If your TikTok “For You” page is anything like mine, you have watched various people try Greta Wilson’s wavy hair routine countless times.
In most of these videos that I have seen, the person trying the routine doesn’t know they have wavy hair beforehand and is shocked at the results. This was not the case for me, but I still wanted to try Wilson’s routine.
I’ve known that I have wavy hair for around two years, but I have only been consistently wearing it wavy for six months. I never knew what products to use or how to style my hair in a way that looked good. Prior to the last six months, my hair was weighed down by products, frizzy, and tangled. Six months ago, I first saw Wilson’s hair routine and decided to somewhat mimic it.
I bought curl cream, curl mousse, and gel from the brand Cake Beauty. While these were all fairly good products and left my hair looking pretty good, I felt like my hair was weighed down and still super frizzy. So, I decided to invest in the products that I have seen Wilson use in her most recent hair videos to see if there was a difference.
The start to Wilson’s routine is making sure your hair is dripping wet, from root to tip. To avoid her hair drying, Wilson doesn’t brush her hair out of the shower and jumps right into her routine. I, however, always use a leave-in conditioner (dae Cactus Flower Leave-in Conditioner) to keep my hair hydrated and heat-protected. I brush my hair right out of the shower with leave-in conditioner then mist it with water to ensure it’s still sopping wet.
Next, Wilson goes in with Not Your Mother’s Defining Curl Talk Cream. I used about a nickel size amount for each half of my hair. After raking it through, I scrunched my hair up a few times, but only with my hands, not a towel.
The next step is curl mousse, which Wilson seems to change up a lot. She’s used the Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Mousse, but most recently was using PATTERN BY TRACEE ELLIS ROSS Curl Mousse. I decided to get the PATTERN Mousse rather than Not Your Mother’s. The first thing I liked about this mousse was the pump. It’s more like a spray bottle pump than a whipped cream pump, which is more common for mousses. The pump allowed me to get the same amount of mousse for each side of my hair rather than eyeballing it. Though this mousse is made for curly and coily hair rather than wavy, it helped my wave definition a lot without weighing it down, which I find often happens with products more geared toward wavy hair. This mousse is more liquid than those that I typically use, which worried me, but it almost made my hair more wavy than whipped products do.
The next product is one that Wilson rarely changes, and I can see why. Kinky-Curly Original Curling Custard is amazing. The gel I was previously using didn’t add definition to my hair or even hold the wave I already had. While it had locked in my waves a little, it weighed it down and did little for frizz. Kinky-Curly Original Curling Custard did the opposite. After I applied it, my hair was more wavy, frizz-free, and locked in place.
Next, I scrunched my hair with a microfiber towel, then plopped it with a microfiber turban. Though Wilson doesn’t plop her hair much in her videos, I like the time it gives me to do other things and that it helps set my waves in place while drying them. After about thirty minutes, I took my hair out of its plopped state and diffused it.
Though I was initially skeptical about how much three products could change my hair, it’s safe to say that I won’t be changing them for a while.
I started with about five minutes of hover-diffusing—something I don’t often do but definitely helped my hair dry faster and less frizzy. After that, I began diffusing it as normal. I take my hair section by section when I diffuse. I leave my blow dryer off when I scrunch one section up in the diffuser, turn it on for about twenty seconds on medium heat and high airflow, and then turn it back off to get my hair out of the diffuser. I repeat this for my whole head, and it helps with frizz.
After I diffuse and my hair is practically dry, I let it sit for thirty minutes before scrunching it with an oil.
Since I don’t wash my hair every day, I have to refresh my hair in the morning. I sleep with my hair in a loose ponytail on top of my head to maintain my waves. Before using Wilson’s routine, I would wake up to scraggly, tangled, not wavy-looking hair. I relied on refreshing it a lot more. Now, my hair almost needs no additional products in the morning—the waves are perfect.
I start refreshing my hair by misting it with water to dampen it. Then, I spread a bit of curl cream through it and scrunch. Next, I take a tiny amount of gel and scrunch. Finally, I scrunch it with a microfiber towel and plop it for about ten minutes before letting it air-dry. This is a refresh routine that I saw Wilson using a few months ago, though I am not sure if she does the same now.
For the past two weeks, I have been using Wilson’s exact products and this routine, and my hair has never looked or felt better. My hair used to feel full of product and heavy, but now it is light and wavier.
Though I was initially skeptical about how much three products could change my hair, it’s safe to say that I won’t be changing them for a while.
