OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 requires textiles-based products to be tested against a list of 1,000+ chemicals, to limit those which may be harmful to human health. Certification focus: #ProductSafety and #ChemicalsUsed. I also took note of how long my hair took to dry when using these products, and whether or not they are curly girl approved products. Instead of just sharing my favorites, I took note of a variety of properties so that you can decide what might be best for you based on what you prefer in a mousse. Best Mousse For Wavy Hair Product I have dense, medium to coarse, mixed porosity hair. Low porosity roots, average porosity upper strands, and high porosity lower strands. My hair does not support itself well, I need a good cast and strong hold to maintain definition for multiple days. My hair is not very prone to getting “stringy”. Bounce and shine: Besides providing body and volume, some mousses come with additional ingredients that make hair look bouncy and shiny. Based on your preference, choose the one that delivers the add-on benefits. However, my results when dry were not weighed down. I felt that this mousse controlled my frizz best out of the mousses that I tested. My volume and definition both started out well, but my one side fell flat pretty early on. It also felt a bit heavy or product-y. I suspect that if you used this mouse and didn’t microplop, it would be a good mousse for very low-frizz, really defined waves. Those aren’t my top hair goals, but if they are yours, I’d give this one a try.

Alicia Bailey is a hair texture specialist as well as the global education manager at Design Essentials. If you're not sure where to start, here are a few tips from hairstylist Addam Artist to help you find the best mousse for your hair type:

Pharmacy product

Alexandro Vasquez, a professional hairdresser and hair colorist, says, “Never overuse mousses as they can make styling your hair with a dryer and brush difficult and also dry out the hair and cause hair breakage. Always apply only a required amount of the product.” Why Trust MomJunction? The concept behind the Tousle Me Softly Mousse is volume! It’s a high volume formula for dry or wet hair. It will give you similar results regardless of which hair type you have. I would personally recommend this product for straighter hair types. The mousse doesn’t provide as much direct volume as the Curl Boosting Mousse by Herbal Essences. Those stylish but messy runway looks could use the lift. For tighter curls (4a-4c), a lightweight, medium-hold mousse with extra conditioners (or applied over a leave-in conditioner) is best followed by a serum once dry. Often, these types of curls are in need of hydration. Replenish the moisture first and then layer the mousse over. Serum added at the end increases shine and breaks up the “set” for a nice-looking curl. The 2nd photo was the morning after washing (less than 24 hours) yet it had already dramatically lost its shape. It did have some waves to it, but the frizziness and general disheveled feeling made me not want to wear it even on day 2, making it the shortest lasting of the mousses I tried. I could really feel the product in my hair the whole time, too. This was my least-favorite mousse of them all, unfortunately.

This is a go-to brand for inexpensive, good-quality results with every wash. Because of this, Herbal Essences has attracted quite a strong following which only seems to have grown the brands’ popularity. Herbal Essences was originally founded in 1972 by the Clairol company. That’s enough time to become a household name in homes around the world. Due to the fact that the product line-up is largely inexpensive and otherwise quite effective, they’re trusted as a reliable brand. Sabrina Rowe Holdsworth is a celebrity hairstylist and founder of NTRL By Sabs, a natural haircare line "formulated with textured hair in mind." Hair mousse may be most well-known for its volumizing benefits, but it's also a star curl styler. Mousses for curly hair increase fullness by creating space between strands with their aerated foam formulas, enhance the shape of spirals with plumping ingredients like polymers, and can provide conditioning benefits via boosters like silicones and botanical oils. And experts agree that mousse is one of the best products for naturally curly hair, to enhance the bounce and shape of fine or thin curls, or to help hold curls in straight hair. attributes: "-_--_--_--_--_--_--_-Best match-_-grid-_-search successfull:1>-_--_--_--_--_--_--_-No-_--_--_--_-0-_-0-_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_-1" When it comes to using mousse as a part of your regular styling process, you may want to experiment with a few techniques. Sometimes it can take a while to find one that really works for you. Applying mousse to wet hair will give you a more wavy look. Blow-drying your hair after applying the mousse will give your hair an instant lift and more body than you can imagine.The world is complicated. Hair shouldn't be. Take a 3 minutes quiz, answer a few questions and get a free scientific debrief and a personalised list of products for your specific hair type. Cake Mousse. This mousse was compared several months later which is why my hair is shorter. I also DID refresh my hair each day in this, where I did NOT refresh my hair with the other mousses. This mousse does not hold up well without refreshing. However, it is a very light mousse that feels like it totally disappears into my hair, so I don’t mind adding more mousse on day 2 and day 3 to refresh. Let loose for beachy style, touchable, frizz-free waves with Clairol Herbal Essences Tousling Mousse Tousle Me Softly Level 2 Hold with hibiscus essences.

Marketing does not do a very good job of letting you know what you’ll really get from a mousse, in my opinion. For example “level 3 hold” doesn’t mean much if you have never used that brand before. I thought a detailed mousse comparison could be really helpful. I get it: Those tiny, wispy hairs that won't. lie. down. can be annoying as hell to deal with. Your savior? This mousse, which contains a pro-keratin complex that helps smooth the surface of your hair to minimize unwanted flyaways and frizz during the day. Unclip hair, rinse all of the conditioner out while my head is upside down, use wide tooth comb to align hairs, scrunch hair a few times to squeeze some water out. Then I would plop my hair with a hair towel for about 10-15 minutes, take the shirt off my head, microplop to get more water out and then add the mousse.

Shop By Hair Benefit

Herbal Essences Totally Twisted. This is the mousse I see recommended to newbies most often. It has a shaving-cream like consistency, and I didn’t notice any scent at all. It dried a bit faster than some other mousses that I’ve tried. It only gave me a light cast, and did not have good frizz control, I had moderate frizz from day 1. Hiya, firstly wanted to say a big thanks to you for all your amazing posts – so detailed and useful for someone taking their first steps into the wavy world! Cradle to Cradle Certified products are made with safer materials and responsible processes to positively impact people and our planet.

In terms of my style preferences, I prioritize volume over definition though definition matters to me as well. I am not someone who is too fixated on frizz. My main goals with mousse are hard hold, big volume, at least decent definition, and long-lasting results. Oh, and I prefer curly girl approved products but it’s not an absolute must. Based on these, my overall favorite is the Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Mousse…which is what I started off with! It gives me big volume, good definition, a good hard cast, and long-lasting results while being curly girl approved. This foaming mousse will give your curls the volume and definition of your dreams. The formula helps moisturize your hair to add shine and smooth flyaways while somehow (magic? Sorcery? No, polymers) giving your curls root-boosting volume. Scrunch and twirl a golf-ball-size puff through damp—not wet—hair from roots to tips, then diffuse or air-dry. Look at the ingredients: Know what the mousse contains before using it on your hair. Vegan-free, gluten-free, sulfate-free, and harmful chemical-free mousse may be the best mousse for fine hair as they won’t damage hair that is already fragile. Mousse is the holy grail for curls. Forget the drying and crunchy formulas of yesteryear, a well-formulated mousse will give you the smooth, soft, defined, and full curls of your dreams. If you haven’t tried mousse to enhance your curls, you don’t know what you’re missing. Read on to find out how to get your best curls with a little help from your new favorite product. Why curls love hair mousse

How to use hair mousse for curls

However, if you have high porosity hair, Addam Artist warns that mousse may not be the best option if the formula is alcohol-based or has no moisturizing properties: " Overly porous or damaged hair can become stiff or brittle with a mousse; this applies to any curl pattern, from 2A to 4C, and can be naturally occurring or caused by chemical treatments." Instead, he suggests a curl cream or a leave-in conditioner with an anti-frizz hair serum. Addam Artistis a hairstylist, colorist, and educator based out of Art and Autonomy Salon in New York, NY. He was the former artistic director for ISO Hair Products, a division of Joico/Shiseido Cosmetics .