You know how you can go to bed one night and your haircut is totally cute and you wake up the next morning inexplicably channeling Axl Rose and your hair suddenly has NO shape to it? That’s what happened to me yesterday. Also, it was raining, so I decided it would be a good day for curly hair despite the fact that my hair just hasn’t been curling so well lately. Too much exposure to heat tools and dry winter weather has left me with non-uniform, disappointing curls lately, but I decided to do an experiment.

The past few months, EVERY time I “freed my curl,” (as the queen of curl, Ouidad says), I’d wind up looking too Elaine from Seinfeld. You know, in the “wall of hair” years. P.S. fun fact: The fictional Elaine and I share the same college major of French Literature.

To achieve hydrated curls, I used a deep conditioner (PureOlogy NanoWorks Luxury Hair Masque) , then applied Garnier Curl Sculpting Cream Gel ($4) mixed with a bit of Moroccanoil ($39). The results were fantastic. The combo of the humidity and the moisturizing cocktail of prods yielded lustrous, smooth curls – and you KNOW how hard it is to get curly hair to shine. It is by nature a non-smooth surface. It practically demands an Elainian “Get Out!” reaction.

I have no doubt that she would pronounce this product combo the follicular equivalent of “spongeworthy.”