar to the Giovanni, but doesn’t leave hair feeling as soft. Not very generously sized, unfortunately; you’ll run out pretty quick if you wash multiple times a week. I’d probably give this pole position if it came in a large enough format. Citrusy scent.

Could be better: NYM. Would rate this higher if glycerin wasn’t so bloody high on the list. Has great hold and next-gen polymers like Polyquaternium-69, so it sucks that they nerfed the formula with a high humectant load. I did get more frizz with this one vs the Giovanni and got2b; if not for the silicone serum I’d probably look worse for wear. “Flash freeze” for temperate climates, perhaps… doesn’t give me thick juicy clumps like the Giovanni and got2b either. Smells amazing though, like an expensive perfume atelier.

Khia asylum, but has its pros: LA Looks: As most CG veterans will attest, this has a helmet-like hold, and it’s glycerin-free as well (so it’s humidity-friendly). I’d rate it higher if it wasn’t for the inclusion of the dreadful preservatives Methylisothiazolinone (MIT) and Methylchloroisothiazolinone (CMIT), both of which are associated with severe skin issues. It sucks that such a cost-effective product has been nerfed with these abysmal preservatives when phenoxyethanol exists! The finish and clumping is kind of meh compared to the other 3, as you can see… but it will keep your hair frizz-free. Scent is generic and meh, but it dissipates quickly.

I recently posted about how experimenting with a silicone serum made my 3A curls tighter, more manageable, and more resilient without sacrificing fluffiness and bounciness.

Today I repeated the experiment, but used the serum twice. First as an adjunct to my usual Skala leave-in, then in lieu of my usual Nuxe dry oil to scrunch out the gel cast after diffusing. I was afraid I’d weigh my hair down by using it twice, but no such thing happened. My hair is even bouncier, even fluffier, even softer, and more impervious to humidity. Judge the results for yourself. I’ve never had such resplendent hair in my life. I cannot actually believe this is my own hair, growing from my own scalp.

The CHI silicone serum I use contains peptides and amino acids in the form of hydrolyzed silk/wheat/soy proteins, so it’s possible that these ingredients contribute to the overall look as well.

The efficacy of the new addition to my routine was validated in the most comical way imaginable. When I met with a relative, they grimaced and chided me for making my hair “too curly”, but that’s just the internalized self-hate of our ethnic features rearing its ugly head (Indian readers might relate). I’m 30 years old and no longer have patience for that bullshite at my big age, but that does mean that whatever I’m doing is working lol!

so yeah I’m done with CGM and bad science. My hair looked like it survived a nuclear blast when I went au naturel and I have no intention of returning to my rat’s nest era.

in the first image, taken yesterday, I clarified, conditioned, used a leave-in, then gel, and diffused to fully dry. Bog standard curl routine.

in the second image, taken today, I replicated the above, but added an old-school silicone serum between the leave-in and gel stages.

My products are silicone-free, so the serum is the only source of silicones in the whole routine. Judge for yourselves if my hair looks better in the latter image. It does to me, and my hair appears more resistant to humidity and the general ravages of the day. I'd add a video if I could, but it's very bouncy and flowy, and the 'cones haven't made my hair feel heavier at all.

I'd say silicones are unfairly demonized by CGM fanatics who don't clarify often because sulfates are also demonized. You can absolutely weigh your hair down with 'cones, but so can you with oils, butters, and the assortment of emollients we use. It's very much a "dose makes the poison" scenario and I no longer wish to be led astray by bad advice.

Will list products in a comment.

I need to keep my hair in a braid because of the strenuous nature of my job. Leaving my hair open in the presence of heavy machinery is a safety hazard. I’ve braided it for years but haven’t figured out a way to do it without hair ties. Hopefully I will at some point.

I’d originally wanted a Ganesha pendant, but I felt a wee bit iffy about wearing a miniature murti on my person. Didn’t wanna do anything that could be construed as disrespectful to the image of the divine, like wearing the pendant into the bathroom, so I went with an abstract representation of Ganesha instead. We all know what that is 😊 It’s the first piece of Hindu jewellery I’ve ever owned and I couldn’t be happier with it. I’ll get another one in silver if the opportunity presents itself.