Ouidad reached out to me and asked that I try three products from the Anti-Frizz Collection in exchange for an honest review. As we know, I love quite a few products from Ouidad, as a matter of fact, they are staples in my arsenal. I was hesitant to try the Advanced Climate Control collection because a couple of years ago, I did a first impressions review of the Advanced Climate Control Heat & Humidity Gel with less than favorable results, but I decided to give the collection a try. Considering the fact that I live in Florida, I decided that any product that claims to deal with humidity is worth trying more than once. Plus, I wanted to determine whether using the collection together would make a difference in the end result.
The Ouidad Anti-Frizz collection is marketed toward those with curly hair and is purported to leave the hair shiny and more defined. I was sent the Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Defrizzing Shampoo, the Ouidad Advanced Climate Contol Defrizzing Conditioner, and the Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Heat & Humidity Gel. There is a “Stronger Hold” version of the gel, but that is not what was sent to me. These three products are enough for my wash day if I use the conditioner as a multi-use product, but I did have other Ouidad products on deck just in case.
The Review
To get the full effects of the cleanser, I decided to go right in and shampoo my strands. The Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Defrizzing Shampoo is sulfate-free and contains Shea Butter, Ceramides and Murumuru Butter as part of a formula geared toward fighting frizz. According to Ouidad.com, frizz prevention begins by smoothing the hair and locking in moisture during the cleansing step. After one use, I observed that the shampoo is more clarifying than moisturizing for my coily parched strands. The cleanser left my hair feeling very clean, but not squeaky or dusty dry. Instead, my strands were thoroughly clarified without much moisture in sight. As a result, I followed the Anti-Frizz shampoo up with the Ouidad Nourishing Oil shampoo to add moisture and balance back into my strands before moving on to the conditioner.
Clarifying left my hair in the best state possible to take in moisture and smoothness from the Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Defrizzing Conditioner. However, there was no moisture in sight. The conditioner is thick, creamy, and glides smoothly onto my strands. Though I could use the conditioner for detangling, once I rinsed the product out my strands felt unchanged. I had to follow up conditioning with a moisturizing deep conditioner from my hair care stash because the conditioning step did not restore moisture to my strands. Instead, my hair felt dry and in need of moisture. I saved the situation by using the Ouidad Xtreme Melt-Down Recovery Mask to deep condition before styling.
This was my second time using the Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Heat & Humidity Gel, so I knew my strands needed a thick creamy product underneath to help the product work for my texture. Accordingly, I used the Ouidad Whipped Curls Styling Primer because it is a leave-in conditioner with weight before applying the gel. The Advanced Heat & Humidity gel smoothed onto my strands easily and did not react with the Styling Primer. It felt as if I was applying water with a bit of a sticky quality to each section. I tried raking and shingling, but after much trial and error, I discover smoothing and scrunching the gel gave me the best result. Raking caused frizz that the gel couldn’t get rid of, and my strands weren’t clumped enough for shingling. Smoothing allowed the gel to touch every strand and scrunching helped to clump my curls as much as possible.
The Verdict
As you may be able to tell from the wet result, the gel did not get rid of my frizz nor did it help much with the definition. Once dry, my strands felt moisturized, soft, and was defined plus I experienced no flakes. Unfortunately, my hair was quite frizzy and since the gel doesn’t help my strands clump together, frizz took over and left my hair with a frizzy shrunken moptop fro, much like my first encounter with this gel. If I were to purchase anything from the collection, it would be the shampoo for a good clean without stripping the hair of everything. I do plan to try the gel as a finisher in the summer to see if it helps to fight humidity when coupled with my favorite gel stylers. Plus, I still want to try the stronger hold version of the Heat & Humidity Gel.
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