Herbal Essences Body Envy. I see the Herbal Essences Totally Twisted mousse recommended a lot, but after finding that it didn’t have enough hold for me, I decided to try this Body Envy line. It’s rated as having a 4 hold, while the totally twisted is rated 3. This mousse is the same price as the totally twisted, and is curly girl approved. I’d say my hair gets weighed down about “average” compared to others with wavy hair. I am not extremely easily weighed down, but it happens with oily products. My hair does not look or feel greasy particularly easily. My hair takes forever to dry, over 6 hours to air dry without any products in it! I get it: Those tiny, wispy hairs that won't. lie. down. can be annoying as hell to deal with. Your savior? This mousse, which contains a pro-keratin complex that helps smooth the surface of your hair to minimize unwanted flyaways and frizz during the day. For medium curls (3b-3c), a more lightweight, medium-hold mousse is great for defining and separating your curls. This will reduce frizz sans the "crunch," while allowing your natural curl pattern to move freely.

PAIR IT UP: Try with our Herbal Essences Jojoba Oil & Lavender Curls Collection for the complete experience Look at the ingredients: Know what the mousse contains before using it on your hair. Vegan-free, gluten-free, sulfate-free, and harmful chemical-free mousse may be the best mousse for fine hair as they won’t damage hair that is already fragile. Alicia Bailey is a hair texture specialist as well as the global education manager at Design Essentials. Bounce and shine: Besides providing body and volume, some mousses come with additional ingredients that make hair look bouncy and shiny. Based on your preference, choose the one that delivers the add-on benefits. Siena Gagliano is an associate editor at Cosmopolitan, and has three years of experience writing about beauty, fashion, and lifestyle news. She’s an expert at researching and writing hair stories, like the best shampoos for curly hair and the best purple shampoos. She regularly tests and analyzes hair mousse on her own hair for efficacy, while working with the industry’s top hairstylists to assess new formulas and brands.My routine was to shampoo just my scalp, scrunch and pulse while shampoo is in my hair. Rinse. Add conditioner to the lower 3/4 of my strands, scrunch and pulse. Use a wide tooth comb to comb through my hair, then clip all of my hair on top of my head while I shave. Never crunchy or heavy, the Herbal Essences Volumizing Mousse provides any hair type with weightless volume. The Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab tests hair mousses both on consumer testers and in the Lab using technical protocols. Testers evaluate the mousses at home for their ease of use and performance, and in the Lab, scientists test them on human hair samples, with half a head styled with no product and the other half with the hair mousse to gauge its effects.

What you consider to be the best mousse will depend somewhat on what you like from a mousse. The chart below shares the cast, definition, volume, frizz control, and drying time properties of each of 10 mousses. For tighter curls (4a-4c), a lightweight, medium-hold mousse with extra conditioners (or applied over a leave-in conditioner) is best followed by a serum once dry. Often, these types of curls are in need of hydration. Replenish the moisture first and then layer the mousse over. Serum added at the end increases shine and breaks up the “set” for a nice-looking curl.

Mousse is the holy grail for curls. Forget the drying and crunchy formulas of yesteryear, a well-formulated mousse will give you the smooth, soft, defined, and full curls of your dreams. If you haven’t tried mousse to enhance your curls, you don’t know what you’re missing. Read on to find out how to get your best curls with a little help from your new favorite product. Why curls love hair mousse If I didn’t get a cast the first time that I used the product, or didn’t get a cast over my whole head, I tested that mousse a second time and made adjustments to try to get better results. If I got results that felt like I used too much product, I would try again using less. So, some of these were tested multiple times but others worked well on the first try and then I only tested them once.

Garnier fructis curl construct. This is another shaving cream type mousse, but it’s quite airy once spread. It has a moderate citrus scent. I used my usual 4 palmfuls. It took quite a long time to dry. It didn’t give me a cast. It controlled my frizz well. My initial results looked okay, I thought. I had a bit less volume and definition than usual. For naturally wavy or looser curls (2a-3a), a mousse with a stronger hold should be used to coax your curls tighter and create a firmer pattern. This will support and enhance your natural pattern. However, my results when dry were not weighed down. I felt that this mousse controlled my frizz best out of the mousses that I tested. My volume and definition both started out well, but my one side fell flat pretty early on. It also felt a bit heavy or product-y. I suspect that if you used this mouse and didn’t microplop, it would be a good mousse for very low-frizz, really defined waves. Those aren’t my top hair goals, but if they are yours, I’d give this one a try. Hiya, firstly wanted to say a big thanks to you for all your amazing posts – so detailed and useful for someone taking their first steps into the wavy world!This mousse is basically a requirement for whenever your curls are feeling a bit meh. The lightweight, alcohol-free formula will give your hair the right amount of volume and shine without drying it out. Scrunch three pumps of the product through damp hair with your fingertips. The result? Defined, super-bouncy curls that still have definition.

HOUR FRIZZ PROTECTION: All-day-strong hold, defined, touchable curls, and protection from all things humid This mousse has a whipped-cream texture that allows it to define the hell out of your curls without leaving them looking gelled. The formula is also alcohol-free, meaning it won’t dry out your hair, no matter how often you use it (which, during the humid seasons, is probably every single day). Rake one to two golf-ball-size puffs of mousse through your damp hair, then finger-curl sections for extra definition. Several-day reader, first time commenter here. Emily!!! Thank you so much for all of this information. I have loved reading up on your wavy takes on CGM, as I am about to start my own wavy girl journey. I’ve been gathering a ton of info and product recommendations from people like you and Alyson (real life+curly girl). I also noticed/read that you are also from Michigan! I grew up in Battle Creek, but now I’m in Seattle. I, too, love true crime and cults and all the weird shit (I’m a Karen if we are talking about MFM.) Clairol originally wanted to reach out to a younger, more natural audience or target market. They therefore created the Herbal Essences brand as a way of appealing to the younger generation. At the time that generation was all about being closer to and more in touch with nature. They favored raw, natural products over chemical-based substances and opted for products that were primarily based on natural ingredients. Clairol saw a gap in the market and managed to capitalize on the trend quite successfully.This is the only part of this blog post that relies on gathering data from others vs my own testing. “Most popular” requires getting information from other people with wavy hair. So, I put out a poll asking people with wavy hair what their favorite mousse was. So while this is not a water-soluable silicone and will need a good cleanser to fully remove, it is going to help smooth damaged areas without causing as much build up as other silicones. Marketing does not do a very good job of letting you know what you’ll really get from a mousse, in my opinion. For example “level 3 hold” doesn’t mean much if you have never used that brand before. I thought a detailed mousse comparison could be really helpful.