Curling Pudding Recipe: Only 3 Ingredients and It Whips Up in Minutes

I am starting to wonder if I should have tried a curling pudding recipe before going straight to the expensive products for my natural hair. Maybe a homemade curling pudding works as well as Miss Jessie's but at a fraction of the price. I have been using  Miss Jessie's curling pudding and buttercreme for almost 2 weeks now. The product definitely retains my texture better than anything else I have tried. It's a bit crunchy the first day but by day 2 I like the way my hair looks.

Curling Pudding Hair Products: Store Bought Ones

But I still cannot believe that I shelled out $70 for just 2 products! My husband didn't mind me making the purchase. He actually is quite happy with the results. And believe me, I will use every single drop of both of those products.

I have also been using the Kinky Curly Curling Pudding that I purchased awhile back but then stopped using after only a couple of applications. That and the Knot Today leave in conditioner cost quite a bit as well. The KCCP still dries my hair out rather quickly so after the first day I apply some Motions moisturizer. I am not going to lie to you, it is greasy! But it's inexpensive (Motions not Kinky Curly) and it works. I just make sure to use as little as possible.

Homemade Curly Pudding Revisited

But the frugal part of me (and that's a big part) feels like I should have explored ALL of my options before I made those purchases. So, I started looking for curling pudding recipes again. And I keep coming back to the same one in various natural hair forums and in several You tube videos. Lots of people with different hair textures report having success with just 3 easy to find, inexpensive ingredients.

I listed this curling pudding recipe on Cookie's Natural Hair a long time ago; but, I never tried it. Originally, I found it on NaturallyCurly.com's forums from a poster named Shae.

Homemade Curly Pudding - Shae's Way

20oz jar IC Hair Polisher Styling Olive Oil Gel
4oz Unrefined Raw Shea Butter
1oz Extra Virgin Olive Oil -what you use to cook with

First you whip the shea butter with a mixer and then you add  the olive oil. After that's all mixed, add the gel a little at a time until well blended.

Looks Like We Have a Winner
I like this recipe for several reasons. It is great that it only involves 3 ingredients. (Currently I am only missing shea butter.) It looks like it is not complicated to whip up a batch. And I wrote about how economical Kinky Curly Curling Custard can be. And like I said before, I like the fact that numerous people have said that it is an inexpensive alternative to name brand curling custards.

The Recipe in Motion
Check out this video that shows how to use this curling pudding recipe to make your own product.




This video shows that you don't even have to use a blender. You can just melt the shea butter and then mix everything together. This may add some time to the process but in the end it will be less messy sticking hair products in your mixer.

Curling Pudding : Homemade and Lazy Approach

Yes, I said it. Back when I used to use shea butter regularly I would make a "curly creme," kind of, in the shower just moments before applying it to my hair. I would just take equal amounts of shea butter and gel and mix them as best as I could with my fingers and the palms of my hands. Then I would apply the concoction to my wet, shampooed hair and work it through with my fingers. And that was it.

I can't really say how long it lasted because that was when I used to wash my hair almost daily. I recently did the same thing with gel and the Motions moisturizer in a hurry one Sunday morning. My hair looked great all day. But the next morning it was obvious that the style wouldn't last another day.

But I'm thinking that I might put a little of the 3 ingredients together in my bathroom and give it a test run before committing to making an entire batch.

Curly Pudding On a Budget

I found this video inspirational but it also made me giggle. It looks like the Youtuber put a little of every single styling product that she owns in a bowl and stirred it up. Ha ha! But that actually might not be a bad idea. I have several (that might be a bit of an understatement) products underneath my sink that don't work quite right. And now they have been relegated to the product cemetery.

Why not whip them all together and see how it goes? You might wind up with a really great homemade curling custard. And even if you don't, no harm done. The products weren't being used anyway. But to save some time, you may try using the formula below to see if you can come up with a product that works well in your hair with fewer ingredients.

Curling Pudding Ingredients Formula

As best I can tell, a good curling custard needs to have a few key ingredients to stand a chance at working well.

•  something to "hold" or retain texture - a gel of some sort
• a product with weight to help elongate the curls - shea butter is a good example of this
• something to keep hair from becoming dry - olive oil, for example

I am not a scientist and this list is based on what I've read from others and on my personal experience(which is limited at this time). But this list seems to be consistent with Shae's recipe. And the results seem to verify this.

Help Me Miss Jessie

I have tried to maintain my natural hair in as economical a manner as possible, as evidenced by my attempts at  homemade curling pudding. But I have finally reached a point where my hair is not responding positively to any of my frugal methods. So, I am going to give Miss Jessie's curly pudding a try. I know, it 's hard to believe, right? You know I must be in a very tough place with my hair to have come to this conclusion.

Disappointment can be Expensive
I might have tried Miss Jessie's sooner. But I was so disappointed after paying so much money for Kinky Curly products and all they did was dry my hair out WORSE than it already was. I didn't really want to shell out that kind of money on something else and then wind up not being able to use the products again. So I pushed the thought of name brand curling pudding to the back of my mind.

Can a Girl Have it All?
Instead, I went with Carol's Daughter Hair Milk. I didn't like the product at first. But I quickly discovered that the issue was the way that I was applying the product, and not the product itself. The hair milk is great for moisturizing. However, it does not allow me to retain my curls and elongate them. I used to use shea butter for that. But over time shea butter was no longer my friend.

My Afro Puffs are Old


This was my SONG back in the day. I wonder if Lady of Rage ever tired of her puffs?

For months now I have felt that afro puffs are my only option because the shrinkage is so intense if I try to wear my hair down. Now my husband and I are both over those tired (albeit convenient) puffs. I have rocked rough and tough with my afro puffs a little too long (sorry, couldn't resist). So, I HAVE to take action. And after reviewing You Tube videos and reading numerous reviews (again), I am going with Miss Jessie. My only hope is that Miss Jessie will not let me down.