Herbal Essences Set Me Up Gel Review on Kinky Natural Hair

I've never been a heavy user of gel because they usually make my hair feel hard and dry. So I only use it to smooth down my edges. I usually buy one by L.A. Looks but when I ran out I bought Herbal Essences Set Me Up on a whim. It's a maximum hold gel, and since my hair is really thick I decided to try it out.

Price of
Herbal Essences Set Me Up Gel

A 6oz tube costs $4.29 at CVS.

Claims of
Herbal Essences Set Me Up Gel

The package says that the formula is fused with extracts of cactus & bamboo so it helps to resist humidity, and it will shape hair any which way while adding shine and maximum strength so your style won't stop.

Results After Using
Herbal Essences Set Me Up Gel

This gel is very thick but it easily comes out of the tube, and once it's on the hair it becomes thinner and spreads easily.

There are several things I love about Set Me Up. First off it smells great; it has a lily bliss fragrance that is fresh and light. Second, most of the gels I've ever used makes my hair feel hard or dried out and this one gives my strands a little moisture and it leaves them feeling soft. It feels like I'm adding a light conditioner to my hair rather than a gel.

It's thick enough to hold my hair down easily without me having to use a lot of it. But Set Me Up flakes terribly when I use it on dry hair. So even though it works well I hate to use it when I'm trying to smooth my edges down or brush my hair back. Sometimes it won't flake if I spray my hair with water first and apply a lot of oil, but usually it just makes me look like I have huge flakes of dandruff in my hair about 20 minutes after I apply it.

I have used it on freshly shampooed, soaking wet hair to define my curls and it works really well. I add it to small sections and it makes my curls and waves pop, it never flakes at all when my hair's wet, and it doesn't leave it feeling crunchy. I just don't wear my hair that way too often because my curls shrink up too much.

I recently used Set Me Up to blow-dry a few sections of my hair, and I actually loved the results. It made my hair super soft, shiny, it reduced frizz, and made it feel silkier. My hair reverts back to curly easily, but this gel helped it to stay straight, without making it feel stiff.

In the End...

I do like Herbal Essence's Set Me Up Gel, but only for wet styles because it flakes too much when it's used on dry hair. I recommend it if you want to wear your hair curly and you want to reduce frizz and gain more curl definition. Or if you want to make your hair sleek when you straighten it. If you want to use it for dry styles skip it altogether because it will flake. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.