How To Use Gel When Styling Your Curly Hair – Only 3 Steps

Applying gels to your curls may not require a lot of processes. However, doing it the wrong way may leave your curls in a sticky or crunchy mess.

While this alone may discourage you from adding gels to your styling procedure, you shouldn’t forget that it can help with the look and feel of your curls after styling.

In this article, I’ll show you how to effectively use gels while styling without making a mess.

How do gels help your curls?

Maybe you already put aside your gel, you might want to pick it back up now!

Gels give your hair a better look after styling. 

They can help to prevent frizz and keep potential flyaways down. 

They also help to define your curls and may hold their shape through the day.

Lastly, your hairstyles tend to last better through the day because gels help to hold your curls and make them firm. This doesn’t take away the bounce from curls still.

It should be noted that a good gel should contain good polymers and also be silicone and alcohol free. 

My personal favorite is the Briogeo curl charisma rice amino + quinoa frizz control gel. It is sulfates, silicone and paraben free.

$24 at amazon

Steps to styling your curls with a gel

Applying gel effectively involves very few crucial steps and patience. Maybe this is where most people get it wrong, patience. Most of the time, you end up with that result because you think styling your curls shouldn’t be so hard that you spend so much time on it. But if you ask me if spending hours to get the perfect result is worth it, I’ll say yes, it is.

In order to avoid ending up with crunch-like curls, here is a simple guide to follow.

Firstly, it is recommended to use curl creams before applying gels to your hair so your curls are more defined.

It should be noted that applying gels is the last step of your styling routine while your hair is still wet.

Secondly, ensure that you squeeze out excess water from your strands before applying gel with a microfiber towel or alternatively, a t-shirt.  Then apply about a 20-cent portion of gel. This could be more depending on the volume of your hair

Rub gently( don’t rake) on your curls the gel. I usually like to rub from the roots to the ends while scrunching my curls lightly. This helps to penetrate the gel into my hair and to prevent frizz after it dries up.

Lastly, you wait (where patience comes in) for your hair to dry up. To speed up the process you can use blow dryers with diffusers on low heat or simply leave it to air dry. When your curls are dry, you should use your hands to scrunch your curls so the gel casts on your curls break. ( This gets rid of the crunch-like texture.)

If you like, to add more volume to your curls, you can now gently lift your strands from your scalp with your fingers.