Sheamoisture Curl Stretch Pudding for Curls Red Palm Oil and Cocoa Butter with Shea Butter 11.5 oz

Product Information

Minimize natural shrinkage and temporarily reveal a longer 'fro or curly-coily style with this ultra-moisturizing pudding. Enriched with nourishing Red Palm & Flax Seed Oils and Cocoa Butter, this Coconut Oil free styling cream elongates hair and defines twist and braid out styles. Light hold smooths cuticles for a frizz-free finish. Great for 3-4c hair types. This product might be called a curl-defining cream, but it does more than just lasts throughout the day. It also softens your hair (thank you, argan oil), smooths flyaways, adds shine, and gives your curls a soft and healthy feel that lasts so freaking long, according to reviewers. Siena Gagliano is the associate editor at Cosmopolitan who writes beauty , and has two years of experience writing about beauty, fashion, and lifestyle news. She's an expert at researching and writing hair and skin stories, like the best shampoos for curly hair and the hair brands for braiding hair. She regularly tests and analyzes curl creams, while working with the industry's top hairstylists and curl experts to assess new formulas and brands.

April Kayganichis a curl expert, educator, and hairstylist at The Curl Whisperer Salon in Austin, TX. So if you've been choosing your curl creams based solely on your curl type (think: 3a curls, 4b hair, etc.), and you're still finding your hair weighed down, dried out, or shrunken up, it might be because of your hair porosity (i.e., how well your hair absorbs and retains moisture). If you have high porosity hair, your hair probably absorbs moisture well but doesn't hold onto it easily and could benefit from a heavier curl cream with ingredients like shea butter and heavy oils, like the Adwoa Baomint Curl Defining Cream.Oh, and one more thing: glabridin seems to be also an antioxidant, which is just one more reason to be happy about licorice root extract on an ingredient list. It's pretty rare to find a curly hair product that fits almost every head of curls, but this is one of them. "Not only is it free of fragrance, silicones, and waxes, but it's also weirdly customizable depending on your curl type," says Cosmopolitan deputy beauty director Chloe Metzger. "Although it's filled with coconut oil, which would usually leave my fine hair greasy, a dime-size dollop squished through my sopping-wet hair leaves my 3a curls defined, smooth, and bouncy."

Another one of Metzger's absolute faves? This curl cream by John Frieda that keeps her hair super smooth and sleek. "Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve had at least two tubes of this smoothing cream at my desk and in my car since 2015 because it’s that freakin’ good for immediately laying down frizz and flyaways without making my thin curls greasy," says Metzger. Just note, it's filled with water-insoluble silicones, so make sure to clarify once a month with a sulfate-based clarifying shampoo to strip away any build-up.THE REVIEW: "I had read that this was an amazing product that somehow magically worked for all curl types but was pretty skeptical when I put some on my hands—but to my surprise, I am so pleased with the results," writes one reviewer. "My hair looks amazing!" There is just one catch regarding glabridin and licorice: the amount of glabridin in commercial licorice extracts can vary a lot. We have seen extracts with only 4% glabridin as well as 40% glabridin. The latter one is a very-very expensive ingredient, so if you are after the depigmenting properties try to choose a product that boasts its high-quality licorice extract.

Curly Girl Method-approved? Yes* (*contains some isopropyl alcohol that's unlikely to have an effect on your hair) Nr. 2 magic property is that licorice is a potent anti-inflammatory. Glabridin has also some soothing properties but the main active anti-inflammatory component is glycyrrhizin. It’s used to treat several skin diseases that are connected to inflammation including atopic dermatitis, rosacea or eczema.Low porosity hair has cuticles that are super close together, making it hard for moisture and ingredients to penetrate the hair—resulting in product buildup and dryness. In general, low-porosity hair does best with lightweight formulas that contain little-to-no oils or butters, like the Rahua Control Cream Curl Styler. Two people with the same curl pattern can have totally different porosities, which means they need different curl creams.