Gel Casting Changed my Life!

luisaloop

Hi All!

I'm relatively new to the site, but just wanted to ask whether gel casting has changed anyone else's life! I started putting my hair in a very very thick gel cast at night, and letting it dry until morning (as I slept). I sleep on a satin pillowcase- but don't have to plop or anything- as long as I used enough gel. In the morning- I use a light oil to SOTC, and it's amazing!!!! I don't even have to re-wet! Any others out there that have had this experience? I'm a wavy, so I never got good results with anything except this!

SereneCurls

Yes! An overnight gel cast is so incredibly useful. I also couldn't diffuse till I started using gel last summer. Whenever I tried I got crazy frizz and the bad kind of volume. With gel I can diffuse perfectly, drastically reducing my drying time.

Reservechic

luisaloop wrote: »

Hi All!

I'm relatively new to the site, but just wanted to ask whether gel casting has changed anyone else's life! I started putting my hair in a very very thick gel cast at night, and letting it dry until morning (as I slept). I sleep on a satin pillowcase- but don't have to plop or anything- as long as I used enough gel. In the morning- I use a light oil to SOTC, and it's amazing!!!! I don't even have to re-wet! Any others out there that have had this experience? I'm a wavy, so I never got good results with anything except this!

Welcome! I'm glad you decided to join us.

It's great that your getting such great results using this technique. As it's always exciting when you find something that works really well.

SpiralHam

Welcome to the wavy club :glasses8:

It's what I do to for an early morning as well: shower in the late afternoon/evening, let my hair dry while watching TV, whatever, then off to bed with crunchy hair.

In the morning I get up, run a comb through it lightly, mist and scrunch with a flour sack towel, maybe pixie diffuse the ends a little, and it's off to the races.

Best of all, a gel that I wasn't liking for first day hair works amazingly well as "second day" with this routine; now I know how to keep using it!

claudine191

So, you're putting gel on thickly after the hair is dry? Does the gel dry before you go to sleep? What if your hair dries funny before you put the gel on?

I've never heard of this method and am sincerely curious.

Morgan_Adcock

Yup! I've been doing a version of this for years, though I don't use more than the usual amount of gel, and scrunch my hair when I lay my head down. I just use my regular gel as I normally would on the first day. I evaluate my curl definition in the evening when I start getting ready for bed, and if it has started to get loose, I mix a few drops of jojoba oil with a golf ball amount of AVG, and scrunch it in; then by the time I go to bed, the gel cast has started to form, and I just scrunch, if needed, when I lay my head down.

Using a silk pillowcase also helps.

arel

Glad you mentioned this, because when at first heard about cg and started reading, I got curious and one of my first CO washes was at night. I put a lot of gel and woke up with quite wavy hair...
But, I thought it was maybe 'first time luck' ... then I tried it later in my journey using more conditioner and little gel and the result wasn't that bad either (mind you, my hair it's not as curly as some of you)

I will have to try it again and see if it works now that my hair is longer...

claudine191

Hmmmmm.

I'm a fussy sleeper (toss and turn, leg thrashing, blankets over head if I'm cold) so I wonder if I could get used to this?

Morgan_Adcock

I've never been a great sleeper, but I find that washing my hair at night helps me to settle down and go to sleep. Maybe it's because I know I'll get to sleep later the next morning.

KaZenner1990

I had tried it my self but on the back my curls go flat against my head and lose their rope appearance which I adore as they get ringlety that way. Nevertheless my hair was awesome when I woke up but i wish I could find a way not to squash them.

{Stats for mobiles}
M/C, High Porosity,Normal Elast. 2c/3a Boticelli/Corkicelli

BotticelliBrit

I'm a big fan of leaving the scrunch in until morning, on the weekdays. It means I can wash my hair at night after work and have it look good the next day, rather than having to get up early to wash it before work (I'm far too lazy for that).

It's not quite as awesome as 'real' first day hair I have on the weekends, but it much better than second-day hair gel casting is just amazing.

I'm a huge fan of gel actually, and it's a shame it gets such a bad name! I think most people don't realise about SOTC and so always say 'ohh I hate gel it makes my hair hard and crunchy'. I'm always like 'nooo that's a cast, scrunch it and fall in love!' Hehe

Morgan_Adcock

It sounds as if you may not be getting a sufficient amount of gel to the back of your head. It's quite common for that to happen, particularly if you apply your gel with your hair flipped over, as it's the section in the center of the mass, and the gel needs to get through to other layers to get to it. Try lightly grazing your hands over your canopy, including the back, then flipping your hair over and scrunch-squishing the gel in. If you can feel gel on the tip of your finger when you insert it into the middle of that mass of hair, you've got enough gel on. Alternatively, squish the gel in with your head tipped to the sides and back.

FWIW, I get better curls when I sleep on newly washed hair, just scrunching the curls again as I lay my head down. I think it may be related to my having super-fine hair. Without gravity pulling down the length of the curls, they have an easier time forming fully.

I like that my hair is bouncier when I do this. Once I embraced my curl, I stopped getting upset about jump, sometimes known as shrinkage. So what if my hair sometimes looks like it's chin length, and sometimes looks like it's collarbone length, as long as the curls are well formed. I don't have to have my hair cut to have a variety of looks, and it's part of the adventure of having naturally curly hair.

curlicious13

I'm not a wavy, but have tiny corkscrew curls & and a gel cast & diffuser have changed my life. I wash my hair at night & use a boat load of gel. After diffusing, no frizz!!! Whoop whoop.