In the spirit of things, I’ve continued my experimentation. Thus far I’ve ruled out GVP PM sculpting gel for sure. I used it for the past 3 days and my hair was just NOT having it; stringy and rough waves are not a selling point for me. Also, the polyquaternium 11 in it just makes me anxious. After reading the CurlyChemist articles about the ‘quats, it got me thinking. I don’t particularly like mousse and polyquat 11 is an ingredient recommend for use in mousses because it aids in styling as well as providing some moisture. Every time I’ve used mousse on it’s own, my hair just swelled up, felt slightly rough, and didn’t have much hold. The fact that there is also potential for buildup makes it even less appealing.
I decided to pull biotera gel from my reject bin in hopes that my overall better hair days would help me figure out why there was all the fuss for this gel back in the day. I shampooed with CON, used my ng rose & persimmon rinse out, DIDN’T follow the icequeen method to the t and just scrunched in a bit more of the rinse out upright, and THEN rinsed upside down. I scrunched ot some excess water and then applied about 6 quarters of the gel. I didn’t notice any chunkier clumping while I was scrunching in the gel and I still can’t take the floral scent.
After plopping, I diffused as normal and clipped. What I noticed with the modified icequeen method was a fewer number of wonky roots that I had to fix. After rinsing out the conditioner and scrunching in my first few puddles of gel, I scrunched in more gel on each side and my final scrunch was upside down. I think moving my hair around so much prevented getting the odd horizontal root.
After initially scrunching out the crunch, I was actually surprised by the gel. There seemed to be a good amount of volume and hold and definitely less crunch vs MGA sculpting which isn’t always necessarily a bad thing. However, about 5 hours later and the slight crush I had for the gel disappeared. As the crunch disappeared, so did the hold. My hair started to poof and frizz, clumps fell straighter from lack of hold, and while my hair is touchable there is no wave definition. Since I’m almost done with my bottle of NG rose and persimmon, I decided to whip up a batch of my FSG to act as the constant once I introduce a new conditioner into the mix. I’ve still got my bottle of AOHR but I think switching every so often to a lighter rinse out helps to prevent any over-conditioning or buildup.
I think this gel/creme styler just might move on up to the “hit” category. Yesterday, I used about 2 quarters worth over the KMS pepper gel and my hair looked fabulous – some spirals, chunky waves, and nice definition. My only gripe about it is that it tends to make my hair feel a wee bit dry. I do use a leave-in underneath it so it actually getting in and drying out my hair isn’t going to happen.
Today’s combo is giovanni TTT cowash, ytc rinseout, a dime’s worth of sheam, and a puddleof biotera mixed with a pinky’s worth of sallys spike it on each side. I’ve already scrunched out the crunch with GF shine wax and it’s looking…decent. Nothing spectacular. The waves are wavier than usual, but it’s stringier than usual, too. 
I don’t know how I feel about this gel. On the NC.com board, there is a quite a 
I decided to phase out cremes because I figured the combo of creme+gel would weigh down my hair. So, I’m just using gels. I spent the weekend at my parents’ so I took my bottle of Biotera gel. With all the rave reviews on NC.com, I thought it would be a no brainer.