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Nonie, I checked out the link shortly after my reply...my apologies for making you repeat yourself! (I will also check out that thread on Dry Hair in a bit.) The fact that it makes your hair hard--that kind of "it gets worse before it gets better" effect-- does not sit well with me...taking that into consideration, as well as my own negative experience w/it in the past, I may save S Curl as a last resort. Thank you so much for your quick & detailed responses though, you have been a great help in this thread!
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spellinto OK, you totally misunderstood what the getting hard part is all about. If you don't want it to get hard, you can airdry bare in braids then apply it to your dry hair. It only gets hard IF it is applied to damp hair.
When I wash my hair, I usually have somewhere to go. So I apply S Curl to my towel dried hair because I need slip to be able to comb my hair. It feels soft and easy to comb. I style and head out the door. My hair gets hard when it dries, but I only know of this when I get home. All day my hair stays cute and
looks soft. When I get home and get ready to put it to bed, that's the only time I find out it's hard (but hardness is a sign of dryness). But isn't that the reason y'all slather on products all day every day as if tryna be juice dripping coz your hair feels dry? The hardness you feel is just dryness; a need for moisture. So unlike the redundant remoisturizing most people do on hair that is already swimming in moisture, you actually have a reason to moisturize before bed.
I usually work on small sections: pull out a bit of the hair, apply S Curl and it becomes like butter, comb through then braid it up before I move on to another part. So this hardness (read: dryness) only occurs after the water from the wash evaporates. If I had not needed to go anywhere, I coulda waited to apply S Curl to my hair as soon as it dried. And so I'd leave home with soft hair and never need to remoisturize.
Right now you're looking for a moisturizer coz your hair is not feeling moisturized. Not just for an hour or two but I'm sure it's been longer. Yet you are worried about the moment when water moisture in hair prior to S Curl application evaporates coz that is the ONLY time your hair will feel hard. I know folks who spend all day touching up moisture in their hair. Why not then take the S Curl with you and as soon as your hair dries, reapply? See how simple this is?
Anyway, it's up to you. But worse before it gets better is not exactly the story. I can tell you that when I use Shea butter or creams, my hair feels good ONLY after application then I have steel wool a short while later. If I reapply, now I have build up and stickiness and while I get that momentary softness again, it isn't as good as before...and once again I end up with a stiff bristle brush for hair. And hair feels dry to the touch. And the slip to run the comb through my hair from base to ends (a FINE TOOTH COMB BTW) is no minor feat with those products. Compare that with S Curl where the need to reapply happens ONLY ONCE and that is only if you apply it to damp hair initially and the slip makes combing one of kinkiest and fine hair there is so easy. If you apply it to hair that isn't wet, hair stays soft from that point on till the day you wash it again--ie if you baggy every night so as not to lose the moisture. What's more, hair stays moist and cool to touch yet not sticky. People who have used other juices say they were surprised that S Curl was more watery than sticky. (I dunno abut this new oily mess they created. I am just picturing a greasy neck and ears.
) Former S Curl never gave that weird feeling that makes 4B hair look like it can scratch you. It was soft like a baby's coils.
So yeah, IMO S Curl only makes hair hard the moment the water from previously damp hair dries up. In my case that moment lasts a whole day coz I don't bother my hair till bed time once I style it so that's when I re-moisturize. But you don't have to wait that long. If you can get your hair dry first, then apply, you will have soft hair all day.
This is how my hair looked all day when I applied S Curl to damp hair. It was soft enough for me to comb and style while damp and it airdried in the style:
That night I reapplied S Curl and braided it for the night. Here's a close up of my hair the next day.
And it stayed butter soft every day WITHOUT ANY RE-APPLICATION OF ANYTHING until I washed it. IMO not many moisturizers can boast of being that effective.
Most people give up on S Curl because they use it on damp hair coz someone told them that you need moisture. It's as if they don't trust the product they use whose first ingredient is usually water, to suffice.
Oh and if you're concerned about airdrying w/o products, IMO it's the best way to get fully stretched hair. This is my hair after a wash:
This is my hair airdried in Celie braids with nothing on it--a step I do before I put in twists (which I also do on bare hair):
So if you want to skip the drying up that requires reapplication, the dry your hair first.
ETA: No apology necessary. I had given the wrong link in my post so I did need to repost.