I was more than glad when one of my favorite small business owners Scarlett Rocourt sent me some WonderCurl products to test in my hair a few weeks ago! To be honest, when I first heard of WonderCurl I thought, oh great, another hair company that doesn’t care about us kinky haired girls. However, I started seeing Scarlett at hair events around NYC and was drawn to her sweet spirit and friendliness, so I thought I’d give her a try by asking that she sponsor my last event. When she said that she also wanted to attend, I was sold on her as a person, before even ever having tried her products. That just shows the importance of actually being your brand, not just sitting behind your product or company name and label. I digress, but keep reading to see how my hair fared with the WonderCurl Butter than Love Pudding and the Curl Control Styling Lotion!
WonderCurl Butter than Love Pudding
WonderCurl: Butter than Love Hair Pudding is an ultra-moisturizing hair cream that has a light and fluffy formula which will give your hair shine and unbelievable softness. $12 for 4oz.
Ingredients: Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Castor Oil, Shea Butter, Acrylates/C-10 Alkyl Acrylates, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin. NO PETROLEUM, MINERAL OIL, BEESWAX, LANOLIN, PARABENS, SULFATES, SILICONES OR HARSH CHEMICALS FRAGRANCE FREE.
KK: Truly fragrance free, spreads well, and provides great hold, moisture, and definition when used alone on damp hair.
WonderCurl Curl Control Styling Lotion
WonderCurl: A unique styling aid that creates soft and fluffy curls without any crunch or frizz. Use on wet hair for fluffy curls, use on slightly damp hair for more defined & elongated curls. Can use our Curl Control Styling Lotion for twist-outs, braid-outs or any style. Great on all textures of hair. $14 for 8oz.
Ingredients: Aloe barbadensis (Organic Aloe) Juice, Polyquaternium 7, dl-Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5), Hamamelis virginiana (Witch Hazel), Phenoxyethanol, Vegetable Glycerin, Alcohol denatured, Carbomer, TEA, Tetrasodium EDTA, Citric Acid, Fragrance
KK: Flubber consistency which was fun and weird at the same time. Product was slimy on fingers, but didn’t leave hair greasy. Provided good hold when used in conjunction with Butter than Love Pudding – was not used alone. Light citrus scent.
How I Used It
I know I’m trifling and didn’t even tell ya’ll, but I happened to be on a panel a few weeks ago at the Trials n Tresses NYC End-of-Summer Kick-Off party. Scarlett was also on the panel, so I figured I’d have to try the products out since I’d den lazily wearing a bun for the few days prior. After washing my hair with Agave Oil products (review coming soon), I used the Butter than Love Pudding and placed my hair into my signature post wash 6-8 braids to stretch it. The next evening, I broke each braid down – which was very soft – into twists and applied a bit of the Curl Control Styling Lotion. Before the big event I untwisted, separated, and fluffed, for a soft, moisturized, defined twist out that still had movement. I think Scarlett approved!
Being the lazy bum I’ve grown to be with my hair, I didn’t try to rebraid or retwist it for the next three days. When I finally did, I took no effort to detangle my hair and simply slathered on a palmful of the Butter than Love Pudding on my dry hair and braided it up. The next day, it didn’t look so bad.
But looks can be deceiving, because my hair was D.R.Y. I tried again later that night with a bit of leave in conditioner/refreshing spray and a tiny bit more of product, which helped slightly, but the product order application struggle mess was already too far gone to reverse. For the next WEEK, I battled dry, rough hair that didn’t respond even to the very watery Texture My Way Detangling Creme. I ended up having to wear my hair in a shrunken, misshapen fro, and then pinned up and away until I could figure out how to save it. Truth be told, this was one of those hair woe moment when I really felt like I had to cut everything off. My lack of detangling before the first rebraiding session didn’t help one bit.
I FINALLY got my hair to feel like a human being’s again by using the Dark and Lovely Au Natural Super Softening Hair Butter. Like two days ago. Aka my struggle lasted over a week. So does WonderCurl make products that dry your hair out? Nope, I just used them the wrong way. Let’s look at the directions for the Butter than Love Pudding:
Section clean damp hair, apply liberally to sections. Dry naturally or with a hair dryer.
First time I did my hair, I followed the directions and my hair was the bomb.com. The second time I used the product, I did none of the above and my hair was a hot ass mess. Can I be mad at Scarlett? Nah. She told me what to do to have great hair and I thought I could do something different.
I have developed a terrible aversion to any products that use the word ‘curl’ in them simply because I hate the whole ‘go curl or go home’ thing we’re being force fed as naturals. It’s interesting to see how it has worked on your hair though. Great review.
I’ve written about the (over)use of “curl in hair product marketing so I completely feel you, but every once in a while we should step out of our comfort zones and this was one of the times I was glad I did!
Thanks for the review and your candid thoughts. Usually, the directions I offer are from the ways that I know it works because that’s how it’s been tested, however, from women like you experimenting, I learn new ways of using the products…or in your case ways not to use it.