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
