It has been a long time since my last post. I have been quite busy for the past few months due to our relocation. Now things have been settled so I will again be a regular here :).
Today I will be sharing my DIY recipe for a curl styling cream that we can use to enhance the efficacy of our styling gels available in India. As we all know how hard it is to get a styling product that can provide hold to our curls and add moisture. Most of the gels that are available in market are targeted for males to keep their short styles in place. These gels mostly contain styling polymers that provide hold to hair and rarely contain ingredients that can provide conditioning and moisture. So, when we use these gels on our curls, then the results are crunchy and dull hair.
So, I thought may be we can make our own curl cream using these gels by adding ingredients that are already available in our home. For this recipe choose a silicone free hair gel that does not contain drying alcohol like alcohol denat, SD alcohol etc. You will find more information on these types of alcohol in this post on ingredients to avoid in hair care. You can use gels like Garnier Fructis Style hard gel ultra, Garnier Fructis Style styling gel strong, Set Wet Hair Gel Casual Hold (blue color and comes in a tub), set wet cool hold (comes in tube), Giovanni LA natural styling gel, Loreal Studio Line Invisi’hold 24h natural clear gel or any other silicone free and alcohol free gel available in market.
Curl Cream
Recipe
2 Tbsp Styling gel (silicone-free, alcohol-free)
1 Tbsp silicone free conditioner
1 Tbsp jojoba oil (or any other oil of your choice)
1/2 tsp glycerin
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and whisk. And that’s it, you are done with your own styling cream 🙂 !!!!
How to use: Use the styling cream the way you use other styling products like flax seed gel or other gels, mousse that we use to provide hold and definition to our curls. Wash your hair as usual with sulfate and silicone free shampoo and conditioner. Apply styling cream in smoothing motion on wet curls. Leave your hair to air dry. Once hair is completely dry scrunch your hair to get rid of any crunchiness.
Curls styled using DIY Cream
Curls styled using curl cream after 7 hr
Results: It can be a really good option other than flax gel and you can also use it while travelling. Hair were soft and non crunchy after using the cream. There was not much frizz even after many hours. If you have oily hair, then you can reduce the oil quantity. Also if you don’t have much stray hair, then you can reduce the gel quantity as well based on your liking.
I would really recommend you to try it and please let me know your feedback or any tweak you have done with this recipe.
Welcome back!!!! That was an extraordinary recipe!!!
Thanks Shirin!! 🙂
very informative.. like always 🙂
Thanks Nidhi!!
Hello
I’m a curly haired guy. 3a-3b type of curls. Why are you telling us to specifically use Set Wet Casual Hold that comes in a tub? Is it a problem if I use the blue one that comes in a tube(cool hold)?
Regards
Abhishek
There are many gels from set wet. I have seen a few set wet gels and some of them have alcohol in them. So, that’s why i suggested causal hold one as I saw its ingredients and it is alcohol and silicone free.
But yesterday one of the followers shared set wet cool hold picture with me and its ingredients looks fine to me, so you can definitely use set wet cool hold gel. Cool hold gel has water soluble silicone so it should not cause any buildup on hair and it is also alcohol free.
thank you so much!!
Hey. I realised that this is similar to the LOC method..as in you’ve mixed all the three in one so I would like to know if the results of using these ingredients would be different when used together or would it be the same compared to using it seperately? I have been following CG method and many of your suggestions and articles from 2 months and I have seen a very great difference in my hair but two of the biggest challenges Iam facing is crunchy n dry hair even if they are defined to some extent..so will using the gel conditioner and oil at once help combat dryness ? Also do u think it ll work if I add Shea butter to the cream? Iam also finding it hard to define the curls near the roots of my hair .where could I be going wrong?
Kruthi, Thank you so much for following the blog and it makes me really happy that it is helping you in maintaining your hair. Yeah, it has same ingredients that we use in LOC method but I have not compared the result when we use LOC method with when we use this curl cream. As I use my whipped shea butter and flax gel in LOC method. In this one we are using the store bought gel. You can try it once using the curl cream and use these products separately by following LOC method. Because all the products and recipes work very differently on everyone and we get different results. Also, please let me know the feedback :).
For crunchiness I wanted to know, do you scrunch your hair once it is completely dry. Hair feel crunchy after using the gel. This crunchiness comes from the cast that gel makes. This cast helps to keep your hair frizz-free during the drying process. So, once hair is completely dry, then scrunch your hair once and all the crunchiness will be gone.
For dryness, you have to use a leave-in conditioner after wash and seal it with oil or butter to seal the moisture in. Second day you feel your hair is again dry. So you have to refresh your curls again second day using water, leave-in etc.
Also, you can try this recipe with shea butter as well. That’s the beauty of DIY recipes, you can tweak them based on the products you have and according to your hair type.
Hey thank you so much for your suggestions..I tried the recipe and I must say..it has given me the best results till date compared to anything else I’ve tried till now. moisturised and defined my curls at the same time so it’s an excellent recipe and thanks a lot for it..however I avoided adding glycerin since its summer I thought it would do more harm than good,what’s your opinion about that?
I was considering getting a haircut done..I have thick 3b hair which is currently medium length..how do you think would a V-cut look?or do u have any other suggestions? My main aim is to decrease the volume because I have a lot of hair and a petite body so yeah 😂
That’s awesome!!
You can definitely avoid glycerin in humid condition. Also, we are using oils and gel which works good in humidity then you can add a little bit of glycerin (may be 1/4 – 1/2 tsp) if your conditioner does not have any humectant.
A good hair cut can really reduce hair volume from ends and helps to avoid the triangular look. When you go for hair cut then style your curls before going to salon so that the stylist can see how you wear your hair. because otherwise they avoid to give any layers on top by saying that it will poof up.
If you will see my pics on my facebook page then you will notice how my hair on top is layered which is reducing the weight at bottom. Also, see some curly hair pics on pinterest and show it to your hair stylist what kind of look you want to achieve. Avoid pics that are styled using curling rods and stick to more natural hair pics.
Im definitely trying this!!
hello.. hv read ur articles.. n thnk u so much .. hv strtd using the body shop products u tecommendd.. i feel my hair looks healthier..
though its scanty on d top n i thnk god for my curly hair as tje scntiness gets a lil camouflaged!!
y is it important to do the other things u mentioned?? like styling/setting/moisturizing..
I agree with you 🙂 curly hair really disguise our hair volume. Moisturizing is must for hair as it provides elasticity to hair and hence prevent breakage. Also, moisturized hair will have less frizz. So when you use a leave-in conditioner after shower, it provides moisture. Then we seal it with some oil so that oil coats the hair which prevents hair to lose moisture very fast. After this, I recommend to use styling product which provide holds to our curls and give it definition that lasts long. For styling you can use homemade flax seed gel as well. For some only leave-in conditioner and sealing with oils give good definition. But if you have tight curls and your hair is prone to frizzyness and are porous which lose moisture easily and you feel your hair is not retaining the definition then you should use a styling product to get the definition.
Hi,
I was just going through curly hair styling methods and found this blog. You really have some very good ways to maintain curls. I am definitely going to try these. I just wanted to know if the cream above is storable? If yes, does it have any validity?
Thanks Nayana!! :). As we are not adding anything unpreserved ingredients like water to the recipe so I think you can keep it outside of fridge. But I will always recommend you to make small batches.
Hi Asha,
have been looking for a leave in cream, the mousse was making my hair slightly dry !! Thanks so much for recipie…
Hey Asha!
I was wondering if you could revise this article? I’ve heard the Giovanni gel now has harmful chemicals in it. Please see the ingredients of these gels in their recent packages and inform us about it if you can!
I love this blog and want to start taking care of my curls too. Please see if you can help me out!
( Read the comments on Amazon.com under the Giovanni gel)
Best,
Vishakha
Thanks Vishakha, will check the ingredients of their latest formulation and I will get back to you :).
Vishakha, I have checked the ingredients and here they are Aqua (Purifed) Water, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Essential Oil, Nettle (Urtica Dioica) Oil, Thyme (Thymus Vulgaris) Oil, Birch (Butela Alba) Leaf Oil, Chamomilla (Anthemis Nobilis) Oil, Clary (Salvia Sclarea), Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender), Coltsfoot Leaf (Tussilago Fargara), Yarrow (Achillea Millefolium) Oil, Mallow (Malya Sylvestris), Horsetail (Equisetum Arvense) Oil, Soybean (Glycine Soja) Protein, PVP/VA Copolymer, Hydroxyethylcellulose (Plant Derived), Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E), Phenoxyethanol, Citric Acid (Corn), Grapefruit Seed (Citrus Derived), Methylparaben, Propylparaben
In this, I think you are talking about parabens (Methylparaben, Propylparaben) which are present as preservatives in the product. Some people use parabens and others tend to avoid it. They are infamous due to health concern associated with them. Some studies say they are associated with breast cancer and other studies negate it. So, it zeroes down to your personal choice. I personally dont mind using parabens but eventually it comes down to personal choice. Here is one of the link on parabens http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/antiperspirants-and-breast-cancer-risk
Thanks a lot for all your posts. I am clueless about how to manage my once beautiful curly hair but I have some hope now , thanks to you 😀
thanks dear!! means to me a lot 🙂
Hi ,
Loved your videos and posts and the detailing ..
Very impressed..
Can you explain please-
1)Every time you say use a conditioner in your DIY s it’s leave in conditioner?
2) Can you recommend any cheaper Indian leave in conditioners?
Such as B Blunt s curl cream? Or the new L’Oréal 5 in 1 oil cream.. Will that work?
3) Any methods to make your own leave in conditioner s at home ?
4) I have wavy curly hair.. I think it’s 2C -3A type Is it important for me to use gel along with the leave in conditioner?
Thanks ,
Priyanka Shah
Thanks Priyanka 🙂 . In DIY posts on the blog I have used rinse off conditioners. If you are following CG then i India we dont have any leave-in conditioner free of silicone. Only option is buying a US products from amazon. If you are using products containing silicones then you can use bblunt creams etc but still I wont recommend using a serum.
usage of gel is all upto you. A gel will provide lasting curls, less frizz, better curls in humid environment. But always use a leave-in conditioner generously before the gel to get the best looking curls. Otherwise hair feels dull and dry.
Hello Asha,
I am into CG from 2 months. I am still working on finding right gel and applying gel properly. This is my Routine. Wash with acv wow shampoo, using L’Oreal conditioner detangle, body shop banana conditioner as leave in and then Cantu curl activator as styling cream.
Now I want to try this DIY curl cream as I already hv the set wet gel. I Could you please let me know when I can use this cream? Should I skip the banana conditioner and Cantu while applying this cream or should use after Cantu?
You can try it as the last step, use less banana conditioner incase if all these together weigh your hair down. There is no rule in applying products. Keep experimenting with quantity and see how it works for you.