On the website, the WSHP instructions are to “apply to wet hair to maintain your curls and coils all day. Wet Set offers a non-greasy, light hold, so that your curls “POP” without feeling hard or crunchy.” The ingredients list contains just three items: glycerin, aloe vera, and olive oil. And it comes in a variety of scents. I sampled the WSHP from kathymack and I must admit that I’m glad it’s just a sample.
I’ve tried the WSHP with and without a leave in underneath, as the top product without a gel, and as the top with a gel and neither of them really work. My first go round with the WSHP, I used it over GDLI and was pleasantly surprised to see chunky waves after scrunching it into my wet (but not dripping) hair. Unfortunately, the happiness with the WSHP ended by the end of the day. My hair wasn’t frizzy per se, there just wasn’t much definition and it was as if my waves were weighed down and pulled out. I’ve been using it every day in different combinations and I still remain ambivalent about it. Sure it smells great and it’s definitely cheap if I were to buy a full size, but I think my hair just doesn’t like aloe vera in large amounts. I can’t use aloe vera gel because it makes my hair feel rough and undefined, and it pulls out my waves. Hm…lightbulb moment. Maybe that’s why I can’t get the WSHP to work for me. No matter how many times I’ve tried AVG with/out a leave in, under or sans gel on top, for the life of me I can’t get it to work. And considering the WSHP is 1/3 AVG that must be why my hair is spazzing out on me.
In other news, I’ve found that I much prefer my hazelnut/pomegranate conditioning oil mix over the babassu oil I’ve been using. I was afraid that my skin would react to this new combination of oils but instead the fine lines are disappearing and my skin feels ridiculously soft. The properties for the pomegranate oil are definitely true: “anti-bacterial (acne); hydrates; moisturizes; nourishing; restores the Ph balance of skin; smoothing; anti-wrinkle properties and smoothes fine lines!!” Hazelnut has the following properties: “slightly astringent, toning, fast absorption. Tones and tightens skin, helps maintain firmness and elasticity of the skin. Helps to strengthen capillaries so might be useful against thread veins. Encourages cell regeneration while stimulating circulation.”
It’s unfortunate that the pomegranate oil is a bit more solid than the other GoW oils I own. Since I freeze all my oils to extend their shelf life, I sat both oils onto the kitchen counter to get to room temperature. The next day, the pomegranate oil was definitely thawed but it didn’t have the consistency of regular oil. It was somewhat chunky and there seemed to be fibers in it. Nevertheless, I spooned out a little 1/2 tsp sized chunk and mixed it in a amber glass dropper bottle 3/4 filled with hazelnut oil. This mix is great because it sinks in fast and doesn’t solidify as easily as my babassu oil did. The smell is a little tart due to the pom oil but definitely something I can live it with for great skin.
I’m also loving this GoW immortelle HA serum. It really does work fast to heal irritated skin and it provides a good amount of moisture.
Just a minor update – I broke out my KCCC tub recently after getting fed up with mediocre hair days and fell in love again with the marshmallowy scented goodness. I love that it smells amazing, has good hold, and doesn’t make my hair feel like anything BUT hair. The three times I used it I tried it twice with GDLI and once with CJ coffee coco (this experiment resulted in a somewhat better than mediocre hair day but nothing compared to a GDLI+KCCC day). This past weekend I pulled out my half bottle of BRHG and fell in love with the gel again, too. I tried it with GDLI and a KBB hair milk rinseout.
I wish I could just sell all the unused products I’ve accumulated but my PJ worries that I’ll be missing out on yet another HG product from amongst the pile.
I’ve finally finished the ginormous bottle of LA Looks sport gel and have moved on to my sizeable bottle of Naturelle Volumax gel from Sallys. When I shook the bottle around a bit, I was afraid that I would end up with another Biotera-like gel. Luckily, that isn’t the case. The Volumax gel is not as runny as the biotera and the scent is fr more pleasant. Mmmm…pineapple. So far I’ve used it with the curl junkie coffee coco and GVP PM the cream leave in and it’s been pretty decent. It does leave hair crunchy but it distributes and defines fairly well.
I’ve also been experimenting with GVP PM the cream combined with GVP PM extra body sculpting gel. I tried the combination on a “who cares” day and was pleasantly surprised. Maybe the fact that they’re both PM knock offs lends a synergistic effect?
I’m definitely missing KBB. Looking at my fotki pictures from my KBB days leaves me aching for this experimentation/getting rid of product phase to end already. Damn my rampant early PJ days.
Rather than washing my face in the am with a conventional cleanser, I tried a seamollient rinse. I applied a nickel’s worth of GoW seamollient to damp skin and left it on while I shampooed my hair with KM’s bay rum bar. The result was baby soft skin with pretty good oil control for the day. I’ll definitely be trying this out a bit more.
I’ve beenusing Tigi MM for the past two weeks and can say that it really doesn’t do much for my hair. Much like jillipoo’s blog entry on empty conditoner syndrome, I agree that “It goes on light, has great slip, and smells pretty.” However, that’s all it does for me. I’ve been noticing that the last few times I’ve been using this conditioner my hair just doesn’t have that slippy clumpiness to it after rinsing it out. To verify that it’s the conditioner and not the leave-in I’m applying, I conditioned with Giovanni smooth as silk yesterday and got the slippy clumpiness I’m used to with most other conditioners I’ve tried. Again, just to test my theory, I conditioned with Tigi MM this am after a shampoo bar and ACV/honey rinse and once I started to rinse it out, my hair felt a bit rougher and there wasn’t much clumping action; in fact, it seemed as though some hairs were repelling each other. This brought to mind the way my hair acted with Back to Basics Jasmine conditioner. While Tigi MM provides more slip than B2B, I feel that it falls into the “junk food conditioner” category in that it satisfies my hair’s moisture needs but doesn’t really add any nutritional benefit so to speak. I’m really starting to realize that my hair prefers conditioner with more natural ingredients; it just responds better and I feel like I’m taking better care of my hair by feeding it with better, more natural ingredients.
Today’s hair is a bit of a fluke. I forgot to add my leave in prior to applying today’s gel mix (half dollar of LA looks sport with a nickel of PBH passion shine). I stood there in the shower for a few seconds in cold, dripping disbelief and thought about going sans leave in but the winter weather brought to mind images of frizzy hair so I applied two dimes of GVP Paul Mitchell The Cream after the gel. I was pleasantly surprised to see some immediate clumping and wave enhancement!
I Sedused and, as luck would have it, forgot to diffuse the crown with my DevaFuser. Pooh to my spazzing out this am. However, it’s now 3 hours later and I’m able to scrunch what little crunch there was. I have good definition, good clumping, and the fact that cream was applied post gel made for less crunchy hair. I’ll definitely have to try this out with my CJ coffee coco cream.
I’m a homeowner! Well, part homeowner; my parents put in the down payment and will be paying the HOA and1/2 the mortgage. My parents have been planning on purchasing a second home as an investment for a while and with prices the way they are, they jumped at the opportunity to buy a 3 bdrm, 2 1/2 bath, w/ all the appliances included and upgrades like none other for $300k. Of course they won’t be retiring within the next year or two, so rather than rent it out to strangers, I’ll be living there with the option to buy them out if I decide I like the house.
The plus is that I’ll be living in a house and paying just as much as I am in my apartment. The bad side is that if I decide to buy them out, it will take a while to pay them back since I’m not exactly rolling in the dough. And, since my SO still has his house, if I decide to buy them out he won’t be able to help me with the payments until he sells his…if he even wants to.
In hair related news, I completely spazzed out this am and scrunched with my flour sack towel before I had even applied my gel. The result? Crispy, defined waves in some areas and loose, fluffy undefined chunks of hair in others. My hair is of course in an updo now.
I don’t think I like thick leave in like sheam as much as I used to. I’m using the CJ coffee coco as a leave in/styling cream and it just doesn’t distribute as well as KBB nectar. Unfortunately, I also have the CJ leave in and another bottle of SheaM in my stash. I may just have to put up the butter-type leave ins on the swap board….along with my Conair hairdryer/diffuser.
I’ve been out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday so there really isn’t much to update with. I’ve been experimenting with AG Hair Cosmetics Mousse Gel but I haven’t really been feeling the love like some curlies over at NC.com have. Maybe it’s a matter of my not using enough, the fact that I apply a leave in underneath, or that it just doesn’t have enough hold for me and I’d need to follow up with some gel. I’ve tried it twice both with soap bars, an ACV rinse, conditioner and leave in (curls coconut sublime and CJ coffee coco one day & tigi mm with sheam the second day) and both times were utter failures. There was no hold, no crunch, my hair looked big, and there was frizz. Boo.
Today I did my monthly sulfate clarifying shampoo, followed up with giovanni smooth as silk condish, used CJ coffee coco as a creme, and mixed la looks sport with pbh passion shine. There is a quite a bit of fog today so we’ll see how my hair holds up.
