Hold me down- hair edition

Hello Ladies

I am about 6 months post relaxer and I am thinking that I won't relax again, but that's another story. I was able to put my hair in a ponytail only because I blow dried and flat ironed it last week. However, throughout the week water has caused my edges to swing back into curly formation. I decided to pull out a "holding" product to lay down my edges for what I wanted to be a sleek pulled back ponytail.

I decided to use the Organic Root Stimulator Smooth and Hold Pudding. I didn't remember to check the ingredients before applying it, but the first ingredient is water. So this aided in making the curls even curlier. If you have straight hair naturally or a relaxer, this product may work but as shown in the picture below, my hair line was completely raised. From afar it may have looked like a smooth ponytail but upon closer inspection, it was clear that this product isn't the one that will hold down my coils.

(click on the picture for a better view)

HOWEVER, as you can see on the tub of pudding, hold is actually the last thing mentioned on the label underneath the name of the product. In order it states that this product, moisturizes, shines AND Holds. So I feel it is necessary to address the other two claims.

Shine-

This was a no go in the shine area. The product added no noticeable shine to my tresses. It didn't make it look dull, but it just didn't add any shiny brilliance to my hair. I would turn to other products to add shine. On a shine scale of 1-10 (10 being the greatest shine payoff) this product gets a 4 at best.

Moisturize

Surprisingly, I think we may have a winner.... kind of. What I noticed most of all from this $4.99 product is that my hair didn't feel too dry or brittle. It actually felt, dare I say moisturized initially. My hair is usually dry but this product did give me a moisturized feeling. After the product was fully absorbed in my hair and it dried, it did loose some of the moisture but it wasn't completely dry. As a result, of the three claims, the moisture was the most that I got out of this pudding. It was not good enough to replace any of my go to moisturizers.

Consistency

The product really does have the consistency of pudding that you would eat. It isn't sticky and after touching it, I don't feel like my hands are tacky.

Would I buy this again?

I would not buy this product again for two reasons, one my intention was to hold down my hair and it failed in that regard.

Ingredients

The picture below was the best that I could do to show you the ingredients on the label. This paraben free product includes glycerin, sweet almond oil, coconut oil and avocado oil. It does include cones, mineral oil and two dyes. I picked this one up because it is free of parabens unlike the "edge control" by Organic Root Stimulator. I did hear that the edge control is great but I'd rather stay away from parabens.

So I ask, what do you use to keep all of your strands in place?