Could your curl cream be the reason you have frizz and can’t get your curls to last? I put it to the test with a side-by-side split test on my own hair. One side got a curl cream and a gel. The other side got the gel alone.

This is part of Curl Experiments, where I test one variable at a time so you get the clarity you need to actually control your results.

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Before You Buy Another Gel, Look at What’s Underneath It

One of the biggest culprits I see when someone is dealing with frizz and lack of hold is layering products, specifically a curl cream underneath a gel.

The symptoms usually look like this:

❌ You don’t get a cast, or the cast never fully forms
❌ You’re not getting frizz control on wash day
❌ You don’t get day two results at all
❌ You have to completely restyle the next day, or refresh constantly
❌ Things look worse as the days go on

When that happens, most people go looking for a stronger gel. Before you toss your gel and switch to something else, you have to look at what you’re putting underneath it.

I talked in a recent post Popular Curl Advice That’s Actually Causing Your Frizz about trying your gel on its own to see the baseline of hold that product can actually give you. This test is what that looks like in practice.

The two products I used are from the same line, which is exactly why people pair them. A lot of people who use the Ouidad gel ask me which curl cream goes under it. I usually tell them they don’t need one, because it’s already such a conditioning gel. There are overlapping properties in both products, so you might as well just use the gel.

That’s the claim. Here’s the test.

How I Set Up a Fair Test

What I Kept Identical on Both Sides

For a split test to tell you anything, only one thing can change.

• Same shampoo and conditioner, all over my head
• Same water content on both sides
• No prep product on either side, so nothing else could interfere with the result
• Same amount of gel on each side
• Same styling technique, same brush work, same scrunching
• Diffused the same way on both sides

I split my hair down the middle. The curl cream was the only difference.

Tools used in this test:

• ​Tangle Teezer Naturally Curly Detangling Brush​
• ​Curlsmith Defrizzion Hair Dryer & XXL Diffuser​
• ​Bounce Curl Volume Root Clips​
• ​Hair RePear Premium Cotton Hair Towel, Not Dyed​
• ​Bouclème Flairosol Mist Spray Bottle​

The Products I Used

Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Featherlight Styling Cream

• Hold: Light
• Texture/Grit: None
• Slip: High
• Conditioning: High
• Protein: Some
• Benefits: Encourages curl clumping

Don’t let the name fool you. This is a highly conditioning cream, not a lightweight one.

​Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Featherlight Styling Cream​

Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Stronger Hold Gel

• Hold: Strong (flexible)
• Texture/Grit: None
• Slip: High
• Conditioning: High
• Protein: High
• Benefits: Humidity protection

This is a gel I recommend and use often.

​Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Heat & Humidity Stronger Hold Gel​

How I Styled Each Side

Everything below was done identically on both sides. The curl cream was the only variable.

1. Curl cream, one side only. I used the typical amount I see people use, raked thoroughly root to tip. I don’t normally apply curl cream in sections because it isn’t needed.
2. Sectioned and applied gel to both sides, same amount on each.
3. Brush styled with the Tangle Teezer, light tension to help my curls spring up.
4. Finger coiled the pieces around my ear and the front.
5. Scrunched. I rinsed my brush and hands between every section for accuracy.
6. Microplopped, scrunching out excess water gently with a damp towel so it wouldn’t soak up too much product. I used a different area of the towel on each side so I wasn’t cross contaminating.
7. Added an extra gel layer, a dime size amount per side thinned with a little water, glazing, praying hands, and light scrunching.
8. Diffused with my Curlsmith Defrizzion Hairdryer and XXL attachment, upside down first to hit the front pieces, then around my head, targeting the roots for lift.

What I noticed while styling

The cream side clumped immediately and heavily, so I had to separate some of the oversized clumps. It also had noticeably more slip and felt like more product on the hair, and I could hear that squishy sound when I scrunched it, which is what happens when a product holds a lot of water in the hair.

The gel-only side felt the way it always does. Soft, slippery, easy to style, and it clumped well without a cream underneath. It was drying slightly faster.

Aside from the extra slip, I wasn’t feeling a huge difference between the two sides while I styled. That’s worth saying, because the differences showed up after it dried.

Two things worth knowing if you’re copying this routine

The extra gel layer is not optional with a gel like this. When a gel feels soft and slippery, you won’t get much of a cast without that second layer.

Watch your bounce back. After you scrunch and do praying hands, your hair should return to its natural curl pattern. That doesn’t mean it has to spiral, because not everyone has a spiral. If it stretches out and stays stretched, that can be the weight of your products. Both sides bounced back about the same here, maybe a touch less on the cream side.

The Results

Here’s how the two sides compared once everything was dry.

Longevity Test

The strand test is my signature test for longevity. I take one curl clump, run my fingers down it, and see how well the definition holds up to friction.

Gel only side

• Cast fully removed, hairs stayed in the clump
• Held its shape, ends puffed slightly

Curl cream + gel side

• Significantly frizzier after the first pass
• Softened quickly, puffier than defined

The cream side doesn’t look bad. It still looks nice, and some people genuinely prefer a very soft look. But longevity is what I’m testing and what I optimize for, because I don’t want to redo my hair every day. I’m fine with wash day looking a little more defined if the next day looks great.

Day Two Results

The differences are subtler than on wash day, but they point the same direction. Both sides softened overnight, which is why they look more similar. The cream side kept getting frizzier: more fuzziness, puffier curls, more halo frizz. The gel-only side held more definition, and softening actually improved it, because it’s now fully soft while still holding its shape.

Refresh needed. The gel-only side doesn’t need one at all. The cream side needs frizz tucked in with a dry refresh, tucking and coiling frizz back around the clumps. I had humidity and was outside a fair amount the day before, so this held up well overall.

Who this gets worse for. This is not a bad result for a curl cream, but my hair tolerates conditioning better than a lot of hair does. If you have lower porosity, soft finish hair, expect a bigger drop. My clients with that hair do not make it to day two using curl creams. They get limp curls and much more frizz.

Moisture. The gel-only side is not dry at all. It’s still soft and adequately conditioned for what my hair needs, because the gel has conditioning ingredients in it. Some people would look at the cream side and assume it looks dry, but it isn’t. It’s lacking hold, which can look very similar.

The Verdict: Why the Cream Side Lost Its Hold

The cream side didn’t hold up as long, and it looked softer and more elongated. That’s the trade.

This comes down to my Moisture-Hold Balance Framework, which asks you to evaluate conditioning at all four steps of your wash day: shampoo, conditioner, prep, and gel. Conditioning and hold work against each other. If your gel already contains conditioning ingredients, you don’t need conditioning at the prep step, and if you’re adding conditioning at prep, your gel needs to have less of it.

Most of the problems I see involve two conditioning products stacked exactly like I did here, where the gel can’t withstand the conditioning layer underneath it.

Should You Be Using a Curl Cream?

Dryness or Lack of Hold: How to Tell the Difference

Most people reach for a curl cream because they think their hair is dry. Dryness and lack of hold look almost identical, and that’s the part nobody separates.

Don’t mistake a cast for dryness. If you got enough hold you’re going to feel a cast, and your hair can still feel soft underneath it.

Dull looks the same either way, so you can’t go off looks alone. Go off feel. Brittle means dryness. Soft and frizzy means hold.

I’ve used a very low conditioning gel on its own in the wintertime and still had hold, but I had wispy frizz running through the hold, and by day two it looked duller and felt genuinely brittle. That’s what actual dryness looks like when hold isn’t the problem.

When a Curl Cream Earns Its Place

A cream earns its place when:

• Your hair is coarse and rough textured, with wiry, thick individual strands
• Your gel is very low in conditioning and your hair is also somewhat coarse
• Your hold is already good and what you want is more softness

You probably don’t need one when:

• Your hair is more medium or fine, where a cream may weigh it down
• Your gel already contains conditioning ingredients, which most do, making a cream an overlapping step

I sometimes intentionally put a curl cream under a gel like Innersense I Create Curl Memory, which gives such an intense cast that it needs to be taken down a notch, and it still lasts a long time. If you don’t like your day one results with a strong gel, softening it on purpose is a legitimate choice. It depends which days are your priority. If day one is what matters to you, soften it. If longevity is what matters, that’s a different decision.

Curly hair doesn’t automatically mean dry hair. Creams aren’t bad. They’re conditioning products, and conditioning only helps if that’s what’s actually missing.

What to Do on Your Next Wash Day

How to Test This on Your Own Hair

You ultimately have to test it the way I did.

1. On your next wash day, use your gel alone with nothing underneath it. No heat protectant either. Go straight from rinsing out your conditioner to applying your gel.
2. Do your exact same styling routine. Microplop and add extra gel if that’s what you normally do. Diffuse or air dry the way you normally do.
3. Document your results. This is where my Curly Hair Tracker and Planner does the work, because you’re logging the same attributes I logged in this test: moisture level, frizz, volume, clump size, cast level after drying, cast level after scrunching out the crunch, and how your hair feels. Photos help, but a written record is what lets you compare two wash days that are a week apart.
4. On the wash day after that, add your cream back in. That’s the only variable you change.
5. Compare. Do you have more frizz? Did you not even get a cast?

If the gel alone gave you a better result, you probably don’t need that curl cream. If your hair genuinely feels dry and brittle the next day, it may be worth adding back in.

How to Use a Curl Cream and Still Get Hold

If your hair truly needs a cream, or you just want to use one, you can still get hold. You balance it.

1. Use less curl cream than you’re currently using.
2. Pair it with a gel that’s lower in conditioning and still strong hold.

Two that fit: the Curlsmith Fragrance Free Strong Hold Gel and the Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Flash Freeze Gel. Both have a thicker texture and consistency with less conditioning present, so they can withstand being conditioned by a cream underneath without the hold breaking down as much.

Still Not Getting Hold? What to Check Next

If you’ve done the gel alone test and you’re still not getting hold, something else in your routine needs adjusting. It might be your water to gel ratio, your gel strength, your technique, or how you’re drying. That’s hard to pinpoint on your own, which is where a second opinion helps.

That’s what I do inside my Group Curl Coaching Program. I look at every step of your routine, and I teach you how to do it too, so you can run that process of elimination yourself, pare back your moisture, dial in your hold, and add conditioning back only where you need it. Those troubleshooting skills are the point. You have far more control over your results than you think once you know which levers to pull.

Pre-registration for the fall program is open now through August 31, so you can get in early. Fall is a good time to get your routine in order, because your curls shouldn’t be one more thing taking up space in a busy season.

Next in Curl Experiments, I’m testing water. I’ll be adjusting the gel to water ratio to show you what it does to your hold in real time, because your gel can only work as well as what you’re doing around it.