Why This SheaMoisture Mousse Is Bae

Hey guys!

In the last few months I’ve had some really good days with curly styles. I believe my technique hasn’t changed, so the real winner for me is my latest love, and styler of life, the SheaMoisture Coconut & Hibiscus Frizz-Free Curl Mousse.

‘Ello Bae!

I actually got this because I was doing follow-follow. MeeMee reviewed it last year (here) and as I was curious to try something from SheaMoisture, I decided to get it too. I think it’s probably the least famous product in their Coconut & Hibiscus line. The Curl Enhancing Smoothie is a cult favourite & before MeeMee, I had never heard of this mousse.

One pump of mousse

What I Love About It

1. It is easily absorbed and dries super fast.
2. It is not sticky
3. It gives me good definition
4. It smooths my hair. I talked about this last year here. This part is a little hard to explain. It’s something I think you should experience. It claims to smooth hair on the label, but I didn’t pay attention to that. After my second use, the smoothness I felt in my strands. As if they had been polished? I don’t know the right word. It was a really good feeling, I did not know what the claim was supposed to mean before then.
5. I don’t know about using it by itself as a leave-in, but I use it to style without leave-in conditioner & my hair remains soft. MeeMee uses it to moisturise her hair in kinky twists & I used it to moisturise my mini-twists yesterday so yeah, it’s good for this too- as a refresher.

How I Use

Y’all know wet styling is not my thing. I use this on damp hair or dry hair, with good results. To style, I use the mousse and a pomade. First it was Oyin Handmade Burnt Sugar Pomade (finished now, sniff sniff) and then I switched to the Carol’s Daughter Mimosa Hair Honey.

The last time I styled with mousse bae was in February. My hair was dry and stretched from a 4 day old blow-out/ updo. It felt pretty good still, but it had been 4 days since I had touched my hair, so I spritzed each section lightly with water, before applying the mousse & pomade (oil) combo. I counted- 86 perm rods in total.

The next morning, I took out the rods. My hair was completely dry.

It was my first proper attempt at a perm rod set, so there are two things I’d do differently next time:

1. Stick to one technique. I don’t know if you can see this in the photos below, but I curled the hair in two different ways. One way gave me tighter spirals & the other way, the right way- gave me “barrel” or more cylindrical type spirals.
   

   Bottom R- The right or typical way. Cylindrical curls like cinnamon sticks or those fancy wafers. To the left, to the left- tight spirals, still cute though.

2. Stick to the small rods because of my length. I used purple-pink rods through out the middle. (Are they purple, are they pink?) They are thicker than the slimmer light pink, white and grey rods I used for the rest of my head. The next morning, those parts done with the purple-pink rods were not at all defined & they fell apart too easily.
   

   see the wide poofy frizzy area? Compared to how defined the rest is? Clearly, the fatter rods were a mistake.

   

   Happily rocked it anyway!! I held up the sides with hair combs, but next time I’ll go for a curly fro look with bangs.

As you can see, I didn’t really bother to separate the curls. I was late & I had business to attend to. I went out, came back and my hair still looked this good!

My problem now is that I do not know how to preserve these styles. I try to pineapple my hair or pull it into a puff and I frizz the whole thing. I lie down to watch TV and by the time I get up, I’ve scattered it all. I managed to destroy my rod set before bedtime. The next morning Ash Wednesday, I had a textured puff:

Can you see the smoothness of the base? hair still kinda sorta “laid”.

I used the same combo to style a three-strand twist out on damp hair in January, and I had good results too.

No camera mojo that day, but here’s that twist out:

Compare these results to my 3 strand twist out from last year, with a hair butter. Another poor overly edited photo but hey, I hope you can see the difference:

I thought this was amazing then but things are not the same anymore!

Note that my January twist out was still recognizable at the end of the day, when I got home. A reminder of how my previous 3 strand twist out looked hours later:

Swelly. In retrospect I’m wondering how people looked at me on my way home from work on this day, but I still like this shot. :p

I’m really happy with this mousse. I’m almost done with my first bottle, soon I’ll be on to the next.

L- Near empty R- Full

I think I’ve found MY styler. Sure, I’m open to trying out others in the future, but I have my staple now, something I know I can rely on. As I say with every review, everything cannot work for everybody so if you try this and your hair isn’t so impressed, please don’t come for me! LOL

Where to Find

If you’re willing to try this mousse though, we have some in our blog shop here– yes, don’t forget we have one! Thank you for the support so far 🙂

Have you tried this mousse? Have you found your Holy Grail styler yet? Do share!

Love,

AB,

xx

 

Product Review: Shea Moisture Coconut & Hibiscus Frizz-free Curl Mousse

My first experience with hair mousse was when I had the Watermelon braids style done for the first time. In simple terms (as if any hair term is ever simple), this hairstyle is a twist out done with extensions, and more often than not, finished with hair mousse. To maintain frizz-free curl pattern (and not merely as a way to get one to spend more money at the salon), it was adviced that I buy a can of mousse and use the fascinating, foamy contents regularly. But here was the problem that I failed to realise at the time: the more I used the foam, the dryer my hair and scalp got! There was also the annoying fact that it left white residue on my scalp. Plus, the thing was so sticky. Ugh! So naturally, to me, hair mousse was bad; no one should ever use hair mousse.

Fast forward to last month. I finally made some professional looking DIY Marley twists (if I do say so myself) and a friend recommended I finish it with her mousse. Of course not! I wasn’t going to use that poisonous foam on my hard work. But then she promised me it was moisturising and it was from a line dedicated to natural hair. And so I grudgingly used it. I didn’t care enough to notice what it had done to my hair, the only thing I marveled at was that my palms did not feel sticky at all.

Enter Shea Moisture Coconut & Hibiscus Frizz-free Curl Mousse into my life.

Apart from the nitty-gritty ingredients that I shall provide later on, this product prides itself in containing three major components to achieve its promise of moisturised, frizz-free curls.

Coconut oil: Hydrates and protects hair while reducing breakage.

Silk Protein: Smoothes hair for a soft, silky feel.

Neem oil: Controls frizz while adding brilliant shine.

Now of these three, Silk protein and Neem oil, in terms of hair benefits, are new to me. So here is some education for people like me who have barely heard of these before now.

Silk Protein

aka Sericin, this protein is created during Silk production. Yes, silk, as in the threads that eventually get woven into fabric. The way silk is structured, there are two major proteins responsible for its structure and properties. However, because you do not want to be bored with the details, basically, Sericin (our protein of interest) is the part of the protein that sticks all the tiny fibres together and is also responsible for the ‘shine’ that silk gives off. So how does this affects us? Well, apparently, this sericin has the ability to coat keratin, form a protective layer and prevent loss of moisture. Good guy, silk protein. This is why this protein is marketed for both skin and hair use, in terms of moisture. (Side Note: both skin and hair contain keratin). In addition to moisture retention, this layer formed by the silk protein gives the applied surface a luxurious feeling that is commonly described as ‘silky’.

 

Neem Oil

Neem is a tree. A tree that is specific to the Indian region of the world. Neem oil is derived from the seeds of this tree. This Neem oil, which has been said to have uses in abortion; curing leprosy and intestinal worms, apparently has a strong odour best described as the love child of peanuts and garlic. In terms of hair, Neem oil has been paraded as a hero for almost everything, from relieving itchy and dry scalp, to stimulating hair growth.

 

Now back to this Mousse…

What does it say it does?

This anti-frizz, moisture & shine formula promises to help fight frizz while promoting shine without being sticky, crunchy, or leaving flaky residue.

What’s in it?

Deionized water, Coconut Oil, Vegetable Glycerine*, Olive Fruit Oil, Shea Butter Oil, Moringa Oleifera Seed Oil, Vegetable Glycerin*, Keratin, Polyquaternium-7, Hibiscus Sabdariffa Extract, Silk Protein, Polyquaternium-10, Sucrose Laurate, Non-drying alcohol, Neem Seed Oil, Proprietary Essential Oil Blend, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid.

*Is there a difference between Glycerin and Glycerine? I haven’t been lucky with finding any.

What did I find it does?

It did not lie in its claims. The first thing that struck me was its moisturising prowess. Often times, laziness and time cause me to skip important steps to ensure my hair retains moisture, especially with extensions in. However, I find that using this mousse alone goes a long way in helping my hair stay as moisturised as it can get. In addition, it helped keep my braids’ day 1 aesthetic, especially towards the roots. I have no ‘buts’ when it comes to this mousse, and so I will go ahead and recommend it as a choice for styling. Now, my twists outs never work out and so I am never sure what to look out for, especially with rating a product’s impact on my twist-out. I assume this mousse will help eliminate frizz from twists-outs and any other natural hair style. However, I cannot testify that this has been the case in  my experience.

The Most Important Factor… Price

I got mine for $8.49 from a drug store.

It is sold for 2,900 Naira here. Oh and it comes in a pump-lidded 220ml bottle.

If you have used this product in the past, what have your experiences been? Love it or loathe it? I’d love to hear from you.

– Mee Mee

xx.