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. Even refreshing 2 days in a row with more mousse, my hair doesn’t feel “producty”. Prior to trying this mousse I had always strived for a mousse that would last without needing to refresh. This is one where I don’t mind using it to refresh. This mousse does have a strong scent (lemon) that I don’t care for but it fades after my hair dries. I tried using less than my normal amount at first, but I found that it works best when I use my typical amount (Which is 3 palmfuls now that my hair is shorter). This mousse really has changed my view on mousse a bit. I still really like the Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Mousse because of how long it lasts.

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. However, this Cake Mousse is now my #2 favorite – and for much different reasons than why I like the Curl Talk Mousse. It’s really nice to have really soft, natural feeling hair sometimes. Overall this is my favorite mousse because it gives me big volume, good definition, and it lets me hair look good the longest.I spent the first two years of the curly girl method using gel. The first gel I ever tried was LA Looks gel. It worked well and it’s super affordable. I just didn’t see a reason to try anything else for quite a while. 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”. Because this mousse offers so much of what I want in a product, and because the silicones are not the worst of the worst, I’ll be repurchasing this product. This is my second favorite mousse from the group I tested. This is a really affordable product, so the fact that I can use less makes this the cheapest mousse I tried. It gave me the best volume out of all the mousses, and I love big volume so that made this one of my favorites. It also was pretty long-lasting, I was comfortable with wearing my hair on day 3 without refreshing.

Garnier fructis curl construct. This is another shaving cream type mousse, but it’s quite airy once spread. It has a moderate citrus scent. I used my usual 4 palmfuls. It took quite a long time to dry. It didn’t give me a cast. It controlled my frizz well. My initial results looked okay, I thought. I had a bit less volume and definition than usual. Herbal Essences Body Envy. I see the Herbal Essences Totally Twisted mousse recommended a lot, but after finding that it didn’t have enough hold for me, I decided to try this Body Envy line. It’s rated as having a 4 hold, while the totally twisted is rated 3. This mousse is the same price as the totally twisted, and is curly girl approved.So while this is not a water-soluable silicone and will need a good cleanser to fully remove, it is going to help smooth damaged areas without causing as much build up as other silicones. My hair really fell apart fast with this mousse though, day 2 was significantly straighter and less defined than the first day. This mousse is not curly girl approved. I did notice that this seemed to help my hair clump well when wet. I had almost no wet frizz! If you don’t need long-lasting hold or hard hold, but are really concerned about frizz, this might be worth a try. It was a pretty bad match for my hair goals though, making it one of my least favorites. Something I noticed about this product is it felt a bit heavy or product-y, despite not weighing me down. Also, the can for this mousse is a bit smaller than most others making it a slightly worse value.