A mousse only styling miracle?

CopperCrown

I'm hoping this wasn't a one time thing. Do any other wavies do mousse only styling? Can you do it all the time, and does it work in high summer heat and humidity?

I only just tried it yesterday, mostly because I wasn't feeling well and didn't feel like doing a lot with my hair. I co-washed with Suave Coconut, then squish to condish, added a tiny amount for a leave-in, scrunched in a couple palmfuls of Aussie Instant Freeze Mousse, t-shirt scrunched, diffused then air dried and SOTC, and it was like a hair miracle.

I've never co-washed with the coconut before. I had tried last summer with a different Suave conditioner and my hair hated it. I think this is the right one for me.

I had so much more curl to my hair, especially after doing it straight for months. The top layer is still mostly wavy, but the entire bottom is rows of spirals starting right at the root. And best of all, this morning, all I did was finger comb a little and I was set. It held the curl and definition better than a hard hold gel.

Does anyone else do something like this? What do you use, and does it work in the summer? I'd love to keep this routine if my hair continues to respond like this. Although I also know I'll probably have to clarify regularly as well.

Here are a couple of photos. First is last night, about 9 hours post shower, and the second one is this afternoon.

ttoosday

One time I tried Pantene no crunch curls Whip (or something like that) mousse and it made my hair heavenly soft but didnt really hold. Then I tried Herbal Essences Totally Twisted mousse and I got awesome curls and good hold, but there was some ingredient in it that disagreed with some other ingredient in some other product (I never did figure out for sure but I think it was a polyquat) and so I abandoned it after getting a weird build up that wouldn't wash out. Can't remember if it was in the summer or not.
I'm tempted to give it another shot because I'm using all different products now. I'm thinking of trying it with a hard hold gel on top.

Edit : your photos look great, by the way

Mei

I love Aussie mousse. It's great stuff, I use it even in winter with good success but my climate is fairly wet/damp year round.

JD.GameAccou

Mei wrote: »

I love Aussie mousse. It's great stuff, I use it even in winter with good success but my climate is fairly wet/damp year round.

Quick question, I've tried mousse on my 2B fine hair and its turned my hair stringy. Any clumping that I got from the shower is gone. how do you use mousse but keep the curls nice and tight/clumped?

-Rose

naturecat

JD.GameAccou wrote: »

Mei wrote: »

I love Aussie mousse. It's great stuff, I use it even in winter with good success but my climate is fairly wet/damp year round.

Quick question, I've tried mousse on my 2B fine hair and its turned my hair stringy. Any clumping that I got from the shower is gone. how do you use mousse but keep the curls nice and tight/clumped?

-Rose

I put gel on first, then mousse over it. The gel helps hold my hair together. Right now I'm using gelatin gel, and then Sweet Curls Elixir Foam on top of it. Some people put some more gel or other styling agent with hold over the mousse if the mousse doesn't provide enough hold.

Mei

JD.GameAccou wrote: »

Mei wrote: »

I love Aussie mousse. It's great stuff, I use it even in winter with good success but my climate is fairly wet/damp year round.

Quick question, I've tried mousse on my 2B fine hair and its turned my hair stringy. Any clumping that I got from the shower is gone. how do you use mousse but keep the curls nice and tight/clumped?

-Rose

Apply your leave-in and mousse in the shower on sopping wet hair from the ears down the length, never near the roots, then plop for at least a half hour. Never rub your head even with the t-shirt or microfiber towel. You can gently scruch with the t-shirt after removing the plop to blot out any excess droplets of water, other than that, let it air dry. The clump factor depends on if your hair is stripped or not (even sulfate-free shampoos strip my hair and make it harder for it to clump. A small amount of natural sebum throughout the length of the hair is the world's best thing if you want clumps), and it depends on the ingredients in your mousse. Herbal Essences Totally Twisted is a good mousse that is cheap and works well for my hair, so does Aussie Aussome Volume mousse, but everyone's hair reacts differently to products depending upon the ingredients. My hair clumps beautifully now without any styler, just a bit of conditioner as a leave-in. For more hold I use either Deva's syling cream or a mousse though, usually on rainy days when I need the extra hold. I switched to Matrix Biolage Cleansing Conditioner for Curly hair and it's replaced the low poo/conditioner for me. I just use a tiny bit of conditioner for a leave in now. But the MBCC is moisturizing but not heavy and I think that has also made a massive difference in the consistency of my curls/waves.

JD.GameAccou

Thank you Mei! I'll try that tomorrow!

CopperCrown

So many great tips in this post now! This week, on a really humid day I went ahead and put a tiny amount of gel over the mousse and I had wonderful results. I used to do a little bit of mousse and then a lot of gel. I think the opposite is the better combo for me. Two big handfuls of mousse and about a quarter size of gel seems to be right. I put the mousse all the way into my roots and it helps me get better curl at my scalp, but maybe that's just me.

I do agree on only squeezing out a little bit of water with a tshirt. I used to go mad with the tshirt scrunching, but with mousse I noticed I should only squeeze and scrunch each section once.

I also get the best clumps when I do squish to condish with the suave coconut and repeat it like 3 times. I've found that's a key component for my hair to clump well.

Thanks for all the responses! I might give one of the mousses you all suggested next time.

naturecat

I'm glad you had luck with the gel over it. Sometimes for me it kills the volume at the ends so another possibility is to use all natural (I prefer all natural anyway) hairspray over the mousse, either when hair is wet or dry (or both--depends on the spray, takes experimenting). This is currently one of my fav combos (gel then mousse then hairspray) but still working to find that perfect hold.