Not Your Mother's is a cult brand among curly people and it's finally available in Czechia! I'm so excited. I didn't want to buy any more products for my hair but this really got me and here's my first impressions!
The Not Your Mother's Curl Talk Curl Activating Mousse is a hair styling mousse with touchable hold that helps to define your curls. It protects the hair from humidity and environmental stressors. I got it from http://curlymyself.com for 425 Crowns and you get 198g of product. It comes in a classical mousse packaging. You have to shake it well before dispensing and then you work it in your hair from roots to end or however you prefer.
The Not Your Mother's Curl Talk Frizz Control Sculpting Gel is a styling get for curly hair which provides strong and flexible hold. It should also be great for any weather. I got it at the same website for 425 Crowns as well and there's 177ml of product in the tube.
Both products are Curly Girl Method approved. The gel contains quite a lot of protein and the mousse is protein-free. I have high porosity, strong, bleached 2B wavy hair which literally takes up anything. These products didn't feel heavy on my hair but I cannot vouch for fine hair. I feel like for fine hair these might be a little heavy.
Wash day
I decided to test both of these out together to see how they get along. And because this is only a first impressions I will be documenting just this one wash day. I did my routine as usual with low-poo shampoo, hydrating mask, conditioner with protein, hydrating leave-in, protein curl cream and then the Curl Talk Mousse and Gel.
The mousse comes out pretty thick and almost creamy. It's quite easy to get carried away with this type of texture. I first used a little blob on the back half of my head and then another blob to finish the front half. I then used some more and scrunched it into the longest hairs because these are the most damaged and need some extra hold. The mousse didn't seem sticky to be but did seem to have some curl supporting properties. My curls started to clump pretty well after I applied this mousse. It felt like the mousse could probably be enough by itself.
But well, I wanted to try the gel so I continued with that. I used a dime sized amount for the back of my head and the same amount for the rest. I usually scrunch my gel in and then I plop. The gel seemed very similar to the Giovanni L.A. gel but less sticky and less thick which I love. The smell is nice and the texture was alright, it wasn't too sticky and didn't seem to weight my hair down.
I plopped for 10 minutes and started diffusing. After being 80% done I took my Curlkeeper clips and added a few to lift my roots a give my hair some more volume. The crust was SERIOUS this wash day. The mousse and gel combo created a crust I never saw. I was incredibly hard to get the clips into the hair. After my hair airdried I scrunched it out with a little bit of the Verb Ghost Oil and then with a silk scarf because it still felt very stuck together. After I fluffed the roots a bit I was very pleasantly surprised. I think this was actually the best wash day of my CGM journey.
The second day looked pretty much the same. I was very happy with how the waves held up. I do protect my hair when I sleep with a bonnet every night so that also helps. But not always to be honest. The roots are a little weighted down by the product, I think I applied a little too much mousse but it's not a problem to fluff it out with my afropick.
Here are photos from the wash day, day 2 and day 3.
Final thoughts
I really like both of these products and I'm excited to try more from Not Your Mother's once it's available. I was very impressed with the results of my wash day and I really loved the definition and hold my hair had. I had this combo on my hair for 4 days and the definition was still there as well as a lot of volume. The only thing that's a little negative is that my hair started to be a little more tangly and feeling like it's having a protein overload. Maybe it's due to the weather as we get more into spring. Next time I use these, I will use more hydrating products.
The mousse is great, easy to apply just don't get carried away because it has quite a strong hold and it will feel a little sticky if you apply too much. The gel is great in my opinion and I love that it had protein in it. The hold this combination of products provides is unreal and it's been one of my favorite wash days of all time.
I would highly recommend both of these product if you have high-porosity hair, need protein, like a lot of hold, don't mind a crunchy cast and if you don't have very fine hair. These products did not weight my hair down, but my hair is high porosity and bleached so that's rarely the case. I do think though that for very fine hair these might be a little too much. I would recommend getting a sample first if your hair is easily weighted down.
Have you tried any great products from Not Your Mother's? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!