When I went natural one of the styling products that was
mentioned a lot was gel, mostly Ecostyler gel. You can imagine my frustration when I
couldn’t readily find it in South Africa; this was about 2 to 3 years ago. I
was so desperate I even went as far as making my own gel using flax seeds. I’ve
also bought a few gels over the years including two samples of the coveted
Ecostyler gel. However I’ve just realised that I don’t use gel.
Ever since I discovered that I couldn’t do a wash and go I
haven’t felt the need to use gel. My hair has no discernible curl pattern and
therefore a wash and go just results in a shrunken mess. The last time I tried
it using flaxseed gel, even though the wet results looked very promising, when
my hair dried I was left with a white flake-like residue all over my hair. I
had to rewash my hair to get rid of it, very disappointing. The other gel I
used just didn’t dry and all I got was a sticky mess.
I don’t care for laid edges or sleek hairstyles either; I
have little to no baby hairs and my hair doesn’t lay. It just doesn’t. The one
time I used a gel successfully was when I did finger coils. They came out very
nice but were too time consuming and I’ve never tried again.
I’ve also used gel to enhance the definition of my twist
outs or braid outs. I must admit I didn’t really see much of a difference,
maybe I wasn’t using it right. I also didn’t like how my hair felt with gel in
it, all dry and crunchy. Now that my hair is a bit longer, the only reason I do
twist-outs or braid-outs is to stretch my hair and not to define it.
I’ve listed the three reasons I know to using a gel; laid
edges, sleek hairstyle, and definition. So before I throw away the gels I have
left I’m asking myself, am I missing something? Am I being left out of a
movement? Does anyone out there use gel, and if so how?
Yimina ozithobayo
Snothando
