Hair Gel that doesn't make my hair Shiny, Crunchy, or Hard?

This is a great product. It’s a little pricey, but it lasts a long time.

@Facade Thanks! Looking at the reviews, it seems like a great product. I am planning on ordering a bottle. Thanks!

Great
You’re welcome :)

I swear by alterna hemp mud. It’s amazing, and I’ve tried everything. Smells great too.

I gave up for years as all hair products seemed to make my hair look greasy but the guy that cuts my hair just introduced me to this and when used on dry hair it’s perfect.

Most gels will make your hair crunchy and hard to some degree, because of the nature of gel. I use gel anyway, the trick is after it dries completely you scrunch your hair again (if indeed you scrunched it in the first place! I’m assuming you have curly hair). This makes it not crunchy and hard, but it’ll still hold the way you styled it. In fact the crunchier the gel, the better it’ll hold after the second scrunch.

I usually use Tizz No Frizz Aussie gel, which actually leaves my hair a lot less crunchy than most. I also have their Instant Freeze gel which holds longer, but is a lot crunchier. It’s annoying if I’m going out right after showering and don’t want to wait till it’s all dry to scrunch again and have not hard, weird looking hair. (If you scrunch again before it’s completely dry you end up with frizz!)

So if you have thin/fine curly hair then gel is the way to go because it adds body, whereas if you have thick/coarse hair I’d go with one of the above products. I’d love to use something like the products linked above, but they’d make my hair flatter than a pancake. :)

Thanks for all your responses

Also @fireinthepriory I have pretty straight hair. What I used to do to keep my hair in a certain style for a while was I would spray hair spray in the air then walk in to it almost as if its perfume or collogne. It looks natural and holds fine. Right now I use Finesse Firm Hold and it works okay. Also thanks for the recommendations!

Don’t use gel. I’m not sure of the look you’re going for, but if you want the messy texture look without the greasy or crusty look you should try a spray pomade. Bedhead has a new product called rockaholic groupie and it’s wonderful. Just make sure your hair is almost completely dry first.

I use Bedhead Gel but dilute it with a little water.

@PandoraBoxx Oh! I’ve never heard of someone with straight hair using gel. Your hair spray trick also sounds pretty awesome, I might try that sometime. :)